In short
The Vergecast livestream covers Apple’s hardware event focused on the iPhone Duo foldable and related devices. Topic: Apple’s first foldable iPhone (“iPhone Duo”), plus iPhone 18 Pro/Pro Max camera changes, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, AirPods 5, and John Ternus’s first event as CEO.
Guests
Dom Preston (The Verge editor; frequent reviewer of foldables and Android multitasking), Cam Faulkner (The Verge editor; less hands-on with foldables, emphasizes form factor and camera/pro controls), Nilay Patel (The Verge editor-in-chief; attended in Cupertino and handled the Duo), plus “V Song” (The Verge reporter; joins for watch and AI/audio discussion).
Key claims
Duo’s hinge/crease is “perceptually not there,” display is matte with nanotexture, and iOS is heavily redesigned with a new right-side rail and hinge-aware app behavior (e.g., Netflix reflection changes).
Notable examples
Netflix hinge-position demo; “Snoopy mode” for kids; multitasking “sets”; Duo supports Apple stylus/pencil later; Duo lacks Face ID (Touch ID instead) and uses an under-display camera. Watch: Series 12/Ultra 4 add a 32-petal sensor array, more frequent heart-rate sampling, and always-on transcription with privacy concerns.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOApple's New CEO and Event Highlights
1:30 to 3:18
Discussion on John Ternus's first presentation and the new products launched by Apple.
“There's the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with their variable aperture camera.”
The iPhone Duo: First Impressions
3:18 to 4:58
Exploring the design and features of the iPhone Duo compared to competitors.
“and he has had a chance to look at the iPhone Duo in person and give us a little bit of some impressions on what that is like.”
User Experience with the iPhone Duo
4:58 to 6:52
Discussion on how the iPhone Duo feels and its appeal as a foldable phone.
“When you look at the iPhone duo, does this look like an appealing shape to you, right?”
Software Optimization and Multitasking
6:52 to 8:50
Comparing how Apple and Android handle software for foldable devices.
“They're taking some phenomenal photos of these devices.”
Nilay Patel's On-Site Impressions
8:50 to 10:40
Nilay shares live impressions of the iPhone Duo and the event atmosphere.
“This looks a lot more basic than what we're seeing some of the Android OEMs do.”
iPhone Duo's Hardware and Display
10:40 to 13:32
In-depth discussion about the iPhone Duo's display technology and hardware design.
“It is, I mean, the two most shocking things about it, the screen is matte, which you could not tell from the video, but it is nanotexture, which they said several times.”
Innovations in iOS for the iPhone Duo
13:32 to 14:00
Exploring new features in iOS tailored for the iPhone Duo experience.
Exploring iPhone Duo Features
14:00 to 18:00
Discover the new multitasking capabilities and software experiences of the iPhone Duo.
“So because it spends so much time thinking about its rotation centers, the angles of the screen, it kind of compels you to rotate it and fold it and move it around into all of its modes.”
Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 Insights
18:00 to 23:00
Learn about the new features and upgrades of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.
“And honestly, the story of iPad multitasking feels a lot like Apple changes it a little bit every year.”
AI Features in Apple Watches
23:00 to 28:00
Discuss the implications of AI listening capabilities in the new Apple Watches.
“We haven't started talking about the watches, so I should just lay out that Apple Watch Series 12 was announced.”
Show all 20 chapters
The Apple Watch as an Always-On Transcription Device
28:00 to 31:58
Explore the implications of the Apple Watch's new transcription feature and its challenges.
“And we have a reader question, which is, how do you feel about the Apple Watch being an always-on transcription device?”
Introducing the iPhone Duo's Under Display Camera
31:58 to 37:16
Discussion on the new under display camera of the iPhone Duo and its implications for users.
“It's fantastic being able to get your impressions hands on.”
Introducing the iPhone Duo's Under Display Camera
37:22 to 37:37
Discussion on the new under display camera of the iPhone Duo and its implications for users.
“and take complex actions across your entire organization.”
The iPhone Pro's Variable Aperture Lens
37:37 to 42:01
An examination of the new variable aperture lens in the iPhone Pro and its potential impact on photography.
“Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self.”
Camera Innovations in New iPhones
42:01 to 46:22
Explore the advancements in camera technology in the latest iPhones.
“But because the sensor was so small, the phone would just secretly use the main sensor and be cropping in.”
iPhone Pricing Strategies
46:22 to 50:28
Discussion on the recent price hikes across various iPhone models and implications.
“pro-photo, pro-video stuff to be fascinating.”
New AirPods Features and Market Position
50:28 to 53:13
A look into the new AirPods 5 features and their competitive pricing in the market.
“Last thing that I think we have to talk about is the AirPods 5.”
Apple's Photo Verification Technology
53:13 to 56:05
Insight into Apple's new technology to verify the authenticity of photos taken on iPhones.
“Yeah, I'm not sure if I would leap to the AirPods five.”
Apple's New Photo Verification Technology
56:05 to 59:15
Discussing Apple's innovative approach to photo authenticity with the iPhone 18 Pro.
“and it is like digitally signing the photograph pixel by pixel and then creating an uneditable reference image version.”
Apple's New Photo Verification Technology
59:21 to 1:00:07
Discussing Apple's innovative approach to photo authenticity with the iPhone 18 Pro.
“And we saw Apple kind of pulling those sort of like we're doing specialized, you know, co-processors throughout its devices today, as it talked about privacy and security.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Victoria Song:Propel Fitness Water with Gatorade electrolytes, zero sugar and vitamins. Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade electrolytes. This Labor Day at Lowe's, get up to 45 % off select major appliances. Plus, deals on select materials and tools to keep the job moving. Right now, get a free DeWalt 20-volt max battery 2-pack when you buy a select DeWalt 20-volt max tool. At Lowe's, we have what you need to keep your job moving. Battle through 913, while supplies last. Selection varies by location.
