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Apple is preparing what appear to be giant iPhone Duo displays outside its Fifth Avenue store in New York ahead of the device's launch on Friday, October 23.

Photos from users on X show the structures on the plaza beside the glass cube. Their designs are hidden by wrapping and black covers, so it remains unclear exactly how Apple will present the device.

The outdoor installations accompany a substantial retail push inside the store. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple plans to allocate more than 150 iPhone Duo units to demonstrations and displays at Fifth Avenue. Typical non-flagship locations are expected to receive around 20 each.

Gurman also described new ways to demonstrate the foldable design, including a fixture that shows the device opening and closing. A separate MagSafe stand will hold an unfolded ‌iPhone Duo‌ beside two conventional iPhones for comparison.

Fifth Avenue's launch decorations have changed twice in just over a month. For September's iPhone 18 Pro release, Apple added color to the cube to reflect the new Burgundy and Glacier finishes.

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ goes on sale on Friday, October 23. Apple has confirmed limited walk-in availability in the United States and several other markets, warning that launch-day inventory is expected to sell out quickly. Stores in mainland China, France, Japan, and several other markets will require customers to reserve a pickup time through Apple's online store.

GeekWebGuides will be on the ground for the launch event at Apple Fifth Avenue tomorrow.

Apple's second-generation iPhone Duo could gain Face ID, with prototypes already incorporating the technology beneath the outer display, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

In the latest episode of his "Power On" podcast, Gurman described Apple's work on adding facial authentication technology to its foldable iPhone. The company is said to be testing the hardware for a successor expected next fall, but has not finalized whether the feature will ship.

The current, first-generation ‌iPhone Duo‌ relies on a fingerprint sensor embedded in its side button, just like the iPad. Its thin design leaves limited space for the depth-sensing components needed for ‌Face ID‌.

News of the prototype seems to represent a more concrete development of Gurman's earlier prediction about future ‌iPhone Duo‌ upgrades. In September, he suggested that smaller components and advances in artificial intelligence could help Apple add ‌Face ID‌ and a dedicated telephoto camera by the third generation.

Gurman also said that Apple is considering adding an Action button to a future ‌iPhone Duo‌. The feature is noticeably lacking on the current model.

The first ‌iPhone Duo‌ launches tomorrow with a starting price of $1,999.

Tesla this week updated its app with native iPad and iPhone Duo support, adapting its vehicle and home energy controls for larger displays.

Previously, ‌iPad‌ users could install the iPhone app, but it lacked native support with a layout designed for the larger screen. The new interface essentially uses two columns, with navigation and controls on the left and a larger visualization of the vehicle or home on the right.

Tesla designer Alex Guichet announced the update on October 21, sharing screenshots and confirming support for Android tablets and foldable devices as well. The release arrives ahead of the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s launch on Friday, October 23.

The vehicle view provides access to features such as climate, charging, and security, alongside a large rendering of the car and shortcuts for vehicle controls. The home energy view displays power flowing between solar panels, a Powerwall, the home, and the grid.

Tesla's design team reworked multiple views to take advantage of the additional space, with further refinements planned for future releases.

The update follows Apple's opening of App Store submissions for ‌iPhone Duo‌ apps earlier this month. Existing iPhone apps can run on the device, but apps need to be built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later to dynamically resize to fill its inner display. Unoptimized apps appear with black borders.

Version 4.62.0 of Tesla's app is now available on the App Store for the iPhone, ‌iPad‌, and Apple Watch.

Strong pre-orders have reportedly prompted Apple to order millions more iPhone Duo units from suppliers, according to DigiTimes.

Supply chain sources said Foxconn and component manufacturers had received instructions reflecting a roughly 44% increase from 9.7 million to 14 million devices. The revised target reportedly follows strong pre-orders for Apple's first foldable iPhone and covers a full 12-month period, rather than the remainder of 2026.

Apple last week described demand as "nothing short of extraordinary." Within 30 minutes of pre-orders opening on October 16, U.S. shipping estimates had reached January 25 across all configurations.

Meeting the higher shipment target could still prove challenging. DigiTimes said output would depend on assembly progress, following earlier reports of manufacturing difficulties affecting assembly, displays, and hinges.

‌DigiTimes‌ forecasts that global foldable smartphone shipments will grow 25.7% in 2026 and 59.1% in 2027, compared with 7.4% growth in 2025, with Apple's entry expected to contribute to the expansion.

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ launches on October 23, starting at $1,999 in the United States.

