1<!DOCTYPE html> 2<html lang="en" class="daringfireball-net"> 3<head> 4 <meta charset="UTF-8" /> 5 <title>Daring Fireball</title> 6 7 <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/graphics/apple-touch-icon.png" /> 8 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/graphics/favicon.ico?v=005" /> 9 <link rel="mask-icon" href="/graphics/dfstar.svg" color="#4a525a"> 10 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="/css/fireball_screen.css?v1.2026-08-25" /> 11 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="/css/ie_sucks.php" /> 12 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="/css/fireball_print.css?v01" /> 13 <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/feeds/main" /> 14 <link rel="alternate" type="application/json" href="/feeds/json" /> 15 <link rel="me" href="https://mastodon.social/@gruber" /> 16 <link rel="me" href="https://mastodon.social/@daringfireball" /> 17
17<script src="/js/js-global/FancyZoom.js"></script>
17 18
18<script src="/js/js-global/FancyZoomHTML.js"></script>
18 19 20 <!-- Open Graph bullshit, for home page: --> 21 <meta property="og:title" content="Daring Fireball, by John Gruber" /> 22 <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> 23 <meta property="og:url" content="https://daringfireball.net/" /> 24 <meta property="og:image" content="https://daringfireball.net/graphics/df-wide-card.png" /> 25 <meta property="og:site_name" content="Daring Fireball" /> 26 <meta property="og:description" content="Commentary on Apple, technology, design, politics, and more." /> 27</head> 28<body class="daringfireball-net" onload="setupZoom()"> 29<div id="Box"> 30 31<div id="Banner"> 32<a href="/" title="Daring Fireball: Home"><img src="/graphics/logos/" alt="Daring Fireball" height="56" /></a> 33</div> 34<div id="Sidebar"> 35<p>By <strong>John Gruber</strong></p> 36 37<ul><!--★--> 38<li><a href="/archive/" title="Previous articles.">Archive</a></li><li>
38<script> 39// <![CDATA[ 40function ReadCookie(name) { 41 var nameEQ = name + "="; 42 var ca = document.cookie.split(';'); 43 for(var i=0; i < ca.length; i++) { 44 var c = ca[i]; 45 while (c.charAt(0)==' ') c = c.substring(1, c.length); 46 if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length); 47 } 48 return null; 49} 50var display_linked_list = ReadCookie('displayLinkedList'); 51var li_linked = '<a href="/linked/" title="The Linked List.">Linked List<\/a>'; 52if (display_linked_list == "hide") { 53 // Linked List is off on home page, so show it in menu: 54 document.write(li_linked + "<\/li>\n<li>"); 55} 56else { 57 // Default to not putting separate LL item in sidebar: 58} 59// ]]> 60</script>
60</li> 61<li><a href="/thetalkshow/" title="Americaâs favorite 3-star podcast.">The Talk Show</a></li> 62<li><a href="https://dithering.fm/" title="Two episodes per week, 15 minutes per episode. Not a minute less, not a minute more.">Dithering</a></li> 63<li><a href="/projects/" title="Software projects, including SmartyPants and Markdown.">Projects</a></li> 64<li><a href="/contact/" title="How to send email or feedback regarding Daring Fireball.">Contact</a></li> 65<li><a href="/colophon/" title="About this site and the tools used to produce it.">Colophon</a></li> 66<li><a href="/feeds/">Feedsâ/âSocial</a></li> 67<!-- 68<li><a href="https://twitter.com/daringfireball">Twitter</a></li> 69 --> 70<li><a href="/feeds/sponsors/">Sponsorship</a></li> 71</ul> 72 73<div id="SidebarMartini"> 74<a href="https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF"> 75 <img alt="Mux" src="/martini/images/mux-06-2026-pink.png" height="90"> 76</a> 77<p><a href="https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF">Mux</a>: Turn your video<br>into context</p> 78</div> 79 80</div> <!-- Sidebar --> 81 82<div id="Main"> 83 84<dl class="linkedlist"> 85<dt> 86<a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/">Changes to App Tracking Transparency in the E.U.</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âChanges to App Tracking Transparency in the E.U.â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/23/changes-to-app-tracking-transparency-in-the-eu">★</a> 87</dt> 88<dd> 89<p>Apple Developer:</p> 90 91<blockquote> 92 <p>As part of agreements with select European competition 93authorities, Apple is introducing changes to its App Tracking 94Transparency framework in the European Union. Beginning with iOS 9527.2 and iPadOS 27.2, developers will have the option to use an 96alternative version of the App Tracking Transparency system prompt 97in the EU. The requirements for when you must seek permission to 98track users will remain the same. Due to legal requirements, only 99the alternative version of the system prompt is available for apps 100distributed in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Romania.</p> 101 102<p>In addition, for users in the European Union, you can reprompt 103[<em>sic</em>] a user via the App Tracking Transparency system prompt one 104year after the userâs previous choice in your appâs App Tracking 105Transparency system prompt, regardless of whether that choice was 106to accept or reject. A user cannot be re-prompted if they have 107disabled âAllow Apps to Request to Trackâ (renamed to âAllow Apps 108to Request to Link Your Activity Across Companiesâ in the EU) in 109their deviceâs Settings.</p> 110</blockquote> 111 112<p><a href="https://www.threads.com/share/DYPQJUOaO/">As Benjamin Mayo notes</a>, âAllow Apps to Request to Link Your Activity Across Companiesâ is catchy.</p> 113 114<p>The gist of this is that there are three constituent groups: Apple, users, and third-party developers. Iâve long argued that Apple prioritizes those groups in that order. What DMA/EU proponents have fooled themselves into believing is that the European Commission works to move users into, or at least closer to, the top spot. The truth is that they (and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/german-antitrust-authority-tests-apples-revised-app-tracking-rules-competition-2025-12-02/">national regulatory authorities in Europe</a>) work to move third-party developers and publishers into a more privileged position, at the expense of usersâ privacy and experience. Users donât want to be tracked without permission. Apple doesnât want users to be tracked without their permission. But an awful lot of third-party developers and publishers want to track users without their permission or knowledge.</p> 115 116<p>Just getting the term changed from âtrackingâ (one word, easily understood) to âlinking your activity across companiesâ (five words, obfuscated) tells you all you need to know.</p> 117 118</dd> 119 120 121</dl> 122 123<hr class="ookiaks" /> 124 125 126<div class="article"> 127<h1><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/iphone_4_antennagate_q_and_a" title="Permanent link to âThe iPhone 4 âAntennagateâ Press Conference Q&AâââFinallyâ">The iPhone 4 âAntennagateâ Press Conference Q&AâââFinally</a></h1> 128<h6 class="dateline">Wednesday, 23 September 2026</h6> 129 130<p>The most extraordinary Apple event in the companyâs modern history was the emergency press conference on Friday, 16 July 2010 to address âantennagateââââthe out-of-control media narrative <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/07/">that the iPhone 4 had a defective antenna design</a>. The event was only scheduled one day in advanceâââI got invited around noon ET on July 15 and was on my way to the airport about an hour later. It remains one of the most interesting press events Iâve ever attended.</p> 131 132<p>The event was held in Appleâs Town Hall auditorium at the old Infinite Loop headquarters. Town Hall is a tiny venue but it wasnât full. It opened with Jonathan Mannâs â<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4">The iPhone 4 Antenna Song</a>â (refrain: âIf you donât want an iPhone 4, donât buy it; if you bought one and you donât like it, bring it backâ), then Steve Jobs took the stage for what he said would be a 15-minute presentation but which took 30 minutes. Then Jobs had COO Tim Cook and hardware chief Bob Mansfield join him on stage to answer questions from the assembled members of the media.</p> 133 134<p>
134Apple itself hosted video of the presentationâââminus the Q&Aâââfor some time after the event. But after a few years they took their copy down. There have been copies on YouTube, but the only one that seems to be left is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8tXyfjfnB0">this 14-year-old copy from the YouTube account Tech Knowology</a>. Itâs got Mannâs opening song and Jobsâs half-hour prepared presentation, but it cuts off right as Jobs invites Cook and Mansfield to join him on stage. To my recollection this is where Appleâs own official video cut off tooâââI think this version on YouTube is just a copy of Appleâs.</p> 135 136<p>The Q&A was on the record (which is the entire point of a Q&A), and was <a href="https://allthingsd.com/20100716/apple-iphone-4-press-conference/">reported</a> <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2010-07-16-live-from-apples-iphone-4-press-conference.html">widely</a>, but I donât think thereâs ever been video of it. <a href="https://tidbits.com/2010/07/16/apple-responds-to-iphone-4-antenna-issue/">Hereâs a report by Jeff Carlson at TidBITS</a>, published the day the event was held, which states, âThe video omits a long and interesting Q&A at the end.â</p> 137 138<p>Then, yesterday, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiN5ERktXz0">video of the Q&A hit YouTube</a>. I donât know what truck it fell off the back of, why it took 16 years, or how it came into the hands of âSir Mix-A-Lot Rare Musicâ,<sup id="fnr1-2026-09-23-a"><a href="#fn1-2026-09-23-a">1</a></sup> but Iâm sure glad it did. There are parts of this Q&A that I remembered, and parts I didnât. Carlson was exactly right: it was long and it was interesting. </p> 139 140<p>One part I remembered was my own question, <a href="https://youtu.be/BiN5ERktXz0?t=1125">asked at the 18:45 mark</a>, which was answeredâââby all three executivesâââvisually, not verbally. It really was an answer best <em>shown</em> not <em>told</em>, but heretofore Iâm not sure anyone who wasnât in the room has seen this. There were photographs (e.g. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111020162310/https://allthingsd.com/20100716/apple-iphone-4-press-conference/">AllThingsD</a> and <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/16/coverage-of-apples-iphone-4-press-conference/">MacRumors</a>), but not video. Now you can watch.</p> 141 142<p>My main takeaway, though, watching the whole thing for the first time since I was in the room, is how goddamn <em>thoughtful</em> Steve Jobs was. He takes a long time to think before answering many of the questions. A few minutes after my question, <a href="https://youtu.be/BiN5ERktXz0?t=1190">Jobs was asked</a> what heâs learned from this experience. Jobs takes several seconds to think and then his answer lasts five minutes. Itâs a good answer.</p> 143 144<p>I seldom suggest you spend 47 minutes watching a video, but this one is worth your time.
144(And, given that it clearly fell off the back of a truck, you might want to <a href="https://software.charliemonroe.net/downie/">put a copy</a> on your own truck sooner rather than later.) A lot of times with a long Q&A the whole thing gets repetitive, with the same questions asked in rephrased ways, and the same answers (or, worse, non-answers) regurgitated from the same set of prepared talking points. Not this one. In fact, one of Jobsâs most interesting answers comes over 40 minutes into the Q&A segment, when he re-articulates what Horace Dediu coined â<a href="https://asymco.com/2011/01/17/the-cook-doctrine/">The Cook Doctrine</a>â. (Which Cook deserves credit for, having expressed it a year prior while Jobs was on a medical leave of absence.) Hereâs part of that answer:</p> 145 146<blockquote> 147 <p>To understand Apple, it helps to realize that one of our biggest 148insights came about eight years ago. We didnât want to get into 149any business where we didnât own or control the primary 150technology. Because if somebody else owns the primary technology, 151theyâre going to beat you in the end. Because youâre going to 152have to buy that from them and add your stuff on top. But if 153their technology is the most important one, theyâre going to beat 154you in the end. So we wanted to own or control the primary 155technology for those businesses that weâre in. And in the 156computer business, even though we didnât make our own 157microprocessors, we thought software was the most important 158technology. And we made our own operating system.</p> 159 160<p>Our big insight about eight years ago was that for most areas of 161consumer electronics going forward, it was going to shift from big 162displays being the most important component, or electro-optical 163laser pickup heads for DVD drives being the most important 164component, or radios and cell phones being the most important 165component, to software being the most important component. And we 166realized that we were pretty good at software.</p> 167</blockquote> 168 169<p>Watch the whole thing, I implore you. I mean if youâre only going to watch a minute, sure, skip to my question. But you should watch the whole thingâââif only to hear Jobs pronounce âcomponentâ.</p> 170 171<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BiN5ERktXz0?si=0ud6sCK7xUjpXK1C" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âThe iPhone 4 âAntennagateâ Press Conference Q&AâââFinallyâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/iphone_4_antennagate_q_and_a">★</a></p> 172 173<div class="footnotes"> 174<hr /> 175<ol> 176<li id="fn1-2026-09-23-a"> 177<p>Channel description: âA somewhat poorly named channel which used to constantly upload Sir Mix-A-Lotâs rare videos, music. Now itâs a lot of everything else except that.â Heâs got <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOkazx1P1BMsxPy_a_oho2VpxOk45TlM5">a few other</a> Steve Jobs-era bootlegs, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a5KSoOUT_U">a 1998 interview about the just-released iMac</a>, in which Jobs is wearing a blue checked button-down flannel shirt, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSUTHa7ssoc">a 2008 interview about the iPhone 3G</a> and its new features geared toward the business market. <a href="#fnr1-2026-09-23-a" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p> 178</li> 179</ol> 180</div> 181 182</div> <!-- article --> 183 184<hr class="ookiaks" /> 185 186 187<h2 class="dateline">Wednesday, 23 September 2026</h2> 188<dl class="linkedlist"> 189<dt> 190<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/127848">âPrepare to Shipâ Is a Clever Software Solution That Allows iPhone 18 Pro Max to Ship With a Battery That Would Otherwise Exceed International Shipping Regulations</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to ââPrepare to Shipâ Is a Clever Software Solution That Allows iPhone 18 Pro Max to Ship With a Battery That Would Otherwise Exceed International Shipping Regulationsâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/23/prepare-to-ship">★</a> 191</dt> 192<dd> 193<p>Apple Support:</p> 194 195<blockquote> 196 <p>iPhone 18 Pro Max offers a huge increase in battery life, in part
197due to increasing the battery capacity to over 20 watt-hours (Wh). 198Devices with a single-cell battery over 20 Wh have additional 199shipping requirements in most countries and regions. To address 200these requirements, iPhone 18 Pro Max uses an innovative 201battery-firmware solution that limits battery capacity to below 20 202Wh from the time itâs manufactured through its transport from the 203factory. When you activate your iPhone, the limit is removed and 204the batteryâs full charging capacity is available.</p> 205 206<p>After activation, if you need to ship your iPhone 18 Pro Max for a 207repair, trade-in, return, or as a gift for example, use the 208Prepare to Ship feature in Settings. This feature discharges your 209battery to below 20 Wh and sets a charge limit so your iPhone 210stays below this limit while shipping. This can be reversed and 211you can reset your charge limit after shipping.</p> 212 213<p>The battery in iPhone 18 Pro Max is safe, including for shipping 214and air travel. This process is needed only to meet shipping 215requirements and isnât required while traveling or for any other 216iPhone model.</p> 217</blockquote> 218 219<p>(<a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/998144/apple-iphone-18-pro-max-battery-firmware-limit">Via The Verge</a>.)</p> 220 221</dd> 222 223 224<dt> 225<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/update-my-phone-apps-guide/id6753936837">App Store Scam of the Week: âUpdate My Phone & Apps: Guideâ by Tair Olzhasev</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âApp Store Scam of the Week: âUpdate My Phone & Apps: Guideâ by Tair Olzhasevâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/23/app-store-scam-update-my-phone">★</a> 226</dt> 227<dd> 228<p>âUpdate My Phone & Apps: Guideâ is an iOS app from developer Tair Olzhasev. By default, the only thing it does for free is give you a âCheck for Updatesâ button that launches the system Settings app. It doesnât even take you to the General â Software Update screen. It just takes you to the root level of Settings.</p> 229 230<p>Everything else it purports to do requires a $15/week subscription. Thatâs $780 per year. (It does offer a three-day free trial before weekly billing starts.) These other features, gated behind the âproâ subscription:</p> 231 232<blockquote> 233 <ul> 234<li>Clear device status: iOS version and storage usage at a glance</li> 235<li>One-tap shortcut to system update settings</li> 236<li>Tip of the Day with practical hacks and best practices</li> 237<li>Lightweight, private, and fastâââno accounts or tracking</li> 238<li>Optional Premium for extra guidance and tools</li> 239</ul> 240</blockquote> 241 242<p>In other words, the app does nothing that iOS doesnât automatically do for all users. Absolutely nothing. I came across it <a href="https://aus.social/@shlee/117318918816027001">from a user on Mastodon</a> who discovered their father was paying $8/week ($416 per year) for it. It seems like the esteemed Mr. Olzhasev, savvy businessman that he is, changes the subscription price frequently.</p> 243 244<p>Olzhasevâs other two apps are <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/thermal-camera-filter-effects/id6753982355">Thermal Camera Filter Effects</a> (a neat trick, given that iPhones do not have thermal cameras or heat sensors) and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/settings-app-simulator/id6753862143">Settings App: Simulator</a>, a $15 app that admittedly gives you just what it says on the tin. Itâs an inaccurate mirror of the Settings app âso you can practice without changing the real system.â</p> 245 246</dd> 247 248 249</dl> 250 251<hr class="ookiaks" /> 252 253 254<div class="article"> 255<h1><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/appzapper_3000" title="Permanent link to âAppZapper 3000â">AppZapper 3000</a></h1> 256<h6 class="dateline">Wednesday, 23 September 2026</h6> 257 258<p>Back in the mid-2000s there was a golden era of exuberantly designed Mac apps. Paul Kafasis coined it â<a href="https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-generation/">The Delicious Generation</a>â, a perfect name. The <em>delicious</em> was both a reference to Wil Shipley and Mike Matasâs <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/11/26/delicious-library-eol">Delicious Library</a>âââa personal media library management app that made something that <em>sounds</em> really boring <em>look</em> super funâââand a perfect description of the aesthetic. It clearly harks back to <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/some_brief_thoughts_and_observations_on_wwdc_2025#:~:text=you%20wanted%20to%20lick%20it">Steve Jobsâs description of the Aqua user interface</a> in 2000: âOne of the design goals was when you saw it, you wanted to lick it.â</p> 259 260<p>One of the delicious generation apps was Disco, a CD/DVD disc-burning utility. When it burned a disc, it rendered smoke coming out of the appâs main window. It wasnât a simple âpoofâ animation. It was fully interactive. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071023091210/http://www.discoapp.com/">From their own description</a>:</p> 261 262<blockquote> 263 <p>With Disco we tried pushing the boundaries of interface,
264usability, and utter functional simplicity. Well, once you realize 265that <em>Disco is emitting real time interactive smoke</em> as you burn, we 266start redefining the boundaries. Want to push it out of the way? 267Blow into your microphone and the smoke will react accordingly. 268Or, go ahead and flick at it with your mouse. Remember, youâll 269need a recent Mac to play with the full interactive smoke.</p> 270</blockquote> 271 272<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zklSrGUELjA">Hereâs a video of Disco in action</a>.</p> 273 274<p>Another delicious generation peer <a href="https://www.macworld.com/article/180361/appzapper-5.html">was AppZapper</a>, from Austin Sarner and Brian Ball. AppZapper was a utility to uninstall apps along with all of the appsâ associated files and folders, and its gimmick was that, well, you zapped the apps with a Zap button and a supposedly fun sound. Totally boring premise with a fun implementation and presentation.</p> 275 276<p>Two things brought that trend to an end. The first was the launch of the iPhone App Store in 2008. Indie developer attention that had previously been single-mindedly focused on the Mac was now split between the Mac and iPhone, and given the iPhoneâs novelty and larger market, it soon was more like the attention went single-mindedly to the iPhone. The delicious aesthetic was a niche novelty on the Mac. On the iPhone, in those early years, it was <em>the</em> aesthetic of the platform. Appleâs own iBooks app had page-turning animation that tracked your finger; the built-in Calendar app had a UI <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/26/against-skeuomorphism">rendered in rich Corinthian leather</a>; the Notes app <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2007/09/hacking_the_iphone_notes_app">used a silly handwriting font</a>. But then iOS 7 arrived in 2013, wiping the slate clean. Deliciousness was out. Blandness was in. And the whole industry has never really recovered.<sup id="fnr1-2026-09-23"><a href="#fn1-2026-09-23">1</a></sup></p> 277 278<p>I bring very good, very fun news. After a decade-plus hiatus, AppZapper is back, <a href="https://appzapper.com/">perfectly renamed for a long future as AppZapper 3000</a>. Itâs completely over-the-top and I love it. <a href="https://appzapper.com/">Just look at it</a>.</p> 279 280<p>Thereâs long been a whole cottage industry of Mac âapp uninstallersâ, a sort of subset within the larger category of system âcleanersâ. Some of these apps are scams, and some are borderline scams that prey on the false notion that users <em>should</em> be worried about the detritus that deleted apps leave behind. A lot of people who come to the Mac from Windows are uncomfortable with the idea that you donât typically run installers for appsâââyou just copy the .app bundle from your Downloads folder or from a disk image to your Applications folder, and thatâs it. Itâs installed. Itâs a beautiful system, to me, because it teaches you how the system works. There ought not be any hidden magic behind âinstallingâ an app on the Mac.</p> 281 282<p>And to uninstall an app, you just drag it to the Trash. Some users are more uncomfortable with that than they are with just-drag-to-Applications-to-install, because deleting the applicationâs .app bundle doesnât delete anything else it might have left behind. Like its preferences, or any associated files it might have left behind in subfolders within your <em>~/Library/</em> folder. The simple truth is that you donât really need to worry about that stuff. I sometimes <em>prefer</em> leaving a deleted appâs preferences behind, just in case I ever re-install the app. The Macâs NeXT-derived <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/UserDefaults/AboutPreferenceDomains/AboutPreferenceDomains.html"><code>defaults</code></a> system for software preferences is designed such that it doesnât get bogged down by unused preferences from long-ago deleted applications. (The Windows Registry leaves people forever scarred.)</p> 283 284<p>But sometimes apps download <em>
