It feels like Apple's Welcome Home event just happened. And the iPhone Duo announcement isn't all that far in our rearview mirror, either. Yet, the company is back with another launch, focused on the MacBook Pro, it looks like. Its "Pro and tell" event is scheduled for October 28th at 1PM ET in Los Angeles. While obviously nothing is confirmed yet, it sure seems like we're finally going to get that long-rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro.
Beyond that? There could be an OLED update for the iPad Mini, plus M6 updates across other devices, following the M6 debut with the Mac Mini in August.
Like the Apple silicon in modern MacBook Pros, RTX Spark is an Arm-based processor with a beefy integrated GPU and lots of unified memory. And the Yoga is the most fun RTX Spark laptop so far because it's a 16-inch 2-in-1 convertible with a stylus. Its Nvidia-powered compatriots also have touchscreens, like most Windows laptops, but they're conventional clamshell designs.
From retro cassette players and virtual notebooks to flight trackers and even a digital toaster, developers are finding creative ways to take advantage of Apple's first foldable iPhone.
Let’s be honest. Nobody spends $2,000 on a phone and expects it to break a few hours later. Especially if all you’re doing is opening and closing the device.
Well, Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, launched today. Of course, it didn’t take long before reports of cracked screens hit the internet, giving many people who can’t wait to dunk on Apple all the ammunition they need to make jokes online.
Photos of damaged inner displays, with cracks around the hinge, are already showing up on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Some photos also show phones with bright lines stretching across one side of the screen. One iPhone Duo owner claims their phone lasted only 6 hours and fewer than 20 openings before it began showing signs of damage. Not ideal, assuming all of these photos/claims are real.
Everything We Know About the iPhone Duo’s Screens Already Cracking
So, are people really having issues with these new iPhones already? According to PhoneArena, Reddit moderators verified the Australian owner’s damaged phone and replacement after reviewing additional photos and Apple repair paperwork. They couldn’t confirm the cause. The cause of the failure remains unsolved.
Apple hadn’t responded to The Verge’s request for comment at the time of publication, though PhoneArena reported that the owner said an Apple Store technician called it a “day one manufacturing error.” Of course, that isn’t an official statement from Apple.
As for how many iPhone Duos are out in the wild and already damaged, that number also remains a mystery. Odds are this won’t end up resembling the Red Ring of Death fiasco Microsoft dealt with all those years ago, though.
We gave the iPhone Duo a 7 /10. But that wasn't always the score we planned, and it might not be the right score forever. Such are the challenges of reviewing - and assessing - a big, new idea about the most popular smartphone in history.
On this episode of The Vergecast, David and Nilay debate whether the Duo deserved the score it got, and try to work through how this device might change over time. Is the outer screen, as Daring Fireball's John Gruber suggested, the worst iPhone ever? Would it be a better product if it started as an iPad rather than an iPhone? Would we feel differently about this thing if it were simply called the iPad Du …
The iPhone Duo officially goes on sale today, but a few units already have broken screens. According to posts on Reddit about the affected units, the issue appears to be happening at a similar spot on all of them: Some kind of problem shows up on the inner screen along the hinge and a strange bright line (or lines) across the right side of the display.
It’s been a long time since we had to rethink how to use an iPhone. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The Duo is an entirely new kind of iPhone, so it comes with a bit of a learning curve. That's a wild thing to imagine, since the iPhone has had very few fundamental changes since its inception. But the Duo is built different. If you won the preorder lottery and managed to get your hands on one today, you'll see what that means. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll lose track of the volume buttons as you turn the thing around.
We've learned a few tricks over the past week of flipping and folding the Duo as much as we could. Here are our favorite tips and hacks for newly minted Duo owners.
You can set orientation lock on each screen independent …
If you've been feeling nostalgic for your old iPod, you can head over to Apple Music's 404 page to listen to music on a virtual re-creation of the first-generation iPod. The hidden iPod was spotted by users on social media on Friday. It's appropriately stocked with music from the early 2000s, like Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" or Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc." The iPod seems to pop up on any non-existent Apple Music page, so you can find it by just adding a string of random letters after the main Apple Music URL.
Don’t be fooled; only one of these is a truly small phone (it’s the iPhone 13 Mini on the left).
When we published our review of the iPhone Duo, I got a lot of hopeful questions from my fellow Mini fans who took note of the cover screen's Mini-ish 5.4-inch size. "Is this… a small phone that turns into a tablet?" they asked. And I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no. The Duo is not the small phone we've been looking for.
But the Duo is thick and heavy. You will feel its weight every time you read an email, scroll Instagram, or put it in your pocket. It is a dense phone, and after a week with the Duo, …
The Duo has a Nintendo DS-like shape anyway, so Delta 2.0 is running with it. | Image: Riley Testut
The Delta gaming emulator has been upgraded with a plethora of new goodies and support updates, which includes optimizing it for Apple's iPhone Duo. Delta 2.0 also introduces Sega Genesis games, animated controller skins, custom Pokémon DLC experiences, and a new UI that was built around supporting Liquid Glass.
