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Daring Fireball
24 Oct 22:12 • John Gruber

Reuters and the WSJ on the Duo Launch

reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/apple-bets-iphone-duo-can-remake-foldable-market-sales-begin-2026-10-22/

Aditya Soni, Christine Chen, and Will Russell, reporting Friday for Reuters: CEO Ternus played greeter at a store in Austin, Texas, throwing open the doors and high-fiving customers as they streamed in, a video posted on X by CBS Austin showed. A known car enthusiast, T...

Daring Fireball
24 Oct 21:18 • John Gruber

Marion Barry Meets the iPhone Duo

theverge.com/tech/1017623/iphone-duo-broken-cracked-screen

Jay Peters, The Verge:

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.

This crack problem doesn’t seem to be widespread, but it’s seemingly more than a handful.

Link: theverge.com/tech/1017623/iphone-duo-broken-cracked-screen

Daring Fireball
24 Oct 20:48 • John Gruber

MKBHD’s Duo Review

youtu.be/ESABTN4VtrA

Marques Brownlee thinks the lack of Face ID will be the biggest gripe. I agree. And I love his central framing for the review: that the Duo is extremely polished around the edges (figuratively, but also true literally) but rough in the middle. But he spends more time gripin...

Daring Fireball
24 Oct 19:24 • John Gruber

Tim Pan’s iPhone Duo Review

youtube.com/watch?v=8pCccpKjjos

I hadn’t heard of Tim Pan or Mediastorm until running across his 24-minute video review of the Duo. It’s a good and fair review, but what struck me are the rather astonishing production values. Amongst other things, they stress-tested the hinge with an industrial robot by op...

Daring Fireball
24 Oct 16:06 • John Gruber

Apple Built a Photo-Realistic Functional Original iPod for Apple Music’s 404 Page

music.apple.com/404

It seems like this amazing Easter egg only launched yesterday, to celebrate the original iPod’s 25th anniversary. Exquisitely well done. More like this, please.

Link: music.apple.com/404

Daring Fireball
24 Oct 15:09 • John Gruber

Chan Karunamuni on the Duo’s Open/Close Translucent Transition

x.com/chan_k/status/2113622379050246243

Chan Karunamuni, human interface designer at Apple, on X: iPhone Duo is here! Excited to have worked on the design of our open/close transition. It’s designed to make the two displays feel like one seamless experience by perceptually bending the focal plane, not the cont...

Daring Fireball
23 Oct 17:15 • John Gruber

The Verge’s Duo Review: ‘Apple’s Folding Phone Is a Messy, Expensive Good Time’

theverge.com/tech/1015028/iphone-duo-review

Nilay Patel and Allison Johnson (also: 26-minute video review on YouTube): This means almost every time you open the phone you instinctively rotate it, and while it will work no matter how it’s rotated, it’s better to rotate it counterclockwise so the cameras are on top ...

Daring Fireball
23 Oct 14:54 • John Gruber

Joanna Stern Reviews the Duo: ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Buggy’

youtube.com/watch?v=bxDTWuL9GxY

Joanna Stern’s video review packs a ton into 16 minutes. She commissioned a custom robot to fold/unfold the thing over 32,000 times in a week, to see if it loosened the hinge. (I won’t spoil the answer.) She took it on a yacht on the Hudson. She took it to a dark bar to test the cameras. And she really, really missed Face ID. I don’t know how she makes these videos in just a week, along with all the actual testing. So good.

We rank our complaints (and praise) in different order, but overall her take jibes with mine on every single point. You can read a version of her review, too, if you’re a subscriber to The New Things, which you should be.

Link: youtube.com/watch?v=bxDTWuL9GxY

Daring Fireball
22 Oct 19:12 • John Gruber

Apple Highlights 50+ iPhone Apps That Have Already Been Optimized for the Duo

apple.com/newsroom/2026/10/developers-bring-incredible-new-app-experiences-to-iphone-duo/

Apple Newsroom: New editorial collections for iPhone Duo apps and games will go live on the App Store this Friday, with additional app updates rolling out throughout the year. Apps optimized for iPhone Duo are easy to identify with a Made for iPhone Duo badge on product ...

Daring Fireball
22 Oct 19:12 • John Gruber

Updates to My iPhone Duo Review

daringfireball.net/2026/10/the_iphone_duo

Nothing major, but since publishing at 7:00pm last night, I’ve made a few additions and changes to my iPhone Duo review. I’m calling them out here, so that if you’ve already read it, you can see the changes. If I make more, I’ll add them to the top. Regarding the camera, ad...