284large</em> associated files and stash them in <em>~/Library/</em>. Those files arenât bogging your system down but they are taking up space. Storage space has never been free of charge, and, on one side of the AI coin, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/spensive_thoughts">itâs become a lot more expensive</a>. On the other side of the AI coin, there are <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-ai-driven-resurgence-of-mac-app-development">a lot more new Mac apps coming out these days</a>. Iâm trying more new apps every week than I have since the earliest days of the App Store. Sometimes I really just want to nuke all traces of them after taking a test drive.</p> 285 286<p>AppZapper 3000 does that job well, and it makes it fun as hell. You drag an app you want to uninstall to its main window, and AppZapper lists all of the appâs associated files (including, of course, the app itself). Then you shoot the ones you want to delete. Zapped files are safely moved to your Trash, and AppZapper itself supports Undo if you get trigger happy. Itâs terrific fun. Thereâs even a âZap Allâ button for the lazy. It re-launched last Monday but Iâve been testing AppZapper 3000 since a few weeks before that. My Applications and Library folders havenât been this trim in years.</p> 287 288<p>Way, way back in the day with <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/12/09/the-grouch">The Grouch system extension for System 6 and 7</a>, there were stories claiming that people who had the Grouch installed would let their young kids play with their Macs, and come to find that the kids had deleted gobs of important files and folders, just to make Oscar pop out of the Trash and sing his songs. (Oscar only sang when you <em>emptied</em> the Trash.) The Grouch seemed old even when the original AppZapper was new. But AppZapper 3000 brings back that sort of funâââwhile being genuinely useful. And the Mac has never in its history been more in need of new UI fun. Is it absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary to make an uninstall utility with an exquisitely detailed 3D laser gun as its UI? Fuckinâ-A right it is.</p> 289 290<p>If youâve got a fun bone in your body you should <a href="https://appzapper.com/">check AppZapper 3000 out</a>. Itâs a free download with a free trial. Licenses cost $18 for a single user, $29 for a 5-user family pack, and $99 for a 25-Mac enterprise license. One-time purchases, not subscriptions. Sarner was kind enough to create a 20 percent discount code for DF readers, good through next Monday: <strong>DARING</strong>. This is not a sponsorship. Iâm sharing this code (and writing this article) simply because Iâm so happy to see such a much-needed injection of pure fun on the Mac. <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âAppZapper 3000â" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/appzapper_3000">★</a></p> 291 292<div class="footnotes"> 293<hr /> 294<ol> 295 296<li id="fn1-2026-09-23"> 297<p>Deliciousâââdare I say lickableâââ<em>hardware</em> never fell out of fashion at Apple. But I think that was, in a very small nut, the core problem with Jony Ive taking control of all design at the company. With a hardware designer in charge of software design, of course the aesthetic changed to one where the software look-and-feel deferred to the hardware. In the 2000s, if you asked me what was more exciting, just to look at, Appleâs hardware or software, Iâd have to say âI donât know.â They both were full of exuberance. They both continued to surprise and delight. Starting with iOS 7, and ever since, the answer is clearly âOh, the hardware.â</p> 298 299<p>At a first approximation, the problem with Liquid Glass last year is that it just plain sucked. In the way that Donald Trump is a poor idiotâs idea of a rich genius, Liquid Glass exemplifies bad graphic designersâ idea of a good user interface. But looking deeper, the real problem with Liquid Glass is the lack of ambition. Even a good implemention of the ideas behind Liquid Glassâââwhich weâre starting to see Apple incrementally edge toward in this yearâs version 27 OS releasesâââis still fundamentally bland. It aspires only to see-through blandness. The whole point is for the application chrome to defer to âcontentâ, which necessarily results in applications that look shy. They all look alike. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/01/thoughts_and_observations_regarding_apple_creator_studio">Even their icons suck</a>. A good user interface is obvious, consistent, efficient, functional etc. But an insanely great user interface is one that makes you want to use the softw
299are not because of what it does but just because it looks so goddamn cool. Thatâs not <em>instead of</em> actually getting fundamental functionality right. Itâs <em>on top</em> of it. But Apple stopped striving for insanely great UIs like that. And, alas, everyone followed. <a href="#fnr1-2026-09-23" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p> 300</li> 301 302</ol> 303</div> 304 305</div> <!-- article --> 306 307<hr class="ookiaks" /> 308 309 310<h2 class="dateline">Wednesday, 23 September 2026</h2> 311<dl class="linkedlist"> 312<dt> 313<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mw4it5l5fd23">Super Intelligence, Indeed</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âSuper Intelligence, Indeedâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/23/super-intelligence-indeed">★</a> 314</dt> 315<dd> 316<p>President Donald Trump, in a prepared speech before the United Nations General Assembly yesterday (one-minute video clip from Aaron Rupar, posted on Bluesky):</p> 317 318<blockquote> 319 <p>The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a 320globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligenceâââbeing spoken of so much, nowâââhere and after officially called 321âsuper intelligenceâ, changing the name. The use of the word 322âartificialâ makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake, and 323it is not fake. Itâs actually amazing. But we have to be careful. 324In fact it is exactly the opposite of what it purports. From 325this point forward, all of United Statesâ documents and hopefully 326the worldâs will be changed to use the much more accurate term 327âsuperâ as opposed to âartificialâ. So itâs âsuper intelligenceâ. 328In other words, welcome to the world of super intelligence dash 329SI. SI. Letâs see if that goes. It sounds much better. It is much 330better. And itâs much more accurate. Letâs see if I have any 331power. Maybe I do, and maybe I donât, weâre going to find out 332pretty soon. Super intelligence.</p> 333</blockquote> 334 335<p>Pretty sure he wasnât supposed to say the âdashâ aloud, but other than that, no signs of dementia or madness. Sharp as a tack, directly addressing the nationâs top concerns regarding AI.</p> 336 337<p><a href="https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/its-underwear-on-the-outside-time">Paul Krugman</a>:</p> 338 339<blockquote> 340 <p>In the 1971 comedy film <em>Bananas</em> a third-world nationâs strongman 341announces his new policies:</p> 342 343<blockquote> 344 <p>From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be 345Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be 346required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will 347be worn on the outside so we can check.</p> 348</blockquote> 349</blockquote> 350 351</dd> 352 353 354</dl> 355 356<h2 class="dateline">Tuesday, 22 September 2026</h2> 357<dl class="linkedlist"> 358<dt> 359<a href="https://thedieline.com/jessica-hische-metas-muse-and-the-ethical-landmines-of-design/">Metaâs Muse Logomark, Designed by Jessica Hische </a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âMetaâs Muse Logomark, Designed by Jessica Hische â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/meta-muse-hische">★</a> 360</dt> 361<dd> 362<p>Bill McCool, writing at Dieline:</p> 363 364<blockquote> 365 <p>This past Wednesday, lettering artist, designer, and author 366Jessica Hische took to <a href="https://www.threads.com/@jessicahische/post/DdE3LZbj_b8">Threads</a> to announce that she had 367worked alongside Metaâs team to create the icon and logotype for 368their agentic AI, Muse. Acknowledging that people would be âmad 369because itâs AI and Meta,â Hische sought to explain at least why 370she had taken the gig in the first place. Obviously, she took some 371flak for working with Meta. While plenty of comments voiced 372support, just as many chastised her for even considering the 373project, which I can mostly sum up as a general narrative thread 374of âHow could you?â</p> 375 376<p>FWIW, itâs pretty rich to criticize someone for working with Meta 377while youâre very much using a Meta product to issue said 378criticism. But I digress.</p> 379</blockquote> 380 381<p>I like <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/muse.png">the Muse mark/icon</a>. Itâs both an obvious âMâ and yet at the same time, <em>not</em>
381 an âMâ. Itâs friendly but not un-serious.</p> 382 383<p>And, as Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang noted today on X (not Threads), <a href="https://x.com/alexandr_wang/status/2102411467186401411">it doesnât look like a butthole</a>. (Yet <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/meta-ai-logo.png">Meta AIâs logo/icon</a> <em>is</em> a little butthole-y.)</p> 384 385</dd> 386 387 388<dt> 389<a href="https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/metas-new-muse-ai-agent-read-my-private-messages-i-never-asked-it-to/91408202">Metaâs New Muse AI Agent Read Jason Atenâs Messages Database</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âMetaâs New Muse AI Agent Read Jason Atenâs Messages Databaseâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/aten-muse">★</a> 390</dt> 391<dd> 392<p>Jason Aten, writing for Inc:</p> 393 394<blockquote> 395 <p>Then, yesterday, I was having a conversation with my Primary 396Technology podcast co-host, Stephen Robles, about the new 397iPhones. Moments later, I got a push notification from Muse 398suggesting that the conversation we were having would make for a 399good column and offered to put together research for me to write 400about. It even flagged a message from my editor about having a 401column ready for Monday.</p> 402 403<p>Not only had I not asked it to do that sort of thing, I never gave 404it permission to read my messages. In fact, I remember explicitly 405choosing not to let it have access to my messages, calendar, and 406other personal information.</p> 407 408<p>Stranger still was what happened when I asked Muse how it knew.</p> 409</blockquote> 410 411<p>Like I <a href="https://www.threads.com/share/JLXMWFkcA/">told Aten on Threads</a>, Muse was right about one thing: it did give him a good idea for a column. Later on, Aten writes:</p> 412 413<blockquote> 414 <p>I also want to be clear about something else: If your response 415to this is that, of course, Meta would do thisâââitâs Metaâââyou are just letting them off the hook. Youâre normalizing 416behavior that should not be normal, and you should not let them 417off the hook.</p> 418</blockquote> 419 420<p>My response to this is a little more complex than that. At the top level, this is why I donât run any AI agents, from any source, on my production/work Macs where all my personal information and communication apps are. And if I eventually do, Iâll pay surgical attention to the permissions I grant them.</p> 421 422<p>But at a second level, I do think âOf course Meta would do thisâ. If I were going to run an AI agent on my personal Mac today, Metaâs would be among the last Iâd choose. Theyâre the proverbial scorpion and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog">weâre the frogs</a>. Iâm genuinely curious about Muse, and might soon try itâââbut Iâll try it on a machine without most of my data on it. This isnât âletting them off the hookââââthis is keeping Meta on the hook, where they belong.</p> 423 424</dd> 425 426 427<dt> 428<a href="https://spyglass.org/why-didnt-google-build-muse/">Why Didnât Google Build Muse?</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWhy Didnât Google Build Muse?â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/why-didnt-google-build-muse">★</a> 429</dt> 430<dd> 431<p>MG Siegler, writing at Spyglass:</p> 432 433<blockquote> 434 <p>The number one response Iâve gotten to <a href="https://spyglass.org/metas-amusing-muse/">my thoughts on Metaâs Muse 435personal assistant agent</a> is some variation of âI will never 436trust Meta with my data.â But the number two response is arguably 437more interesting (and related): âWhy didnât Google build this?â</p> 438 439<p>The short answer to this is undoubtedly: theyâre working on it. 440But the longer answer is probably more interesting here too.</p> 441</blockquote> 442 443<p>Sieglerâs take is basically that Google lacks focus. Theyâve got multiple AI agent products, none of which are hittingâââwhich as he points out <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/21/22538240/google-chat-allo-hangouts-talk-messaging-mess-timeline">has been their decades-long problem with messaging apps</a>. Say what you want about Meta as a company and Mark Zuckerberg as a leader, but they (and he) have focus. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/28/om-malik-facebook-rename">
443I make fun of them</a> (and him) for going all-in on âthe metaverseâ only to lose all interest in it just a few years later, but to play devilâs advocate, thatâs how focus works.</p> 444 445</dd> 446 447 448<dt> 449<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/">Amazon Blocks Metaâs Muse AI Assistant</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âAmazon Blocks Metaâs Muse AI Assistantâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/amazon-blocks-muse">★</a> 450</dt> 451<dd> 452<p>Todd Bishop, reporting at GeekWire:</p> 453 454<blockquote> 455 <p>Amazon says it has cut off Metaâs new Muse personal AI agent from 456shopping on Amazon.com on behalf of customers, after attempting 457unsuccessfully to get the Facebook parent company to voluntarily 458exclude the e-commerce site from the experience.</p> 459 460<p>The problem, Amazon says, is that it never agreed to any of it. 461Meta didnât tell Amazon that Muse would access its store, the 462agent doesnât identify itself when it browses, and it appears to 463capture and store customer credentials, which the company says 464could create privacy and security risks.</p> 465 466<p>As of Sunday night, people trying to use Muse to shop on Amazon 467were seeing the popup, âContinued access by an unauthorized AI 468agent violates Amazonâs Conditions of Use, to which our customers 469have agreed.â</p> 470</blockquote> 471 472<p>On the one hand, Muse is software, and Amazon cutting off an unauthorized software client from accessing its store seems like a normal thing for Amazon to do. I suspect Meta has protections in place to prevent other agents from acting as clients for Instagram or Facebook.</p> 473 474<p>But on the other hand, an agent is an agent. If I hired a human personal assistant and told them to buy some stuff at Amazon for me, theyâd just do it, and Amazon wouldnâtâââand seemingly couldnâtâââstop it. How is Muse different than that other than the fact itâs an AI assistant, not a human one? Iâm sure Amazonâs answer is that they donât care about the philosophical debate; theyâre not going to sit back and let Meta software spider their store and aggregate purchasing data.</p> 475 476</dd> 477 478 479<dt> 480<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/18/metas-new-muse-ai-agent-app-overtakes-chatgpt-as-top-iphone-app/">Metaâs New Muse AI Agent App Overtakes ChatGPT as Top iPhone App</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âMetaâs New Muse AI Agent App Overtakes ChatGPT as Top iPhone Appâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/meta-muse-app-store">★</a> 481</dt> 482<dd> 483<p>Zac Hall, writing for 9to5 Mac on Friday:</p> 484 485<blockquote> 486 <p>Metaâs new Muse AI agent app has taken the top spot on the free 487iPhone charts for the U.S. App Store, displacing OpenAIâs ChatGPT 488from the first place.</p> 489 490<p>Muse by Meta only <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/17/meta-ai-launches-muse-personal-agent-including-a-new-mobile-app-for-iphone/">launched this month</a>, although the app 491has been around for a couple of weeks. This means new installs are 492picking up and boosting the app on the App Storeâs top charts 493beyond the day-one launch.</p> 494 495<p>Just yesterday, Meta expanded Muse app availability to include the 496Mac. The desktop version of the app doesnât contribute to the App 497Store ranking, however, as itâs downloadable from the web.</p> 498</blockquote> 499 500<p>Four days later and Muse <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/iphone/charts/36?chart=top-free">still holds</a> the #1 spot in the U.S. iOS App Store. Hereâs the top 15 today (with the full, sometimes insipid, name of each app, and my own commentary in brackets):</p> 501 502<ol> 503<li>Muse from Meta</li> 504<li>ChatGPT</li> 505<li>Vinted: Pre-loved marketplace [if this crap was loved why did they sell it?]</li> 506<li>StoryReel: Drama Shorts & TV</li> 507<li>Google Gemini</li> 508<li>Polymarket: Trade Live Sports [trading, not gambling!]</li> 509<li>PineDramaâââShort Dramas</li> 510<li>TikTok ProâââEvents</li> 511<li>DepopâââBuy & Sell Clothes</li> 512<li>CapCut: Photo & Video Editor</li> 513<li>Kalshi: Trade Football & more [but the âmoreâ is definitely not gambling!]</li> 514<li>Claude by Anthropic</li> 515<li>Google</li> 516<li>The White House</li> 517<li>Threads</li> 518</ol> 519 520<p>Hit apps come and go. Temu had been at or near the top for a long while, but now sits at #20. But ChatGPT has been at or very near the top for years now. Anthropic is on the cusp of a record-breaking IPO based on the strength of its enterprise success. #12 is nothing to sneeze atâââclearly, Claude is a consumer hit. But itâs behind Gemini, and all of these apps are typically behind ChatGPT.</p> 521 522<p>The odds are that Muse wonât stay at the top for long. And eventually, ChatGPT will decline in popularity. But Muse is off to a big start. And ChatGPTâs persistence atop the App Store is quite remarkable.</p> 523 524</dd> 525 526 527<dt> 528<a href="https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-27_2-release-notes">Xcode 27.2 Now Supports a New JSON Project File Format</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âXcode 27.2 Now Supports a New JSON Project File Formatâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/xcode-json-project-files">★</a> 529</dt> 530<dd> 531<p>Apple Developer:</p> 532 533<blockquote> 534 <p>Xcode now supports a JSON-based project format (.xcproj) thatâs 535more readable, merge-friendly, and easier for coding agents to 536edit. Enable it in the file inspector. Projects using .xcproj also 537open in earlier versions of Xcode 27.</p> 538</blockquote> 539 540<p>Apple released, on GitHub, <a href="https://github.com/apple/xcode-project-format">a Swift library (and CLI tool)</a> for reading, writing, and manipulating this new project format. <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/09/17/xcodes-new-xcproj-files-are-json/">Michael Tsai has a list of developer reactions</a>, which are universally positive. A sampling:</p> 541 542<p><a href="https://mastodon.social/@simonbs/117282260955657402">Simon B. Støvring</a>:</p> 543 544<blockquote> 545 <p>Developers have been screaming for a friendlier Xcode project format for years. Iâm one of them.</p> 546</blockquote> 547 548<p><a href="https://mastodon.social/@tonyarnold/117283237592284302">Tony Arnold</a>:</p> 549 550<blockquote> 551 <p>Iâve been waiting for something like this for most of my career! ð</p> 552</blockquote> 553 554<p><a href="https://mastodon.social/@cocoaphony/117284198012341992">Rob Napier</a>:</p> 555 556<blockquote> 557 <p>It does feel like another case of âweâve quickly done a thing to help AI that weâve been unwilling to do for years to help humans.â Iâm seeing that happen across the industry.</p> 558 559<p>It is very welcome and appreciated, and lots of thanks to the teams involved. Itâs also frustrating that it took âit can help AIâ to make it happen.</p> 560</blockquote> 561 562<p>The old .pbxproj project format was <em>not</em> XML; it was an old <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/PropertyLists.pdf">NeXT-style âASCIIâ property list</a>âââa file format that is surprisingly JSON-like considering that it predates not only JSON, but JavaScript (JSON = <a href="https://www.json.org/json-en.html">JavaScript Object Notation</a>). The problem developers have long had with the old .pbxproj project file isnât about the old plist format, but instead the way the object graph was represented in it. Everything was represented by opaque ID values; one small change in Xcode often resulted in multiple changes on different lines in the .pbxproj file. While technically that format is a human-readable (and thus LLM-readable) text file, it effectively needed to be treated as a binary file.</p> 563 564</dd> 565 566 567<dt>
568<a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/20/siri-ai-settlement-website-now-live/">Siri AI Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement Website Is Now Live</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âSiri AI Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement Website Is Now Liveâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/22/siri-ai-settlements">★</a> 569</dt> 570<dd> 571<p>Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:</p> 572 573<blockquote> 574 <p>In May, Apple <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/05/apple-class-action-siri-lawsuit-settlement/">agreed to pay $250 million</a> to settle a <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/20/apple-intelligence-siri-lawsuit/">U.S. 575class action lawsuit</a> over Siri AIâs delayed launch, and the 576<a href="https://www.smartphoneaisettlement.com/">settlement website</a> is now live.</p> 577 578<p>Apple will pay an estimated $25 per eligible iPhone to eligible 579customers, who can submit a claim via the settlement website 580between September 21 and December 21 of this year. The exact 581payment may be higher or lower than $25 depending on the total 582number of valid claims submitted and other factors, with the 583maximum amount set at $95.</p> 584 585<p>Apple denies all of the allegations made in the lawsuit. Apple 586agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs and risks of a trial.</p> 587</blockquote> 588 589<p>I went ahead and <a href="https://www.smartphoneaisettlement.com/">filled it out</a> for the iPhone 16 Pro I purchased in September 2024. Iâd call it borderline whether it was worth my time for $25. It was a pain in the ass every step of the way.</p> 590 591<p>For the eventual payment, your choices to receive the dough are PayPal, Venmo, ACH (bank transfer), or check. I tried to get it via PayPal and it just wouldnât complete the connection to my PayPal account. After wasting time on a few tries, I tried ACH next, and the web form had pasting disabled on the fields for the routing and account numbers. Ridiculous. I was able to get around that to paste the numbers in, because I use <a href="https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/">StopTheMadness</a>. But most people donât. The only reason I can think of that they try to block pasting on those fields is to make it difficult.</p> 592 593</dd> 594 595 596</dl> 597 598<h2 class="dateline">Monday, 21 September 2026</h2> 599<dl class="linkedlist"> 600<dt> 601<a href="https://lexontech.org/strategery-is-back-and-im-the-developer">Lex Friedman Brings Back Strategery</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âLex Friedman Brings Back Strategeryâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/strategery-friedman">★</a> 602</dt> 603<dd> 604<p>I first recommended Strategery <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/05/04/strategery">back in May 2009</a>, including a link to <a href="https://www.macworld.com/article/196162/strategery.html">Friedmanâs review at Macworld</a>. I described it thus:</p> 605 606<blockquote> 607 <p>Strategery is a beautiful $2 Risk-like strategy game for the 608iPhone. Lots of fun and the gameplay has a great feel.</p> 609</blockquote> 610 611<p>Still lots of fun and still has a great feel. <a href="https://strategerygame.com/app">It now costs $5</a>, but, if youâre an existing userâââeven if you only paid $2 back when I told you to 17 years agoâââitâs a free update. And itâs a great story: the original Strategery game <a href="https://mastodon.social/@jimray/117138792023999673">finally gave up the compatibility ghost with iOS 27</a>. Friedman made his own version of the game, including multiplayer support, but before releasing it on his own under a new name, he reached out to the original developers and it turns out everyone was happy to make a deal. Sometimes all you need to do is ask.</p> 612 613<p>(First thing you should do after installing the new version is go into settings and turn on âClassic Hex Edgesâ. The default styleâââLex edges?âââdoesnât look right.)</p> 614 615</dd> 616 617 618<dt> 619<a href="https://x.com/JoannaStern/status/2102105565195288859">GM Confirms Theyâre Still Smoking Crack</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âGM Confirms Theyâre Still Smoking Crackâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/gm-crack-smoking">★</a> 620</dt> 621<dd> 622<p>
