Apple names five positions the iPhone Duo can be left in and says iOS responds to each of them: StandBy, landscape, portrait, seated and standing. Its own tagline for the phone is “Foldable. Posable. And durable,” and the press release lists an upgraded StandBy among the software changes. Both of iPhone Duo's displays are Always-On,…
Mike Peterson
Mike is a technology journalist with a deep focus on Apple’s Mac ecosystem. He has spent years tracking macOS development, Apple Silicon architecture, and system-level changes across major macOS versions. His reporting covers everything from kernel-level enhancements and Swift-based APIs to hardware teardown analysis of M-series chips.
Articles by Mike Peterson
iPhone 18 Pro Genlock: Apple Lists Frame Sync on a Phone and Documents Almost Nothing Else
Three words sit in Apple’s iPhone comparison rows for iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that most buyers will never use: Apple Log 2, ProRes RAW and Genlock. Genlock is the strangest of the three to find on a phone, because it only makes sense when there is more than one camera pointed…
iPhone 18 Pro Variable Aperture: Five Things It Does Not Change
The iPhone 18 Pro is the first iPhone with an aperture that moves, and the four stops Apple lists, f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4.0, are a genuine first. What they are not is a change to the whole camera system: the mechanism sits on one lens of four, and a good deal of the phone…
There Is No A20, Only A20 Pro: Every Chip in Apple's 2026 iPhone Lineup
Apple announced one new iPhone chip this year and gave it a Pro suffix. The A20 Pro ships in three products, the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the iPhone Duo, and Apple has announced no chip called A20 without it. The A20 Pro is the only new iPhone chip Apple announced…
A20 Pro vs A19 Pro, A18 Pro and A17 Pro: The Core Counts Apple Publishes
Apple names exactly one chip when it quotes a number for the A20 Pro in the iPhone 18 Pro, and that chip is the A19 Pro from the iPhone 17 Pro generation. Against the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro, or the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple has published no performance…
iOS 27 Not Showing Up in Software Update? Apple Names VPNs, and Documents a Delete Update Fix
If iOS 27 does not appear in Software Update on Monday, or appears and refuses to download, Apple documents two things worth knowing before you touch anything else. The first is that “VPN or proxy connections might prevent your device from contacting the update servers.” The second is that Apple publishes a procedure for deleting…
Can You Go Back to iOS 26 After Installing iOS 27? Apple Publishes No Downgrade Path at All
Apple publishes no document describing how to return from one public release of iOS to an earlier one. Not a procedure, not a warning against it, not an acknowledgement that people want to, which means the honest answer to “can I go back to iOS 26 after installing iOS 27” is that Apple has never…
AirPods 5 Case Battery: 16 Hours in Reserve at $129, 17 Hours at $149
Apple publishes two battery numbers for each AirPods 5 model, one for the earbuds and one for the total with the case. Subtract the first from the second and the case reserve appears: 16 hours on the $129 AirPods 5, 17 hours on the $149 AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case. AirPods 5 buds are…
AirPods 5 Battery Life Differs by Model on Apple's Own Pages: 4 Hours or 5
Apple lists two different listening figures for AirPods 5 depending on which box you pick: up to four hours with Active Noise Cancellation on the $129 AirPods 5, and up to five hours on the $149 AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case. The total with the case splits the same way, 20 hours against 22.…
Apple Watch Health Features in 2026: Every Age and Eligibility Limit Apple Publishes
Several of the health features that sit on top of the new Health Sensing System in Apple Watch Series 12 are restricted by age, and two of them exclude people who already have a diagnosis. Apple publishes those limits in footnotes and support documents rather than on the pages that sell the watch. The redesigned…
iPhone Duo Adaptive Layouts: What Apple Says Happens to an App When You Close the Phone
Apple describes what happens when you fold the iPhone Duo shut in a single phrase: layouts that adapt to open, closed and posed positions. That is the extent of the consumer-facing explanation, and it is the one piece of iOS behaviour that no other iPhone has ever needed. Split View on the inner display, which…
iPhone Duo's Fold-Only Software: Six Features Only It Gets, Two Rebuilt, and Two That Are Not Exclusive
Apple has named six software features for the iPhone Duo that it lists for no other iPhone, rebuilt two features that already existed elsewhere, and described two more that sound fold-only but are not. The fold also ships on iOS 27.1 rather than the iOS 27 that reaches every other supported iPhone on Monday, September…