Fortnite will return to Australia's App Store today, Epic Games told Reuters, after a federal court ordered Apple to allow eligible Epic apps back onto the store.

Australia was the only country excluded when Fortnite returned to the App Store worldwide in May. Epic held off while seeking further court orders addressing Apple's payment terms. The requirement to process Epic's compliant submissions takes effect without waiting for the broader ‌App Store‌ changes due in March 2027.

Australia's Federal Court today ordered Apple to allow competing app stores, direct app downloads, and alternative payment services for Australian users from March 1, 2027.

The orders follow the court's August 2025 finding that Apple misused its market power by restricting app distribution and payment options. They cover users whose Apple Account region is Australia, with Apple Developer Program members worldwide able to participate.

Apple must let users find, download, install, and update apps through competing marketplaces and websites without charging for access or obstructing their use. Developers must receive the necessary tools on substantially the same terms as for App Store distribution, and Apple cannot penalize them for using competing stores or payment services.

Developers will also be able to offer alternative payments and link to other ways to pay, including within ‌App Store‌ apps. Apple cannot require them to offer its own purchasing system alongside alternatives, report those transactions, or allow Apple to audit them. Developers can offer lower prices through competing payment services without Apple preventing them.

The ruling also limits Apple's ability to collect fees on those purchases. It cannot charge for purchases through alternative payment services or websites in apps distributed outside the ‌App Store‌. For ‌App Store‌ apps, fees are capped at the equivalent charge for payments for physical goods or services, plus any genuine, reasonable additional costs Apple incurs for digital purchases.

Apple also cannot make alternative distribution conditional on developers offering content purchased elsewhere through its own payment system.

Security checks will remain. Apps downloaded outside the ‌App Store‌ must undergo an automated security or privacy scan and be notarized by Apple or a qualified third party. However, Apple cannot impose disproportionate installation barriers or otherwise obstruct alternative distribution. Additional security requirements for competing payments must be necessary and proportionate, with developers given an explanation in advance.

Apple can remove or disable externally installed apps only in specified cases involving harmful content, genuine security risks, or legal requirements. It cannot ban third-party apps or alternative app stores from being preinstalled on iPhones, but does not have to distribute competing stores through the ‌App Store‌.

Apple told Reuters that it plans to appeal the ruling and ask the court to pause its enforcement, citing its intellectual property rights and ‌App Store‌ security.

The changes take effect at noon Melbourne time on March 1, 2027. Apple can apply between February 1 and February 15, with supporting evidence, for a court-approved extension until May 3.

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Apple's efforts to cut supply chain emissions face persistent challenges among printed circuit board manufacturers, where demand for more advanced components is increasing energy consumption, according to DigiTimes.

The report says requirements from Apple and Google are prompting suppliers to publish sustainability reports, buy more renewable electricity, and work with their own suppliers to cut emissions. Simultaneously, growing demand for more complex boards used in AI and high-performance computing is increasing the electricity and water needed for production.

The matter presents a challenge for Apple's requirement that its direct manufacturing suppliers use 100% renewable electricity for Apple production before 2030. Purchased electricity accounts for nearly 60% of the PCB industry's emissions, according to an analysis cited by DigiTimes.

Suppliers also face difficulties changing the materials they use. Lower-carbon alternatives do not yet meet all the performance requirements of advanced boards and require extensive testing before they can be widely adopted.

Cultured Code has updated its task management app Things with support for the iPhone Duo, introducing an adaptive layout, a sidebar, and multi-window support ahead of the device's launch on Friday.

The app's interface adjusts to the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s different configurations, including when it is closed, fully open, or partially folded like a book. The layout also supports both portrait and landscape orientations.

Opening the device reveals a sidebar for switching between lists, which is a first for Things on the iPhone. Users can also open two Things windows side by side and drag and drop items between them to organize their tasks.

Controls sit in a vertical bar within reach of the user's thumb. This includes Things' Magic Plus button, which can be dragged to a specific position in a list to insert a new to-do there.

Connecting a keyboard enables the full set of Things' keyboard features, including a persistent selection, keyboard shortcuts, and Type Travel for quickly navigating between lists.

Things 3.25 is available now through the App Store.

Apple designed Siri AI on the HomeView to complete household tasks with natural voice commands and minimal follow-up questions, executives told The Verge, emphasizing simplicity as a key feature of the new home hub.