622Joanna Stern, on X:</p> 623 624<blockquote> 625 <p>GM has confirmed it is NOT rolling phone projection to GM EVs. 626Instead this announcement is specific to JUST their new gas 627powered light-duty pickups, which have always supported Apple 628CarPlay and Android Auto.</p> 629</blockquote> 630 631</dd> 632 633 634<dt> 635<a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-ballpark-name-changed-to-fifth-third-park">Americaâs Decline Can Be Measured by the Names of Ballparks and Arenas</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âAmericaâs Decline Can Be Measured by the Names of Ballparks and Arenasâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/filth-turd">★</a> 636</dt> 637<dd> 638<p>MLB:</p> 639 640<blockquote> 641 <p>Comerica Park has had several alternate identities since it became 642the Tigersâ home in 2000. Some have called it Comerica National 643Park for its spacious dimensions. Some fans simply came to call it 644Comerica, or abbreviated it to CoPa, as they grew comfortable with 645it over the years.</p> 646 647<p>Starting next year, the Tigersâ ballpark will have a new formal 648name: Fifth Third Park.</p> 649</blockquote> 650 651<p>Filth Turd Park. Rolls right off the tongue.</p> 652 653</dd> 654 655 656<dt> 657<a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/ichiro-at-52-throws-127-pitch-shutout-against-all-star-girls-team-in-japan/">Ichiro, at 52, Throws 127-Pitch Shutout Against All-Star Girls Team in Japan</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âIchiro, at 52, Throws 127-Pitch Shutout Against All-Star Girls Team in Japanâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/ichiro-girls-shutout">★</a> 658</dt> 659<dd> 660<p>Sofia Schwarzwalder, reporting for The Seattle Times:</p> 661 662<blockquote> 663 <p>Since turning 50, the Mariners legend has been inducted into the 664Hall of Fame, launched eight homers at the Mariners Alumni Home 665Run Derby this summer and, most recently, tossed a 127-pitch 666shutout with 17 strikeouts during an annual All-Star Game against 667the best high-school girls in Japan. [...]</p> 668 669<p>The All-Star Game took place Sunday at the Tokyo Dome in front of 670a reported 25,000 fans. The game also featured former New York 671Yankees All-Star outfielder Hideki Matsui. In addition to his 672dazzling performance on the mound, Ichiro led off the game and had 673a pair of hits.</p> 674 675<p>Speaking to reporters in Japanese, Ichiro said, âI wanted to see 676what my current limits were, and this gave me confidence in 677myself.â</p> 678</blockquote> 679 680<p>Trung Phan, on X, <a href="https://x.com/TrungTPhan/status/2101329253392626032">posted a short video of clips</a>. Ichiro was tossing some nasty stuff.</p> 681 682</dd> 683 684 685<dt> 686<a href="https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2026/09/17/u-s-small-biz-cant-ship-to-the-eu-anymore/">Glenn Fleishman on the Increasing Impracticality of Shipping From the U.S. to the E.U.</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âGlenn Fleishman on the Increasing Impracticality of Shipping From the U.S. to the E.U.â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/fleisnman-eu-shipping">★</a> 687</dt> 688<dd> 689<p>Glenn Fleishman:</p> 690 691<blockquote> 692 <p>Recent protectionist changes by the European Union further 693effectively exclude U.S. small businesses like mine from selling 694to EU customers. Itâs a little complicated, but it has to do with 695how tax and customs fees are collected and extracted from 696low-value packages. This is not a tariff issue, unbelievably, but 697one about reducing competition.</p> 698 699<p>The summary:</p> 700 701<p>Delivering items under â¬150 per shipment into the EU now costs at 702least â¬3 per package, and may require hiring a specialty firm to 703manage time-of-purchase tax collection and payment because of the 704many differences in filing by EU nation. Shipping prices have 705swelled. No shipper currently offers rates close to affordable for 706modestly priced items, like books, while properly collecting the 707â¬3+ customs fee.</p> 708</blockquote> 709 710<p>If these new rules were prompted by Chinese companies like Temu taking advantage of <em>de minimis</em> shipping exceptions (basically by shipping zillions of cheap items one at a time, rather than in bulk), the new rules ought to apply only for items arriving from China.</p> 711 712</dd> 713 714 715<dt> 716<a href="https://pogueman.substack.com/p/125-tests-of-the-new-ai-siri">David Pogue: â125 Tests of the New AI Siriâ</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âDavid Pogue: â125 Tests of the New AI Siriââ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/pogue-siri-ai-125">★</a> 717</dt> 718<dd> 719<p>David Pogue:</p> 720 721<blockquote> 722 <p>The hardest part will be <em>getting out of the habit</em> of opening 723apps, and remembering that you <em>have</em> Siri. Give it a few tries. 724Learn to trust it. Youâll save incredible amounts of time and 725fumbling.</p> 726 727<p>I used the beta-test version all summer, growing more and more 728excited. Now that the final version is out, I wanted to see how 729often it gets things right. It <em>is</em> AI, after all. So I ran it
730through 125 tests.</p> 731 732<p>Some of these tasks are things Apple said are possible. Some 733ideas, I picked up from people on Reddit trying stuff. Some, I 734just wondered if Siri could do. It failed a handful of times. But 735a few other times, it absolutely blew me away. It did amazing 736things I bet you never suspected Siri could do.</p> 737</blockquote> 738 739<p>Iâve been using iOS 27 with the new Siri AI since the week after WWDC, and the single biggest problem I have echoes Pogueâs: remembering that Siri is now useful. I keep doing things manually, <em>then</em> thinking âHey, I should have tried that with Siri...â, trying it again with Siri after the fact, and realizing only then that Siri accomplished the thing.</p> 740 741</dd> 742 743 744<dt> 745<a href="https://matthewbutterick.com/chron/drop-dead.html">Matthew Butterick: âBig AI to Humanity: Drop Deadâ</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âMatthew Butterick: âBig AI to Humanity: Drop Deadââ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/butterick-big-ai">★</a> 746</dt> 747<dd> 748<p>Matthew Butterick:</p> 749 750<blockquote> 751 <p>So letâs not take the bait. Nor overcomplicate. We neednât spin 752our collective wheels spitballing answers to big-picture, 753long-term Al-policy questions. We donât know enough yet. The best 754next steps are the concrete ones: Big Al needs to follow all 755current lawsâââjust like everyone else. So farâââthey havenât. 756When Big Al breaks those laws, they must face prosecution and 757penaltiesâââjust like everyone else. So farâââthey havenât. The 758state and federal agencies tasked with enforcing those laws need 759to apply them to Big Alâââjust like everyone else. So farâââthey 760havenât. In short, we have to attend to the basic features of the 761rule of law. So farâââwe havenât. If we canât or wonât insist on 762that now, then we shouldnât expect to be able to later.</p> 763</blockquote> 764 765</dd> 766 767 768<dt> 769<a href="https://seths.blog/2014/01/measuring-nothing-with-great-accuracy/">âMeasuring Nothing (With Great Accuracy)â</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to ââMeasuring Nothing (With Great Accuracy)ââ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/21/godin-measuring-nothing">★</a> 770</dt> 771<dd> 772<p>Seth Godin back in 2014:</p> 773 774<blockquote> 775 <p>You canât tell if a book is any good by the number of words it 776contains, even though itâs quite easy and direct to measure this.</p> 777</blockquote> 778 779<p>(Vis-à -vis <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/mkbhd-iphone-18-pro">my sidenote over the weekend</a> about Apple refusing to publish mAh battery specs for iPhones.)</p> 780 781</dd> 782 783 784</dl> 785 786<h2 class="dateline">Sunday, 20 September 2026</h2> 787<dl class="linkedlist"> 788<dt> 789<a href="https://deadline.com/2026/09/jessica-chastain-the-savant-new-release-date-apple-tv-1237108228/">Apple TV to Finally Air âThe Savantâ in Early 2027, Supposedly</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âApple TV to Finally Air âThe Savantâ in Early 2027, Supposedlyâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/deadline-the-savant">★</a> 790</dt> 791<dd> 792<p>Nellie Andreeva, reporting for Deadline:</p> 793 794<blockquote> 795 <p>The release of <em>The Savant</em> is back on. A year after Apple TV put 796the thriller starring Jessica Chastain on hold three days before 797it was slated to premiere on Sept. 26, 2025, the streamer has 798rescheduled it for spring, 2027. The exact timing, which is still 799being finalized, will make the series eligible for the 2027 800Emmys, I hear.</p> 801 802<p>As Deadline <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/09/the-savant-jessica-chastain-postponed-apple-1236553658/">reported at the time</a> of the postponement, <em>The 803Savant</em>âs last-minute benching was due to its storyline about 804preventing extremist attacks and some imagery, including sniper 805attacks, that were considered potentially triggering two weeks 806after the assassination of right-wing political activist 807Charlie Kirk.</p> 808</blockquote> 809 810<p>The only people who were potentially âtriggeredâ by this would be whoever answers the phone in Cupertino when the White House calls. <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/apple-tv-schedules-jessica-ch
810astain-thriller-the-savant-1236560893/">Variety</a> and <a href="https://www.darkhorizons.com/the-savant-sets-spring-2027-release/">Dark Horizons</a> both echo Deadlineâs reporting that Apple TV is finally going to air <em>The Savant</em> early next year, but <a href="https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/the-savant/">Apple TVâs own press page</a> still lists it as âPremiere Date: Coming Soonâ.</p> 811 812</dd> 813 814 815<dt> 816<a href="https://youtu.be/WrwY_jVaN-w">Yours Truly on CNBCâs âSquawk on the Streetâ Friday</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âYours Truly on CNBCâs âSquawk on the Streetâ Fridayâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/yours-truly-cnbc">★</a> 817</dt> 818<dd> 819<p>I genuinely enjoyed that Sara Eisen laughed a little when introducing me as having written a 5,000-word review of the iPhone 18 Pro.</p> 820 821</dd> 822 823 824<dt> 825<a href="https://workos.com/guide/the-developers-guide-to-sso?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32026">WorkOS: How SSO Works and the Fastest Way to Add It</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWorkOS: How SSO Works and the Fastest Way to Add Itâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/workos-sso">★</a> 826</dt> 827<dd> 828<p>My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring this last weekâââa big weekâââat DF.</p> 829 830<p>SSO is table stakes for enterprise deals, but building it into your app yourself means writing SAML controllers, parsing XML assertions, and handling IdP-specific quirks for each provider. Learn how SAML flows work, the tradeoffs between building or buying, and best practices for security, routing, and UX.</p> 831 832<p>Or, skip the hassle and add SSO with <a href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q22026">WorkOS</a>. Read <a href="https://workos.com/guide/the-developers-guide-to-sso?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32026">their developerâs guide to learn more</a>.</p> 833 834</dd> 835 836 837<dt> 838<a href="https://www.autoweek.com/news/a73761352/gm-revives-apple-carplay-for-2027-chevy-silverado-gmc-sierra/">GM Revives CarPlay for 2027 Trucks</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âGM Revives CarPlay for 2027 Trucksâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/gm-carplay-never-mind">★</a> 839</dt> 840<dd> 841<p>Natalie Neff, Autoweek:</p> 842 843<blockquote> 844 <p>General Motors is reversing course after having begun to remove 845Apple CarPlay from its vehicles, showing off instead a redesigned 846infotainment interface for the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC 847Sierra pickups that melds the smartphone apps with the truckâs 848native vehicle controls on the same screen.</p> 849 850<p>The new system, which will roll out later this year, marks a 851significant walk-back after the automaker faced widespread 852criticism for removing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from its 853Ultium-based electric vehicles beginning with the 2024 Chevrolet 854Blazer EV.</p> 855</blockquote> 856 857<p>One of the dumbest own goals in recent memory. Tesla gets away with not supporting CarPlay because they created their own system thatâs so good that many Tesla owners prefer it, or, at least find it good enough as an alternative. GM tried to replace CarPlay with a system that no one liked.</p> 858 859</dd> 860 861 862<dt> 863<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohqxP8EEumo">Marques Brownleeâs iPhone 18 Pro Review</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âMarques Brownleeâs iPhone 18 Pro Reviewâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/20/mkbhd-iphone-18-pro">★</a> 864</dt> 865<dd> 866<p>He takes the same â<em>this is pretty much exactly what Apple used to label an âSâ year</em>â angle I did, so, unsurprisingly, I think his review is spot-on. Brownlee emphasizes one point that I should have, but didnât: according to Appleâs published specs, the regular iPhone 18 Pro gets longer battery life than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Thatâs just a year-over-year spec that anyone can understand, for an attribute that everyone cares about.</p> 867 868<p><strong>Sidenote, per that point:</strong> Brownlee wonders why Apple still refuses to publish the capacities of iPhone batteries in mAh. We eventually find out when people take new iPhones apart, so why not publish the numbers? Brownlee only mentions batteries but Iâll point out that Apple still does the same thing with RAM. There is no spec on the tech specs page for any iPhone telling you how much RAM it has. In some ways this is a little silly, but the way Apple thinks about it is that they only publish specs that they think are useful for comparison. Storage is useful for comparison, so Apple dutifully publishes storage c
868apacities. In fact that is the spec by which they price higher tiers. Battery <em>life</em> is useful for comparison, so Apple publishes that as a spec, based on multiple use cases. But mAh capacity of the battery, to Appleâs mind, isnât useful for comparison. Not for comparison to Android phones, especially, and not even for comparison to other iPhone models. If they published a spec that says iPhone A has a 4,000 mAh battery and some Samsung phone has a 5,000 mAh battery, one could conclude that the Samsung phone âwinsâ. Obviously a bigger battery leads to longer battery life, but battery capacity alone doesnât tell the battery life story for any device. The main reason that the year-over-year iPhone Pro battery life has improved so much that the regular iPhone 18 Pro gets longer battery life than the 17 Pro Max isnât related to battery sizeâââitâs the increased efficiency of the A20 Pro SoC (and perhaps secondarily the improved thermal system). Same thing for RAM. To Appleâs mind, iPhones perform much better with less physical RAM than Android phones do, so they donât think RAM-vs.-RAM is a useful comparison. In fact, they think looking at RAM would be misleading. So they donât publish it. They know that those of us who care are going to learn how much RAM is in these phones (12 GB, just like last yearâs 17 Pro models), and how big the batteries are in mAh. But theyâre only going to list the specs that they think are useful for comparison purposes.</p> 869 870</dd> 871 872 873</dl> 874 875<h2 class="dateline">Saturday, 19 September 2026</h2> 876<dl class="linkedlist"> 877<dt> 878<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6cDErtCKAc">Tyler Stalmanâs iPhone 18 Pro Camera Review</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âTyler Stalmanâs iPhone 18 Pro Camera Reviewâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/19/stalman-iphone-18-pro">★</a> 879</dt> 880<dd> 881<p>Splendid video. Love that Stalman shot photos side-by-side with a film SLR using Kodak Portra 400, for comparison to Appleâs new film-look Photographic Styles.</p> 882 883</dd> 884 885 886<dt> 887<a href="https://www.austinmann.com/trek/iphone-18-pro-camera-review-dunton">Austin Mannâs iPhone 18 Pro Camera Review, From Dunton, Colorado</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âAustin Mannâs iPhone 18 Pro Camera Review, From Dunton, Coloradoâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/19/mann-iphone-18-pro">★</a> 888</dt> 889<dd> 890<p>Austin Mann:</p> 891 892<blockquote> 893 <p>Iâm here at the beautiful <a href="https://www.bydunton.com/destinations/rivercamp">Dunton River Camp</a> in southwest 894Colorado, where Iâve spent the last week testing the new camera 895and features on the iPhone 18 Pro.</p> 896 897<p>Beyond the variable aperture and Pro Controls, Apple also built in 898a bunch of other new features like Photographic Styles 3 with film 899texture and grain control, 4K Time-lapse and Focus Tracking. As 900always, when I start a field test Iâm asking one question:</p> 901 902<p><em>How will this new tech make our pictures and videos better?</em></p> 903</blockquote> 904 905<p>Outstanding example photos, a terrific video that illustrates how some of the new âpro controlsâ in the Camera app work, and some terrific examples of Photographic Styles 3.</p> 906 907<p>(I love how Mann takes these new phones to exotic locales around the globe each year, and I take them <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphones_18_pro#:~:text=WITH%20FILM%20TEXTURE%20AND%20GRAIN">to the hardware store</a>.)</p> 908 909</dd> 910 911 912</dl> 913 914<h2 class="dateline">Friday, 18 September 2026</h2> 915<dl class="linkedlist"> 916<dt> 917<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/opinion/university-of-california-sat.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CFE.bXBA.V6BFzBn1jlKG">Just Me or Does This Argument Not Add Up?</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âJust Me or Does This Argument Not Add Up?â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/sat-add-up">★</a> 918</dt> 919<dd> 920<p>Miriam Pawel, in an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that the University of California should not bring back the SAT requirement for admission:</p> 921 922<blockquote> 923 <p>What has made the University of California exceptional is its 924commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence. 925[...] Students on University of California campuses may struggle 926with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates.</p> 927</blockquote> 928 929<p>A success story would be increasing the number of people with solid math skills. Printing degrees for students who struggle with basic math is not a success story, and sounds like the antithesis of âacademic excellenceâ.</p> 930 931</dd> 932 933 934<dt> 935<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/09/apple-folding-iphone/688562/?gift=aQyUJR7AIw1mJWdQ6Ed6yE6RbvpIGGpQGFPIX827p48">Will Oremus Is a Duo Doubter</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWill Oremus Is a Duo Doubterâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/oremus-duo-doubter">★</a> 936</dt> 937<dd> 938<p>Will Oremus, writing for The Atlantic last week, âOkay, Sure, a Folding iPhoneâ (gift link):</p> 939 940<blockquote> 941 <p>Appleâs next big invention, the company revealed at a launch event 942in Cupertino, is a $2,000 iPhone that sportsâââget readyâââa 943âremarkable hinge.â</p> 944</blockquote> 945 946<p>Is it not possible for a hinge to be remarkable?</p> 947 948<blockquote> 949 <p>This is the iPhone Duo, a foldable gadget that opens like a book 950to reveal a capacious 7.6-inch screen. Billed as the most 951versatile iPhone, it can be used in folded or unfolded form, and 952in split-screen or full-screen modes. The screen appears seamless 953when open, which is a clever engineering feat. Yet an iPhone that 954blossoms into an iPad Mini seems unlikely to change many livesâââespecially at the price of a MacBook Pro.</p> 955</blockquote> 956 957<p>Why is it strange for an iPhone to have a similar price to a MacBook Pro? For many people the phone is their primary computer, the most important and personal device in their life. Not me. Not Oremus. Probably not you. But I bet there are a lot more people out there who w
957ould rather have a $2500 iPhone and a $700 MacBook Neo than who would want a $2500 MacBook Pro and a $700 iPhone.</p> 958 959<p>The oddity isnât that the Duo is priced from $2000â$3200, itâs that itâs taken Apple 20 years to get to an iPhone with prices like this.</p> 960 961<blockquote> 962 <p>And foldable smartphones have been on the market since Samsung 963popularized the category, in 2019. In the pantheon of âone more 964things,â the Duo feels like a dud.</p> 965</blockquote> 966 967<p>This is half correct. Samsung has had foldables on the market since 2019. They have, as yet, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/07/birchler-folding-iphone-predictions">not been popularized</a>. âThe Duo feels like a dudâ has a bit of â<a href="http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257&mode=thread&tid=107">No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.</a>â energy to it. If an all-new iPhone form factor doesnât qualify for âone more thingâ not much will.</p> 968 969</dd> 970 971 972<dt> 973<a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=nyuppv9r">Apple Releases Xcode 27.1, First SDK With Support for iPhone Duo</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âApple Releases Xcode 27.1, First SDK With Support for iPhone Duoâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/xcode-27-1-duo">★</a> 974</dt> 975<dd> 976<p>In addition to the Duo-specific 27.1 SDK, which allows third-party developers to get started adapting apps to the Duoâs new screen sizes and layouts, Appleâs developer site also has Figma and Sketch design kits.</p> 977 978</dd> 979 980 981<dt> 982<a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/sep1826.pdf">Warren Buffett, at 96, Steps Down as Chairman at Berkshire Hathaway</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWarren Buffett, at 96, Steps Down as Chairman at Berkshire Hathawayâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/buffett-retires">★</a> 983</dt> 984<dd> 985<p>Warren Buffett, in a letter to Berkshire shareholders:</p> 986 987<blockquote> 988 <p>Recently, I celebrated my 96th birthday with family and friends, 989including one of my great-grandchildren, who had just turned one. 990Heâs moving a bit faster than I am these days. [...]</p> 991 992<p>So the timing is right to complete the transition. I will become 993Chairman Emeritus and remain a Director. My son, Howard, will 994succeed me as Chairman.</p> 995 996<p>Howard has been a Berkshire Director for 33 years. That is a 997longer apprenticeship than I served before taking the reins at the 998age of 34. Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture 999and valuesâââboth worth more than anything on our balance sheet. 1000Think of Howard as a policy the shareholders own and hope never to 1001claim against.</p> 1002</blockquote> 1003 1004<p>Not many 71-year-olds rise to the position of chairman at leading corporations.</p> 1005 1006</dd> 1007 1008 1009<dt> 1010<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117293599348325006">Trump Says Heâs Banning MS NOW, CNN, and Politico From White House</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âTrump Says Heâs Banning MS NOW, CNN, and Politico From White Houseâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/trump-msnow-cnn-politico">★</a> 1011</dt> 1012<dd> 1013<p>Letâs check in on the president of the United States, having a normal one on his blog:</p> 1014 1015<blockquote> 1016 <p>I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning 1017Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC 1018due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The 1019recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar 1020subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States 1021Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them 1022âalive.â Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a 1023result of their constant âreportingâ FAKE NEWS! Media Outlets 1024shouldnât be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES 1025when theyâre covering the President of the United States, the 1026Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake 1027News Media Outlets to follow. Thank you for your attention to this 1028matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP</p> 1029</blockquote> 1030 1031<p>Republicans are the party of free speech.</p> 1032 1033</dd> 1034 1035 1036<dt> 1037<a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/09/16/hollywood/mysterious-apple-ceo-charms-hollywood-following-big-emmys-night-by-showing-off-new-iphone/">Hollywood Wants the Duo</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âHollywood Wants the Duoâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/hollywood-wants-duo">★</a> 1038</dt> 1039<dd> 1040<p>Page Six Hollywood:</p> 1041 1042<blockquote> 1043 <p>Ternus attended an intimate Apple party the night before the 1044Emmys, filled with stars and powerbrokers, where some talent 1045brazenly hit him up for the phone.</p> 1046 1047<p>âThe new phone is big news,â said one top Hollywood exec, who 1048added that they heard of at least one star, âasking [Ternus] to 1049get him on the listâ for a phone. Joked the source about who gets 1050the phones: âItâs like CEOs. Thatâs like the âEddy Cue list of 1051illuminati.ââ (Cue is Appleâs senior vice president of services 1052and health.)</p> 1053</blockquote> 1054 1055</dd> 1056 1057 1058<dt> 1059<a href="https://maxfrequency.net/2026/09/17/iphone-duo-mkbhd-popularity-or-curiosity/">Gauging Interest in the iPhone Duo</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âGauging Interest in the iPhone Duoâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/gauging-interest-in-the-iphone-duo">★</a> 1060</dt> 1061<dd> 1062<p>Max Roberts, after looking at the list of MKBHDâs all-time most popular videos, and noting that his Duo first-look is #3, and a Duo follow-up is already at #36:</p> 1063 1064<blockquote> 1065 <p>Apple enters the category and in a week it blows past every other 1066folding video.</p> 1067 1068<p>Now, this doesnât translate to sales and folding phones taking 1069over the entire smartphone market, but it does highlight a few 1070things to me about tech and the viewers of Marquesâ channel.</p> 1071 1072<ol> 1073<li>Apple is the most popular brand Marques talks about.</li> 1074<li>New products and form factors from Apple are the most popular 1075Apple videos.</li> 1076<li>When the iPhone comes in a new form, watch out.</li> 1077</ol> 1078</blockquote> 1079 1080<p>Thereâs no need to overthink it. Humans are decidedly visual animals. Our brains evolved to notice and take interest in novelties. âNewâ will forever be the most powerful word in marketing. If something <em>looks</em> new, it <em>feels</em> new. If something doesnât look new (like, say, the iPhone 18 Pro), it doesnât <em>feel</em> new.</p> 1081 1082<p>The Duo looks totally new.</p> 1083 1084<p>It doesnât matter that Samsung and Google and a bunch of Chinese companies have made foldable Android ph