0:40Victoria Song:See Lowe's.com for more details.
0:47Hello and welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of none other than folding phones. I'm Jake Kastronakis, executive editor of The Verge. Joining me today, editors, Dom Preston. Dom, how's it going?
0:58Dominic Preston:Good. I'm tired, but I got a glass of wine, so I'm ready to go. Oh, perfect for a podcast. And editor, Cam Faulkner. How's it going? I'm not day drinking, but I kind of wish I was. It's 8 p.m. here. Yeah, it's not day drinking. I'm night drinking. Oh, it starts at 8 over there? Okay. Apple just wrapped up its big hardware event. The iPhone Duo launched the long-awaited foldable phone. We're going to talk about everything. This is actually a fascinating event, even beyond the fact that Apple now has a foldable phone. We're going to talk about all of that. There's the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with their variable aperture camera.
1:38There's two new Apple Watches, the Series 12 and Ultra 4, and sort of two new AirPods 5 models, too. There's also a new Apple CEO, and that's actually where I want to start. This is the first event for John Ternus as Apple CEO. he actually came out before the video started so for the folks who were in the Steve Jobs theater in Cupertino he spoke for a few minutes said some words that were I would say similar to what he said at the start of the event video but but uh not one for one um kind of introduced his philosophy on Apple and then did the same thing for the video that went out to the public So that's where I want to start.
2:18Dom, I'm curious. You've watched a million Apple event videos. How do you feel that John Ternus did in his first presentation as Apple CEO?
2:31Dominic Preston:Yeah, I think he handled it well. I mean, it's always going to be a kind of daunting thing stepping into this for the first time. And this is a big launch in a lot of ways, as you've already said. Lots of hardware, a big new category for Apple. So this launch really had to go right. I think he handled it pretty straightforwardly he kind of kept things pretty simple and understated I don't think they made a really really big kind of song and dance of it's the Turner show everybody be excited about Joe Turner they kind of know the average person is just like oh cool it's the new Mr. Apple let's move on and find out about some phones please very much and I think we've got a lot to talk about when it comes to Turner but actually we got some breaking news right at the top of the podcast which is that Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel is also about to join us.
3:16He's there in person in Cupertino, and he has had a chance to look at the iPhone Duo in person and give us a little bit of some impressions on what that is like. So he's still getting set up, but I'm very excited. Stay tuned. He will be with us in just a moment or so. So let's, I guess, start by just teeing up the Duo before Nilay gets here, which is uh this is apple's first folding phone dom you've touched i think most of the folding phones on earth um tell me where where are the big differences where are the big similarities
3:52Dominic Preston:just let's go high level for the moment yeah okay so high level i think the the really obvious thing is this looks a lot like samsung's galaxy z fold 8 uh which launched this summer and that's partly just the big thing which is this has that same passport size and shape uh design that we we kind of all new Apple was bringing. And we've seen Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi all introduce phones in that shape this year. And it kind of all looked like they were lining up because they knew what Apple had coming. That does seem to borne itself out. But I think it's kind of similar to that Samsung phone in more ways than that.
4:24Dominic Preston:But it's also a slightly lower spec device in some ways, particularly the cameras, you know, it's got the dual camera here. And really, once you dig into the details of the camera specs as well, this is not an iPhone pro level camera setup. And it's the same on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Samsung has the difference because it's got the Fold 8 and the Fold 8 Ultra. So it has that distinguishing kind of point there in its lineup. But this is not Apple trying to say, hey, this is the absolute best iPhone Pro model and it folds. It's saying you can get a kind of base iPhone experience and it folds. But if what you really care about is cameras and pro features and maybe better battery life, you might want to go for one of the two 18 pros we've launched alongside it and samsung has basically pulled the same kind of move with the way it set up its lineup absolutely so we've got a 5.4 inch outer display when you open it up it's a 7.6 inch display like you said it's sort of passport sized and it's it's in this interesting position where it's both leading the industry and everyone has beaten them because they all thought apple was going there i'm curious cam you're i think not a folding phone person or at least have not touched all of them the way that Dom has.
5:37When you look at the iPhone duo, does this look like an appealing shape to you, right? Like, is this a form factor that you can imagine feeling natural? Because I think that most humans have not held these. They're going to look at a photo and say, I can imagine myself using that and spending two grand on it, or I can't. Yeah, you know, you're right. I have not touched a lot of folding phones out there, but you know, this one seems appealing in its size like it doesn't seem too big which which i guess i would like as someone who's only ever had like a slab phone um you know folding phones have existed in some shape or form for you know i guess over five years at this point so you know landing on this form factor um i'm sure there's been a lot of like uh test studies done to to uh you know the thumb movement across the screen like they've done for all of the phones out there.
6:32Like it has to be optimal, like for Samsung and Apple to arrive at this form factor. So it's appealing for me. I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing that I would opt for over a slap phone at this point, but I definitely want to try it. I mean, I'll say like when Apple's showing off these videos, I'm looking at this and it looks far and away like the most polished foldable I've ever seen. That's in the videos. right? Apple is very good at that. You look at the photos, right? Allison, Neelai, they're in person. Antonio is there. They're taking some phenomenal photos of these devices. And it still looks very, very good in person.
7:11But you can also see the areas where it looks like a typical foldable, right? Like there's still sort of that interesting little layer above the screen that's sort of holding it in place on the inside. It's still like a little big around the rails in ways that a standard slab phone is not. I do suspect that in some ways the software may be what sets it apart here. iOS just looks very, very good. Dom, you've used the Samsung Fold 8 very recently. How optimized have they made Android for this experience? Does it feel more powerful in the way that you need it to yet?