Daring Fireball
21 Oct 23:00 • John Gruber

★ The iPhone Duo

The very nature of the iPhone Duo raises numerous obvious questions about what it’s like to use. Does it not feel thick and heavy, awkward both to pocket and unpocket? Doesn’t the outer (cover) screen feel small and cramped, with an unfamiliar squat-rather-than-tall layout f...

Daring Fireball
20 Oct 13:21 • Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] Sunnny

sunnny.com/

All your B2B customer data. In that nice California sunnn. Early access now!

Link: sunnny.com/

Daring Fireball
20 Oct 01:15 • John Gruber

Barack Obama on the Trump Administration’s Intimidation Campaign Against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

x.com/BarackObama/status/2111819687524774170

Barack Obama, in a 430-word essay: It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say. But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoma...

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 22:39 • John Gruber

From the DF Archive: Should a CEO Be a Nerd About Their Company’s Products?

daringfireball.net/linked/2022/10/11/ceos-as-nerds

Back in 2022, I quoted from an interesting post by Ben Schlappig at One Mile at a Time, where he wrote: I’ve had the opportunity to interact with quite a few senior airline executives over the years, and I find that their knowledge about competitors is typically one extr...

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 22:39 • John Gruber

Apple Event, in Los Angeles, Next Week: ‘Pro and Tell’

x.com/gregjoz/status/2112212372182249831

Greg Joswiak, on X:

Can’t wait to pro and tell next week.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Rumors suggest Apple is planning to debut the new MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen display, an M6 entry-level MacBook Pro, an M6 iMac, an iPad mini with an OLED display.

Link: x.com/gregjoz/status/2112212372182249831

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 22:06 • John Gruber

★ Estimated Arrival Dates for DF Readers’ Pre-Ordered iPhone Duos

Yesterday I posted the same question to my followers on X, Threads, and Mastodon:1 Poll, only for people who have pre-ordered a Duo. When is your delivery/pickup date? October November December January The results were interesting; I’m glad I asked. X Threads...

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 21:18 • John Gruber

Netflix Shitcanned Film Chief Dan Lin Too

deadline.com/2026/10/netflix-dan-lin-out-1237167562/

Anthony D’Alessandro, reporting for Deadline: Dan Lin is out as film boss at Netflix in a move that has been largely speculated for weeks. Insiders at the streamer have denied that Lin and even Bela Bajaria were on the chopping block, but here we are. Lin is meeting wit...

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 18:06 • John Gruber

Ex-Apple Employee Fred Potter on HomeView

linkedin.com/posts/frpotter_tonight-im-looking-back-through-the-photo-share-7515791565718454272-ue-R/

Fred Potter, on LinkedIn:

So if you ever meet someone who tells you, “At Apple, I’m the one who did this,” take it with a grain of salt. They were probably part of the team that made it happen, and that’s already something to be proud of.

Sometimes, when the final product finally comes out, you can recognize a few of the personal touches you contributed along the way. And that, in itself, is immensely rewarding.

Wishing HomeView every success!

Potter’s LinkedIn bio lists his time at Apple as July 2021 through June 2024, and describes it only as “Worked on HomeView”. (Via Christophe Laporte at iGeneration.)

Link: linkedin.com/posts/frpotter_tonight-im-looking-back-through…

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 17:06 • John Gruber

Netflix Lays Off 6 Percent of Staff

wsj.com/business/media/netflix-eliminates-about-6-of-staff-in-biggest-cuts-since-2022-0a2d8ec3?st=NtEg5v&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Joe Flint and Jessica Toonkel, reporting for The Wall Street Journal last week: Netflix is cutting 6% of its staff, or roughly 1,000 positions globally, its biggest round of layoffs since 2022, as it struggles with slowing growth and customer engagement. Co-Chief Executi...

Daring Fireball
19 Oct 17:06 • John Gruber

Time Magazine Profiles John Ternus

time.com/collection/best-inventions/2026/apple-iphone-duo/

Andrew Chow, writing for Time: Just below the broad smile he’s been wearing all morning, John Ternus’ hands are shaking. On this September day in Silicon Valley, Apple’s new CEO is surrounded by celebrities, tech enthusiasts, and reporters who have flocked to Apple Park...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 23:24 • John Gruber

WorkOS AuthKit

workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q42026

My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring DF last week. Login looks simple until you’re building password resets, email verification, MFA, social providers, session management, and the enterprise SSO your first big customer asked for last week.