1084ones for a decade. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/07/birchler-folding-iphone-predictions">Almost nobody cares</a>. The Duo is a fucking iPhone. That makes people care.</p> 1085 1086</dd> 1087 1088 1089<dt> 1090<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphones_18_pro#:~:text=OR%20IS%20IT%20BIGGER">One More Thing About the iPhones 18 Pro: the Bigger/Smaller Dynamic Island</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âOne More Thing About the iPhones 18 Pro: the Bigger/Smaller Dynamic Islandâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/iphone-18-pro-dynamic-island">★</a> 1091</dt> 1092<dd> 1093<p>Cleaning up my notes this morning, I realized I forgot to write about the new under-display Face ID sensor in the iPhones 18 Pro, and the corresponding change to the Dynamic Island. I just added it to my review. For those of you whoâve already read the review, hereâs the new section in its entirety:</p> 1094 1095<blockquote> 1096 <h2>A Smallerâââor Is It Bigger?âââDynamic Island</h2> 1097 1098<p>Apple moved the Face ID infrared camera under the display. Itâs up 1099in the top left, underneath the area where iOS displays the time 1100in the status bar. This means that the dedicated black cutout for 1101the Dynamic Island is now noticeably smaller. But it also means 1102that when iOS is rendering the dynamic features of the Dynamic 1103Island, itâs effectively <em>bigger</em>, because now iOS can draw to the 1104left of it, where the Face ID sensor had previously occupied 1105dedicated space. On all previous iPhones with the Dynamic Island, 1106you can see up to two Live Activities at once in the Dynamic 1107Island. With the iPhone 18 Pro, you can now see up to three. I 1108donât often have three Live Activities going at once, but 1109sometimes I doâââsimultaneous sporting events, upcoming flights 1110plus an Uber to the airport, etc. So the permanent cutout for the 1111Dynamic Island is smaller, but the usable space for <em>content</em> in 1112the Dynamic Island is now larger.</p> 1113 1114<p>Thereâs a minor tradeoff with this design. Even my middle-aged 1115eyes can see that the pixels on top of the Face ID sensor arenât 1116quite as sharp as those on the rest of the screen. The time of day 1117in the status bar looks like itâs just a tad fuzzy, like the text 1118isnât anti-aliased correctly. No big deal, and you need to look 1119for it to notice it.</p> 1120 1121<p>Over the past decade, Apple has taken this design <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_and_observations#:~:text=THE%20NOTCH">from a big 1122notch</a>, to a smaller notch, to the Dynamic Island, and now to a 1123smaller cutout for the Dynamic Island. I donât know if theyâre 1124ever going to get there, but the goal, obviously, is to eventually 1125put all sensors under the display, creating a genuine all-display 1126front. Putting Face ID under the display on the iPhone 18 Pro is a 1127significant step toward that.</p> 1128</blockquote> 1129 1130</dd> 1131 1132 1133<dt> 1134<a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/433409976/an-update-to-how-we-count-public-views-across-youtube?hl=en">YouTube Changed How It Counts âViewsâ Last Month, Inflating New Numbers</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âYouTube Changed How It Counts âViewsâ Last Month, Inflating New Numbersâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/18/youtube-view-counts">★</a> 1135</dt> 1136<dd> 1137<p>YouTube Help:</p> 1138 1139<blockquote> 1140 <p>Last year, we updated how we count public views for Shorts to 1141better capture how viewers watch on YouTube. Now, weâre aligning 1142all other video formats to this same standard for consistency 1143across the platform. Beginning on 8/24/2026, a view will be 1144counted the moment a video begins to playâââfrom the very first 1145frame. This standard will now apply globally across all formats.</p> 1146 1147<p>Historically, weâve used multiple view counting systems across 1148different formats. However, weâve heard that creators want to 1149eliminate this metric confusion and accurately understand their 1150true exposure, which is why weâre making this update!</p> 1151</blockquote> 1152 1153<p>In <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/thoughts_and_observations_on_apples_surprise_and_shine_event">my long take on Appleâs week ago keynote</a>, I made mention of the higher-than-ever view numbers for Appleâs iPhone keynote and announcement. I still think interest in Appleâs September iPhone events is higher than ever, and interest in the iPhone Duo is perhaps unprecedented, but thereâs no point trying to measure this objectively via YouTube view counts with this change.</p> 1154 1155</dd> 1156 1157 1158</dl> 1159 1160<hr class="ookiaks" /> 1161 1162 1163<div class="article"> 1164<h1><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphones_18_pro" title="Permanent link to âThe iPhones 18 Proâ">The iPhones 18 Pro</a></h1> 1165<h6 class="dateline">Thursday, 17 September 2026</h6> 1166 1167<p>Every year since 2007, Apple has debuted a new flagship iPhone. Other than the just plain âiPhoneâ original, they all have numbers of some sort in their name. If you make a list of them in order, itâs a bit of a marketing curiosity that the only one of the bunch whose number in its name corresponds to its generation number is the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/06/4">iPhone 4</a>, which was in fact the fourth iPhone. (The âtenâ in iPhone X marked 10 years, but it was the 11th flagship model.)</p> 1168 1169<p>The iPhone 18 Pro, in fact, heralds Appleâs 20th iPhone generation:</p> 1170 1171<!-- Markdown table: 1172| | Flagship | Year | Milestones 1173|----:|:----------------|:-----|:--------------------------------- 1174| 1. | [iPhone] | 2007 | Holy shit 1175| 2. | [iPhone 3G] | 2008 | EDGE â 3G, GPS 1176| 3. | iPhone 3GS | 2009 | Speed, shooting video 1177| 4. | [iPhone 4] | 2010 | Retina 1178| 5. | [iPhone 4S] | 2011 | Late spring â early fall release 1179| 6. | [iPhone 5] | 2012 | Lightning, 3.5â³ â 4â³ 1180| 7. | [iPhone 5S] | 2013 | Touch ID, 64-bit 1181| 8. | [iPhone 6] | 2014 | Plus-size option 1182| 9. | [iPhone 6S] | 2015 | 1183| 10. | [iPhone 7] | 2016 | 2nd camera (Plus only) 1184| 11. | [iPhone X] | 2017 | Holy shit redux 1185| 12. | [iPhone XS] | 2018 | 1186| 13. | [iPhone 11 Pro] | 2019 | 3rd camera 1187| 14. | [iPhone 12 Pro] | 2020 | MagSafe 1188| 15. | [iPhone 13 Pro] | 2021 | ProMotion 1189| 16. | [iPhone 14 Pro] | 2022 | Notch â Dynamic Island 1190| 17. | [iPhone 15 Pro] | 2023 | Pro video, USB-C, Action button 1191| 18. | [iPhone 16 Pro] | 2024 | Camera Control button 1192| 19. | [iPhone 17 Pro] | 2025 | Camera plateau expands, Ceramic Shield 2 1193| 20. | iPhone 18 Pro | 2026 | 1194 --> 1195 1196<p><style> 1197table td, 1198table th { 1199 vertical-align: top !important; 1200} 1201</style></p> 1202 1203<p><table width=500 style="margin-left: -10px;"> 1204<thead> 1205<tr> 1206 <th align="right"></th> 1207 <th align="left">Flagship</th> 1208 <th align="left" style="padding-right: 1.5em;">Year</th> 1209 <th align="left">Milestones</th> 1210</tr> 1211</thead> 1212<tbody> 1213<tr> 1214 <td align="right">1.</td> 1215 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2007/06/iphone_first_impressions">iPhone</a></td> 1216 <td align="left">2007</td> 1217 <td align="left">Holy shit</td> 1218</tr> 1219<tr> 1220 <td align="right">2.</td> 1221 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2008/10/iphone_3g">
1221iPhone 3G</a></td> 1222 <td align="left">2008</td> 1223 <td align="left">EDGE â 3G, GPS</td> 1224</tr> 1225<tr> 1226 <td align="right">3.</td> 1227 <td align="left">iPhone 3GS<sup id="fnr1-2026-09-17"><a href="#fn1-2026-09-17">1</a></sup></td> 1228 <td align="left">2009</td> 1229 <td align="left">Speed, shooting video</td> 1230</tr> 1231<tr> 1232 <td align="right">4.</td> 1233 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/06/4">iPhone 4</a></td> 1234 <td align="left">2010</td> 1235 <td align="left">Retina</td> 1236</tr> 1237<tr> 1238 <td align="right">5.</td> 1239 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2011/10/iphone_4s">iPhone 4S</a></td> 1240 <td align="left">2011</td> 1241 <td align="left">Late spring â early fall release</td> 1242</tr> 1243<tr> 1244 <td align="right">6.</td> 1245 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2012/09/iphone_5">iPhone 5</a></td> 1246 <td align="left">2012</td> 1247 <td align="left">Lightning, 3.5â³ â 4â³</td> 1248</tr> 1249<tr> 1250 <td align="right">7.</td> 1251 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2013/09/the_iphone_5s_and_5c">iPhone 5S</a></td> 1252 <td align="left">2013</td> 1253 <td align="left">Touch ID, 64-bit</td> 1254</tr> 1255<tr> 1256 <td align="right">8.</td> 1257 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2014/09/the_iphones_6">iPhone 6</a></td> 1258 <td align="left">2014</td> 1259 <td align="left">Plus-size option</td> 1260</tr> 1261<tr> 1262 <td align="right">9.</td> 1263 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2015/09/the_iphones_6s">iPhone 6S</a></td> 1264 <td align="left">2015</td> 1265 <td align="left"></td> 1266</tr> 1267<tr> 1268 <td align="right">10.</td> 1269 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2016/09/the_iphones_7">iPhone 7</a></td> 1270 <td align="left">2016</td> 1271 <td align="left">2nd camera (Plus only)</td> 1272</tr> 1273<tr> 1274 <td align="right">11.</td> 1275 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2017/12/the_iphone_x">iPhone X</a></td> 1276 <td align="left">2017</td> 1277 <td align="left">Holy shit redux</td> 1278</tr> 1279<tr> 1280 <td align="right">12.</td> 1281 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/09/the_iphones_xs">iPhone XS</a></td> 1282 <td align="left">2018</td> 1283 <td align="left"></td> 1284</tr> 1285<tr> 1286 <td align="right">13.</td> 1287 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/the_iphone_11_and_iphones_11_pro">iPhone 11 Pro</a></td> 1288 <td align="left">2019</td> 1289 <td align="left">3rd camera</td> 1290</tr> 1291<tr> 1292 <td align="right">14.</td> 1293 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2020/10/the_iphone_12_and_iphone_12_pro">iPhone 12 Pro</a></td> 1294 <td align="left">2020</td> 1295 <td align="left">MagSafe</td> 1296</tr> 1297<tr> 1298 <td align="right">15.</td> 1299 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2021/09/the_iphones_13">iPhone 13 Pro</a></td> 1300 <td align="left">2021</td> 1301 <td align="left">ProMotion</td> 1302</tr> 1303<tr> 1304 <td align="right">16.</td> 1305 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2022/09/the_iphones_14_pro">iPhone 14 Pro</a></td> 1306 <td align="left">2022</td> 1307 <td align="left">Notch â Dynamic Island</td> 1308</tr> 1309<tr> 1310 <td align="right">17.</td> 1311 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2023/09/the_iphones_15_pro">iPhone 15 Pro</a></td> 1312 <td align="left">2023</td> 1313 <td align="left">Pro video, USB-C, Action button</td> 1314</tr> 1315<tr> 1316 <td align="right">18.</td> 1317 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/09/the_iphones_16#fnr1-2024-09-18">iPhone 16 Pro</a></td> 1318 <td align="left">2024</td> 1319 <td align="left">Camera Control button</td> 1320</tr> 1321<tr> 1322 <td align="right">19.</td> 1323 <td align="left"><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphone_air_and_iphone_17_pro">iPhone 17 Pro</a></td> 1324 <td align="left">2025</td> 1325 <td align="left">Camera plateau expands, Ceramic Shield 2</td> 1326</tr> 1327<tr> 1328 <td align="right">20.</td> 1329 <td align="left" style="white-space: nowrap;">iPhone 18 Pro</td> 1330 <td align="left">2026</td> 1331 <td align="left"></td> 1332</tr> 1333</tbody> 1334</table></p> 1335 1336<p>I compiled this list from memory. I had to double-check a few of the milestone notes, but I literally remember every single new flagship iPhone. And I donât really have a particularly good memory. The fact that Apple has just incremented integers annually since the iPhone 11 makes that easier. But the iPhone is unique in this way. I can sort of do it off the top of my head with the major Apple II models: II, II Plus, IIe, IIc, IIGS.<sup id="fnr2-2026-09-17"><a href="#fn2-2026-09-17">2</a></sup> But I canât do it with iPads, and I donât think thereâs even a way to make such a list for Macs.</p> 1337 1338<p>Maybe next year Apple will commemorate the 20th anniversary with an iPhone 20 (thereâs no way theyâre going to call it âXXâ, right? <
1338a href="https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/x_man">Right</a>?). They skipped right over 9, and could do the same with 19. But the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are the 20th new flagship models. Thatâs something.</p> 1339 1340<p>But ... is the 18 Pro even the flagship iPhone of this generation? Apple first started launching multiple phones the same year with the âunapologetically plasticâ 5C alongside the 5S. Starting with the simultaneous unveiling of the forgettable iPhone 8/8 Plus and unforgettable iPhone X in 2017, Apple has launched multiple models at different tiers each fall. But itâs always been obviously clear which iPhone was <em>the</em> iPhone.</p> 1341 1342<p>This year, itâs not quite so obvious. Apple made no mention of the plain no-adjective iPhone 18 last week, and, now that I think about it, no one in the media wondered where it was. Apple never said âItâs coming early next yearâ and no one asked. Nor did Apple mention the year-old iPhone Air or offer even a hint that a sequel is coming alongside the 18 and 18e in early 2027.</p> 1343 1344<p>But the 18 Pro debuted alongside the iPhone Duo. The Duo got the anchor spot in the announcement keynote. The Duo is <a href="https://x.com/nandoprince93/status/2100247481237815567">getting</a> the <a href="https://x.com/gruber/status/2100343833200370161">billboards</a>. It was a pearl white Duo that <a href="https://x.com/DEADLINE/status/2099645816361332775">John Ternus pulled from his tuxedo jacket</a> on the red carpet at the Emmys Monday night. If it had been a burgundy iPhone 18 Pro instead, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/16/duo-ternus-pocket">would the reporter from Deadline have screamed</a>? Would it make a difference if someone told her the 18 Pro main camera now has variable aperture?</p> 1345 1346<p>I do think the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are the flagship iPhones this year. But I wonder if Iâm biased from habit. The Duo makes this year different, unlike any other, because clearly it is the most exciting new iPhone. One week out and it feels like the most exciting new iPhone since the iPhone X nine years ago. A decade from now, if I make a list like the above with 30 years of âflagshipâ iPhones, might not the Duo occupy the 2026 spot?</p> 1347 1348<p><em>Reply hazy, try again.</em></p> 1349 1350<h2>An âSâ by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet</h2> 1351 1352<p>Apple hasnât put an âSâ in an iPhoneâs name since the XS in 2018, but the 18 Pro is a very S-like phone. The S models all had similar attributes: they looked nearly identical to their year-prior predecessors, and their improvements were often internal or technical. The 3GS was remarkably faster than the 3G. The 5S added 64-bit support <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/09/12/samsung-64">years ahead</a> of when observers expected mobile ARM chips to do so, and introduced Touch ID. The S years tend not to be exciting but they are workmanlike. Appleâs rigorous annual update schedule for the iPhone as a whole, and Apple Silicon A-series chips specifically, leads to compounding gains. Iâll leave it to others to benchmark the A20 Pro chip rigorously, but some quick poking around suggests that the A20 Pro is about 1.2Ã faster than last yearâs A19 Pro for single-core CPU. And the A17 Pro was about 1.2Ã faster than the A16 Pro.</p> 1353 1354<p>Year over year, thatâs nice, but itâs not game-changing. But these performance gains compound. 20 percent faster, give or take, every year, and after a few years the improvement is breathtaking. And most people only upgrade their phones every few years.</p> 1355 1356<p>But, looking back at that list of 20 years of flagship iPhones, thereâs a stark difference between the first ten and the second ten. In the iPhoneâs first decade, genuinely radical changes appeared every two or three years. In the second decade, there havenât been any radical changes from year to year at all. Thatâs not a slag on Appleâs design chops or an accusation of apathy or laziness. Itâs just the nature of a design that Apple steered toward its platonic ideal. The general form of a MacBook Pro hasnât changed much since the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G4">Titanium G4 PowerBook in 2002</a>âââwhich came right around a decade after Apple invented the modern laptop with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_100">PowerBook 100 series</a>.</p> 1357 1358<p>Letâs make a list of Hall of Fame iPhone models. Iâll arbitrarily cap it at five. Pick five iPhones for the Hall of Fame (or just <em>up to</em> five if you want to be stingy). Hereâs my list:</p> 1359 1360<ol> 1361<li>iPhone (original)</li> 1362<li>iPhone 4</li> 1363<li>iPhone 5S</li> 1364<li>iPhone X</li> 1365<li>iPhone 17 Pro</li> 1366</ol> 1367 1368<p>Perhaps itâs <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphone_air_and_iphone_17_pro">recency bias</a>
1368 that has me putting last yearâs 17 Pro on that list. But surely <em>some</em> iPhone in the post-X era qualifies for the Hall of Fame. I think itâs the 17 Pro. There was a long stretch of iPhones in the last 10 years when the entire back of the phone was glass. This glass cracked, a lot. Iâve only cracked the display glass of an iPhone twice in 20 years of carrying them. Iâve cracked the back glass on a bunch of them in the last five or six years. The iPhone 17 Pro fixed this, by going to a unibody aluminum frame, reducing the glass on the back to a panel. This looks better, feels better, and is seemingly far sturdier. The full-width camera plateau is more obtrusive, obviously, than the square corner plateau of previous iPhone Pro generations, but itâs more honestâââboth optically and physically more balanced. The camera system is such a prominent feature of these devices that it deserves a prominent protuberance. Itâs very obvious to me that this is the best hardware design of the post-X era.</p> 1369 1370<p>The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are nearly identical to the 17 Pro and Pro Max in size and shape. Per Appleâs own specs, theyâre precisely the same width, height, and thickness. In my personal testing, 17 Pro cases fit 18 Pro phones perfectly, as do 18 Pro cases (included from Apple in my review unit kit) on 17 Pro phones. I asked Apple if theyâre stating that 18 Pro models are case-compatible with the iPhone 17 Pro, and they are <em>not</em>, because the 18 Pro camera plateaus are slightly thicker this year. I measured with a digital caliper and the difference is one-tenth of a millimeter: 11.5mm vs. 11.4mm. So Apple has raised the plateau guard lip on its own 18 Pro cases by one-tenth of a millimeter. I say thatâs close enough to declare that you can use 17 Pro cases on 18 Pro iPhones and vice-versa.</p> 1371 1372<p>But zooming back in time, I just happen to have an iPhone 13 Pro next to my desk. And in broad strokes, I canât say that the iPhone 18 Pro form factor is all that different. I do think the 18 Pro form factor is better in <em>every single</em> way. Just as objects in hand, thereâs not one aspect I prefer about the 13 Pro to the 18 Pro. Iâm glad Apple moved away from sharp corners, polished metal sides (slippery) and all-glass backs (my 13 Pro is cracked in the corner); expanded the camera plateau; and replaced the mute switch with the Action button <em>and</em> added the Camera Control button. But overall, these two phones, five years apart, are fundamentally similar. Familiarity may not breed contempt in this case, but it does breed boredom.</p> 1373 1374<p>The iPhone Duo is not boring.</p> 1375 1376<p>The iPhone 18 Pro, letâs just say it, sort of is. But itâs boring because itâs exactly like the iPhone 17 Proâââexcept for specific details <em>inside</em> the phone that are <em>obviously</em> better:</p> 1377 1378<ul> 1379<li><p><em>Variable aperture on the main 1Ã camera lens.</em> Most users will never adjust this manually but the Camera app will use it automatically, and results will be better. Even if you donât know squat about photography itâs rather intuitive what aperture does, just knowing that it involves an iris-like mechanism. Open wide, it lets in more light (useful in low light); closed up, it lets in less light (useful in bright light). Open apertures decrease depth of focus; closed apertures increase depth of focus. Those facts can be used to artistic effect. In manual control, the iPhone 18 Pro 1Ã camera offers four stops for aperture: Æ/1.48, Æ/1.8, Æ/2.8, and Æ/4.0. This is a genuine hardware breakthrough. Over the next five years or so, I expect variable aperture to expand to the telephoto and ultrawide lenses. Iâm not saying iPhone camera hardware wonât continue to improve after thatâââIâm sure it willâââbut I suspect variable aperture is the last remaining âeasy winâ. I think every camera gain after this will be more incremental.</p></li> 1380<li><p><em>A20 Pro chip.</em> Itâs noticeably faster and more efficient. Not radically faster and more efficient. Just noticeably. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/05/this_is_how_apple_rolls">This is how Apple rolls</a>.</p></li> 1381<li><p><em>Redesigned thermal system with a much larger vapor chamber</em>. Itâs much easier to report on <em>peak</em> performance with benchmarks than it is to assign a score to <em>sustained</em> performance, but sustained performance is what matters most to users who really push their phones as computers. This could be playing games, shooting 4K ProRes video, or running local AI models. We all know the drill. You push your phone and it gets hot, and when it gets hot it slows down. An improved thermal system sounds so much like a pocket-protector-wearing nerd feature, but it really matters. I suspect that for sustained use cases, it would be more performant to have the 18 Proâs new thermal system running the 17 Proâs A19 Pro chip than to have the new A20 Pro chip running with the 17 Proâs first-generation vapor chamber. But with the iPhone 18 Pro, you get both: you get the faster and more efficient A20 Pro chip <em>and</em> the second-generation vapor chamber thermal system. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/05/this_is_how_apple_rolls">This, again, is how Apple rolls</a>.</p></li> 1382<li><p><em>C2 cellular modem</em>. The one and only odd spec regarding the iPhone 18 Pro lineup is that they use Ap