7:50Dominic Preston:Yes and no. I think you've seen a spread of different responses to the way this is handled, which is both the way different OAMs have handled it and the way Google and Android have handled it. And then I guess there's a third thing, which is app developers. Google, I think, has been taking very slow steps to figuring out multitasking and kind of tablet and foldable friendliness in Android itself, and it's been a bit sluggish. We've seen some of the OAMs go a lot further. Samsung's got quite good multitasking on its folds. I'd actually say the leader in the category right now is Oppo, and formerly OnePlus, they've kind of got this point where you can have very dynamic multitasking with multiple apps open, which you kind of slide around the screen so that some slide off the screen partly, and you can pull them back in when you want.
8:34Dominic Preston:And you can have floating windows as well. So you can kind of have these dual layers of multitasking, and you can have an awful lot going on at once and a lot of flexibility in the way you want to multitask. What we've seen so far from the duo is just two apps side by side. So in that sense, in that kind of, I want to use two phones at once. This looks a lot more basic than what we're seeing some of the Android OEMs do. I think the big change, I'd say that there's been two big changes. One is on the OS level, we've seen these much bigger switches to how Apple is changing iOS itself to suit this.
9:06Dominic Preston:We've got this kind of shift of pulling the dock and the dynamic island and the status bar all into the right-hand rail, this whole new right-hand rail, which is a totally different way of building the OS. Google has not done anything that kind of comprehensive in changing the way Android should feel on a phone like this. So I'm really curious to see how that feels and how it works. Apple kind of emphasized it's about making it feel consistent, whether the phone is shut or open, all the controls are exactly where you expect them to be, rather than shifting around in place. And then the other big Apple thing is Apple's influence.
9:36Dominic Preston:They've already said they've got kind of big apps like Netflix on here, who've already optimized their apps for the foldable screen, and a lot more that they're going to work with to do that. Foldables have been niche, They have stayed niche. In 2025, they were 1.6 % of all global smartphone sales. That is a small category of smartphone. And so take that, throw in the fact that it's Android, and you can see that why many app developers have basically said, it is not worth my time to mess around with my code and figure out how to make my app work on the 1 % of phones that might run it. But Apple comes in and everyone's going to jump.
10:12And speaking of people coming in, We now have editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, who looks like he's right outside the Steve Jobs Theater. Nilay, thanks for joining us. Look at this place. I'm usually in the broadcast risers over there, but they don't allow live streaming inside, so I came outside. How are you doing? We're doing great. We're just talking about the iPhone Fold. You're there in person. What's the energy? What's the energy in the room? The energy is a million people correcting you for calling it the iPhone Fold. It's the iPhone Duo, bro. It is really exciting. It is, I mean, the two most shocking things about it, the screen is matte, which you could not tell from the video, but it is nanotexture, which they said several times.
10:51So it is a matte display. And then, you know, they said that the crease was perceptually not there, and it's not there. You can feel it, but you cannot see it, which is pretty overwhelming. So this is one thing I'm really curious about. They went into, like, they have the old layer display technology. They have some Apple-designed coding to make it stronger. But ultimately, Apple says the iPhone Duo, you can use the Apple stylus or the Apple pencil on it as a stylus. Does that mean that the inside screen is sturdier than all the other foldables that can crease with your fingernail? Because that's a big deal.
11:32It is. It definitely feels sturdier. It's hard to tell if it is sturdier. Uh, notably, I did not see any demos with the pencil. I think they announced the pencil support becoming later. So nowhere in the room that anybody was, anybody using pencil that I saw anyway. Um, maybe we'll see it later today as we move around the campus, but I don't really know. Um, I did try to push it. You know, you can't, you can't try to break their stuff too much on launch day. So I did, I did give it a little scratch with a fingernail. Nothing happened, which is to be expected. It doesn't feel soft the way that like first generation folding displays felt soft.
12:06It feels pretty sturdy. The phone overall, right? You got a chance to hold it. They said it's the thinnest iPhone ever when you open it up. How does it feel? How does it look? Does it feel and look like a more polished version of a foldable than the folds of the world? In the software, maybe not in the hardware. So in the hardware, because they've done so much work with the hinge, it's debatable. I think Dom could probably tell you more about the Android foldables of the world and like whether they've solved that hinge problem, which they all claim to have at this point. I know you just saw some at IFA, some of the newer ones at IFA.
12:41Yes, it's polished, but the remarkable thing about it is that they have reworked iOS. So all the controls on iOS are on the side. You know, they can tell apps hinge position. The Netflix demo is really cool. Depending on how you move the hinge when you've got it in that sort of like L shape, the reflection on the bottom screen changes because Netflix is detecting the hinge position to manage the perceived reflection on the bottom. This is just silly Apple stuff, right? When you open it, the blur effect going from one screen to the other is very thoughtful. It is really not just opening into an iPad the way that, at least my experience with Android phones, is they open into Android tablets, right?
13:20It is opening into something somewhat meaningfully different than a regular iPhone. That said, I think we're going to see a bunch of apps that are lazy and just do the auto layouts, and it is going to feel a lot more like an iPad. But of course, the demos we saw today are a little more thoughtful than that. did you have a chance to use it in both the slab mode and the unfolded mode i i'm curious how how distinct that is like is it is it just a standard iphone on the outside yeah when it's when it's folded it's an iphone it's just it's 90 of the area of like a 17 pro so it's definitely smaller and squatter um you know it but it's still an iphone it's just a smaller iphone the verge looks great on it i have to tell you like our cover is perfectly sized for the outer display and then when you open it, I think a really interesting experience just now is it really rewards you for moving it around.
14:05So because it spends so much time thinking about its rotation centers, the angles of the screen, it kind of compels you to rotate it and fold it and move it around into all of its modes. Part of that could just be, I'm in the demo environment and I want to try everything and that's very curious. But there's a part of this where you're going to unfold it and immediately rotate it into portrait because it is seamless to do it in a way that, you know, I think it's just reflects Apple's level of polishing. Well, we were just talking about that with Dom, about how the Android world has not quite polished the design yet and how multitasking is still a bit of a free-for-all.