In an new interview, Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of product marketing for home, linked the timing of HomeView's introduction to ‌Siri‌ AI's personal context capabilities and Apple's approach to privacy.

"With the magic of ‌Siri‌ AI, it comes together in a way that we haven't been able to deliver before," Drance said.

Lilian Rincon, Apple's vice president of product marketing for AI, described ‌Siri‌ AI as "much more capable," highlighting how conversational requests could make smart home accessories easier to control:

It's great because you can just ask it to change the temperature on your thermostat in a very natural way. As the Siri AI capabilities continue to evolve, the home experience is fitting to be able to interact with in this natural way.

Rincon said that allowing people to speak naturally broadens the audience for the technology:

Because now it can be my mother-in-law or the Gen Z who's in college, both of them can use this in the way that they naturally speak and get what they want.

Apple's approach apparently also places emphasis on limiting the exchanges needed to complete a task. Rincon said the assistant is designed to act on a request and let the user move on:

A lot of these assistants out there are always asking questions because they want more information. For us, it isn't about that. We're there to get it done, take an action for you, show you what you need to get done, and then really get out of the way.

HomeView can recognize up to six people and display information tailored to each user. ‌Siri‌ requests involving personal context require a paired device that supports Apple Intelligence. General knowledge questions, natural conversations, and improved music discovery are still available without an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad.

Apple announced the HomeView on October 13. The tabletop and wall-mounted models each cost $299 in the United States and launch on November 13.

Touch ID on the iPhone Duo might end up being frustrating for some users, based on media reviews that came out today. Multiple reviewers found ‌Touch ID‌ to be slow to unlock, which can be jarring coming from Face ID.

According to Marques Brownlee, Apple added an intentional delay to "every single" ‌Touch ID‌ unlock. After you touch a finger to the side button to unlock, it pauses on the Lock Screen. If you keep your finger there, it continues to the Home Screen.

It's technically smart. Like, it's giving people a chance to check to see their notifications real quick before it goes and unlocks it. And if they want to deliberately hold it longer, it'll unlock. But as someone who is used to the instant unlocks from Face ID, I was like, I need to find a way to turn this off. And I did not find that. Like it just makes the fingerprint reader feel slow when it's not slow [...]

I really think Face ID is going to be the number one thing people miss coming from other iPhones.

Brownlee says his workaround is to wake the ‌iPhone Duo‌, swipe up, then touch the sensor for an instant unlock.

Engadget described ‌Touch ID‌ as taking "a bit longer to unlock than you might expect." Apple told the site that the ‌Touch ID‌ pause creates a more consistent experience when compared to other devices that use ‌Touch ID‌, like Macs and iPads, and gives the phone time to wake up and display Lock Screen notifications.

In her review, Joanna Stern said she was fumbling unlocks even a week in, with five fingers registered. "‌Face ID‌, I cannot tell you how deeply I miss you," she said.

Mrwhosetheboss said the hold instead of the tap "feels like a tiny bit of extra friction 50 times a day." He found ‌Touch ID‌ could be problematic just after washing his hands or with slightly greasy fingers, plus he said it's really only comfortable to use in landscape orientation.

PetaPixel said Apple's choice to use ‌Touch ID‌ instead of ‌Face ID‌ "was a mistake," and found it to be slower than ‌Face ID‌. Accidental presses when picking up or moving the iPhone also trigger a haptic error buzz. PetaPixel said it was buzzing constantly.

Apple allows the ‌iPhone Duo‌ to be unlocked with the Apple Watch as an alternative to ‌Touch ID‌, and PetaPixel said this method of unlocking was faster than using ‌Touch ID‌. Having a watch for unlocking "removed a lot of the friction" caused by ‌Touch ID‌.

Brian Tong said ‌Touch ID‌ feels like a step back. "I'm going to tell you right now, you will want to wear an Apple Watch," he said.

Gizmodo's Raymond Wong said he missed ‌Face ID‌ every time he grabbed the ‌iPhone Duo‌ off a desk or out of a pocket and he remembered he had to put a registered finger on the button for unlocking. He said it was difficult to get used to not being able to look to authenticate a payment with Apple Pay. Wong also points out that as with old iPhones, winter gloves will need to come off for unlocking.

The Verge said "a week" was long enough to get used to ‌Touch ID‌, and that it's "mostly painless once you remember you're supposed to be using it." 9to5Mac said the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s biggest tradeoff might be ‌Touch ID‌, but also described it as working "quickly and reliably."