1382pleâs own C2 cellular modem in all models worldwide with one notable exception: 18 Pro Max models sold in the United States. The regular-size iPhone 18 Pro in the U.S. gets the C2, and all 18 Prosâââregular and Maxâââoutside the U.S. get the C2. Apple isnât explaining this oddity <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/17/iphone-18-pro-c2-vs-qualcomm-modems">but I think</a> Joe Rossignol at MacRumors <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/12/iphone-18-pro-max-us-model-difference/">deduced correctly</a>: itâs for minimal compliance with their 2023 contract with Qualcomm, which <a href="https://investor.qualcomm.com/news-events/press-releases/news-details/2023/Qualcomm-Announces-Agreement-with-Apple-for-Chip-Supply-09-11-2023/default.aspx">Qualcomm promoted</a> as covering âsmartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026.â Iâve spent time over the last week with both the 18 Pro and Pro Max and didnât notice one whit of difference network-performance-wise. And thereâs no easy way to measure the effect the modem has on battery life. But we know Appleâs C-series modems are noticeably more power-efficient than Qualcommâs. If Apple had to use a Qualcomm modem in one model, in one region, it makes sense that it would be the 18 Pro Max in America. All Pro Max variants have larger batteries than the regular-size models, and the U.S. 18 Pro Max model has the very biggest battery of them all, because U.S. iPhones no longer have SIM card trays. Thus the 18 Pro Max is taking one for the team, while still delivering better battery life than last yearâs 17 Pro Max. The U.S. iPhone 18 Pro Max will almost certainly be the last product Apple ever ships with a Qualcomm modem. Good riddance.</p></li> 1383<li><p><em>Photographic Styles 3 and pro controls in the Camera app</em>. Iâll mostly leave it to better photographers than me to evaluate the iPhone 18 Pro camera system and its exclusive Camera app features in detail. But Iâll say this, before getting to a few example photos below: itâs worth separately considering the iPhone camera <em>hardware</em> from the iOS Camera app <em>software</em>. For my own personal photography, Iâve switched away from Appleâs Camera app to a mix of third-party camera apps: <a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a>, <a href="https://notbor.ing/product/camera">Not Boring Camera</a>, and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue-film-camera/id6748702405">Analogue</a>. Thatâs a discussion for another time, but the basic reason is that I strongly prefer a more film-like look that embraces the nature of the iPhoneâs small image sensors with grain, to Appleâs overly processed digital look that compensates for the noisy small sensors by applying computational smoothing. Iâm far from alone in having grown tired of the smooth over-processed look, and the optional new âFilmâ texture look in the Camera appâââexclusive to the A20 Pro-powered iPhones 18 Pro and Duo, thus farâââis a move in that direction. This makes photography using Appleâs own Camera app far more appealing to me. But the variable aperture in the main camera makes the iPhone 18 Pro camera system better for <em>all</em> camera apps. And if you donât like the new film texture and optional grain from Appleâs own Camera app, itâs optional (and, unsurprisingly, off by defaultâââby default the Camera app takes photos that look like what people expect iPhone photos to look like).</p></li> 1384</ul> 1385 1386<h2>Sidenote on Camera Control</h2> 1387 1388<p>The 18 Pro is the third generation with the Camera Control button. But that button hasnât changed at all since the 16 Pro, the phone on which it debuted. At some point in the last year, I gave up on using the Camera Control button as anything other than a simple button. I went into Settings and turned off all the features where you can soft-press it and slide your finger back and forth to adjust camera features while using Appleâs Camera app. What I found is that I kept changing things inadvertently and undesirably. Itâs too prone to accidental half-presses that put it into slide-to-adjust for some setting, and because itâs an accident, my finger would start changing things. I turned that all off and Iâm much happier for it. Now I just use the Camera Control button for four things:</p> 1389 1390<ol> 1391<li><p>
1391A full click of the button to jump me into the camera app of my choice. It doesnât matter if the phone is locked, or if Iâm using it for something else at the moment. I click this button and boom, Iâm ready to snap a photo.</p></li> 1392<li><p>Click-and-hold the button to launch the Camera app in Siri mode, for Visual Intelligence. I donât use this often but thatâs less a statement about its usefulness than it is about the fact that I just havenât yet developed the habit of pointing my camera at something to ask Siri about it. Itâs really quite useful with Siri AI in iOS 27, and even if you only use it occasionally, thereâs no reason not to assign it to a long press of the button. That said, I donât think this feature belongs in the Camera app. It ought to be a tab in the Siri app. The Camera app should be for photography; the Siri app ought to be for all things Siri, including Visual Intelligence.</p></li> 1393<li><p>While Iâm in a camera app, I sometimes half-press the button for AE/AF Lock.</p></li> 1394<li><p>While Iâm in a camera app, I sometimes use a full click of the button as the shutter. But most of the time, I still use the on-screen shutter button. The reason is something I complained about in <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/09/the_iphones_16#fnr1-2024-09-18">my iPhone 16 Pro review two years ago</a>:</p> 1395 1396<blockquote> 1397 <p>At first, though, I was frustrated by the physical placement of 1398Camera Control. As a hobbyist photographer who has been shooting 1399with dedicated cameras all the way back to the late 1990s, my 1400right index finger expects a shutter button to be located near the 1401top right corner. But the center of Camera Control is 2 inches (5 1402cm) from the corner. Iâll never stop wishing for it to be closer 1403to the corner, but after a week Iâve grown acclimated to its 1404actual placement. And I get it. Iâm old enough that I shoot all of 1405my videos and most of my photos in widescreen orientation. But 1406social media today is dominated by tallscreen video. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/uarNiSl_uh4?t=3462">As Appleâs 1407Piyush Pratik explained during last weekâs keynote</a>, Camera 1408Control is designed to be used in both wide (landscape) and tall 1409(portrait) orientations. Moving it more toward the corner, where 1410my finger wants it to be, would make it better for shooting 1411widescreen, but would make it downright precarious to hold the 1412iPhone while shooting tall. I hate to admit it but I think Apple 1413got the placement right. Shooting tallscreen is just way too 1414popular. And, after just a week, my index finger is getting more 1415and more accustomed to its placement. It might prove to be a bit 1416of a reach for people with small hands, though.</p> 1417</blockquote></li> 1418</ol> 1419 1420<p>After two years, I still think Apple put the Camera Control where it was to make it useful to people who shoot video and take photos vertically. But, proud Gen-Xer that I am, I still shoot almost all my videos and photos horizontally, and this button is too far away from the corner to be a convenient shutter button while holding the phone horizontally. So I tend not to use it. I would use it as a shutter much more often if it were as close to the corner as the Action button is to the opposite corner. Iâm a little bitter about this.</p> 1421 1422<h2>Photographic Styles 3, With Film Texture and Grain</h2> 1423 1424<p>When shooting with Appleâs Camera app, iPhone 18 Pro introduces support for Appleâs Photographic Styles 3. As with previous generations of Photographic Styles, these styles are non-destructive. You can shoot photos without them and add Photographic Styles later, in Apple Photos. Or you can shoot <em>with</em> them, and adjust or remove them later. The non-destructive nature of Photographic Styles is essential to note. You can capture images in black-and-white, to name a conspicuous example, and go back to full color in post.</p> 1425 1426<p>The first two generations of Photographic Styles adjust only color. Apple calls this âPaletteâ. Photographic Styles 3 adds Texture, with four options:</p> 1427 1428<ul> 1429<li>Standard (no texture)</li> 1430<li>Soft Skin</li> 1431<li>Glow</li> 1432<li>Film</li> 1433</ul> 1434 1435<p>The only one Iâve tried, both because Iâve only had the iPhones 18 Pro for one week and because itâs the only one that appeals to me, is Film. When you change a style to use the Film texture, there are two additional adjustments: the strength of the film-like texture (0â100), and an on/off toggle for âGrainâ. Soft Skin and Glow also have 0â100 sliders to adjust the strength of those textures, but only Film has the option to add Grain. Soft Skin defaults to 88 strength, Glow defaults to 50, and Film defaults to 100. Grain is on by default when you switch to Film.</p> 1436 1437<p>Grain, to my eyes, and based on my conversations with Apple folks who worked on it, is not a simplistic lessening of image sensor noise reduction. Itâs a process that attempts to replicate actual film grain, based on a microscopic study of actual film prints from the last century. So too with the look of the Film texture, aside from Grain.</p> 1438 1439<p>Aside from Grain (which, again, you can turn off), the most noticeable thing about the Film texture is halation. I think itâs a bit much, at least with Film at its default 100 strength. But the overall effect of Film, with and without Grain, is interesting, and at least in some cases, pleasing to me.</p> 1440 1441<p>Here are three example photos, all of them shot using an iPhone 18 Pro, all of them developed using the Standard Photographic Style palette. The Standard palette with standard texture (which is to say no special texture) is the default style, which matches the general look of iPhone photos captured with the Camera app on other iPhone models.</p> 1442 1443<p>First example, starting with the default look (Standard style, no texture):</p> 1444 1445<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-standard.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1446 <img 1447 width = 500 1448 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-standard-thumb.jpeg" 1449 alt = "Afternoon in Rittenhouse Park, Philadelphia, on lovely late summer day. A man (himself taking photos or photo) sits high atop a planter between park benches." 1450 /></a></p> 1451 1452<p>Hereâs that same image, now with Film at 100, with Grain off:</p> 1453 1454<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainOFF.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1455 <img 1456 width = 500 1457 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainOFF-thumb.jpeg" 1458 alt = "Afternoon in Rittenhouse Park, Philadelphia, on lovely late summer day. A man (himself taking photos or photo) sits high atop a planter between park benches." 1459 /></a></p> 1460 1461<p>
1461Here it is with Film at 100, with Grain on:</p> 1462 1463<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1464 <img 1465 width = 500 1466 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1467 alt = "Afternoon in Rittenhouse Park, Philadelphia, on lovely late summer day. A man (himself taking photos or photo) sits high atop a planter between park benches." 1468 /></a></p> 1469 1470<p>This image illustrates what I mean about Film, at full strength, being a bit heavy on the halation. Hereâs that same image, with Grain turned back on, with Film dialed back to 50:</p> 1471 1472<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film50-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1473 <img 1474 width = 500 1475 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/rittenhouse-sitters-iphone-18-pro-std-film50-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1476 alt = "Afternoon in Rittenhouse Park, Philadelphia, on lovely late summer day. A man (himself taking photos or photo) sits high atop a planter between park benches." 1477 /></a></p> 1478 1479<p>Much better. I prefer this image (Film: 50, Grain on) to the others.</p> 1480 1481<p>Next example, a small car whose environmentally conscious owner got it in green (Standard style, no texture):</p> 1482 1483<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-standard.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1484 <img 1485 width = 500 1486 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-standard-thumb.jpeg" 1487 alt = "A bright green Porsche 911 GT3 in a parking lot." 1488 /></a></p> 1489 1490<p>Same image, with Film texture at 100, Grain off:</p> 1491 1492<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-film100-grainOFF.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1493 <img 1494 width = 500 1495 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-film100-grainOFF-thumb.jpeg" 1496 alt = "A bright green Porsche 911 GT3 in a parking lot." 1497 /></a></p> 1498 1499<p>That image helps show the effect of the Film texture, without adding any grain. Here it is with Film at 100, with Grain:</p> 1500 1501<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-film100-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1502 <img 1503 width = 500 1504 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/porsche-gt3-iphone-18-pro-film100-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1505 alt = "A bright green Porsche 911 GT3 in a parking lot." 1506 /></a></p> 1507 1508<p>Iâm a grain fan myself, but in this particular image, the grain prevents the image from representing the nature of the carâs smooth green finish. A perfect example of why itâs so great that Photographic Styles are non-destructive. You might shoot with Film + Grain by default, but want to disable Grain on an image like this one after youâve looked at it.</p> 1509 1510<p>One last photo. This one is a picture of Carl, my favorite employee at my <a href="https://rittenhousehw.com/">favorite local hardware store</a>. Iâll start again with the default look, the Standard style with no texture:</p> 1511 1512<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-standard.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1513 <img 1514 width = 500 1515 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-standard-thumb.jpeg" 1516 alt = "Carl, a delightful English setter (white with black spots), sitting at attention in the aisle of an ideal local hardware store." 1517 /></a></p> 1518 1519<p>Now hereâs the same image, with Film texture at 100, no Grain:</p> 1520 1521<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainOFF.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1522 <img 1523 width = 500 1524 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainOFF-thumb.jpeg" 1525 alt = "Carl, a delightful English setter (white with black spots), sitting at attention in the aisle of an ideal local hardware store." 1526 /></a></p> 1527 1528<p>And with Film at 100, with Grain:</p> 1529 1530<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1531 <img 1532 width = 500 1533 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film100-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1534 alt = "Carl, a delightful English setter (white with black spots), sitting at attention in the aisle of an ideal local hardware store." 1535 /></a></p> 1536 1537<p>If you look closely at Carlâs face in those last two, with Film at 100, youâll see what I consider unpleasant halation above his snout. Hereâs the same image, keeping Grain on, but with the Film texture dialed back to 33:</p> 1538 1539<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film33-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1540 <img 1541 width = 500 1542 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-iphone-18-pro-std-film33-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1543 alt = "Carl, a delightful English setter (white with black spots), sitting at attention in the aisle of an ideal local hardware store." 1544 /></a></p> 1545 1546<p>I prefer that one, by far.</p> 1547 1548<p>OK, OK, I get it. You want another picture of Carl. Here he is with the Standard style, no texture:</p> 1549 1550<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-std-standard.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1551 <img 1552 width = 500 1553 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-std-standard-thumb.jpeg" 1554 alt = "Carl, sitting on a rug at a different spot in the hardware store." 1555 /></a></p> 1556 1557<p>Same photo, but this time with the Natural base style (my personal favorite, with Tone: -60, Color: +25), Film at 100, with Grain:</p> 1558 1559<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-nat-film100-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1560 <img 1561 width = 500 1562 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-nat-film100-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1563 alt = "Carl, sitting on a rug at a different spot in the hardware store." 1564 /></a></p> 1565 1566<p>The halation around Carlâs head in that photo is undeniably distracting. It looks like the poor guy is radioactive or something. I absolutely love that Apple added this Film texture to Photographic Styles, but I think the default strength should be quite a bit lower than 100. Hereâs that same image with Grain still on, but Film texture dialed back to 50:</p> 1567 1568<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-nat-film50-grainON.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1569 <img 1570 width = 500 1571 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/iphone-18-camera-examples/carl-carpet-iphone-18-pro-nat-film50-grainON-thumb.jpeg" 1572 alt = "Carl, sitting on a rug at a different spot in the hardware store." 1573 /></a></p> 1574 1575<p>Now thatâs a good photo of a good boy.</p> 1576 1577<h2>A Smallerâââor Is It Bigger?âââDynamic Island</h2> 1578 1579<p>Apple moved the Face ID infrared camera under the display. Itâs up in the top left, underneath the area where iOS displays the time in the status bar. This means that the dedicated black cutout for the Dynamic Island is now noticeably smaller. But it also means that when iOS is rendering the dynamic features of the Dynamic Island, itâs effectively <em>bigger</em>, because now iOS can draw to the left of it, where the Face ID sensor had previously occupied dedicated space. On all previous iPhones with the Dynamic Island, you can see up to two Live Activities at once in the Dynamic Island. With the iPhone 18 Pro, you can now see up to three. I donât often have three Live Activities going at once, but sometimes I doâââsimultaneous sporting events, upcoming flights plus an Uber to the airport, etc. So the permanent cutout for the Dynamic Island is smaller, but the usable space for <em>content</em> in the Dynamic Island is now larger.</p> 1580 1581<p>Thereâs a minor tradeoff with this design. Even my middle-aged eyes can see that the pixels on top of the Face ID sensor arenât quite as sharp as those on the rest of the screen. The time of day in the status bar looks like itâs just a tad fuzzy, like the text isnât anti-ali
1581ased correctly. No big deal, and you need to look for it to notice it.</p> 1582 1583<p>Over the past decade, Apple has taken this design <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_and_observations#:~:text=THE%20NOTCH">from a big notch</a>, to a smaller notch, to the Dynamic Island, and now to a smaller cutout for the Dynamic Island. I donât know if theyâre ever going to get there, but the goal, obviously, is to eventually put all sensors under the display, creating a genuine all-display front. Putting Face ID under the display on the iPhone 18 Pro is a significant step toward that.</p> 1584 1585<h2>Conclusion</h2> 1586 1587<p>The most exciting iPhone <em>years</em> are those when the new flagship screams ânewâ. But the best iPhone <em>models</em> were the ones from the S years. I only included one S model in my top-five Hall of Fame list above: the iPhone 5S from 2013.<sup id="fnr3-2026-09-17"><a href="#fn3-2026-09-17">3</a></sup> But thatâs in some ways profoundly unfair to the S models. The iPhone XS was <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/09/the_iphones_xs">a much better camera</a> than the iPhone X. The iPhone 4S introduced Siri, which was actually amazing for its time. And not only was the 3GS far better than the 3G, but the 3G was much better than the original iPhone simply for going from EDGE to 3G networking.<sup id="fnr4-2026-09-17"><a href="#fn4-2026-09-17">4</a></sup> I have no affection for the 3G and 3GS devices because of their plastic bodies, but as practical devices, both were great improvements.</p> 1588 1589<p>The S years (and S-type years, even when thereâs no S in the name) are low on excitement but high on practical gains. Thatâs the iPhone 18 Pro. The one and only trade-off compared to the year-ago 17 Pro, in my utterly subjective opinion, is that cosmic orange was an iconic super-fun color and neither burgundy nor glacier have that appeal. Thatâs it: orange.<sup id="fnr5-2026-09-17"><a href="#fn5-2026-09-17">5</a></sup> Every other difference between the 18 Pro and 17 Pro, every single one, is something that is <em>objectively</em> better about the 18 Pro. Faster performance, better thermals, better cameras, longer battery life.</p> 1590 1591<p>In the first decade of the iPhone, there were so many ways to improve the hardware that changes came fast and furious. It was breathtaking and exhilarating. At the end of the iPhoneâs second decade, there are no longer big obvious ways to improve. The low-hanging fruit was picked long ago, and the mid-hanging fruit might be gone now too. Performance, battery life, durability, camera qualityâââall of those things are important, but all of them have been raised to the level of excellence. There may well be extraordinary breakthroughs to come, the sort of breakthroughs that only appear once a decade in an established product category. Waiting for those things to happen isnât a strategy. Appleâs strategy is to push for incremental gains across the board, every single year, year after year after year. Do that, and the experience for someone upgrading every fourth or fifth year will be exhilarating.</p> 1592 1593<p>I didnât review the iPhone 17 Pro <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphone_air_and_iphone_17_pro">until last week</a>, when I unabashedly declared it the <em>best</em> phone Apple had ever made. The iPhone 18 Pro is only different from the 17 Pro in ways that make it better. Thus, it is clearly now the new <em>best</em> phone Apple has ever made. Itâs the culmination of an entire decade of year-after-year iteration on the iPhone Xâs ground-up redesign. Itâs the best version of the most successful product ever made. And yet by nature of <em>how</em> the iPhone 18 Pro improved in the last year, itâs not exciting at all. How jaded we all are. <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âThe iPhones 18 Proâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/the_iphones_18_pro">★</a></p> 1594 1595<div class="footnotes"> 1596<hr /> 1597<ol> 1598 1599<li id="fn1-2026-09-17"> 1600<p>For reasons I do not remember, I apparently never wrote a standalone review of the iPhone 3GS. Until I went looking for it to link to in this list, I didnât even remember that I hadnât written one. I know that I waited in line to buy one on launch day. I easily recall that it truly was a significantly faster device than the two previous models. But I never wrote a review of the 3GS. I donât think it had even occurred to me then that âthe new iPhoneâ would soon become an annual tradition, worth chronicling not just for years, but for decades. <a href="#fnr1-2026-09-17" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 1601</li> 1602 1603<li id="fn2-2026-09-17"> 1604<p>The IIGS, coincidentally, <a href="https://oldbytes.space/@savetz/117277318012408507">was announced 40 years ago this week</a>. Graphics and sound, babyâââand <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uozzGBBvrfM">what a keyboard</a>. <a href="#fnr2-2026-09-17" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 1605</li> 1606 1607<li id="fn3-2026-09-17"> 1608<p>64-bit silicon was huge, but Touch ID really changed the game. I donât even remember what we did before Touch ID to protect the content on our iPhones. I think I had my passcode preferences set to let meâââor anyone with my phone in their hand!âââunlock my phone without typing my measly 4-digit code for 15 minutes after the code had been successfully entered? In hindsight it really seems crazy. Either we forced ourselves to enter a passcode manually every single time we unlocked our iPhones, or, we left them unlocked for c