14:41Dom, I'm curious, did you see things on the iPhone that felt new in the software? Because to Neelai's point, that does feel like what is most polished here over all the other foldables of the world.
14:53Dominic Preston:Yeah, totally. But I mean, really the same two things Neelai just called out, like the redesign to the iOS kind of dock and setup, just rethinking the whole structure of how you should access the OS and apps and the status bar and all this stuff to really make it be something that is not the same as an iPad, but is not the same as an iPhone either. And that idea of apps reacting to the hinge position in Android, an app is basically just like, oh, are you on the cover screen? Oh no, you're on the inner screen. And that's all it really ever seems to know. You get a little more with some of like Samsung's own apps, on their Z foot phones, They can do this kind of camcorder style filming setup when you have it half open.
15:30Dominic Preston:So there's clearly like the ability to do this. And Samsung on its own apps has baked that in a little bit. But even I can't think of anything other than Samsung's camera app that does this. And it sounds like Apple is going to push for people to do a lot more of it. How much that will work will say. I'm curious, what software experiences is Apple demoing there on the floor? You mentioned Netflix, but are they demoing the camera features, What dual screen capabilities are they trying to show people are the most valuable here? Yeah, it's everything you can think of. So they are showing Netflix.
16:05It's obviously just a Halo app, given that Netflix has the new TikTok mode. So they use the TikTok on the cover display, open it up, play a video, fold it over, see the reflections, see the control. That is just a very seamless demo. Everyone seems very happy about it. The camera features are all being demoed. The really fun one is the Snoopy mode for kids. So you just push the button. It has a kids mode. You push it. Snoopy starts doing stuff on the cover display to keep your kids' attention focused on it. I'm going to use that. They're obviously going to use that. The preview, the selfie preview, so you can take selfies with the rear camera.
16:38They're demoing that. All that's happening. They're demoing multitasking, which in my limited experience, just here trying the phone, is going to require learning a lot of moves. like everything you loved about classic ipad multitasking swiping up and pinning over and swiping to the side and like it's all back with a vengeance on this phone i really wanted to get a demo they showed it several times in the keynote of pinning a video to the top while you use an app at the bottom and i could not figure it out and the people around me were like maybe that's not supportive like there's stuff to be worked out in terms of what these moves are and how they work But pretty much every major software experience is there.
17:20They're not being shy about them. And a lot of the app developers, they're milling around. They got this preview at WWDC. And we saw those previews about automatic app layouts and stuff at WWDC. So a lot of apps have been reworked already for the demos today. Now, they got it on a month, right? This thing isn't shipping until October 23rd. So I think a lot of app developers now are going to be able to use the actual simulator, get hands on actual devices. And I bet we see a bunch launched like Zoom and Slack and others that were in the keynote that I didn't necessarily see today. Yeah, Apple is very specific about calling out the fact that they actually have support from real app developers, which feels like a big deal.
17:58It's interesting. You mentioned the iPad. And honestly, the story of iPad multitasking feels a lot like Apple changes it a little bit every year. And so on one hand, it's like, OK, so they have something different for the iPhone Duo. but that's kind of just par for the course that we're going to learn something new because it's a new year. You tested it a little bit. It didn't immediately feel obvious. Is that what you're saying? Or it's like, it's halfway, right? It's like you swipe some stuff and you kind of get there eventually. That's sort of how the iPad works. Well, yeah, it has been. I would say the iPad Pro multitasking is like headed to the Mac, right?
18:37It's headed towards freeform Windows and mouse support. I mean, that thing is just turning into a laptop. And so it's interesting to see the iPhone Duo turn itself into like an iPad of two years ago or three years ago. Like these are moving targets on a gradient. So all of, I think, the early moves on the iPhone Duo, they felt like a version of iPad multitasking that eventually just ran into the reality of people wanting their iPads to be maxed. I don't know if people want their phones to be maxed. So this might be more of the sets. It's not stage manager, fortunately. We haven't gone that far.
19:10There are some vibes, dude. You can put two apps in a set and move sets around. Like I said, it's a lot of moves and a lot of what, at least to me, feels like hidden UI. Now, I didn't get a chance to use this thing very long. Maybe it's not so good. But just in the moment, trying to set up two apps at once. It's like, what am I doing? And then you kind of get it. We have a question from the chat that I wanted to throw to you. Folks are curious if you had a chance to use any apps that were not optimized in both the folded and unfolded modes. Not really. I mean, the phones are preloaded with what they want you to see.
19:50So not really. There are a lot of apps on these devices, so I didn't use them all. But everything I saw, I mean, the iOS auto layout is pretty good. So even if it wasn't optimized, it filled the screen in a way that didn't seem completely broken. If you think about what's really happening here, it's a regular iPhone in landscape mode with a taller vertical area, and iOS is able to handle that pretty easily. Well, it's interesting because Apple referenced a bunch of times the fact that they supposedly revisited all of their apps and redesigned them and customized them for this experience. Did you see that?
20:33Do you see, does Notes look like a completely new app or are just some buttons moved to the side? Like, to your point, like most of these apps are already capable of scaling to different sizes of displays. Sorry, I see V song right here. What's up? Hi. There she is. Hello, V. And now I've done something to this interface to make it go bad. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It is, it's iPad stuff, right? There's a list on the left and then you see the content window on the right. You can resize that. If you have two apps on the thing, it's two iPhone windows. It is, in the best way, I don't mean this to sound like I'm denigrating the experience, in the best way, it's what you expect.
21:12There was nothing there that was particularly surprising and it shouldn't be surprising given that we're like 40 years into landscape computer displays. It's just the thing you expect. That both makes sense and also you don't know, right? I think the Android world has had a lot of growing pains, particularly when it comes to different sizes of displays. Apple, on the other hand, has spent years priming their developer community to make sure this stuff works. And I think it makes a lot of sense that in this environment, they're showing their Halo partner apps so that you know that Netflix is going to work perfectly.