If you're getting an ‌iPhone Duo‌, will you miss ‌Face ID‌? Let us know in the comments below.

Multiple iPhone Duo reviews covered the device's thermal properties, and reviewer opinions varied. Some found that it was just warm, while others thought it was running too hot at times.

Joanna Stern said the back of the device got warm when using FaceTime and taking photos. She had to end a ‌FaceTime‌ call during testing because it got too hot. "Yeah, I'm gonna burn my hand off," she said. "This thing is getting really warm."

Apple told her the warmth was a sign of the iPhone Duo's thermal design moving heat away from the chip to keep performance up. "But to me, it just feels like the phone is really warm," she said.

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ has the same custom vapor chamber setup and A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, but the vapor chamber is thinner. Apple added a flexible graphite pipe in the hinge to transfer heat between the two halves, giving more surface area for heat dissipation.

The Verge said the ‌iPhone Duo‌ heats up when using the camera for a long time, especially if both displays are on for features like Duo Preview. "You can just feel the phone getting significantly hotter when this happens," reads the review. "The phone gets hot enough to start noticeably lagging after a while." The site also said it gets hot when running third-party apps, particularly video apps and apps from Google.

PetaPixel's review unit got warm when gaming, photo editing, or doing anything that stressed the processor, with the heat felt on the right side of the unfolded device.

Mrwhosetheboss did a 20-minute stress test with the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max. He found the ‌iPhone Duo‌ trapped heat inside when it was closed, and ‌iPhone Duo‌ performance was below the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max. When open, the ‌iPhone Duo‌ has a large high-resolution display that also affects performance. Mrwhosetheboss focused more on performance than heat, and said the difference between the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max isn't "massively" noticeable in day-to-day use.

HTX Studio did a 30-minute gaming test with the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ was 46.5°C, while the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and Pro Max were at 43.8°C and 43.2°C, respectively. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ had a 20 percent lower frame rate than the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models and it couldn't maintain 300 nits brightness, dropping to 185 nits.

9to5Mac said the ‌iPhone Duo‌ "runs a bit hotter than the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌, but not in a way that impacts performance." Tom's Guide did a benchmark heat test and found that the ‌iPhone Duo‌ was able to spread heat evenly across the body of the device, but it was a few degrees hotter than the Galaxy Z Fold8 the site compared it to. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ scored 75.9 percent stability score on the 3DMark stress test, compared to 79 percent for the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max and 72 percent for the Z Fold8.

Gizmodo didn't find heat to be a problem, saying the vapor chamber "does a solid job cooling it down to prevent lag or slowdown" when apps use "all the CPU and GPU cores."

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ launches this Friday, so we don't have long to wait to see if heat is going to be a problem for the everyday user.

As spotted by Hidde Collee, the Apple Music page on Apple's website now has the updated branding that Apple officially introduced earlier today.

Apple Music has a new black-and-white logo and app icon, with Apple doing away with the red color scheme that it previously used for the streaming music service.

In a YouTube video released earlier today, Apple showed how the new Apple Music visuals were "made by sound." The video showed off the new Apple Music logo with colorful animations, despite the new Apple Music app icon in the iOS 27.2 beta having a more basic black-and-white design. It is unclear if a splash of color will be added later.

Apple Music has also received a distinct font with a modern, impactful aesthetic.

The rebrand will roll out with Apple's next software releases, including iOS 27.2 and macOS 27.2. The updates are expected to be released next week.

Anthropic today introduced Claude Duet, its answer to Meta's Muse agent and OpenAI's Dots agent. Like Dots and Muse, it is a proactive agent that "reaches out before you ask."

Claude Duet connects to your apps and suggests things that need your attention. It completes tasks and can work in the cloud without local access to a computer. As with Muse and Dots, Duet has a virtual machine with its own browser to complete tasks.

Anthropic says it built Duet for professionals and small business owners with too much to track, as those are the people most likely to find it helpful.

Duet is built around Opus 5.5. It sends a short brief each morning on important items from connected apps, then checks apps every few hours and sends an alert when something needs attention. It can complete simple administrative tasks or more complex tasks like building web apps. While the agent works on its own, it will get user approval before it takes actions like sending a message, making a payment, signing a document, or deleting a file.

It incorporates memory, skills, and connected apps from a Claude account, so there isn't much setup involved. Interactions happen in one ongoing thread instead of across different conversations.

Claude Duet does not see passwords or logins when given access to accounts, and it has a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt that checks each message and guards against sensitive information leaks.

