Apple’s New CEO Announces a New Foldable iPhone - DTNS 5349

Tom Merritt (0:08)

This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you important context and help each other understand.

Huyen Tue Dao (0:17)

Today, Apple's got a new CEO and a new foldable, and Sarah Lane is here to make sense of it all.

Tom Merritt (0:23)

Woo, triple win. I'm Tom Merritt.

Huyen Tue Dao (0:26)

I'm Huyen Tue Dao.

Tom Merritt (0:27)

Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.

John Ternes, CEO of Apple, made his big debut at an announcement, made the big foldable announcement. You could tell he's a hardware guy, because we can get any of those numbers Tim Cook likes to say. It was all about hardware and processors and stuff, right from the start. And of course, joining us to talk about it is Sarah Lane. Sarah, what was your take away overall on the announcement?

Sarah Lane (0:56)

Well, hi everyone.

I was wondering how John Ternes' big debut was going to be. We got a little Tim Cook off the top.

Tom Merritt (1:08)

Oh yeah, we got the handover, that's right.

Sarah Lane (1:10)

For anybody who watched the whole thing as we did, which I thought was nice. And then it was kind of like just me being like, all right, man, can you do this?

What do you got? Because I don't know him. He's been behind the scenes for so long. So it was a very interesting event for a variety of reasons. We got a lot of updates and unveils. But for the most part, I thought he did good.

Tom Merritt (1:48)

Yeah, slightly different style, but not that different, frankly, just different presentation style because he's a different guy.

Sarah Lane (1:55)

I mean, the whole Apple announcement thing has become very, like we do it beforehand, like no one's going to f up. Yeah, we've been doing that for a while. So the sort of polished nature of it doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't really rattle me, but it definitely was. I mean, there were a lot of green screens going on.

Tom Merritt (2:19)

Yeah.

Yeah, count the green screens would be a fun game if you want to re-watch it. Well, let's start with the big one. The final announcement at the very end, I believe he may have even said one more thing, although he didn't make a big deal out of it.

Sarah Lane (2:32)

He said another thing.

Tom Merritt (2:33)

Another thing, that's what it was. Yeah, so maybe that's the new John Ternes version of One More Thing. It was the foldable phone, iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable, has a 5.4 inch outer display, 7.6 inch inner display, has the new A20 Pro, which is also in the iPhone 18 Pro, has its own display engine, uses touch ID. They went into all the details on the hinge and the screen and how all that works.

Are you sad that we have to wait until October 16th to preorder it for $2,000? That's the starting price, 256 gigabytes, up to 2 terabytes, and of course, shipping October 20th. Up to 2 terabytes, by the way. In a phone.

Sarah Lane (3:16)

Yeah.

Tom Merritt (3:17)

That's true.

Sarah Lane (3:18)

It's like 256 I mean, I could survive with that.

Tom Merritt (3:22)

You can squeeze by on that.

Sarah Lane (3:23)

But 2 terabytes? I mean, who doesn't want that? Yeah, that's a big distinction.

Tom Merritt (3:31)

What's your top takeaways from The Fold?

Sarah Lane (3:36)

Mine?

Well, we knew this was coming, and Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg had mentioned already that it was going to be called the iPhone Duo, which it is. So I wouldn't say I was super surprised about anything, but at the same time, just this very, very different form factor for Apple is a big deal. And Apple is clearly catching up to many other companies who have been doing this for years. We know this. And that was sort of like, okay, how are they going to introduce this to people who either just haven't ever had a foldable before, or just think that the Samsung option is better?

And that's where Apple really shines. Apple is like, here's how this is going to change your life. A friend of mine who was watching the announcement at the same time as me, was like, wow, so like, I don't need an iPad anymore?

Tom Merritt (4:45)

Yeah.

Sarah Lane (4:45)

And I was like, huh, that's an interesting question because I don't, I mean, Apple certainly is not trying to reduce that category. But at the same time, it's offering something that can do more or less what a tablet could do and a phone could not.