21:50Did you have a chance to look at the Pro, the new watch? Is there anything else while you were in the hands-on area? I did have a chance to hang out with the Pro. There's nothing to say. It's a nice color. It looks exactly like the old Pro. I'm very excited about the variable aperture system. It is perfect lighting in there. There's not a phone camera in the world that isn't going to look good in Apple's demo environment, so who knows? I did my very best to make reflections sparkle with the closing on the aperture. I don't know, man. That stuff, you got to take it home and you got to put it under some stress to really see it.
22:33Every year, you know, I see Apple's camera people and they literally say things to me like, we meet again. So I'm excited. I'm excited for that one. I did not get a chance to see the watch, but V is right here. If you want to talk to her about the watch. I'm very excited to talk about the watch. We actually haven't started chatting about the watches yet. Yes.
22:54Victoria Song:What do you want to know about the watch? I can't hear. what they're saying. All right. We have virtually your reporter, V Song, surprise drop in with us. Hey, what's up? Oh my God. We haven't started talking about the watches, so I should just lay out that Apple Watch Series 12 was announced. Oh, no. Apple Watch Ultra 4 were announced. Both of them, I think, small hardware updates, right? It's like better sensors, better battery life. The big thing was AI. And I am very curious for your thoughts because they announced that these watches are going to listen to you all the time. yeah so um i'm actually gonna go have my little you know briefing on apple watch in a 20 minutes but uh so i don't know exactly about that stuff yet i do think that it's kind of you know apple coming out and being like hey we're in on the ai wearable game too but the difference is we're not choosing a different form factor we're doing a form factor that you already know and are familiar with, which is the watch on your wrist.
23:54Victoria Song:I will say I was really surprised to see that. I shouldn't have been considering what my beat has been this past year, but I was kind of surprised that Apple was coming out and doing this. I see my impression of Apple. We're going to murder Whoop, Apple. Yeah, he was out. He was next to me in the live blog going, Whoop, Goop. Is that a thing? And I was like, oh, my God. Yeah. OK. Whoop, Goop. Yeah. So the new sensor, looking at it up close, you can see what they are talking about. It is the same size, but they have something called a 32-petal design. So you're talking about the big sensor bulb on the bottom of the Apple Watch was upgraded.
Read the full transcript
24:32Yes, the sensor array.
24:33Victoria Song:It's like the first major upgrade we've seen to that array in, I think, the Series 6. So, you know, six Apple Watches ago was the last time we kind of saw that. It's not new sensors. It's improved versions of the existing ones. Yes. So the electrode that does the EKG sensors that has 32, like what they call them, pedals, but they look like spokes on a wheel. That's an increase of 30 because the current watches only have two. So supposedly that will help with increased accuracy. And also the light emitting optical sensors are much smaller and much more densely packed in the thing. You can see a comparison photo in my hands-on that's up on the site right now.
25:18Victoria Song:and that's supposedly going to stop light leakage. So you're going to get better skin contact with your wrist. And these things do matter. They do matter. Like sometimes we're like, oh, not that exciting, but they do matter in terms of accuracy. And that's one thing I'm going to be really curious and testing to see is the battery life because previously Apple has always limited the sensors to sampling your heart rate once every five minutes. And, you know, the whoops and the aura rings and the Fitbits, they are sampling much, much, much more frequently. And the one reason why the Apple Watch didn't do that in the past was to preserve battery life mainly.
25:54Victoria Song:So the fact that they're going to be doing it once every five seconds, which is a 60 times increase, that's interesting. And we'll see what it enables, the readiness feature, which a bunch of other whoop companies have had for years, that's going to be limited to the Series 12 and the Ultra 4 because it's going to require the new sensor array and the hardware that that enables. So we'll see. We'll see more surprising updates than I expected after a bunch of iterative ones over the last couple of years. But I am very curious to learn more about the AI intelligence audio stuff. That stuff, I was like, oh, oh, no.
26:34On the sensor array, if those improvements work, does that negate the need for a whoop, right? Like, does that just eat their lunch when it comes to that kind of, you know, detailed sensing?
26:49Victoria Song:Maybe. I always say with wearables that it's not accuracy, it's consistency. As long as it's consistently inaccurate by the same amount, you're still getting a very good experience because the main benefit of wearables is measuring your baseline over a long period of time. um so maybe it depends on like what future health um advanced health features are enabled by the more act the bigger accuracy like the big one on my mind is a non-invasive glucose monitoring the much higher stakes with those kinds of features and so when you have the higher stakes the accuracy matters more and we'll see will whoop get killed i think the thing killing whoop right now is their ridiculous subscription right so um i think the other screenless devices are a much bigger danger than an apple watch uh would be to whoop but we'll see based on the comments i've seen so far our readers are not a fan of the audio features of what that might mean for privacy so we'll see that that is the thing that i'm trying to wrap my head around most at the moment so yeah Yes.
27:57We actually have not gotten to the audio stuff yet. And we have a reader question, which is, how do you feel about the Apple Watch being an always-on transcription device? So high level, the Apple Watch now has an optional feature where it can listen to you at all times. And then you can press the dial, the crown in twice to get a 15 second rewind of what you've been hearing. And otherwise it will, I think, basically all day summarize what's been going on in your life. V, are there other devices like this? There are AI devices, but not like fitness devices.
28:36Victoria Song:Not fitness devices, no. So it's very interesting that Apple is kind of cramming that into the little wrist computer. But, you know, I've tested the Bee. I've tried quad note pins. I've tried various AI wearables that are listening to what you do all the time. And one thing I will say is that transcription, a lot of these devices struggle to differentiate your voice between broadcasts. So the Bee thought I was an elementary school teacher at Abbott Elementary. And a lot of the transcripts and recaps were just like, make sure the septa strike doesn't affect your students. And I was like, oh, so I'm kind of curious to see how it'll handle real life environments where you have ambient noise, where, you know, there's multiple people talking.