Claude Duet is a standalone product that's available in a research preview right now with access granted via waitlist. It's limited to Pro and Max subscribers in the United States, and can be used via the web or a standalone Duet iOS app. Duet uses your existing Claude plan limits, and its background checks will count toward them.

Apple hasn't shared iPhone Duo hinge tests or given a lifetime fold number like Samsung, but Joanna Stern used a custom device to subject her review unit to more than 32,000 folds over four nights.

Over the course of the testing, Stern said she thought it might be feeling looser as the number of folds increased, but her final conclusion was that she couldn't feel much of a change. A calibrated push-pull gauge used to take readings before and after the Duo fold test showed the hinge was actually stiffer than before.

But in everyday use, I really couldn't feel a difference. So, after 32,000 folds, it felt pretty much the same as day one, which is pretty darn impressive.

Stern didn't comment on whether the fold test caused the crease to be more visible, which can happen over time with other foldable devices. Her testing was done with a case on, and while the machine opened the Duo flat, it didn't close it all the way each time.

Samsung's foldable displays undergo official testing, and in 2025, the display used for the Galaxy Z Fold7 passed a 500,000-fold durability test. Samsung Display says that translates to over 10 years for average users folding their device about 100 times a day, or over six years for users who fold it more than 200 times daily.

Until Apple shares information on display and hinge durability, Stern's test is all we have to go on. It's unlikely to be the last unofficial folding stress test that we see over the next few weeks.

The full details on Stern's machine, including how it was built, can be found in her YouTube video, and she has more information in her review writeup.

The iPhone Duo's inner screen has an under-display front camera that's largely hidden from view. It's the first time we've seen an under-display camera on an iPhone, and it turns out there's a reason Apple hasn't used the technology before.

Apple said the camera offers 1080p video recording, but didn't mention photo quality. Gizmodo said it's a 4-megapixel camera and described the photos as "low-res, washed out, and just not sharp at all." It's not good for selfies, and even video calls "look muddy."

Marques Brownlee said the camera is "very first gen" and that the photo quality is "trash." Samsung previously used under-display cameras but dropped them because of poor image quality. Brownlee speculates whether Apple will make the same decision in the future.

Reviewers say the camera is better at video than photos, and it does disappear into the background when you're using the phone, which is a plus.

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ has an alternative 12-megapixel front-facing camera on the outer display, which is much better for selfies, plus with the dual displays, you can use the rear cameras to take selfies. PetaPixel says that if you unfold the Duo and point it at yourself, there's an option to move the camera controls to the outer screen. With that setup, you can use the outer display as a viewfinder for the rear camera to take a selfie.

More ‌iPhone Duo‌ reviews can be found in our review roundup.

As noted by Miles Franklin, the iPhone Duo's inner display supports Edge Light, an optional setting that debuted on Apple silicon Macs last year. On video calls in apps like FaceTime, Edge Light illuminates the borders of the screen to evenly illuminate your face in low-light conditions. The feature is essentially a virtual ring light.

Apple today updated its Apple Support app to add support for the iPhone Duo and iOS 27.1 (which the Duo ships with). Apple Support will now display properly on the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s wider screen, and it can be used alongside other apps in Split View.

‌iPhone Duo‌ reviews went live today, and poorly sized apps are a recurring complaint among reviewers. Apps that aren't updated for ‌iPhone Duo‌ are letterboxed, with thick black bars on each side.

Apple will continue adapting its apps for the device, and we should see plenty of third-party ‌iPhone Duo‌ app updates in the coming weeks. Any major change to screen size results in early hiccups, but a few months from now, ‌iPhone Duo‌ app compatibility will be largely fixed.

Apple Support is Apple's dedicated app for troubleshooting device issues and looking up support documents. It is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Today we're tracking a pair of major discounts on Apple's newest MacBook Pro models, including up to $900 off two 16-inch models of the computer.

Note: GeekWebGuides is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

The entry-level 18-Core 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 24GB RAM and a 1TB SSD has hit $2,429.00 on Amazon, down from $2,999.00. This one is only available in Space Black, and it's a new record low price on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, coming in $70 cheaper than the deal we tracked earlier in October during Prime Day.

You can also get the M5 Max model with 36GB RAM and a 2TB SSD for $3,499.00, down from $4,399.00. This is a massive $900 markdown on the 2026 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the best price we've ever seen on this model. On Amazon, it's only available in Space Black, but you can find a matching deal at Best Buy in both color options.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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