1608onvenience. The three fundamental step changes in iPhone history were: retina displays (iPhone 4), biometric ID (iPhone 5S), and all-screen design (iPhone X). Thatâs why those are the phones I place in my Hall of Fame. And there hasnât really been a step change like that since the iPhone Xâââuntil, maybe, the Duo. <a href="#fnr3-2026-09-17" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 1609</li> 1610 1611<li id="fn4-2026-09-17"> 1612<p>The odds are pretty low that you used an original iPhone. If you didnât, itâs hard to put into words just how slow EDGE cellular networking was. Best I can compare it to is to say that it was like a poor airplane Wi-Fi connection. Not a mid airplane Wi-Fi connection. A poor one. You could practically feel the ones and zeroes coming in, bit by bit. The best you got on EDGE was really, really slow. And we loved it. It was the Internet, away from home. And websites meant for mobile consumption were optimized for slow-as-molasses connections. <a href="https://lite.cnn.com/">Some</a> <a href="https://text.npr.org/">still</a> <a href="https://plaintextsports.com/">are</a>. But once you tried 3G there was no going back, no matter how much better the original iPhoneâs aluminum body looked and felt compared to the iPhone 3Gâs plastic one. The iPhone 3G could have been carved out of a potato and Iâd have switched to get 3G instead of EDGE. <a href="#fnr4-2026-09-17" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 1613</li> 1614 1615<li id="fn5-2026-09-17"> 1616<p>That said, I personally bought my iPhone 17 Pro last year in deep blue, and <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone-duo/">if</a> I buy an 18 Pro, you know Iâm getting black. My review units are a glacier 18 Pro and a burgundy 18 Pro Max. Iâve spent most of the week carrying the 18 Pro Max, just to force myself to use the size I donât usually carry. I still donât like it, and still canât believe how many people do. Burgundy is a very strong color that I somehow donât have strong feelings about. Glacier isnât so strong, and I rather like itâââperhaps because it reminds me more than a little of <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/01/americas-pants">Americaâs Pants</a>. <a href="#fnr5-2026-09-17" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 1617</li> 1618 1619</ol> 1620</div> 1621 1622</div> <!-- article --> 1623 1624<hr class="ookiaks" /> 1625 1626 1627<h2 class="dateline">Thursday, 17 September 2026</h2> 1628<dl class="linkedlist"> 1629<dt> 1630<a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/12/iphone-18-pro-max-us-model-difference/">Why Do U.S. Models of the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Only U.S. Models of the 18 Pro Max, Use Qualcomm Cellular Modems Instead of Appleâs Own Superior C2 Modem?</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWhy Do U.S. Models of the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Only U.S. Models of the 18 Pro Max, Use Qualcomm Cellular Modems Instead of Appleâs Own Superior C2 Modem?â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/17/iphone-18-pro-c2-vs-qualcomm-modems">★</a> 1631</dt> 1632<dd> 1633<p>Joe Rossignol at MacRumors over the weekend:</p> 1634 1635<blockquote> 1636 <p>Apple now says the iPhone 18 Pro has a C2 modem worldwide, while 1637the iPhone 18 Pro Max uses the chip in every country except for 1638the U.S. [...]</p> 1639 1640<p>Apple has yet to provide an explanation for this modem difference, 1641so we can only speculate for now. In 2023, <a href="https://investor.qualcomm.com/news-events/press-releases/news-details/2023/Qualcomm-Announces-Agreement-with-Apple-for-Chip-Supply-09-11-2023/default.aspx">Qualcomm announced</a> 1642that it would supply Apple with smartphone modems through 2026, so 1643perhaps Apple is equipping the U.S. version of the iPhone 18 Pro 1644Max with a Qualcomm modem in order to honor this agreement in a 1645minimum way.</p> 1646 1647<p>Appleâs C2 modem supports ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., unlike 1648its previous-generation C1 and C1X modems. Qualcomm modems in the 1649iPhone 12 and newer already supported mmWave 5G in the U.S., so 1650Apple is playing catch up here. Apple said the C2 delivers 1651âmeaningfully faster uploadsâ compared to the C1X while consuming 165215% less energy.</p> 1653</blockquote> 1654 1655<p>Iâd say Apple <em>played</em> catch-up here, past tense. They caught up in terms of support for mmWave. And ever since the C1 first shipped <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/the_iphone_16e">with the iPhone 16e in early 2025</a>, Apple has been noticeably <em>ahead</em>
1655 of Qualcomm on energy efficiency.</p> 1656 1657<p>Apple isnât explaining why the U.S. iPhone 18 Pro Max models are the only 18 Pro models worldwide using Qualcomm modems, but I think Rossignolâs explanation must basically be it: they needed to use it in <em>some</em> models in order to minimally comply with their 2023 contract with Qualcomm.</p> 1658 1659</dd> 1660 1661 1662</dl> 1663 1664<h2 class="dateline">Wednesday, 16 September 2026</h2> 1665<dl class="linkedlist"> 1666<dt> 1667<a href="https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-27_2-release-notes">Xcode 27.2 Is Out, but 27.1 Is Not, Which Means Developers Still Canât Get Started on Duo-Adapted Apps</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âXcode 27.2 Is Out, but 27.1 Is Not, Which Means Developers Still Canât Get Started on Duo-Adapted Appsâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/16/xcode-27-iphone-duo">★</a> 1668</dt> 1669<dd> 1670<p>A note flagged âImportantâ atop the Xcode 27.2 release notes:</p> 1671 1672<blockquote> 1673 <p>The iOS SDK and simulator support for iPhone Duo will be available 1674later this month in an upcoming release of Xcode 27.1.</p> 1675</blockquote> 1676 1677<p>Adapting apps for the Duo is not just a simple ârecompile with the new SDKâ. Itâs different. For just about all apps itâs going to be a significant amount of work, and for some apps itâs going to be a <em>lot</em> of work. But without Xcode 27.1, developers cannot get started. Developers wanted this SDK a week ago. And when day one preorder buyers start using their Duos on October 23, theyâre going to wish Apple had shipped this SDK last week too.</p> 1678 1679</dd> 1680 1681 1682<dt> 1683<a href="https://x.com/DEADLINE/status/2099645816361332775">Is That a Duo in Ternusâs Pocket or Was He Just Happy That Apple TV Shows Won 28 Emmys?</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âIs That a Duo in Ternusâs Pocket or Was He Just Happy That Apple TV Shows Won 28 Emmys?â" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/16/duo-ternus-pocket">★</a> 1684</dt> 1685<dd> 1686<p>Note the reaction from the Deadline reporter.</p> 1687 1688</dd> 1689 1690 1691<dt> 1692<a href="https://x.com/stevewoz/status/2100074363605397658">Woz Launches Merch Store</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âWoz Launches Merch Storeâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/16/woz">★</a> 1693</dt> 1694<dd> 1695<p>Steve Wozniak:</p> 1696 1697<blockquote> 1698 <p>Iâve decided itâs time to have a little more fun on X this 1699year! ðâ¡</p> 1700 1701<p>I get to speak at some amazing events, meet fascinating people, 1702hear great stories, and occasionally find myself in places I 1703never expected to be. So I figured⦠why not share some of those 1704moments here?</p> 1705</blockquote> 1706 1707<p>He announced this on X, you will note, not âsocial mediaâ.</p> 1708 1709</dd> 1710 1711 1712<dt> 1713<a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/16/heres-why-apple-released-ios-27-2-beta/">Apple OS 27.2 Betas Are Out; Version 27.1 Is the Duo-Exclusive iOS Fork</a> <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âApple OS 27.2 Betas Are Out; Version 27.1 Is the Duo-Exclusive iOS Forkâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/16/272-betas">★</a> 1714</dt> 1715<dd> 1716<p>Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:</p> 1717 1718<blockquote> 1719 <p>Apple just seeded the first beta of iOS 27.2 to developers for 1720testing. Yes, you read that correctly: iOS 27.2, not iOS 27.1.</p> 1721 1722<p>Why no iOS 27.1 beta? The answer likely relates to the iPhone Duo.</p> 1723</blockquote> 1724 1725<p>This unusual version numbering is entirely about the Duo. The Duo is on its own branch of iOSâââheretofore to keep details about its software secret / internal to Apple. When it launches October 23, Apple has already announced it will ship with iOS 27.1. Apple is thus using 27.2 as the version number for the first post-27.0 updates to all of its OSes for devices other than the Duo, to keep those version numbers aligned. The 27.2 releases, I am to understand, are scheduled to ship in October too. I bet theyâll ship <em>after</em> the iPhone Duo launches on October 23. So, putting beta releases aside, weâll see the versions hit the public in numeric order:</p> 1726 1727<ul> 1728<li>All OS 27.0 releases: two days ago.</li> 1729<li>iOS 27.1: October 23, exclusively on the iPhone Duo.</li> 1730<li>All OS 27.2.0 releases: probably in late October, after the 23rd, but with the Duo remaining on its own 27.1 branch.</li> 1731</ul> 1732 1733<p>Then, with a subsequent 27.2.x update, the Duo will join the other devices and version numbers across all devices on all platforms will converge, in November or early December. I believe thatâs the plan. Maybe Duo convergence will wait for 27.3, but I think itâll be a 27.2.x update.</p> 1734 1735<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/06/marble_mystery_solved">Something similar happened back in 2010</a> with the original iPad, which launched in April 2010 running what was then still called iPhone OS, version 3.2. iPhone OS 3.2 was exclusive to the iPadâââno iPhone or iPod Touch ever ran it. (Those devices remained on v3.1 after the iPad launched.) Apple renamed the OS to <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2010/06/07Apple-Presents-iPhone-4/">iOS at WWDC in June that year</a>, but iOS 4.0 <em>and</em> 4.1 remained exclusive to iPhones and iPod Touches. Convergence with the iPad didnât happen <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2010/11/22Apples-iOS-4-2-Available-Today-for-iPad-iPhone-iPod-touch/">until iOS 4.2 in late November</a>.</p> 1736 1737<p>This time it should only take a month or so to converge for the Duo, not seven or eight months like it did for the iPad in 2010. But iOS 27.1 is exclusively for the Duo in a very similar way that 3.2 was exclusive to the iPad.</p> 1738 1739</dd> 1740 1741 1742</dl> 1743 1744<hr class="ookiaks" /> 1745 1746 1747<div class="article"> 1748<h1><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/thoughts_and_observations_on_apples_surprise_and_shine_event" title="Permanent link to âThoughts and Observations on Appleâs âSurprise and Shineâ Event; the Announcements of the iPhones 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watches Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the iPhone Duo; and the Dawn of the Ternus, John Ternus Era at Appleâ">Thoughts and Observations on Appleâs âSurprise and Shineâ Event; the Announcements of the iPhones 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watches Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the iPhone Duo;
1748 and the Dawn of the Ternus, John Ternus Era at Apple</a></h1> 1749<h6 class="dateline">Tuesday, 15 September 2026</h6> 1750 1751<h2>The Keynote</h2> 1752 1753<p>I loved <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39BalPDuTo0">the keynote</a>âs âYou want a great opening scene?â opening, which ran through a series of genre-inspired hook-you-from-the-first-shot pretend movie openings. Apple started with a title card that said âThe following was shot on iPhoneâ, but the whole keynoteâââincluding the fun fake-movie openingsâââwas shot on iPhone 18 Pros. <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/10/behind-the-scenes-at-scary-fast-apples-keynote-event-shot-on-iphone/">Apple started shooting</a> its keynote movies using iPhone Pros in October 2023, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/downplaying-shot-on-iphone">with the âScary Fastâ Mac event</a>. That first one was shot on the then-just-released iPhone 15 Pro, the first iPhone Pro generation to support the necessary pro video features to enable Apple-level production quality (e.g. ProRes recording and Apple Log encoding).<sup id="fnr1-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn1-2026-09-15">1</a></sup> For the next few years, Apple shot each of its keynotes using whatever the current iPhone Pro model was. But last year, with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3KnMyojEQU">the September 2025 âAwe Droppingâ event</a>, they shot the keynote using the as-yet-unreleased iPhone 17 Pro itselfâââa bit of a risk given that it was running mid-summer iOS 26 beta software. They did the same this year, shooting the entire keynote, including the prelude fake mov
1753ies, using iPhone 18 Pros. But, they couldnât say that it was the 18 Pro on the title card because the 18 Pro wasnât announced until later in the keynote.</p> 1754 1755<p>There was at least <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/07/tim-cook-wont-appear-apple-sept-9-event-video/">one report</a> from an ill-informed know-it-all who claimed, with odd certainty given how often heâs wrong, that Tim Cook would not appear in the keynote. But the last segment of the keynoteâs cold opening gave us Cook, Tim Cook, framed in an obvious homage to the opening of 2012âs <em>Skyfall</em>:</p> 1756 1757<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/craig.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1758 <img 1759 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/craig.jpeg" 1760 alt = "Daniel Craig in âSkyfallâ." 1761 width = 400 1762 /></a></p> 1763 1764<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/cook.jpeg" class="noborder"> 1765 <img 1766 src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/09/cook.jpeg" 1767 alt = "Tim Cook in a âSkyfallâ homage at the beginning of the keynote." 1768 width = 400 1769 /></a></p> 1770 1771<p>Iâve stolen those comparison frames from <a href="https://fxrant.blogspot.com/2026/09/apple-event-film-2018-vs-james-bond.html">this splendid blog post by Vaziri, Todd Vaziri</a>, in which he points out a few other Bond homages in this keynoteâââincluding using the new variable aperture on the 18 Proâs main camera as a reference to the Bond title-sequence gun barrel. Fun stuff all around, and a perfect way to commemorate the Cook-to-Ternus passing of the torch.<sup id="fnr2-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn2-2026-09-15">2</a></sup> Also, the variety of visual styles in these mini movies really showed off the capabilities of the iPhone 18 Pro as a cinematic camera.</p> 1772 1773<p>The little Cookâ/âBond homage that closes the opening segment starts with a voiceover from Cook himself (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/39BalPDuTo0?t=127">starting at 2m:07s</a>):</p> 1774 1775<blockquote> 1776 <p>Forget all that. Keep it classic. Open on an aerial shot, high 1777above the California coast. A car drives down the highway. Then it 1778disappears into a tunnel. Cut to an interior. Camera follows a 1779mysterious figure, before revealing our main character...</p> 1780 1781<p>No no no no no. Not me. <em>Thatâs</em> your guy. <em>Thatâs</em> your opener.</p> 1782</blockquote> 1783 1784<p>Itâs a perfect segue, and Cookâs line reading is sublime. Cookâs on-screen persona improved a <em>lot</em> in the 15 years he served as CEO and keynote emcee, but even at his best he always came across as a bit, well, stiff. Voicing this introduction of John Ternus, on the other hand, he sounds cool as hellââârelaxed, certain, and comfortable. I think the chairman role suits him better than CEO did. Heâs a natural born <em>éminence grise</em>. And if <em>this</em> was Cookâs last appearance in a keynote, he went out on top.</p> 1785 1786<h2>Ternusâs Turn</h2> 1787 1788<p>For those of us invited to Apple Park, Ternus actually took the stage in person at 9:58 am, for a brief in-person greeting and introduction. What I recall isnât anything he said but how he was greeted, which was with tremendous enthusiasm. The annual iPhone events always have a unique charge to them. WWDC is a far bigger event attendee-count-wise, but the September iPhone event is sharper, higher pressure. The exclusivity heightens the stakesâââApple only invites as many people as fit in Steve Jobs Theater: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/02/apple-park-opens-to-employees-in-april/">1,000</a>. The <em>new era begins</em> energy was palpable, if subtle. In the morning meet-and-greet coffee-and-apple-tarts mingling in and outside the Steve Jobs Theater upstairs atrium, attendees were genuinely unsure what to expect. A few were genuinely wondering if Ternus would bring back live-on-stage keynotes. (The apple tarts were supposedly made using apples grown on campus, and were quite good.)</p> 1789 1790<p>In person, Ternus wore a dark t-shirt and jacket. In the keynote video, a burgundy shirt that clearly served as a reference to burgundy as the color of the year. (Itâs hard to imagine Ternus in a cosmic orange shirt if heâd taken the top job a year prior.)</p> 1791 1792<p>I think Ternus came across fine as emcee. Not great, but fine. Heâs comfortable but I think the role still feels like a new pair of shoes he hasnât yet broken in. Ternusâs opening line in the video was âHello, and welcome to Apple Parkâ. I <em>think</em> thatâs what he said on stage too. Theyâre leaving âGood morning!â as Co
1792okâs signature, as they should.</p> 1793 1794<p>Before any product announcements, Ternus laid out his theory of an âintelligent personal hubâ for the AI era, making the case that if one were to design such a device from the ground up, starting today, youâd wind up with something exactly like an iPhoneâââwith you all the time, with a great display, ubiquitous networking, great cameras and mics, and long battery life. The cynical take would be that this is an â<em>If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail</em>â guiding doctrine. Apple is not a leading AI model company, and is completely sitting out the capex data center rat race, so of course theyâre going to argue that the most popular product they makeâââthe iPhoneâââis the central device of the AI era. But, well, I think itâs true. You need devices to run AI. I wrote an entire column about this back in Mayââââ<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/ai_is_technology_not_a_product">AI Is Technology, Not a Product</a>ââââresponding to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apples-next-ceo-needs-to-launch-a-killer-ai-product/">Steven Levyâs argument</a> that Ternus âneeds to launch a killer AI productâ.</p> 1795 1796<p>Levy, in Wired, wrote:</p> 1797 1798<blockquote> 1799 <p>By the end of this decade, itâs unlikely that people will swipe on 1800their phones to tap on Uber or Lyft. They will just tell their 1801always-on AI agent to get them home. Or that agent will have 1802already figured out where they need to go, and the car will be 1803waiting without the friction of a request. âThereâs an app for 1804that,â may be replaced by âLet the agent do that.â</p> 1805</blockquote> 1806 1807<p>I wrote:</p> 1808 1809<blockquote> 1810 <p>Actual products have to be real. Actual experiences have to rely 1811on actual products. How exactly in Levyâs end-of-this-decade 1812scenario will we tell our âalways-on AI agentâ to get us home? 1813What microphone is listening to the command? What speaker is 1814telling us the request was understood and acted upon? What screen 1815do we look at to see how far away the hailed car is? Iâd bet a 1816pretty large sum of money that in 2030, when someone hails a 1817ride-share vehicle to take them home, the most common product 1818theyâll use to do that will be their phone. Whether theyâre doing 1819it via a verbal command issued to an âalways-on AI agentâ or good 1820old tapping and swiping, itâll be a phone.</p> 1821</blockquote> 1822 1823<p>Ternusâs âintelligent personal hubâ doctrine seems very much in line with my retort to Levyâs not-entirely-thought-through fantasy. It also sounds an awful lot like a modern-day reimagining of a former Apple CEOâs âdigital hubâ strategy for the Mac. I highly recommend you take 8 minutes of your time, right now, and watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmvmtmqqbeI">Steve Jobsâs introduction of the digital hub strategy</a> from January 2001âs Macworld Expo. History doesnât repeat but it does echo, and Ternusâs âintelligent personal hubâ sure sounds <em>exactly</em> like Jobsâs âdigital hubâ echoing a quarter century later. If Ternusâs âintelligent personal hubâ strategy works out like Jobsâs âdigital hubâ one did a quarter century ago, Appleâs going to be alright.</p> 1824 1825<h2>iPhone 18 Pro</h2> 1826 1827<p>Heretofore, to my recollection, the iPhone Pro always came last in the September keynotes (including the years when the higher-tier iPhones didnât yet have the word âProâ in their names, like the XS in 2018 and X in 2017). This year the 18 Pro came first. This worked both as the immediate product announcement after Ternusâs expression of Appleâs intelligent personal hub strategy, and to clear the final act of the keynote for the much-anticipated Duo. (Itâs <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/11/last-years-iphone-share-amongst-users-of-widgetsmith">somewhat telling</a> that the Air didnât get that cleanup spot in the announcement batting order a year ago.<sup id="fnr3-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn3-2026-09-15">3</a></sup>)</p> 1828 1829<p>Thoughts on the colors, based on my hands-on experience:</p> 1830 1831<ul> 1832<li>Black: Truly deep black. Reminds me a lot of the flat black iPhone 7 (not to be confused with the jet black iPhone 7âââ<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2016/09/the_iphones_7">what a year for black that was</a>).</li> 1833<li>Silver: Looks good. Not sure how itâs different from last yearâs silver, because I had no way to compare side-by-side.</li> 1834<li>Glacier: Nice. I think this will be popular. Itâs definitely blue, not silverâ/âgray (which youâd hope would be true in general, but especially alongside an explicit silver colorway).</li> 1835<li>Burgundy: Last year the iPhone 17 Pro only came in three colors: silver, deep blue, and cosmic orange. I sort of thought of the strategy as âlightâ, âdarkâ, and âspecialâ. But this year there are two specials, glacier and burgundy, but burgundy seems more special. Last year cosmic orange was clearly the color of the year. It was the most-used by far in Appleâs advertising, and I suspect it was the most popular sales-wise. Burgundy is that color this year. I donât like it nearly as much, and I donât think it will prove to be as popular or as iconic as cosmic orange. The cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro seems set to go down as one of the most iconic iPhone colors ever made. I donât think that will be true for the burgundy iPhone 18 Pro.</li> 1836</ul> 1837 1838<p>Pricing:</p> 1839 1840<p><!-- Markdown table: 1841| | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB <br /> 1842| ---------: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: 1843| 18 Pro | $1,200 | $1,400 | $1,800 | $2,400 1844| 18 Pro Max | $1,300 | $1,500 | $1,900 | $2,500 1845--> 1846<table width = 400> 1847<thead> 1848<tr> 1849 <th></th> 1850 <th align="center">256 GB</th> 1851 <th align="center">512 GB</th> 1852 <th align="center">1 TB</th> 1853 <th align="center">2 TB</th> 1854</tr> 1855</thead> 1856<tbody> 1857<tr> 1858 <td align="right">18 Pro</td> 1859 <td align="center">$1,200</td> 1860 <td align="center">$1,400</td> 1861 <td align="center">$1,800</td> 1862 <td align="center">$2,400</td> 1863</tr> 1864<tr> 1865 <td align="right">18 Pro Max</td> 1866 <td align="center">$1,300</td> 1867 <td align="center">$1,500</td> 1868 <td align="center">$1,900</td> 1869 <td align="center">$2,500</td> 1870</tr> 1871</tbody> 1872</table></p> 1873 1874<p>