29:20Victoria Song:How intelligent is the intelligence? We'll find out. I've in my experience, a lot of times it's not that intelligent. I am a little relieved that it's not storing audio clips on the watch. So that's good, I think. But, you know, if you are someone who is interested in those kinds of transcription features, that might not also be good. Because, again, I wore the B. It didn't store the audio. And I read the transcripts and I was like, there is no way anyone in this office was talking about a cow in Poughkeepsie. but also it was recording my office co-workers talking about something in poughkeepsie so you know it's it's a can of worms i don't know how i feel about it you bring up a really fascinating point which is like there's actually two parts to this and one is it's just like it's kind of creepy and and maybe useless to record all this and the other is we don't even know if recorded accurately, right?
30:22Like this is a thing on your wrist all day long. It's not positioned.
30:27Victoria Song:It's not positioned right here, right? So ideally, when you want a most accurate transcript, it's going to be closer to the mouth of the speaker. And if you are someone who gesticulates a lot like I do, you know, sometimes the mic is not going to be anywhere near what you want transcribed. And if you're in a restaurant and it's noisy, like how are we getting these transcripts how are they going to actually work in a real life environment uh we'll see like are you gonna get a transcription of like the odyssey like if you like go to the movies is it gonna be like oh man odysseus has some problems that actually is a problem about how how well do they um transcribe audio i think in the keynote they say that it'll you can like program it for to be at certain times or at certain places and so that it won't necessarily be 24 7 on all the time that might actually be useful because ostensibly you want this for meetings.
31:19Victoria Song:But, you know, it also brings up legal questions. Can you subpoena? I don't know. We have the lawyer here. Can you subpoena your Apple Watch recording transcript if it's always on? Yikes! I believe I heard a probably from Eli off camera. He said, yikes! So, you know, these are the brave, new, scary, AI, wearable world that we're entering. Well, so Apple, I think, made a point of saying this is super secure, super private. They have some new hardware built in to make sure of that. V, thank you so much for joining us on the ground. Neelai, thank you as well. It's fantastic being able to get your impressions hands on.
32:02Those two have got to go. They've got to check out more stuff. And be sure to check out TheVerge.com. We'll have more. I barely have a job. Oh, just V. What are you talking about? You're like, you're still here. Fantastic. I'm just a mascot. I just run around being congratulated for working. Okay. Well, you know what? I've got some more reader questions for you that have been submitted in the chat. Maybe. One of the ones that I wanted to go in on is you saw the inside screen on the iPhone Duo. The under display camera, that is a first for Apple. Did you even notice it? Oh, yeah, it's there. It's there.
32:36It's there. Yeah, they haven't saw it. Yeah. I mean, what it is, there's a layer of screen over it. So when the screen is over it, it's there, but it's screened. You can see it. It's not like you have to go looking for it. It's there. But it is, you know, when you're watching a video or whatever, it's, I don't want to say imperceptible. It's there, but it's not a bother. Dom, the Android world has, I think, taken a couple different approaches to this. Have they gotten better on the Android side? Have they just given up?
33:08Dominic Preston:I think it's still about in that same space. They're there. But you can kind of forget it's there a bit, kind of in the same way people have gotten there with the creases on foldables. You sort of eventually just notice that little weird glitchy spot in the display and your brain starts filtering it out because it's always in the same place. I'm curious, Nia, if you actually got to try it and see what the camera quality is like, because that's been the bigger headache. I think it's just generally the quality of the footage is terrible out of these things. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting.
33:36they refer to the camera on the on the cover display as a center stage camera and the camera on the inside is a facetime camera and i think that tells you everything you need to know about what what these cameras are for so you know it's it's hard to tell on even that size screen uh but it is just very clearly the the outer display front-facing camera is better like you can just tell it's better uh the inner display is there for video conferencing if that's what you want to use it for? And then I think what they're really trying to get you to do is use the rear cameras for selfies. Because everything about that interface is like, why don't you flip this around a little bit?
34:11And then you're obviously getting the best quality. So I think that inner display is very much for Zoom, FaceTime. I don't think they're expecting you to run around actually taking photos or videos with it. You have not only the center stage camera, but you have the rear cameras, which if you've unfolded the phone, you should be using for anything that you'd be taking for this with. It's also worth noting while we're talking about the cameras, there is no Face ID on the front of the iPhone Duo. This is the first Touch ID phone in quite a while, I think since one of the iPhone SE models. Eli, I know they don't let you set up a Touch ID account while you're in there.
34:50Any quick thoughts on how that feels? You know, if it's folded, it's fine because you're just picking up and your thumb is right there. And they mentioned several times, they were very insistent on this, that you can enroll multiple fingers, which is just one of those dystopian phrases we've all gotten used to. You can enroll multiple fingers to your phone. Neat. Super consumer-friendly. The other thing that they were talking about a lot was you can pair it with your watch. And if you've got your watch unlocked, this thing won't lock. So, you know, the speed to unlock the Face ID is there. I obviously didn't get it.
35:24All these phones are totally unlocked. So there was no demo of paying for something or any of the million other things you might want to use Face City for password entry into multiple apps. Like, that's going to be a change. But they were very quick to make sure, you know, just unlocking the phone, just getting to it, your thumb is going to be in that spot when it's folded, which is pretty, I think, pretty familiar to how other iPhones and iPads are. This is also very standard in the foldable world. Obviously, it's a little bit of a change for iPhone users, but it does seem like it's not going to be a make or break situation.
