In a joint interview, new Apple CEO John Ternus and marketing chief Greg Joswiak explained why Apple chose now to launch its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. Ternus said the device only moved forward once hardware, software and design met Apple's quality bar, while Joswiak criticized rival foldables as feeling cheap and flimsy.
In a special episode of Happy Hour, Benjamin Mayo and Chance Miller share hands-on impressions of Apple's newly unveiled iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12 and AirPods 5, including reporting from Apple Park. The episode also examines how John Ternus handled his first product event as Apple's CEO.
Apple's new CEO John Ternus and marketing chief Greg Joswiak told TechRadar and Tom's Guide that competitors like Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi announced similarly proportioned foldable phones before Apple's iPhone Duo, due to shared suppliers leaking design details. Joswiak said Apple did manage to keep the phone's unique folding nano-texture display a secret through extra security measures.
Trump Mobile has quietly raised the price of its gold-colored T1 Phone from $499 to $749, a $250 jump first reported by The Verge. The company has not explained the increase, though executives previously said the $499 tag was only an introductory price that could eventually rise as high as $999.
Apple unveiled its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, at $2,230 (15,999 yuan) in China, a price that triggered immediate pushback from consumers comparing it to their local incomes and to cheaper domestic rivals. Xiaomi and Huawei had just launched competing foldables days earlier, the Xiaomi 18 Fold at 10,999 yuan and Huawei's trifold Mate XT2 at 19,999 yuan, intensifying the price comparisons. Despite the mixed local reaction, Apple shares rose more than 3% after the launch event.
WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast examines a viral resignation from an Anthropic researcher who argued AI could plausibly cause human extinction within ten years. The episode also covers Apple's newly unveiled $2,000 foldable iPhone Duo, privacy concerns around 'always listening' Apple Watch features, and a WIRED investigation into flawed Census Bureau data cited by the Trump administration.
TrendForce projects Apple will ship 5 million units of its newly announced iPhone Duo foldable in 2026, giving it nearly a quarter of the global foldable smartphone market. That would help offset a broader slump in the category, with non-Apple Android foldable shipments expected to fall more than 20% year-over-year even as total foldable shipments edge up slightly to about 20.2 million units.
At Apple's 'Surprise and shine' event, new CEO John Ternus unveiled Audio Intelligence, an AI feature for recent Apple Watches and iPhones that transcribes and summarizes conversations, including a 'Live Rewind' that recalls the last 15 seconds of speech and a 'Siri Recap' that ambiently logs chats when enabled. Apple says the feature is encrypted and does not store raw audio, though it functions much like ambient-recording wearables from startups such as Plaud and Looki.
Apple released a condensed 95-second highlight video summarizing its 'Surprise and Shine' event, which ran nearly 80 minutes and introduced the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and AirPods 5 with Active Noise Cancellation. Alongside the short recap, Apple posted individual segment videos for each product announcement on its YouTube channel.
Apple's new foldable iPhone Duo features a 7.6-inch inner display and 5.4-inch outer display, priced at $1,999. CNET compares this to buying a separate iPhone and iPad, finding the combined cost of those devices can be close to or even exceed the Duo's price depending on the models chosen.
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, alongside new iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods models. The device features a 7.6-inch inner display and 5.4-inch outer display, dual 48-megapixel cameras with simultaneous front-and-rear capture, up to 24 hours of battery life, and Apple's A20 Pro chip, starting at roughly $2,000.
Apple has opened trade-in credit for iPhone Air and iPhone 17 ahead of new successor models, offering up to $585 for either device despite the iPhone Air costing $200 more at retail after this week's price hikes. The iPhone 17 now starts at $899 and the iPhone Air at $1099, yet both receive identical trade-in valuations.