Making your Apple foldable iPhone predictions could land you a brand-new Apple Watch, and the window to play closes on 1 September. Lifehacker and the wider CNET Group (covering CNET, ZDNet, Mashable and PCMag) are running the final round of their Big Guessing Game, a three-part prediction contest tied to Apple’s biggest announcements of the year.
Round 3 launched on 18 August and runs to 1 September at 11:59pm ET. That gives readers a few days left to answer five questions about what Apple is set to reveal at its autumn event before the grand-prize drawing takes place.
What Is Apple Expected to Announce?
The event itself is scheduled for 9 September at 10am PT, according to 9to5Mac. Apple is expected to announce three new iPhones: the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple’s first foldable iPhone, rumoured to be called iPhone Ultra. Those are exactly the kind of calls the Big Guessing Game is asking players to make, which is what makes this final round the most interesting of the three.
The foldable is generating most of the pre-event speculation. The device is expected to use a book-style design, with an outer display measuring between 5.3 and 5.5 inches and an inner display measuring between 7.6 and 7.8 inches, 9to5Mac reports. Apple foldable iPhone predictions have been circulating for years; this appears to be the autumn they get tested against reality.
Worth noting for anyone expecting a full iPhone refresh: a standard iPhone 18 model is not expected to be part of Apple’s autumn lineup. The iPhone 18, iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2 are reportedly following in spring 2027 instead.
How the Big Guessing Game Works
The competition spans three rounds, each focused on a different slice of Apple’s announcements. Round 1, which closed on 2 June, covered software, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and visionOS. Round 2, which ended on 21 July, moved on to hardware across iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches and Vision Pro. Round 3 zeroes in on the autumn event itself.
Each round carries five questions per site. Every correct prediction earns one entry into the grand-prize draw, and with five sites each running three rounds, there are 75 possible questions across the whole competition. Players can dip into one site or all five, though the rules are clear: you can only win once, even if you play across multiple CNET Group properties.
The prize is the latest Apple Watch, awarded by each of the five participating sites. Winners will be announced shortly after Apple’s autumn event wraps up.
Eligibility is limited to legal residents of the 50 US states and Washington, D.C., aged 18 or over. No purchase is necessary to enter or win. The official competition period began on 19 May 2026 and runs to 1 September 2026 at 11:59pm ET. The contest is sponsored by Ziff Davis, LLC. Apple is not a sponsor of, affiliated with, or an endorser of the sweepstakes, and Apple Watch is a trademark of Apple Inc.
If you’ve already played Rounds 1 and 2, your previous correct guesses are already banked as entries. Round 3 is simply the last chance to add more before the draw. If this is your first time hearing about it, you can still jump in now and answer the current round’s questions before the deadline hits. The draw takes place at the end of the third round, once Apple has confirmed what it actually announced on 9 September.
