2026 September Rickies

10th September 2026 at 11:44am

▶️ Episodes

Connected #619: The Rickies (September 2026) (show notes)

🥇 Regular Picks

Host	Pick	Score
Federico	Regular	"The new foldable iPhone does not have Face ID"	1
Stephen	Regular	"The foldable is called the iPhone Ultra (2)"	0
	Not mentioned during picking that this is an exact duplicate of an active Annual pick from Stephen, but luckily that one is a Flexie, so it is a legal pick.
Myke	Regular	"John Ternus introduces the folding iPhone by saying "We have one more thing...""	1
Federico	Regular	"There is no telephoto camera in the foldable"	1
Stephen	Regular	"The Apple Watch Series 12 includes a ceramic option"	1
Myke	Regular	"At least one iPhone has a variable aperture camera"	1
Federico	Regular	"We do not see the base model iPhone 18"	0.5
Stephen	Regular	"The ceramic Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $799 ($100 more than the Series 11 Titanium)"	0
Myke	Regular	"The starting price of the 18 Pro is higher than the 17 Pro"	0.5
	Ungraded: $100 more, at least is the consensus.
Federico	Regular	"There is a new color on the iPhone 18 Pro line"	0.5
	Federico applying strategy rather than passion.
Stephen	Regular	"The iPhone Air is not updated"	0.5

⚠️ Risky Picks

Host	Pick	Score
Federico	Risky	"The foldable's software goes beyond simple "open" and "closed" states"	2
	There will be support for "tabletop" mode with specific UIs for it Users can "peek through" at one side of the inner display by slightly opening the device StandBy will support a "tent" mode when the iPhone is charging Federico also had a backup Risky Pick about the iOS dock, but it was demoted to Flexies. The "open" and "close" animations are deemed to fulfill the second point.
Stephen	Risky	"Apple introduces a new, expanded Home initiative"	-1
	A "HomePod with a display" is introduced at $249 The Apple TV is updated with a remote that supports Find My Apple talks about improved Thread support Stephen's first Risky Pick candidate was about John Ternus introducing himself as CEO, but they got demoted to Flexies.
Myke	Risky	"The folding phone has Touch ID"	-1
	But also offers a new version of Face ID powered by just cameras Apple says this is powered by Apple Intelligence and is a beta They publish information later that shows it's less secure than standard Face ID, but close enough to Touch ID

🏆 Scores

Federico: 5
Myke: 1.5
Stephen: 0.5

💪 Flexie Picks

Host	Pick	Score
Stephen	Flexie	"John Ternus is in a dark T-shirt"	0
	It's deemed "not a t-shirt" unfortunately
Stephen	Flexie	"The Apple Watch Ultra 4 has a new sensor not found on the Series 12"	0
Stephen	Flexie	"The folding iPhone comes in one color other than black or white"	1
Stephen	Flexie	"The HomePod or HomePod mini is updated"	0
Stephen	Flexie	"There are no new AirPods announced"	0
Stephen	Flexie	"Ternus introduces himself as "the new CEO""	0
Stephen	Flexie	"They show photos of Tim"	0
Stephen	Flexie	"They explain Tim's not going anywhere"	0
Federico	Flexie	"There is no Action button on the foldable"	1
Federico	Flexie	"Both iPhone 18 Pro models have a smaller Dynamic Island than their predecessors"	1
Federico	Flexie	"There will be fold state automation triggers in Shortcuts"	0
	Unknown at time of grading.
Federico	Flexie	"The new foldable iPhone ships with a brand new multitasking system that lets you have independent "docks" on the outer and inner display with fewer or more icons"	0
Federico	Flexie	"You can drag apps into view from either the dock (like iPad) or Spotlight (from Dynamic Island)"	0
	Might be possible, but not verified.
Federico	Flexie	"Foldable supports drag and drop for content between apps in Split View"	1
Federico	Flexie	"Siri AI is demoed again"	1
Myke	Flexie	"Ternus does not wear Nike shoes"	1
Myke	Flexie	"Ternus does the majority of the folding phone presentation"	0
Myke	Flexie	"The folding iPhone allows two iPhone-sized apps side by side and not iPad apps"	1
Myke	Flexie	"The A20 is a 2nm chip"	1
Myke	Flexie	"We see a video showing the folding phone going through durability testing"	0
Myke	Flexie	"John Ternus walks out on stage live"	0
Myke	Flexie	"Ternus says how much of an honour it is to take on the role as CEO, and how it feels to be on that stage"	0
Myke	Flexie	"There is a live audience in attendance that we see"	0
Federico	Flexie	"Siri AI on the foldable can open two apps at once"	0
	Another unverifiable pick from Federico.

💸 Flexie Scores

Federico: 50.0% (4/8)
Myke: 37.5% (3/8)
Stephen: 12.5% (1/8)

Stephen donates a new $30 per wrong Flexie to St Jude.

Game tools

Annual Games Keynote Games iPhone Event WWDC

Pro tip: winner and flexie-winner should be set to "TBD" while the game is active.

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New Pick:

text: {{||$:/RelevantEpisodeTemplate}} {{||$:/RegularPickTemplate}} {{||$:/RickyPickTemplate}} {{||$:/ScoreTemplate}} {{||$:/FlexiePickTemplate}} {{||$:/FlexieScoreTemplate}} Stephen donates a new $30 per wrong Flexie to St Jude.