1874Compared to <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/09/2025-iphone-lineup-storage-and-prices/">the 17 Pro one year ago</a>:<sup id="fnr4-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn4-2026-09-15">4</a></sup></p> 1875 1876<p><!-- Markdown table: 1877| | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB <br /> 1878| ---------: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: 1879| 17 Pro | $1,100 | $1,300 | $1,500 |âââ| 17 Pro Max | $1,200 | $1,400 | $1,600 | $2,000 1880--> 1881<table width = 400> 1882<thead> 1883<tr> 1884 <th></th> 1885 <th align="center">256 GB</th> 1886 <th align="center">512 GB</th> 1887 <th align="center">1 TB</th> 1888 <th align="center">2 TB</th> 1889</tr> 1890</thead> 1891<tbody> 1892<tr> 1893 <td align="right">17 Pro</td> 1894 <td align="center">$1,100</td> 1895 <td align="center">$1,300</td> 1896 <td align="center">$1,500</td> 1897 <td align="center">â</td> 1898</tr> 1899<tr> 1900 <td align="right">17 Pro Max</td> 1901 <td align="center">$1,200</td> 1902 <td align="center">$1,400</td> 1903 <td align="center">$1,600</td> 1904 <td align="center">$2,000</td> 1905</tr> 1906</tbody> 1907</table></p> 1908 1909<p>So:</p> 1910 1911<ul> 1912<li>Max remains $100 extra.</li> 1913<li>2 TB is now available on the regular-size Pro; last year it was exclusive to the Max.</li> 1914<li>256 and 512 GB storage options are only $100 more expensive this year. </li> 1915<li>1 TB costs $300 more this year.</li> 1916<li>2 TB costs $500 more.</li> 1917</ul> 1918 1919<p>256 and 512 GB are by far the most popular sizes (and I think 256 in particular far outsells 512âââthe base size truly is large enough for the majority of users), so for most 18 Pro buyers, the RAM/SSD shortage is only resulting in a $100 year-over-year price increase. The higher storage tier prices arenât too bad, all things considered.</p> 1920 1921<p>Itâs worth pointing out here that coincident with the announcement of the iPhones 18 Pro and Duo on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/09/apple-raises-iphone-17-prices/">Apple raised the prices of all existing iPhones in its lineup</a> by the same amounts, depending on storageâââ$100 for models with 128, 256, or 512 GB storage; and $300 for the iPhone Air with 1 TB.</p> 1922 1923<p>Technically, the iPhone 18 Pro mostly offers three new things compared to the 17 Pro: the A20 Pro SoC (faster cores, two Neural Engines instead of one, and 50% faster memory bandwidth); variable aperture on the 1Ã main camera, ranging from Æ/1.48 to Æ/4.0; and an all-new thermal management system, including a much larger vapor chamber. The A20 Pro means peak performance is faster; the new thermal system allows it to maintain peak performance longer.</p> 1924 1925<p>In a curious decision, the regular-sized 18 Pro models ship with Appleâs C2 cellular modem worldwide, but the <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/12/iphone-18-pro-max-us-model-difference/">18 Pro Max models use a Qualcomm modem in the U.S.</a>, and <a href="https://x.com/LelloucheNico/status/2098370012570333689">the C2 everywhere else</a>. Appleâs C-series modems are power efficiency marvels, with (in my experience) just as good reception and speed. Iâd be just ever so slightly bummed about this if I were a Pro Max fan in the US.</p> 1926 1927<p>That said, both the 18 Pro and Pro Max models continue to get slightly longer battery life <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone-18-pro/specs/">in the US models</a> than <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-18-pro/specs/">worldwide models</a>, because the US models are eSIM-only, but most (all?) models elsewhere still have a physical SIM tray. The US models use the space occupied by the SIM tray in international models to make the batteries physically larger. Going by Appleâs new âtypical useâ tech spec, the US Proâ/âPro Max models are rated for 24â/â30 hours respectively; the international models with a physical SIM tray for 23â/â29. Not a big difference, but not nothing.</p> 1928 1929<p>In line with my belief that modern iPhones are best thought of as cameras with phones, not phones with cameras, most of the 18 Proâs year-over-year improvements (and the features that set the Pro models apart from all other iPhones, including the Duo) are related to photographyâââboth still and video:</p> 1930 1931<ul> 1932<li><p>Photographic Styles is now up to version 3, adding new controls for âtextureâ, film-look, and grain. One stated goal of this is to enable shooting images with a less processed look; on the other end of the aesthetic spectrum, though, I think it will also enable shooting with a <em>more</em> processed look, with the addition of âglowâ and âsoft skinâ as texture alternatives alongside âfilmâ (which is the only texture with the new grain option). The other, and default, texture option is âstandardâ, which effectively means no texture processing.</p></li> 1933<li><p>Apple Reference Image is a new shooting mode (main 1Ã camera only, because itâs tied to new features on that sensor) that performs pixel-by-pixel signing of the sensor data and embeds that signature in the file. After capture, reference images can be sent to Private Cloud Compute servers for verification and comparison to the original image sensor data. To capture images in Apple Reference format, you must shoot them in that mode, and you must enable that shooting mode first. The embedded sensor data doesnât make files that much larger, but the sensor data stored in the file does uniquely identify your iPhone. When you âdevelopâ a reference imageâââsomething the user must choose to do (not something that happens automatically each time you capture one)âââthe raw sensor data, sensor identifier, and time window when the image was captured are sent to Private Cloud Compute. When you share a photo captured in Apple Reference Image format, the sensor identifier is <em>not included</em> in the developed image, and you have the option to share a plain version without the embedded verification data. Apple Reference Image capture is not available in the EU or China, the worldâs two largest bastions of freedom, but <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/apple-debuts-iphone-18-pro-and-iphone-18-pro-max/#:~:text=In%20the%20EU">according to an Apple footnote</a>, users in the EU âwith iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 will be able to develop and view reference images.â</p></li> 1934<li><p>Cinematic Mode can now be applied after shooting a regular video; on previous iPhones the Cinematic Mode effect was only available via a specific shooting mode.</p></li> 1935</ul> 1936 1937<p>To the laymanâs eye, though, the 18 Pro just looks like it comes in new colors. Thatâs not a complaint, just a fact. Oh, but the Face ID infrared camera is now <em>underneath</em> pixels on the display, so the Dynamic Island cutout is now smaller. So the part of the Dynamic Island that is always black
1937is smaller, but because there are now more display pixels next to it, the 18 Pro Dynamic Island can now show three active Live Activities, up from two. Apple is getting closer and closer each year to achieving a no-notchâ/âno-cutout display.</p> 1938 1939<h2>AirPods 5</h2> 1940 1941<p>Just like with AirPods 4, Apple continues to make two different products under the same name. For $130, the cheaper AirPods 5 now have active noise cancellation (previously reserved for the higher-priced tier of AirPods 4), including Transparency and Adaptive modes. For $150, you get AirPods 5 with a wireless charging case (using MagSafe, Qi, or Apple Watch pucks), volume control by swiping upâ/âdown on the earbud stems, <em>and</em> longer battery life. Itâs a much better product for just $20 extra, but it must have worked out well for Apple with a similar split with AirPods 4. I honestly canât see why anyone should buy the $130 models, but someone must be buying them.</p> 1942 1943<p>Apple provided me with a pair (the $150 model) to review, with no embargo. I wore them on the cross-country plane ride home, and compared them to my own AirPods Pro 3 for noise cancellation. Itâs hard to make a direct comparison of the overall acoustic quality, but solely in terms of reducing the noise of the airplane cabin while trying to work, I found the new AirPods 5 with full noise cancellation to be roughly equivalent to the AirPods Pro 3 in Adaptive mode. Thatâs pretty good, and makes the ambient noise level in an airplane much more pleasant. But the full noise cancellation mode of the AirPods Pro 3 delivers an entire step change in noise reduction that the open-ear AirPods 5 cannot match.</p> 1944 1945<p>I feel bad for people who despise airplane cabin noise but whose ears arenât comfortable with closed-ear fit earbuds like AirPods Pro. But the noise reduction quality of the AirPods 5 seems impossibly good given their open-ear design. I donât find AirPods Pro uncomfortable, but I do find regular AirPods more comfortable, especially for long stretches like hours-long flights. Iâll take the small trade-off in comfort for the big improvement in audio quality and noise cancellation with the AirPods Pro, though. With AirPods Pro you can truly forget youâre on an airplane at all if youâre watching a movie with Vision Pro or even on a MacBook or iPad display in a dark cabin.<sup id="fnr5-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn5-2026-09-15">5</a></sup></p> 1946 1947<h2>Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4</h2> 1948 1949<p>The big new health thing is a next-generation heart sensor that takes readings every 5 secondsâââ60Ã as frequent as with Series 11â/âUltra 3 a year ago. Apple commissioned a study comparing their new watches against a slew of competing heart rate monitoring devices, <a href="https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/docs/Heart_Rate_Accuracy_Study_2026.pdf">and released a paper with the results</a>, claiming that Apple Watch was the most accurate. Thatâs an Apple-commissioned, Apple-released study, so take it with a grain of salt, but it looks solid to me and Iâm unaware of any other studies showing otherwise. (And if Iâm reading the results correctly, rings like Ouraâs are crummy heart rate monitors.)</p> 1950 1951<p>Ultra 4 looks the same as Ultras 1â3 (although Ultra 1 only came in natural titanium, not black). Series 12 comes in some tweaked colors in matte aluminum ($400) and polished titanium ($700), and for the first time since Series 5 seven years ago, brings back ceramic, in two colors: pearl white and night blue ($900). Those prices are for the smaller 42mm size; add $50 to each of them for the larger 46mm size. As has been true for every Series model to date, only the higher-priced materials come with sapphire crystal displays; the entry-model aluminum models still use Ion-X glass. But now those glass displays offer Ceramic Shield 2, which treatment has <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/08/13/ceramic-shield-2-is-the-real-deal">proven to be a tremendous boon to scratch resistance</a> on iPhones. </p> 1952 1953<p>The S11 chip powering the new watches enables <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us
1953/148354">two very interesting, and instantly controversial Apple Intelligence features</a>:</p> 1954 1955<ul> 1956<li><p>Live Rewind is a feature that allows you to double-click the digital crown to bring up a transcript of the last 15 seconds of conversation around you. Apple claims, somewhat preposterously, that audio isnât being continuously recorded, when it clearly is. What they mean is that audio is only being cached for 15 seconds, continuously. There is no way to set Live Rewind to transcribe more (or less, for that matter) than the last 15 seconds of audio.</p></li> 1957<li><p>Siri Recap is a feature that produces Apple Intelligence-generated summaries of your conversations throughout the day, while the feature is enabled on your Apple Watch. These are not transcripts, just bullet-point style summaries. You can set Siri Recap to only be enabled during certain times (like work hours), and you can toggle it on and off in Control Center at any time. But when itâs on, thatâs the only control you have over it. You canât manually startâ/âstop conversations to record, like you do when recording something with Voice Memos. You just turn Siri Recap on, and Siri generates summaries when it thinks youâve had a conversation worth summarizing. Itâs entirely and exclusively automatic, when the mode is enabled.</p></li> 1958</ul> 1959 1960<p>Neither of these features are available in WatchOS 27.0. Theyâre both described as coming âin beta later this yearâ. I asked Apple reps if that meant 27.1, and they wouldnât answer other than to repeat âlater this yearâ, but I thought I saw a smile. Both features are English-only for now.</p> 1961 1962<p>Some people are objecting to the very existence of these features as privacy intrusive. I think theyâre pretty reasonably thought out. There are surveillance cameras all over the place now. I was walking home from dinner here in Philadelphia a few weeks ago with a friend visiting from out of town, talking about this, and he stopped midway between the restaurant and my house and asked me to count how many cameras we were on at that spot. I think we counted seven or eight. Who knows how many we missed? Iâm not saying thatâs good or bad, itâs just the world today. So too itâs soon going to be with personal devices recording audio. This is inevitable. Iâm glad to see Apple ship features like this early, with pretty limited scope, to provide good examples before other companies ship devices that record and save audio continuously throughout the day. I think itâs better for Apple to lead with privacy-minded versions of ambient transcripts and AI-generated conversation summaries than to follow <em>after</em> other products have hit the market with all-day recordings and whole-life transcripts.</p> 1963 1964<p>Think back to Appleâs announcement of AirTags. A lot of people had a perfectly reasonable â<em>Hey I donât know if itâs a good idea for a product like this to even exist</em>â initial reaction. But having Apple lead the way actually proved good. I suspect Live Rewind and Siri Recap will turn out like that.</p> 1965 1966<p>Itâs also interesting to think about why these two features are only on Apple Watch, not iPhone. I think itâs because once an Apple Watch is on your wrist and unlocked, it remains a âtrusted deviceâ until you take the watch off. An iPhone is only a trusted device while itâs unlocked. Itâs locked, and thus untrusted, while itâs in your pocket or bag, or even just sitting on a desk. I leave my iPhone unattended in our kitchen all the time. Iâm often not in the room for conversations that take place in the kitchen while my iPhone is there, sitting on the counter. I shouldnât get summaries of those conversations. And, thinking more nefariously, I shouldnât be able to hide my iPhone on or near someoneâs desk, or in a conference room, or in a car, or anywhere else, to get Siri Recap summaries of conversations where Iâm not present. Making this an Apple Watch exclusive feature avoids that. Thus, I think Apple Watch can be trusted to âlistenâ ambiently, all the time while itâs unlocked on the wearerâs wrist, in ways that even an iPhone canât.</p> 1967 1968<h2>iPhone Duo</h2> 1969 1970<p>Ternus broke out the hallowed âBut actually, there is one more thing...â to introduce the Duo, which lineâââto circle back to the keynoteâs introâââis for Apple CEOs what âVodka martini, shaken not stirredâ is for actors playing James Bond.<sup id="fnr6-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn6-2026-09-15">6</a></sup></p> 1971 1972<p>Pre-orders for the Duo donât start until October 16, and it doesnât ship until October 23. In my experience, Apple never seeds review units for any product until a few days before pre-orders open, so weâre not going to hear or see anything more about the Duo until those review embargoes lift on October 20 or 21, I bet.</p> 1973 1974<p>Duo is available in only two colors: star white (polished silver) and night sky (a deep blue-black). As predicted, the Duo is expensive. Iâll put it alongside the 18 Pro models for comparison:</p> 1975 1976<p><!-- Markdown table: 1977| | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB <br /> 1978| ---------: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: 1979| 18 Pro | $1,200 | $1,400 | $1,800 | $2,400 1980| 18 Pro Max | $1,300 | $1,500 | $1,900 | $2,500 1981| Duo | $2,000 | $2,200 | $2,600 | $3,200 1982--> 1983<table width = 400> 1984<thead> 1985<tr> 1986 <th></th> 1987 <th align="center">256 GB</th> 1988 <th align="center">512 GB</th> 1989 <th align="center">1 TB</th> 1990 <th align="center">2 TB</th> 1991</tr> 1992</thead> 1993<tbody> 1994<tr> 1995 <td align="right">18 Pro</td> 1996 <td align="center">$1,200</td> 1997 <td align="center">$1,400</td> 1998 <td align="center">$1,800</td> 1999 <td align="center">$2,400</td> 2000</tr> 2001<tr> 2002 <td align="right">18 Pro Max</td> 2003 <td align="center">$1,300</td> 2004 <td align="center">$1,500</td> 2005 <td align="center">$1,900</td> 2006 <td align="center">$2,500</td> 2007</tr> 2008<tr> 2009 <td align="right">Duo</td> 2010 <td align="center">$2,000</td> 2011 <td align="center">$2,200</td> 2012 <td align="center">$2,600</td> 2013 <td align="center">$3,200</td> 2014</tr> 2015</tbody> 2016</table></p> 2017 2018<p>At every storage tier, itâs $800 more than an 18 Pro and $700 more than an 18 Pro Max.</p> 2019 2020<p>Key facts:</p> 2021 2022<ul> 2023<li><p>It has no Face ID sensor, either open or closed. The only authentication is an iPad Air-style Touch ID side button.</p></li> 2024<li><p>It has a Camera Control button, but does not have an Action button.</p></li> 2025<li><p>The interior display has a matte nano-texture display. It looks great and apparently this is a key element of Appleâs efforts to make the crease as unnoticeable as possible. By
2025next year I expect all competing foldables to have matte interior displays and 1.4â:â1 aspect ratio displays.</p></li> 2026<li><p>It is very satisfying to open and close.</p></li> 2027<li><p>The outer glossy screen has a âCenter Stageâ 12 megapixel front-facing camera, that seems very similar to the 18 megapixel Center Stage front cameras in the iPhone 17 generation phones. Year-ago tech but still high quality. Thereâs a circular hole punch in the corner of the display for this camera.</p></li> 2028<li><p>The inner matte screen has an under-the-display âFaceTimeâ camera for which Apple hasnât even given a megapixel count. Clearly this is a lesser cameraâââthe question is how much lesser. The idea presumably is that this camera is solely for use in Zoom or FaceTime apps, where you might want to use the bigger inner display to view the meeting, and donât care as much about your own image quality. But thereâs no reason ever to capture a self portrait with the camera on the larger inner display. If the Duo is opened, and you care about image quality for self portraits, you can shoot using the <em>main</em> camera and use the small display to frame yourself, turning the large display around to the back. When not using the inner FaceTime camera, there is no visible cutout showing where it goes. If you look closely at the display however, you can see where it is. Under-display cameras arenât magic.</p></li> 2029<li><p>The regular cameras are a 1Ãâ/â2Ã main, and a 0.5Ã ultra wide. I suspect the main 1Ã camera is very similar optically to that of the iPhone Air, but the Duo has A20 Pro features like Photographic Styles 3, although it lacks Pro Controls, Apple Log, <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-announces-final-cut-camera-2-0/">genlock</a>, and other pro camera features. (The Air only has last yearâs Photographic Styles 2.)</p></li> 2030</ul> 2031 2032<p>The initial introduction of the Duo was handled by two keynote newcomers: industrial design VP <a href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/molly-anderson/">Molly Anderson</a>, and human interface VP <a href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/steve-lemay/">Steve Lemay</a>. A hardwareâ/âsoftware design duo (<em>ahem</em>
2032), if you will. What made it worth having Anderson and Lemay present together is that the iPhone Duo exemplifies Appleâs integrated approach to product design. Are they a hardware company that writes their own software or a software company that makes their own hardware? The answer is yes.<sup id="fnr7-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn7-2026-09-15">7</a></sup> The defining aspect of the Duo isnât that it folds open and closedâââweâve seen almost a decade of Android phones that do thatâââbut its aspect ratio, roughly 1.4â:â1. Because thatâs effectively the square root of 2, doubling the outer displayâs shorter dimension when you unfold it produces an inner display with roughly the same aspect ratio. Thatâs elegant and satisfying conceptually. And I think in practice it will feel right, too.</p> 2033 2034<p>Heretofore the iPhone has only had three display aspect ratios:</p> 2035 2036<ol> 2037<li><p>The original iPhone (2007) display was precisely 3â:â2 (480⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠320 pixels, and letâs call it 1.5â:â1 for comparisonâs sake to the following ratios), and this remained true through the iPhone 4 and 4S (960⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠640 pixels, 2Ã retina).</p></li> 2038<li><p>Then the iPhone 5 (2012) display size went from 3.5 inches to 4 inches, but added all the extra pixels on the long dimension. Held vertically, it got taller, but not at all wider, changing the aspect ratio to 16â:â9 (roughly 1.77â:â1). This 16â:â9 aspect ratio held for all of the 5, 6, 7, and 8 generation iPhones, including the Plus models.</p></li> 2039<li><p>The iPhone X (2017) introduced the âall-screenâ era. The actual device hardware <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-x,iphone-8,iphone-8-plus">didnât change size or aspect ratio by much</a>, but eliminating the chin (with Home button) and forehead and filling those areas with the screen, the display aspect ratio went to roughly 2.17â:â1, and every new model since then, including the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, has maintained that aspect ratio.<sup id="fnr8-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn8-2026-09-15">8</a></sup></p></li> 2040</ol> 2041 2042<p>Thus, over 20 years, iPhone displays (and thus all phones, since all the other phones mostly just copy iPhones) have only gotten more elongated: from 1.5â:â1 to 1.77â:â1 to 2.17â:â1. Now, though, the iPhone Duo goes <em>squatter than the original iPhone</em> for the first time, to 1.4â:â1 on both the outer and inner displays.<sup id="fnr9-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn9-2026-09-15">9</a></sup> Thatâs a noticeable change from the original iPhone, but itâs a downright striking change from every iPhone released in the last 10 years.</p> 2043 2044<p>This aspect ratio is <em>so</em> different that it demands a different UI layout for the Duo to have any chance at being a good experience. Thatâs exactly what Apple has done, and what Steve Lemay was there in the keynote to unveil. A lot of UI chrome that previously was at the top or bottom of the display is now on the rightâââthe dock on the home screen, the toolbars in apps, etc. And these elements are always on the right. You canât turn the Duo upside down to move them to the left, nor is there an accessibility setting to move them to the left. This layout puts these controls on the right not because 90 percent of people are right-handed and Apple thinks lefties can get bent, but, I think (and so Iâve been told in conversations with Cupertinoites), because thatâs the nature of a book-like shape. The arrow keys on keyboards always fall on the right, publishers donât print left-handed books, and carmakers donât make left-handed steering wheels. The right-side bias in the Duo iOS layout is like that.</p> 2045 2046<p>Iâve only spent a few minutes, in total, playing with the Duo, so I really canât say whether it succeeds or not. But I will say that itâs <em>weird</em>. Not saying itâs weird <em>good</em> or weird <em>bad</em>âââjust weird <em>different</em>. In some ways iOS on the Duo feels more different from iOS on all other post-iPhone-X phones than iOS on the original iPad felt from iOS on the iPhones of that time. The original iPad just felt like a much b
2046igger iPhone. The Duo feels like a different layout entirely, in every single app that I had time to poke around with.</p> 2047 2048<p>Is the Duo good? I do not know. Is it different? Very much.</p> 2049 2050<p>Hereâs the thing. If you take a 2â:â1 or even 2.2â:â1 aspect ratio phone display and turn that into a book-like foldable, the inner screen comes out squareâââor so close to square that we might as well just call it square. Nobody makes any device of any sort that just has a square display. Square is a terrible aspect ratio for a phone or a tablet or a laptop or a desktop display. The only square displays on the market are the inner displays for Android foldables from the last decade. Square being a shitty aspect ratio is half the reason <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/07/birchler-folding-iphone-predictions">almost no one has bought those things</a>. The other half of the reason is that no developers truly adapted software to take advantage of the double-area inner displays. Google didnât do it, Samsung didnât do it, and since neither of them bothered to do it, of course third-party developers didnât do it either. Nothing <em>adapts</em> to the inner display on Android foldablesâââit just <em>expands</em> to fill the space.</p> 2051 2052<p>Appleâs insight to go with 1.4â:â1 on the outside and thus also 1.4â:â1 on the inside gives the Duo a chance. Maybe this will be a huge hit. But maybe not? There are no 5-inch phone displays with aspect ratios anyw
