AI Summary
5 min readJohn Ternus Takes the Stage as Apple's New CEO, and the iPhone Duo Finally Arrives
Apple's September event this year was always going to be about the foldable iPhone — the long-rumored "iPhone Duo" that finally became real. But the biggest surprise wasn't the hardware. It was who opened the show. For the first time, John Ternus walked onto the Steve Jobs Theater stage as Apple's CEO, not Tim Cook. The transition, which had been rumored for months, was confirmed without fanfare: Ternus gave a brief opening speech, Cook was spotted mingling in the audience in a casual jacket, and the Ternus era quietly began.
The iPhone Duo: Apple's First Foldable
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for the 256GB model and goes up to $3,199 for the 2TB version. It has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display, with two rear cameras, one under-display front camera, and one external front camera. The inside display features a matte finish that cuts glare and gives it more of a tablet feel. The crease is hard to see on fresh units, though devices that had been folded more times in the demo area showed it more.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:29) **Ternus Takes the Stage** - The crew discusses John Ternus' first event as Apple's new CEO and the tone he set for the keynote.
- 2 (07:29) **A New Event Structure: Software First** - The team examines how Apple flipped its usual keynote format by leading with software features and revealing hardware early.
- 3 (09:08) **iPhone 18 Pro: The Camera Nerd's Delight** - A deep dive into the Pro model's new camera hardware and software controls.
- 4 (14:37) **The iPhone Duo: First Impressions of Apple's Foldable** - Alison reports from the hands-on area with Apple's first wide-format foldable, the iPhone Duo.
- 5 (20:12) **Duo Software: Polished but Opinionated** - The team discusses how iOS has been adapted for the new foldable form factor.
- 6 (28:31) **Apple Watch Series 12 & Ultra 4: The Sensor Upgrade** - Victoria Song joins to break down the biggest hardware change in years: a completely redesigned sensor array.
- 7 (33:33) **Apple Watch: The Age of the Body and Health Cynicism** - The crew discusses the new "physiological age" metric and the broader health features.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Apple did the one more thing: This week it announced its much-anticipated folding phone. It also announced some surprising and controversial new AI features for Apple Watch, including "Live Rewind," which gives the user a text transcript of the last 15 seconds of real life.
On today's Vergecast, Allison Johnson and Vee Song report back from California after having more hands-on time with Apple's new devices. Plus, Nilay Patel and David Imel take another swing at discussing Mac Minis and local LLMs with AI researcher CJ Trowbridge. Finally, Allison and Jake tackle some non-Apple stories in the truly rapid-fire thunder round.
Further reading:
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