Rumor Replay: Mac Pro’s future, iPhone Fold battery, and more

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: the possible end of the Mac Pro, iPhone Fold’s battery capacity, and more powerful iPhone cases. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

No new Mac Pro expected in 2026, and possibly beyond

For at least the second time in the last decade, the future of the Mac Pro looks bleak.

Bloomberg reports that there are currently no plans within Apple for a new Mac Pro, despite rumors last year that one was in the works.

Mark Gurman writes:

There’s no longer an M4 Ultra in the works (a Mac Pro to support it was also nixed), and the next high-end desktop chip will be the M5 Ultra. So far, Apple is only focused on a new Mac Studio for the processor. That suggests the Mac Pro won’t be updated in 2026 in a significant way.

From what I’ve heard inside the company, Apple has largely written off the Mac Pro. The sentiment internally is that the Mac Studio now represents both the present and future of Apple’s professional desktop strategy.

None of the above explicitly says the Mac Pro is dead. But the writing appears on the wall.

My takeaways

I’m not the target customer for the Mac Pro, but I’m very curious to see how this news is received by the average Mac Pro user.

The last time there was major concern about the Mac Pro’s future, the Mac was overall in a much worse state. Now with Apple silicon, the Mac Studio, and improved Mac clustering features in macOS 26.2, perhaps it’s okay for the Mac Pro to quietly disappear.

iPhone Fold battery capacity leak

Leak aggregator yeux1122 posted this week that Apple is testing batteries for next year’s iPhone Fold that are easily the biggest iPhone batteries ever.

A 5400-5800mAh battery range is being tested, but the post notes that the final battery could be even larger. For reference, the iPhone 17 Pro Max battery is 5088mAh in the eSIM version.

My takeaways

Battery capacity normally might be easy to equate with battery life, but that’s not the case with Apple’s first foldable. Since the iPhone Fold will have both a larger display than Pro Max models, but also a fairly small display on the front, it’s unclear what level of battery drain it will experience.

Based on my experience with the iPhone Air, and what I’m expecting from the foldable, I’m optimistic that Apple will deliver top-tier battery life. Maybe even enough to merit an iPhone Ultra name.

iPhone cases with touch features

Leaker Instant Digital shared a curious post this week about Apple’s plans for future iPhone cases.

Here’s an English translation of the post:

Apple will invest heavily in official protective cases in the future, transforming them from mere decorative items to “second touch interfaces” for the iPhone, making the iPhone Pro even more “Pro.”

Unfortunately no further details were given regarding a timeline or what exactly these “touch interfaces” for cases might do.

My takeaways

As odd as this rumor might be, it also makes a lot of sense to me for one reason: there’s a lot more Apple could do to grow revenue from iPhone accessories.

This year we saw a larger array of iPhone 17-related accessories from Apple than ever before. I think this could be a sign that the company sees a lot of untapped potential in the accessory market, and building high-end cases might be part of exploring that.