36:01All right. To me, what it will be is literally all the other things Face ID does. Not unlocking the phone. It's password entry. It's authenticating into other apps. It's all that stuff we're just going to have to see. It's hitting it 100 times a day. Yeah. Okay, we've got to go to a break. When we're back, there's a whole lot more from this event that we've got to dive into. Support for the show comes from Ripley. Imagine you just found out your sales team is at risk of missing quota. No need to panic. Just ask Rippling AI. Since it's built on your real-time people and business data, Rippling AI can pull metrics from Rippling and Salesforce into a meeting-ready dashboard showing quota attainment, headcount trajectory, and monthly revenue to quota by region.
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38:21From athletic stuff like a full court pickup game, swish, to athletic stuff like a half mile stroll. Get those steps in. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic, Sierra's got it. That was fun. That was a high energy segment with folks popping in and out. Okay, we're back. We've got Dom, we've got Cam, Neelai is back outside the Steve Jobs Theater and has left us for now. The three of us still have a bunch to discuss. We talked about the iPhone Duo, we talked about the watches and their interesting privacy stuff. One of the iPhone things that we did not talk about very deeply yet is the iPhone Pro, which did not necessarily get any enormous updates, right?
39:16As a new color, as a new processor, the vapor chamber is, I think, three times as big. I think the single most interesting thing is the camera, which they announced the main camera now has what they called a variable aperture lens. Dom, I think you are one of the photography diehards on staff. I'm curious for your thoughts on this. Does this feel like it's going to be a meaningful change for photographers? To me, this sort of feels confusing, but I would love to hear your thoughts first.
39:49Dominic Preston:Yeah, I'm very curious to see how this really pans out in practice. To give context, this has been around on the Android side as a slightly niche flagship feature for a very long time. I think the first Android phone with some level of variable aperture, if I get this right, was the Galaxy S9 in 2018. That only had two different stops that could hit, and so the tech was coming away, but we've seen Samsung do this. We've seen Huawei do this. I think we've seen Xiaomi and Honor do this. So this is not something that Apple's kind of swung in and said, we've invented the variable aperture on a phone camera.
40:26Dominic Preston:It's another one of the bits like foldables. So the Android guys have been doing this for a long time, figuring it out. I think what's funny about this in terms of what makes me curious is the Android OEMs have not universally said, oh, this does make our cameras better. We're all going to stick with this and this is going to go in all our flagship phones. Mostly they've said this feels like an expensive feature that's a lot of bother that users don't care about that doesn't really transform the photography powers of our cameras. My memory is that Samsung dropped that feature the next year. Somebody should check me on that.
40:58It might have been like shortly thereafter, but it did not last long. So I should probably just break this down for those who are not like deep in the weeds in photography. The standard smartphone cameras, they're just wide open all the time. They're accepting as much light as possible, which is generally what you want on a tiny, tiny sensor that needs a lot of light to get a good image. on a standard camera with a big piece of film or a larger sensor, you can close the aperture to let in less light and focus the light a little bit more. That lets you get more things in focus and a deeper degree of sharpness throughout the image.
41:37It lets you get things further in the distance into focus. I think the question for me is, on a sensor that small, you're letting in less light. at what point is that actually just going to make the image so much worse that it's not worth using
41:55Dominic Preston:yeah i mean in general setting aside variable apertures for a second in general when we've looked at apatron smartphone you've just wanted the biggest one you can and and kind of we've hit a plateau there but mostly for a while you were just looking and it was a big kind of um level of competition in the phone world was who could get the biggest widest aperture they could fit in and you'd see the apertures kind of creeping up in wideness and down in number because it's measured weirdly um and and that was the kind of well the sensors are small the more light we can get the better this will do um going the ability to close the aperture a little like you say it's going to give you some shift in focus it gets you more depth of field you can have more of a natural bokeh effect which is something we see um more and more phone cameras trying to achieve and and kind of doing a good job with especially in the android side so i think that kind of natural portrait mode effect is one of the kind of knock-on effects you can get from being able to shoot with the aperture closed down a little bit then again you can only go to f4 on this and generally you know you're kind of pushing up to like f16 in sort of real cameras so you're still not really closing the aperture tiny it's not going to give you loads of depth of field it's just a little bit more and i think when the sensor is this small it's rare that you're going to want to close the aperture any it only really is going to end up triggering in particularly bright settings at least on the auto mode you know they've added in these pro camera controls so people might want to play around with this manually and kind of force the aperture to do things to get certain effects but in the manual mode sorry the auto mode i don't know how often this will actually really close very much um yeah i remember on the early uh iphones that added a telephoto lens i think this was like the iphone 6 7 era oh my gosh i'm sorry everyone um you know, they had this 2X telephoto and you would zoom in to try to use the telephoto.
43:44But because the sensor was so small, the phone would just secretly use the main sensor and be cropping in. And I think that situation has mostly resolved itself because the sensors have gotten bigger and the apertures have gotten wider. But I do think that's going to be a real problem here. You did mention something else, though, Dom, which is that they added these pro controls. and I think that is very, very interesting. They added additionally, they had some more photographic style options so that you can tune the style of the photos a little bit more and they added a whole suite of pro controls so that you can set the shutter speed, so you can set the aperture naturally and the white balance manually, which I think makes this a lot more powerful.
44:25I want to actually ask Cam because you tested the Pixel 11, which doesn't necessarily have that, although I actually, I think there maybe are some hidden pro controls. They recently added a whole bunch of new, their take on photographic styles. You got to use that for a bit. Did that feel overwhelming to you at any point? Or is that something as, you know, I think, tell me if I'm wrong, I think maybe a more casual photographer that you were able to get use out of. Yeah, it definitely seemed a little bit more geared toward casual photographers who do want a little bit more control. It's kind of interesting comparing the new iPhones to the latest Pixel phones because they're, you know, I think there's a realization in these companies that people want a little bit more control over their, over the photos that they take, whether it's tuning pro dials, like Apple's 18 pro series is, is focusing people in on, or, um, with Google, which is, you know, they have some of those dials as well.
