I just got an email from the Apple Developer folks, showing off what appears to be a folding iPhone device similar to the Samsung folders.
I find myself wondering if iOS Scrivener will play nice with it. If you are bringing a folding keyboard you like with your phone, then unfolding the phone for a writing session makes portability even more important I think.
Anyway, just saw the email and wonder what the folks here think.
On the software side, it’s probably the same code that lets apps resize on an iPad. So I’ll defer to Keith, but I suspect there isn’t much we need to change for it to work. (In part because it would not be in Apple’s interest for their new super-premium gadget to break all the software people want to use.)
Would we be able to get expanded functionality like how we have with the iPad? That iPhone Duo is essentially iPad Mini size, so the quick reference function would be amazing above all else.
The Apple Event opened with a long sequence of violence. Will Scrivener freeze, if trying to use it to write romance on the new devices?
Editor in top fold, keyboard on bottom fold, used L-shaped… yes please.
ÂŁ2000+ for a phone, no thanks,
The new iOS native apps do shift layout a bit too (controls move to the right edge), so there would be some shuffling for “proper” support.
Watched the presentation, and I would say that this is the most inelegant devices Apple has ever produced. Two displays are redundant – the opposite of minimalism that always drove the company’s design. The accessories reveal all the oddity and the mental contortion needed to deal with it.
Paolo
I smell what you’re cooking, but I’m not sure it is anything more than failing to innovate and merely reacting to Samsung’s flagship folders.
Apple tends to give us its best from the front of the pack, or in new directions….. not when playing catchup.
What accessories?
I think it’s a tour de force of engineering, material science, and software. Is it an utterly new product? No. Is it too expensive for most of us? Yes. It’s an odd one but I bet they will sell a lot more of them than the naysayers think.
Dave
Forgive my cynicism but I’ll reserve judgement until the public at large has a chance at the things. Something, something, Apple Vision…..
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the engineering alone to make a folding screen phone work is insane, but…. The Apple Vision Pro is still US$4k and every other quality VR headrig is an around US$1k.
There are always hiccups with new hardware, always…. Anyone else here remember the Vulcan Phone grip of signal death? How about bendgate?
Point is, excrement occurs. I’m not in the market for a replacement and I don’t want a pig-in-a-poke, but I can see this as being a status luxury symbol, and the thing is, I could see value in it — if it works — even if it’s not the same value Apple puts on the price tag
If(*) it works, a foldable phone is a good solution to the tradeoff between portability (small form factor) and usability (large form factor). It also gives them twice the internal room, which it looks like they’re spending in part on battery life.
Plus, as noted, Samsung is already demonstrating that a market for these exists.
(*)That’s a big if, though. As a potential buyer, I’d be worried about fatigue failures along the hinge, and I’d want to know what the failure mode is. If the hinge fails, does that brick the whole phone? Kill the inner display? Kill half the inner display? And how long are they willing to guarantee it for?
It’s a cool idea and I’m glad there are so many people willing to finance the growing pains.
I won’t be buying one – I’d never buy a 1st-gen Apple product – but I admire their confidence in putting it into the market, and it’s hard not to marvel at the engineering.
For me, though, the most important thing is being prepared to fail and to learn from the experience. Or to be insanely successful at a first attempt – unlikely, even for a mega-corp.
Personally: if they made a Duo the size of my iPhone 13 mini, I’d be interested.
Apple has never really done that.
The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, and the iPad wasn’t the first tablet. The AVP came years after the Microsoft HoloLens.
The secret of Apple’s success is to watch the competition, make a note of their mistakes, then make different ones.
The success or failure of the Duo will come down to:
Or if they made a new iPhone mini the size of my iPhone 13 mini…
The Duo is set to support Apple Pencil in a few months from now. The exact timeline is still fluid from what I could gather.
So, if the Duo folds neatly into a pocket (not a feature where I live, more of a self-target), where’s the pen going to go? Perhaps the pen-on-ear practice will make a comeback, sold as a retro feature.
One of the two edges without a hinge. They may even produce a new version of the Apple Pencil that is a similar length to the Duo
Otherwise the transition from folded to open is phenomenal between the small and large screen.
I chickened out and ordered an iPhone 18 Pro Max instead. I may heavily regret this the first time I see a Duo in real life (there is an Apple Store just a few doors from my office), but I could not justify that price (think it would be about ÂŁ60/mo for 4 years on my phone contract).
BUT…
I almost always have my MacBook Neo with me. So I’m trying to be sensible.
However… I can swap my phone once a year for whatever, so next September, if there’s a second gen out…
If you’d have asked me before the reveal, I’d have said there’s no way I’d ever be interested in a foldable. Just a gimmick waiting for wear, tear and mechanical failure… but having seen the videos, I must say I was tempted.
But… the weaker camera rules it out for me.
(Of course, I was never really in the market for a new phone; unless I get a spectacular tech failure[1] I’m gonna stick with my 13 pro max for a few more years).
it’s already on it’s second battery and face id no longer works, so it’ll have to be something more substantial than those ↩︎
