iPhone Ultra Foldable-Later Availability; Microsoft Selling 4 Studios, Cutting Xbox Staff; White House Purges Energy Saving Pages During Heatwave; Uber Euro Plans Stumble

The folding iPhone, presently dubbed the iPhone Ultra, will be rolled out in September along with the other high line iPhones, but it may see more of a delay before it is into users’ hands. Macrumors.com reports that preorders may start at a later date than the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max…with the folder being available later in 4th quarter. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is predicting the later actual launch, says he expects the folder to have a base price of between $2299 and $2499 in the US, and thinks the phone “could sell out immediately after pre-orders open, with delivery lead times quickly stretching to 4-6 weeks or longer.” Apple will only ship about 7-8 million of the folding phones in 2026. That compares to 20-22 million iPhone 18 Pros and Pro Maxes. This is not unusual for a completely new Apple product…but if you are really wanting a folding iPhone and have $2400 cash laying around, you’d better be quick on the draw when preorders open up! 

Microsoft is cutting around 4,800 jobs today. The hardest hit are gigs in the Xbox division. In fact, according to theverge.com, some 30% of the total cuts are at Xbox. The gaming division is selling four Xbox studios off. Microsoft still plans to eliminate about 20% of Xbox jobs by the end of July 2027. Double Fine and Compulsion Games are going back to their founders. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are also being sold off. Other studios may be on the chopping block as well. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a statement “None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.” He said that Microsoft had lost 64 cents on every dollar invested in studios, and the company figure they are better off letting developers do their thing, and then buying or licensing the games Redmond really wants to put out for Xbox. 

The Trump administration seems hell bent on trying to make climate change go away, and focus on oil and coal as energy sources. Now, mashable.com notes that during the oppressive heat wave pounding the Eastern states, the Department of Energy has deleted almost 6,000 pages on its website dedicated to energy conservation! It may be merely a coincidence, but the pages all disappeared shortly after New York mayor Mamdani asked New Yorkers to set thermostats to 78 to conserve energy. For some reason, a number of conservative sources began accusing Mayor Mamdani of pushing communism for asking people to set their thermostats at 78 during the triple digit temperatures in the Big Apple. For some reason, conservative influencers haven’t attacked PG&E on the West Coast…that utility regularly evangelizes for its users to set thermostats at 78 degrees! No one can say for certain, but some folks are wondering if the web pages were just deleted due to pettiness, based on previous actions of this administration.

Earlier this year, Uber announced that it would launch in 7 new European markets this year. Now, it looks like that may be cut to a couple…5 are on hold. Techcrunch.com reports that Uber won’t be going onto Austria, Norway, or Greece for the time being. Some reports say that one of the reasons for the hold is that Uber has yet to acquire Delivery Hero. The European company rejected Uber’s 10 billion euro takeover bid in May. Uber apparently still may be able to make a deal, but for now, those markets mentioned are in limbo.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.