2052here near as squat as the Duoâs. Thatâs a tablet aspect ratio. The current A17 Pro iPad Mini has a 2266⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1488 pixel display: roughly 1.5â:â1. The 11-inch iPad Air is 1.4â:â1 and the 13-inch Air is 1.33â:â1. So I think the Duoâs inner display is going to feel just right.</p> 2053 2054<p>But that outer display? I donât know. Even in the best case, itâs going to be no better than a tolerable compromise. If it were actually a good idea there would be non-folding phones with 1.4â:â1-ish squat displays, and there arenât any such phones. And even if the Duo proves to be a hit, I donât think there will be. If you only have one display you donât want it to be the size and shape of the Duoâs outer display. So the questions are: How tolerable has Appleâs UI redesign made it? And how will Duo users split their time between using it closed vs. using it open? Someone who spends more of their time using it open might absolutely love it with a âyouâll take it away only from my cold dead handsâ fervor. Someone who winds up mostly using the outer display because so many of their iPhone interactions are quick <em>take it out â use it for a bit to check something, jot something down, or snap a quick photo â put it back in pocketâ/âbag</em> situations, might wind up regretting it.</p> 2055 2056<p>Given the design brief of creating a book-shaped foldable phone, I feel quite certain already that Apple has nailed it with the Duo. But having only seen the keynote spiel and poked around with one in hand for a few minutes Wednesday afternoon, I think it remains an open question whether a book-shaped foldable phone is a good idea in the first place. Folks from Apple who have actually spent time carrying the Duo seem genuinely enthused. I remain highly skeptical about its appeal for me personally, and somewhat skeptical about its appeal broadly. Thatâs OK if itâs not suited for me, but is suited for many (but not most) people. No one in the keynote described the iPhone Duo as the future of iPhone, like they did when introducing the iPhone X in 2017. I just wonder if the fundamental idea appeals to all that many people at all. Weâll find out starting in late October.</p> 2057 2058<p>Regarding some specific Duo details:</p> 2059 2060<ul> 2061<li><p>The lack of Face ID is a serious sad-trombone bummer, and in my opinion could sink the first-generation model. Side-button Touch ID is OK, but OK is not <em>good</em>, and even good is not <em>insanely great</em>. Face ID is insanely great. For whatever reason, the only iPads with Face ID are the iPad Pro models. Every time I review an iPad Air or iPad Mini, my biggest gripe is the lack of Face ID. I complained about it <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2022/03/the_2022_ipad_air#:~:text=Face%20ID%20alone%20is%20worth%20%24150">reviewing the iPad Air in 2022</a> and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2021/09/the_2021_ipad_mini#:~:text=biggest%20annoyance">the iPad Mini in 2021</a>, and in the five years since then my annoyance has only grown. With Face ID, so long as youâre looking at the screen as you unlock the device, itâs like not having it locked at all. It just unlocks, seemingly automatically. With Touch ID you must think about putting one of your registered fingers on the button every single time you unlock it. It never ever feels automatic. I feel quite certain Apple tried to fit a Face ID sensor on the outer Duo display and could not make the engineering work.</p></li> 2062<li><p>Iâm much more concerned about convenience than security, but Face ID is 20Ã more secure than Touch ID. Thatâs according to Appleâs own <a href="https://help.apple.com/pdf/security/en_GB/apple-platform-security-guide-b.pdf">Apple Platform Security</a> whitepaper, updated just last month, which states:</p> 2063 2064<blockquote> 2065 <p>The probability that a random person in the population could 2066unlock a userâs iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro is less than 1 2067in 1 million with Optic ID or Face IDâââincluding when Face ID 2068with a mask is turned on. For a userâs iPad, iPhone, Mac models 2069with Touch ID, and those paired with a Magic Keyboard with Touch 2070ID, itâs less than 1 in 50,000. This probability increases with 2071multiple enrolled fingerprints (up to 1 in 10,000 with five 2072fingerprints) or appearances for Face ID (up to 1 in 500,000 2073with two appearances).</p> 2074</blockquote></li> 2075<li><p>As a sign of how inconvenient the lack of Face ID is, Apple is promoting the fact that the iPhone Duo can be unlocked by your Ap
2075ple Watch, like a Mac. No other iPhone needs such a crutch.<sup id="fnr10-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn10-2026-09-15">10</a></sup> Based on my experience with Touch ID iPads, wearing an Apple Watch all the time to unlock the Duo will feel essential. I donât wear an Apple Watch all the time, and donât want to start wearing an Apple Watch all the time, so I suspect this alone will keep me from switching to an iPhone Duo personally. On the other hand, for people who <em>do</em> wear an Apple Watch all the time and are happy to do so, the Duoâs lack of Face ID might prove to be only an occasional inconvenience rather than a constant annoyance.<sup id="fnr11-2026-09-15"><a href="#fn11-2026-09-15">11</a></sup></p></li> 2076<li><p><a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/24/iphone-ultra-could-be-missing-5-features/">Contrary to some speculation</a>, the Duo does support MagSafe. (Samsungâs latest, the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra, support inductive Qi charging but donât have magnets, so you need to use a case or something to get chargers to snap into place.)</p></li> 2077<li><p>Closed, the Duo hasâââper Molly Andersonâs dulcet keynote descriptionââââa distinctive asymmetric shape, with two rounded corners, that invites you to open it.â Expect this to be copied by every other foldable phone in 2027, and then for Android dorks to argue that itâs a totally obvious design. (Same for the matte interior display.)</p></li> 2078<li><p>Apple rates the Duo as IP68 for dust and water resistance, <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-duo,iphone-air,iphone-18-pro">with exactly the same description</a> as the iPhones 18 Pro (and all other iPhone models currently in the lineup): âRated IP68 (maximum depth of 6 meters up to 30 minutes) under IEC standard 60529â. Samsungâs new <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/979421/ifixit-samsung-galaxy-z-fold-8-hinge">Z Fold8 is only IP48</a>. With these <a href="https://www.iec.ch/ip-ratings">IEC ratings</a> the second numeral is for water. The first numeral is for âsolid foreign agentsâ (read: dirt and dust). iPhone Duoâs IP6<em>x</em> rating means âdust-tightâ. The Z Fold8âs IP4<em>x</em> rating isnât even âdust-protectedâ (that would be IP5<em>x</em>) but instead only protection against particles 1mm or larger. 1mm is pretty big for a piece of grit. That doesnât mean itâs susceptible to ingress from every particle smaller than 1mm, but itâs not good. Pocket lint is a real thing and people put their phones in their pockets.</p></li> 2079</ul> 2080 2081<h2>Iâm Trying So Hard Not to Be Insufferable About Predicting the âDuoâ Name That Iâve Put This Entire Section 6,500 Words Deep Into the Column</h2> 2082 2083<p>Yours truly, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/14/name-of-foldable-iphone">back on April 14</a>:</p> 2084 2085<blockquote> 2086 <p>I have no inside knowledge about what Apple plans to name this 2087device, but Iâll eat my proverbial hat if they name it âiPhone 2088Foldâ. That name is so dumb itâs what Samsung calls their 2089foldables. You donât name a device for what it does, you name it 2090for what it connotes. A good name conveys feeling, not just 2091function. âiPhone Ultraâ or âiPhone Maxâ would both work, and 2092<em>Ultra</em> sounds more luxe. So while unsurprising, thatâs probably 2093the best bet, even without the reliable word of Mr. Digital Chat 2094Station.</p> 2095 2096<p>But if you want my take on a wildcard name, one with some 2097<a href="https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_duo/index-powerbook-duo.html">history</a>, how about âiPhone Duoâ?</p> 2098</blockquote> 2099 2100<p>My thinking re: âDuoâ seemingly jibed with that of Appleâs crack marketing team:</p> 2101 2102<ul> 2103<li>Itâs two devices in one.</li> 2104<li>The early 1990s <a href="https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_duo/index-powerbook-duo.html">PowerBook Duo</a> (and <a href="https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Duo_Dock">corresponding Duo Dock</a>) were extraordinary Macs that were ahead of their time.</li> 2105<li>Itâs not <em>ultra</em>, if we take ultra to mean âbetter than whatâs less than ultra in every wayâ. The iPhone Duo is differentâââquite differentâââfrom the iPhones Pro but, to name one conspicuous example, the iPhones Pro have better camera systems. (The Duo is ultra-priced, but one can also say itâs double-priced.)</li> 2106<li><em>Duo</em> looks and sounds so good alongside <em>Neo</em>.</li> 2107</ul> 2108 2109<p>When I suggested âDuoâ in April and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/07/birchler-folding-iphone-predictions">again the day before the event</a>, the number one objection was that Microsoft had used the name âDuoâ <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us
2109/d/surface-duo-unlocked/8S3V46W10HFR?activetab=pivot:overviewtab">for one</a> of its many forgettable Surface products. The half dozen or so readers who argued thus might be the only people alive who remember this product. No one cares. Microsoft <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Neo">also had a Surface Neo</a>, and no one cares about that one either. Even if Apple hadnât offered a line of (successful, memorable) PowerBook Duos from 30 years ago, it wouldnât matter that Microsoft had used âDuoâ in 2020. For chrissakes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(trademark)">Cisco had the rights to the name âiPhoneâ in 2007</a> and had been making products with the name since 1998.</p> 2110 2111<p>I love the name Duo for this iPhone. It just feels right. And, just five days in, I already find myself saying and writing just âDuoâ, without âiPhoneâ, when referring to it.</p> 2112 2113<h2>Miscellaneous</h2> 2114 2115<ul> 2116<li><p>Too many cooks spoil the stew. It was very fun and a little touching to have <em>the</em>
2116 Cook hand things off to Ternus at the start, but I think there were too many presenters in the keynote. Duo was effectively introduced three or four separate times. First by the Andersonâ/âLemay (<em>Iâm going to pun it again</em>) duo, then Joz, then Craig Federighi (covering much of the same software ground Lemay did), then Johny Srouji (covering much of the same ground Anderson did). Maybe the thinking was that everyone wanted a part in Ternusâs debut keynote. Maybe this is just the way of the futureâââmany small segments, rather than one continuous on-stage live monologue. It didnât make the keynote run overly long (running time was just 1h:17m), so maybe Iâm all wet here. But I think what I wanted was to see Ternus do more of the explainingââânot just the <em>what</em> but the <em>why</em>.</p></li> 2117<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39BalPDuTo0">Appleâs YouTube video of the entire keynote</a> has over 49 million views, and that doesnât count the views from Appleâs own hosted version, presented on Apple.com and Apple TV. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Apple/videos">Apple has</a> 12 other shorter keynote-related videos on YouTube, including â<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3zwkxqh1t0">Introducing the new iPhone 18 Pro</a>â with 18 million views, and â<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUfGcZ092b0">Introducing the new iPhone Duo</a>â with 28 million views. For comparison, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o">this yearâs WWDC keynote on YouTube</a> has 8.9 million views. 9 million views is a hell of a view count for the introduction of operating systems, but the iPhone remains kingââânot just for Apple, but the industry. It remains the Super Bowl of the annual tech calendar. </p></li> 2118<li><p>For an even better comparison, <a href="https://archive.org/details/mwsf01_300">in the full version</a> of that 2001 Macworld Expo keynote that I suggested you watch earlier in this columnâââthe one where Steve Jobs introduced the Mac-as-digital-hub strategyâââwhen Jobs takes the stage, heâs beaming with pride when he says there are âtens of thousandsâ of people watching the stream live. Both streaming and Apple have come a long way in 25 years. <a class="permalink" title="Permanent link to âThoughts and Observations on Appleâs âSurprise and Shineâ Event; the Announcements of the iPhones 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watches Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the iPhone Duo; and the Dawn of the Ternus, John Ternus Era at Appleâ" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/09/thoughts_and_observations_on_apples_surprise_and_shine_event">★</a></p></li> 2119</ul> 2120 2121<div class="footnotes"> 2122<hr /> 2123<ol> 2124 2125<li id="fn1-2026-09-15"> 2126<p>Iâll just tuck in a footnote here that another necessary technical feature was high-speed USB-C, for recording video to external SSD drives. EU regulatory cheerleaders hang their hats on the belief that Apple switched iPhones from Lightning connectors to USB-C solely because of the EU charging port mandate. Some of them believe that absent EU intervention, iPhones today would still be on Lightning. Thatâs nonsense. These things are all true: the EU now mandates USB-C charging ports for phones (and most other devices); Apple opposed the EU USB-C mandate; the iPhone switched to USB-C in 2023 with the iPhone 15 generation; and the iPhoneâs Lightning port was the last remaining proprietary phone connector that anyone cared about. But correlation is not causation. Apple opposed (and still opposes) the EU USB-C mandate not because they think USB-C is bad today, but because the mandate will stymie moving to something better (thinnerâ/âsmallerâ/âfaster) in the future. (In 2011 the EU soft-mandated the terrible Micro-USB connector <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/memo_11_75">in a âMemorandum of Understandingâ</a> that Apple of course ignored. USB-C is a good connector, but the lesson the European Commission took from their Micro-USB attempt was to hard-mandate their preferred universal connector this timeâââto
2126switch from <em>should</em> to <em>must</em>.) Apple started moving iOS devices from Lightning to USB-C all the way back <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/11/the_2018_ipad_pros">in 2018 with the iPad Pros</a>. The EU USB-C mandate <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/eu-common-charger-rules-power-all-your-devices-single-charger-2024-12-28_en">didnât come into effect until December 2024</a>. Apple had planned to move the iPhone to USB-C starting with the iPhone 15 generation years prior. If Apple had switched the iPhone to USB-C only for begrudging compliance with the EU mandate, they would have waited until 2024; Apple never complies early with regulations they disagree with. They also might have shipped USB-C iPhones exclusively within the EU. For years Apple shipped iPhones with two physical SIM card slots in Chinaâââregion-specific hardware wouldnât be new. They still today ship new iPhones with physical SIM card trays in most of the world but without them in the US models. But the best proof is that the iPhone 15 Pro models had camera features that required USB-C for data transfer performance.</p> 2127 2128<p>The theory that the EU dragged Apple kicking and screaming into switching the iPhone to USB-C is predicated on the notion that because Lightning was proprietary and USB-C is not, that Apple made a fortune selling Lightning accessories and didnât want to give up that revenue stream. But Apple sells just as many <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all/made-by-apple/cables">$20â30 USB-C cables</a> as they did $20â30 Lightning cables, and dirt-cheap Lightning cables from third-party companies were always plentiful (albeit not in Apple Stores). The iPhone switching to USB-C hasnât affected Appleâs bottom line at all. This footnote, Iâm sure, will put this matter to rest. <a href="#fnr1-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p> 2129</li> 2130 2131<li id="fn2-2026-09-15"> 2132<p>Also interesting knowing that this was the first keynote produced <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/03/schiller-steps-down">after Phil Schiller stepped down from running events</a>, yet Schiller is as big a Bond fan as anyone I know. The Bond references in the keynote might have been a nice nod to Schiller from his former team. <a href="#fnr2-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2133</li> 2134 2135<li id="fn3-2026-09-15"> 2136<p>Last yearâs keynote announcement order: AirPods Pro 3, Apple Watch (Series 11 and Ultra 3), iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro. This yearâs order: iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watch, iPhone Duo. <a href="#fnr3-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2137</li> 2138 2139<li id="fn4-2026-09-15"> 2140<p>As I write this in mid-September, you can still purchase the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max at last yearâs prices from carriers like <a href="https://www.att.com/buy/phones/apple-iphone-17-pro.html">AT&T</a> and <a href="https://www.verizon.com/smartphones/apple-iphone-17-pro-max/">Verizon</a>, including the 1 TB 17 Pro for $1,500 and 2 TB 17 Pro Max for $2,000. It doesnât make much sense to me to buy a 256 or 512 GB 17 Pro today just to save $100, unless you really love cosmic orange and feel disappointed by the 18 Pro colors. But if you really want 1 or 2 TB of storage, youâll save $300 or $500 respectively buying a 17 Pro model instead of an 18 Pro. Thatâs real money. <a href="#fnr4-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2141</li> 2142 2143<li id="fn5-2026-09-15"> 2144<p>Have you noticed that more and more, people in window seats keep their windows closed, keeping the cabin dark, even for mid-day flights? I get it for early morning flights, but I donât get it for mid-day and late afternoon flights. Sunlight is good. Iâm an aisle-seat man myself, but when I get stuck with a window seat the best part is the view out the window. With the window closed, those seats arenât much better than middle seats. <a href="#fnr5-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2145</li> 2146 2147<li id="fn6-2026-09-15"> 2148<p>Roger Moore played Bond in <a href="https://www.007.com/the-films/">seven films</a>, but never once ordered a martini nor uttered the âshaken not stirredâ line. He did enjoy martinis in three of the movies, but in each case, the drink was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwvN0qvs5tA">ordered or prepared for him</a>. This, despite Moore himself <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/05/23/moore-perfect">having been a dry martini aficionado</a>. <a href="#fnr6-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2149</li> 2150 2151<li id="fn7-2026-09-15"> 2152<p>But the fact that the new CEO spent his career in hardware engineering tells you which side at Apple is the bigger 50 percent. <a href="#fnr7-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 7 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2153</li> 2154 2155<li id="fn8-2026-09-15"> 2156<p>The iPhone X (2436⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1125 pixels) worked out to 2.165<span style="text-decoration: overline;">3</span>â:â1. This weekâs new iPhone 18 Pro (2622⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1206 pixels) is 2.1741â¦â:â1, and the 18 Pro Max (2868⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1320) is 2.1<span style="text-decoration: overline;">72</span>â:â1. To two decimal places theyâre all 2.17â:â1. <a href="#fnr8-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 8 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2157</li> 2158 2159<li id="fn9-2026-09-15"> 2160<p>Letâs keep going with the math pedantry. The Duoâs 5.4-inch outer display is 2034⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1398 pixels, which <a href="https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=2%2C034+%2F+1%2C398">works out to about</a>
2160 1.455â:â1. The 7.8-inch inner display is 2670⁠â⁠Ã⁠â⁠1878 pixels, which works out to about 1.422â:â1. Calling them both â1.4â:â1â is close enough for government work. <a href="#fnr9-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 9 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2161</li> 2162 2163<li id="fn10-2026-09-15"> 2164<p>Back in 2021 during the COVID era, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2021/02/unlock_with_apple_watch_with_face_mask">iOS 14.5 added a then-much-needed feature</a> that allowed Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone. That feature <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-iphone-apd2a4393dc1/watchos">remains available</a>, and I guess thatâs what Apple is promoting for use with iPhone Duo. But I had to check that this feature was still available in iOS because I havenât used it since last wearing a face mask four or five years ago. <a href="#fnr10-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 10 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2165</li> 2166 2167<li id="fn11-2026-09-15"> 2168<p>Which raises an obvious question that Iâve never really thought hard about before: Why the hell canât you unlock a Touch ID iPad with your Apple Watch, like you can with a Mac (or, now, an iPhone Duo)? <a href="#fnr11-2026-09-15" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 11 in the text.">↩︎ï¸</a></p> 2169</li> 2170 2171</ol> 2172</div> 2173 2174</div> <!-- article --> 2175 2176<hr class="ookiaks" /> 2177 2178 2179<div id="Footer"> 2180<form id="SiteSearch" action="https://daringfireball.net/search" method="get" style="margin-bottom: 2.5em;"> 2181<div> 2182<input name="q" type="text" value="" style="margin-right: 8px; width: 66%;" /> 2183<input type="submit" value="Search" /> 2184</div> 2185</form> 2186 2187<p class="smallprint"> 2188<a href="/preferences/" title="Customize the font size and presentation options for this web site.">Display Preferences</a> 2189<br /><br /> 2190Copyright © 2002â2026 The Daring Fireball Company LLC. 2191</p> 2192</div> 2193 2194 2195<!-- Google Analytics --> 2196 2197<!--
2198<script type="text/javascript"> 2199 var _gaq = _gaq || []; 2200 _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-593949-1']); 2201 _gaq.push (['_gat._anonymizeIp']); 2202 _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); 2203 (function() { 2204 var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; 2205 ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; 2206 var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); 2207 })(); 2208</script>
2208 2209 --> 2210 2211<!-- Asynchronously load Mint --> 2212<!-- No, screw mint
2213<script type="text/javascript"> 2214(function () { 2215 var ma = document.createElement('script'); 2216 ma.type = 'text/javascript'; 2217 ma.src = '/mint/?js'; 2218 ma.async = true; 2219 var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; 2220 s.parentNode.insertBefore(ma, s); 2221})(); 2222</script>
2222 2223--> 2224</div> <!-- Main --> 2225 2226</div> <!-- Box -->
2227<script type="module" src="https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js/v31edd6df95cf4e85bb4c19e7a9bdbcba1788362987495" integrity="sha512-iIg7k2xntmwu6/uSb5tpc/hySgZc4eoL31yB29W6tJFo2akwjPWcEqnCEdJvGexCL0KEQwVYv5BlowfhVz26hg==" data-cf-beacon='{"version":"2024.11.0","token":"d5bbc0b4e8ae452eba45dc9b72931665","spa":2}' crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 2227
2227
2228<script>(function(){function c(){var b=a.contentDocument||(a.contentWindow&&a.contentWindow.document);if(b){var d=b.createElement('script');d.innerHTML="window.__CF$cv$params={r:'a3ff98f56cb2ab71',t:'MTc5MDIyOTkyNw=='};var a=document.createElement('script');a.src='/cdn-cgi/challenge-platform/scripts/jsd/main.js';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(a);";b.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d)}}if(document.body){var a=document.createElement('iframe');a.height=1;a.width=1;a.style.position='absolute';a.style.top=0;a.style.left=0;a.style.border='none';a.style.visibility='hidden';document.body.appendChild(a);if('loading'!==document.readyState)c();else if(window.addEventListener)document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',c);else{var e=document.onreadystatechange||function(){};document.onreadystatechange=function(b){e(b);'loading'!==document.readyState&&(document.onreadystatechange=e,c())}}}})();</script>
2228</body> 2229</html> 2230<!-- 0.0234 seconds --> 2231
Line numbers count LF bytes from the start of the resource, as the search results do. Vendor segments are library code the classifier recognised; they are stored but not indexed. Bytes are shown as Latin1 characters, one per byte.