Adding support for the iPhone Duo is an obvious standout here - if you looked at Apple's flagship foldable and wondered how well it could emulate Nintendo DS games, this update was made with you in mind. Delta app creator Riley Testut told The Verge that Delta 2.0 optimizes controller skins for "every pose in both portrait and lands …
You can outfit your iPad Air or iPad Pro with one of Apple’s slick Magic Keyboards for considerably less than the accessory usually costs at Woot. I won’t bury the catch I teased in the headline; These cases have a 90-day warranty via Woot, and aren’t eligible for AppleCare. That said, Woot says they’re in “pristine condition, with essentially no visible signs of use.” If you’re still interested, the savings should be worth it.
The most affordable option is the Magic Keyboard for the 13-inch iPad Air (M2, M3, M4 versions supported). Originally $319, and selling for that price at most retailers, you can nab one in white for just $129.
Woot also has the Magic Keyboard in black for the 11-inch iPad Pro (M4 and M5 editions) and the 13-inch Pro supporting the same configurations. Those cost $159 and $199, respectively, which is well over $100 off.
Each Magic Keyboard essentially turns your iPad into a MacBook, of sorts, complete with a trackpad, aluminum design, and a function row of keys. It magnetically attaches to the back of your iPad, and gets power via its pogo pins, keeping the tablet’s USB-C port free for you to plug in accessories. The keyboard accessory features a USB-C port in its cantilevered double-hinged design for charging your iPad (this port doesn’t allow data passthrough, just power). The stand lets you make easy adjustments to the viewing angle of your iPad, which is great if you’re trying to avoid glare.
Apple is rolling out a new badge in the App Store to indicate whether an app is optimized for its new foldable. The new "Made for iPhone Duo" badge will appear across apps and games that work with the device's extra screen real estate.
Though Apple doesn't include an image of what this badge might look like, it highlighted some of the ways apps are taking advantage of the Duo's inner and outer screens. Netflix, for example, will display shows and movies that take up the whole inner display, while allowing you to watch its feed of short-form clips on the outside. Amazon's Prime Video will let you watch shows and movies with the Duo partially …
In a video, Apple says that for the rebrand, the company "wanted sound to create the visuals," showing the music note logo and the wordmark underwater and how that water responded to sound. It's a pretty cool video, honestly, and I like seeing how the water morphs the logo and wordmark. The video is also one …
After introducing its Gemini AI assistant to Android Auto last year, Google is now bringing it to Apple CarPlay users. The conversational Gemini in navigation is available today for US drivers, with "rollout happening globally too," according to Google (we've asked for specific regional availability details).
It's taken almost 12 months for Google to bring this to CarPlay users, but now they can talk to the voice assistant in Google Maps to get some hands-free help while driving. That includes asking it multi-step questions, such as recommendations on places to visit and then prompting it to direct you there while avoiding toll roads. Users …
Apple says it will have "limited" iPhone Duo models for sale in stores, according to a report from Reuters. The iPhone Duo launches on Friday, October 23rd, but online preorders quickly sold out, with some delivery estimates extending into next year.
"On Friday morning, our teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to experience iPhone Duo and the incredible iPhone line-up for themselves," Apple said in a statement to Reuters. "Apple Stores will have limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers, and we're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers' hands as quickly as possible."
I'm The Verge's senior smartphone reviewer and I've been using the iPhone Duo for the past week. I've unfolded it, flipped it, and folded it more times than I could count as I've been working on the review alongside our editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, and I'm ready to answer your questions about it. The Duo represents the first time the iPhone has gone through a major form factor shift, and in true Apple fashion, it has some very specific ideas about how you should use it. We covered a lot of how the Duo works in our review, but there's a ton more to talk about and I am here for it.
Verge subscribers can submit questions starting right now in …
The iPhone Duo has all the messiness of a first-gen product. And while I'm not sure I love all of the decisions Apple made around its design, it got one thing right: the matte finish on the inner screen. I've been using it for the past week to watch movies on a plane, peruse my photo gallery, and catch up on a little reading, and I'm convinced. The matte screen is the best thing about the Duo, and I hope every other foldable maker copies it.
When we first got our hands on the Duo, the nano-texture finish on the 7.6-inch inner screen was genuinely a surprise. I've used a dozen or so book-style foldables over the past five years, and every on …
The iPhone Duo is the riskiest Apple product in years. It's a huge rethink of what an iPhone is and could be, and it contains the seeds of many fascinating ideas that might be great in the future.
But that future is yet to come. The iPhone Duo is also one of Apple's messiest first-generation products in a long time, and right now it will delight gadget nerds and early adopters and likely frustrate everyone else.
It's been a minute since the iPhone has looked or worked significantly differently. The last major change was the iPhone X, which dropped the home button almost a decade ago, and even that was a fairly subtle improvement. In fact, …
Apple has sent invites to a second product launch this month, and it's scheduled for October 28th at 1PM ET in Los Angeles.
At the event, Apple is set to announce new Macs and a refreshed iPad Mini, according to Bloomberg. The big announcement is expected to be a new MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen that's also lighter and has an iPhone-like Dynamic Island. But Apple is also planning on revealing a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a new iMac with the M6 chip, which was recently introduced with the Mac Mini. Apple's updated iPad Mini will apparently finally get an OLED screen as well and put the selfie cam on the landscape edge.
The company updated its guidelines with strong language around AI and user-generated content, and how app developers should include enough preventative measures to moderate objectionable or offensive content.
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