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Tech News
Apple has released the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, featuring a passport-style hinge and large displays, priced at over $2,000. Unlike Samsung, which has iterated on foldables for seven years mostly among tech enthusiasts, Apple's mainstream user base means early feedback could shape how folding phones evolve industry-wide.
Several car manufacturers are planning to remove or reduce support for Apple CarPlay in vehicles starting in 2026, favoring proprietary infotainment systems instead. The shift is driven largely by electric vehicles, which need tighter software integration for functions like battery preconditioning and charging controls that CarPlay cannot manage as a simple phone-mirroring layer.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple is speeding up renovations across its retail stores with three key changes: new dedicated 'Avenue' sections for order pickups and Today at Apple sessions, removal of large video walls at the back of stores, and the return of standalone Genius Bars in place of the Genius Grove format used for over a decade.
Apple has launched the Watch Series 12, a modest refresh of last year's Series 11 that keeps the same $399 starting price but adds a new ceramic case option alongside aluminum and titanium. Alongside it, Apple introduced the cheaper Watch SE 3, starting at $249, which trades some display and material upgrades for a lower cost.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro at its recent event, starting at $1,199 and adding a variable aperture camera and a faster A20 Pro chip. The comparison to the iPhone 14 Pro, released four years earlier, shows major shifts including the switch from Lightning to USB-C, a brighter display capable of 3,000 nits versus 1,000 nits, and an upgraded Dynamic Island that can display three activities simultaneously.
Apple still sells wired EarPods alongside its AirPods lineup, offering a no-frills alternative for users who want simple audio without Bluetooth or battery concerns. The wired buds come in 3.5mm, Lightning, and USB-C variants, making them compatible with a broad range of devices at a low price point.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple is building two game controllers for the iPhone, likely to be sold under its Beats subsidiary rather than the Apple brand itself. The report follows earlier findings by MacRumors of references to two first-party controller devices buried in macOS 26.7 code, even though the products are apparently intended for iOS.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has confirmed earlier code discoveries suggesting Apple is building its own gamepad accessories for iPhone, identified internally by model numbers T6502 and T1057. The devices reportedly include a D-pad, thumbsticks, haptic motors, and possibly motion-sensing hardware, though their final design remains unknown. Gurman suggests the controllers may ultimately launch under the Beats label, with Beats executives leading the project.
A retrospective piece traces how early IBM and other PC-era keyboards, including the Selectric typewriter and IBM 1130 computer, used pictorial symbols for functions like space, backspace, and page navigation. Over time, as computing shifted toward American office use, most of these icons were phased out in favor of plain text labels, leaving only Shift, Enter, and Tab as widely recognized symbolic holdouts on modern PC keyboards.
In an interview with MKBHD, Apple's Craig Federighi addressed concerns that the foldable iPhone Duo could overlap with the iPad, particularly the iPad mini. He compared it to how users naturally settled into distinct usage patterns for iPad and Mac, predicting the same will happen with iPhone Duo and iPad. Federighi also emphasized that Apple built iOS for the Duo's form factor from scratch rather than stretching an existing interface to fit.
Apple's iOS 27, rolling out broadly after its beta period ends, includes several under-the-radar upgrades to Safari powered by Apple Intelligence. One standout is a 'Notify Me' feature that lets users describe specific content changes—like a price drop—they want tracked on a webpage, with Safari periodically scanning for that update. These Apple Intelligence features require an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and are also coming to iPadOS 27 and macOS 27.
Apple's newest Pro-series iPhones bring a variable-aperture main camera, a new chip, improved battery life, and a black color option, but starting prices rose by $100 across the lineup, including older models. Alongside them, Apple released AirPods 5 with better active noise cancellation and stem-based volume controls on the pricier version, starting at $129.