Macworld
At Macworld 2007, the biggest crowd reaction came when Steve Jobs swiped to unlock the iPhone for the first time. The crowd was so amazed, he did it twice. It was the kind of first impression that stays with you, like scrolling for the first time on an iPod or swiveling the screen on an iMac G4.
If there was a live crowd at Apple’s Surprise and Shine event, John Ternus would have gotten a similar reaction the first time he opened the iPhone Duo and the cover screen magically faded into the inner screen. For the first time in a while, it felt like Apple had created a device that considered the software to be an extension of the hardware and not something tacked on at the end.
iPhone Duo is a true human interface device that bridges the gap between hyper-realistic skeuomorphism and digital authenticity. And it’s the first time Apple has created something so monumental without Jony Ive.
Hitting the reset buttonWhen Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 after nearly 3 decades, it sent a shockwave through the industry. While it had been years since his heyday with the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Ive was still the creative force behind Apple’s recent devices, including the Apple Watch, iPhone X, and AirPods. His departure was bigger than Tim Cook stepping down.
In his place, Apple named two design team leaders: Evans Hankey (hardware) and Alan Dye (software), neither of whom lasted very long. Hankey went to Ive’s io company in 2023, now part of OpenAI, and Dye jumped ship to Meta in 2025.
The tumult and turnover were palpable. iOS releases were buggy and missed deadlines, and the hardware released during the time was basic iterations with little innovation to speak of. Devices got thinner, screens got bigger, corners got rounder, but for the most part, Apple didn’t break any new ground in the design department.
At the time of Dye’s departure, it seemed like a reset was in order. The person taking his spot, Stephen Lemay, was relatively unknown in the Apple world. A few months later, Molly Anderson was named head of Industrial Design, another unfamiliar face. While both had worked at Apple during Ive’s tenure, the moves made it clear that Apple was shifting away from his protégés.
And now, the first product developed outside of Ive’s shadow is here. To drive the point home, the iPhone Duo announcement featured both Anderson and Lemay talking about the phone’s “fluid and completely intuitive” and “thoughtful” design with “breakthrough engineering,” but without Ive’s white-room pretension. The Duo feels like a labor of love between teams, the first from Apple in a long while.
The iPhone Duo understands the relationship between hardware and software unlike any other device before.
Apple
Design 2.0Anderson’s and Lemay’s attention to the user experience can be felt all over iPhone Duo. There’s the brilliant little status circle that blends Wi-Fi, cellular, and battery information. A clever Standby mode that turns the Duo into an alarm clock when propped up like a tent. It can even turn into a mini laptop when using Safari on a table.
Back when Jony Ive introduced the iPad mini, he described the design process as a “concentration” of what people loved about the larger iPad:
If all we had done was take the original iPad and just reduce it, all that you would be aware of was everything that was just missing. There is inherent loss in just reducing a product in size. What we did is we went back to the very beginning and took the time to develop a product that was a concentration of, not a reduction of the original.
The iPhone Duo is also a concentration, but one that considers the whole package, not just the way it looks or feels. Anderson and Lemay studied both the iPhone and the iPad when designing the Duo and created an entirely new device that has elements of both but also introduces unique design elements that speak to the Duo’s character.
Most notably, the Duo is one of the only devices Apple makes that isn’t perfectly symmetrical, a stark contrast to Jony Ive’s philosophy. But this serves as a visual cue of how it should be opened while also preserving the modern iPhone screen design. And of course, that transition between opening and closing is one of the most perfect hardware-software synergies Apple has ever done.
Much like Steve Jobs, Apple wouldn’t be Apple without Jony Ive. And it goes without saying that the Duo probably wouldn’t exist without Ive’s decades of influence. But for the first time in decades, Apple has a new direction and a new design philosphy. And the path ahead is wide open.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
Trending: Top storiesThe M5 Ultra Mac Studio is so insane it’s worth waiting 4 months to get one.
Apple is doomed because there aren’t enough iPhones to buy, the Macalope reports.
Do you really need a case? Mahmoud Itani risked everything to test the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s durability.
The Glacier iPhone 18 Pro Max is the anti-Cosmic Orange, argues Roman Loyola.
The new Mac mini hides an ugly SSD secret.
If you bought a new iPhone in the past two years, Apple owes you money.
Podcast of the weekApple released iOS 27 and macOS 27 and on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about the new operating systems and what you should know.
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Reviews corner- iPhone 18 Pro: The best kind of boring.
- Mac Studio (M5 Max): Shifting into overdrive.
- Mac mini (M5 Pro): Killer performance at a lethal price.
Apple developing screenless fitness tracker, report claims.
Video of the week@macworld.comThere’s a name for the iPhone Duo’s shape
♬ original sound – Macworld – Macworld
There’s a name for the iPhone Duo’s shape: the silver ratio. For more videos, follow us on TikTok and Instagram.
Software updates, bugs, and problemsiPhone 18 Pro owners report two serious bugs causing freezes and restarts.
Apple’s next-gen photo controls only work on images ‘captured’ on a new iPhone.
And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.