WorkOS AuthKit lets you:

Offer SSO, MFA, passkeys, passwords, email codes, and social sign-in.
Add and remove users automatically with SCIM provisioning.
Track who did what with audit logs.

Try AuthKit today.

Link: workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter…

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 22:51 • John Gruber

Tom the Dancing Bug’s Inner Hive, and Harvey Richards, the Greatest Lawyer in the History of Fiction

tomthedancingbug.com/the-inner-hive/

Ruben Bolling’s long-running Tom the Dancing Bug is one of my favorite comic strips. I’ve been a huge fan since the early 1990s, when I started reading it in alternative newspapers. (Newspapers were sort of like websites, excepted they were printed daily or weekly. I swear.)...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 22:51 • John Gruber

Verizon Is Going to Charge $10/Month for iPhone Handoff

verizon.com/about/news/iphone-duo-verizon-offers

Verizon, in a post headlined “Switch to Verizon and Get the New iPhone Duo Now. No Trade-In Needed.”: Verizon will support iPhone Handoff, giving customers the flexibility to use a single Verizon phone number seamlessly across two compatible iPhone models. Whether using ...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 22:12 • John Gruber

Gurman on HomeView: ‘Finished Units Have Been Sitting Boxed Up in Warehouses for the Better Part of a Year’

bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-10-18/apple-homeview-with-robotic-arm-new-mac-ipad-mini-nov-6-release-iphone-duo?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc5MjMzMjQwNiwiZXhwIjoxNzkyOTM3MjA2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUTjNXODFLR1pBSjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNEVEQ0FFMUZBMDU0MEJFQTI0QTlGMjExQzFFOTA4MCJ9.eu94lgz5qU35YdXhWFRwjbVBeJEKzpwFqF-pzh_GPJU&leadSource=article-gifting

Mark Gurman, today, in his weekly Power On column for Bloomberg (gift link): Without a serviceable version of the new assistant, Apple couldn’t deliver the experience it had envisioned. That left the hardware ready to go, but the software nowhere near finished. So Apple...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 21:42 • John Gruber

Claim Chowder: The Information on HomeView Having a ‘Robotic Swiveling Base’

theinformation.com/articles/apple-developing-ai-wearable-pin

Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu, reporting, wrongly, for The Information in January this year (paywalled; here’s MacRumors’s summary) Apple’s pin joins a growing portfolio of AI-powered products the tech giant has under development, including AirPods equipped with enhanced senso...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 20:09 • John Gruber

Apple Issues Statement on Duo Demand Far Outstripping Supply

ft.com/content/7b236286-ca1d-4063-a728-7f968a638b8f

The Financial Times: Apple had originally promised delivery of the Duo by October 23, but within hours of orders opening, delivery times through Apple’s website had slipped into late January. US mobile carriers also saw delivery times for new orders pushed back. “The pr...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 20:09 • John Gruber

Manton Reece’s Spitball Theory on Why the Wall-Mounted HomeView Costs the Same as the Version With the Subwoofer Base

manton.org/2026/10/17/in-john-grubers-initial-thoughts.html

Manton Reece:

All I can come up with is that Apple doesn’t want you to buy the wall-mounted version unless you’re really sure that’s what you need. If the wall-mounted version was cheaper, some people might buy it based on price, then be unhappy because it’s too much trouble to install.

Oh, that clicks for me.

Link: manton.org/2026/10/17/in-john-grubers-initial-thoughts.html

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 20:09 • John Gruber

Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed on His Allegiances

x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2111627277578731885

I do see some political content in my feed on X. For example, this extraordinary video posted by Abdul El-Sayed, who seems poised to become the next junior senator from Michigan. You should watch it. It’s so good you might suspect the questioner was a plant, but in fact, he ...

Daring Fireball
18 Oct 01:33 • John Gruber

Whatever You Say Bounces Off Me and Sticks to You

reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/openai-employee-who-left-apple-took-files-about-unreleased-device-openai-alleges-2026-10-14/

Stephen Nellis and Deepa Seetharaman, reporting Wednesday for Reuters: An OpenAI employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation about the unreleased product to senior...

Daring Fireball
17 Oct 17:33 • John Gruber

★ HomeView Thoughts and Observations

I’ll start with a nomenclatural sidenote: Apple seems to be going with “Apple HomeView” as the product’s name. E.g., the URL slug for it on Apple.com is apple-homeview/, not just homeview/. Few people notice and no one who doesn’t work in Apple product marketing cares, but t...