iPhone Duo Has Two Always-On Displays: ProMotion to 120Hz, Four Light Sensors and the Numbers Apple Left Out
The iPhone Duo is the first iPhone with two Always-On displays. Apple lists Always-On and ProMotion adaptive refresh up to 120Hz for both the 7.6-inch folding inner display and the 5.4-inch outer display, and it has not published how the two screens divide that job between them. Both iPhone Duo displays run ProMotion to 120Hz…
iPhone Duo's 5.4-Inch Cover Display: 460 ppi, 90 Percent of an iPhone 18 Pro and 44 Hours of Video
The iPhone Duo’s outer display is a 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR OLED at 1398 by 2034 pixels and 460 ppi, and Apple says it carries more than 90 percent of the screen area of the 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro. It runs ProMotion up to 120Hz and Always-On, sits under Ceramic Shield 2, and is attached…
iPhone 18 Pro 4K120: The Four Video Settings Apple's Spec Sheet Will Not Let You Combine
The headline video number on iPhone 18 Pro is 4K Dolby Vision at 120 frames per second, and it is real, but it does not combine with everything else Apple lists. Cinematic mode stops at 4K Dolby Vision 60 fps, spatial video stops at 1080p at 30 fps, and ProRes reaches 4K120 only with external…
A20 Pro Neural Accelerators Explained: Not the Same Thing as the 32-Core Neural Engine
The iPhone 18 Pro carries two separate pieces of AI hardware inside the A20 Pro, and only one of them has a number attached. Apple quotes the dual 16-core Neural Engine at double the AI processing power of A19 Pro, and publishes no figure of any kind for the Neural Accelerators it names alongside it.…
iPhone Stuck on the Apple Logo After the iOS 27 Update: Apple's Four Documented Steps
If your iPhone sits on the Apple logo with a progress bar after installing iOS 27, Apple has a support document for precisely that screen, and almost nobody cites it. Article 102317 asks you to do one thing first, which is to let the device finish. iOS 27 reaches iPhone 11 and later on Monday,…
Apple Watch Series 12 Health Sensing System: The Sensors Apple Calls New, and the Four That Carry Over
Apple calls the sensor package in Apple Watch Series 12 the all-new Health Sensing System, and its own specification page puts four sensors under that name: an electrical heart sensor, an always-on optical heart sensor, a blood oxygen sensor and a temperature sensor. Only the heart sensors are described as new. Ceramic joins aluminum and…
Apple Watch Series 12's 60x Heart Rate Claim: What Apple Counts, and the Baseline It Never Published
Apple makes two frequency claims for the Health Sensing System in Apple Watch Series 12: 60 times more frequent background heart rate readings than Series 11, and 24 times more frequent heart rate variability readings. The absolute rates Apple prints beside them are a heart rate reading every five seconds through the day and an…
iPhone Duo's Folding Display Is Not Under Ceramic Shield: Apple's Polymer Cover and the 40 Percent Stiffness Claim
The iPhone Duo’s 7.6-inch folding display is the one screen on the phone that Apple does not put under Ceramic Shield. Apple’s press release describes a custom polymer with 40 percent higher stiffness than the industry standard, laid over high-strength glass layers and finished with a scratch-resistant coating, while the 5.4-inch outer display gets Ceramic…
iPhone 18 Pro Shoots 4K at 25 and 100 fps: The Two Frame Rates for 50 Hz Countries
The iPhone 18 Pro records 4K Dolby Vision video at 24, 25, 30, 60, 100 or 120 frames per second, and two of those six numbers exist for one region rather than one purpose. Broadcast and streaming delivery across most of the world outside North America runs at 25 frames per second, so Apple’s list…
iPhone 18 Pro Cost of Ownership Outside the US: A Price, a Finance Plan and No Coverage Figure
Every coverage price Apple has published for this launch is a US price. AppleCare One is $19.99 a month for up to three products with $5.99 for each device after that, and AppleCare One Family is $49.99 a month from September 14. Outside the US, a buyer ordering an iPhone 18 Pro today has a…
Apple's AirPods Range Is Now Four Prices: What the $20, $100 and $300 Steps Add
With AirPods 5 on sale, Apple’s headphone range comes down to four prices: $129, $149, $249 and $549. The steps between them are $20, $100 and $300, and each one buys something very different. AirPods 5 at $129 sets the floor of Apple's range. Image: Apple The cheapest step is the easiest to misread. Going…
iPhone 18 Pro Pro Controls: Apple Lists Four Manual Tools, and ISO Is Not One of Them
Apple describes Pro controls as a new customizable experience in the iPhone 18 Pro Camera app, with manual adjustment of lens aperture, shutter speed and white balance, plus a histogram for checking exposure. That is four items, and the one photographers will notice is missing: ISO appears nowhere in Apple’s published description. Aperture is one…