45:21Can't quite remember off the top of my head, which ones are offered, but it's more about the, the camera looks. So it's like the, you see the end result before you take the photo rather than, you know, getting these pro tools in your hands like with adjustable aperture um which you know it's interesting i definitely want to try it um apple's use cases are always like they people look like they're shooting magazine covers and things like i'm not i'm not doing that in my normal life i'm sure i could achieve great results like neil i said you know the the room is is uh is lit just so so that practically any smartphone camera is going to look good in there but it did make me uh think about the pixel 11 series in a slightly less generous way because like the camera looks feature is is interesting um but nothing beats kind of the physical improvements to these sensors like whether it's telephoto optical zoom or variable aperture like that stuff is just really interesting to me so i'm very curious to see um what the results look like when we get the phones in our hands i i find apple's approach to pro-photo, pro-video stuff to be fascinating.
46:30Obviously, they think and are, I think, very bullish on their phones being used as these professional photography and video tools. Their events are now exclusively shot on their phones. To me, I see this and I go, obviously, these results are incredibly impressive, but that also comes when you can spend millions of dollars on sets and lighting and cinematographers and additional lenses put around them. But they are building in these pro capabilities for, you know, I think it's probably a small subset of people who can really make use of that power and would choose that over a dedicated camera.
47:10But, you know, on the other hand, it's something to be celebrated. Like, I'm not going to complain by any stretch, particularly, I suspect that a lot of the software features may end up being more useful, more powerful to people than the ability to close the aperture down. So one last thing on the iPhones, the iPhone Pro model, $100 more than last year. And Cam spotted right after the event, every other iPhone that Apple sells now costs$100 more. Is that, yeah, Cam, tell me about what you saw. I believe this is all of the old models that are still on sale that have not been refreshed. yeah yeah so there's there's a weird part of these events where um everything ends and then we just start crawling around apple.com um like gophers like looking for all these little changes uh when software is getting launched you know just things that don't um the fine print that doesn't get shared on stage um and i was just clicking around and i landed on some um iphone pages and uh specifically the 17e i was like 699 i feel like i was just considering that phone a little while ago and it wasn't that much and so i did a way back machine search and did another one and then i brought it to to the team and uh you all were just sort of like corroborating that and being like uh yeah i think this uh kind of snuck in during the event and that kind of started a search of uh the rest of the products and so far we think those are the only the only products that have been um price hiked i personally was a little worried about the apple watch se3 because that was unavailable to buy i was like i don't know i hope that doesn't go up in price but it seems okay but yeah um no seemingly no spec changes just a hundred dollar price bumps so uh it's a pretty sneaky way to deliver that especially if you're someone who maybe was waiting for the base iphone 18 to drop um it did not arrive we don't know when it's going to arrive apple has not said when and and quite the opposite uh yeah this is i think the first time that a year later it's always$100 less.
49:15This year, it's$100 more. And you pointed out nothing else got a price hike today. That is because Apple has been hiking prices all summer long. And I think the iPhone is sort of the last chip to fall. That was the big one that they had been holding for a long time. And I think the speculation was that they were probably eating a lot of the loss as these components got more expensive. The Wall Street Journal had a story out a couple months ago, speculating that for this generation of iPhone Pro, they might have to raise the price by$200 to make up the costs. This is, of course, from the RAM and overall memory crunch.
49:52They only raised it by$100. So I think some of the speculation now is that Apple's probably still eating some of that. That's not to say that they're not still making a hands-on profit here. But memory has gotten vastly more expensive. We actually have a fantastic piece from Ronnie Mola up on TheVirge.com about some of the origins of the RAM crunch. actually started before the AI boom. And that has just exacerbated it. It made it so much worse. And it seems that we are still years from a solution there. So I think unfortunate news for folks who are looking for cheaper phones. I think this is a very clear sign that we have a while to go.
50:28Last thing that I think we have to talk about is the AirPods 5. This, I actually wasn't necessarily expecting this. I think it has not been that long since the AirPods 4 came out. they streamlined this right the airpods 4 there were two models there was the airpods 4 and these are both the i think open ear they don't have the sealed ear tip and previously there was the standard model and then one with noise cancellation built in now it's one model the airpods 5 and well sort of one model airpods 5 with noise cancellation built in and then there's a bonus version that has stems where you can control the volume and uh wireless charging are either of you standards airpod standard airpods people i i have used the pros uh regularly for years now but the the open design i think has has not been my thing
51:21Dominic Preston:yeah i use a pair of bows uh earbuds at the moment but they are silicon tipped ones i i can't get on with the open-air design. I'm kind of remaining slightly amazed that it's stuck around so long. And then if anything, we've seen this kind of resurgence of people liking open-air and non-silicon-tipped earbuds. I want the seal and I want the ANC to be better. And ANC is bad enough on earbuds at the best of times. And you take away the silicon tip and it gets worse. And Apple is saying this is, you know, 50 % better ANC than last year and the best in any, you know, non-tipped version. So we'll see how that holds up.
51:55Dominic Preston:But yeah, I've never quite gotten on with this kind of style. I will say, like, we just talked about Apple phones getting more expensive. These did not, right? They start at$129. I believe the upgraded model is$149, which is actually, I think, cheaper than the AirPods 4 with ANC, which I think is very impressive and I think quite aggressive in the market. I feel like Apple does not necessarily always play by the same rules as other companies. But, you know, this is a market where you can get, I think, a beautiful pair of, you know, nothing earbuds that have ANC for, you know, under$100. The AirPods look quite reasonable in comparison.
52:35And I don't know about you both, but on the subway every single morning, I see people with, you know, a colorful array of earbuds designs. And I think the AirPods are certainly, you know, far and away the majority, but I don't think the market is exclusively theirs. And it does seem like it's a space that's price sensitive. So none of those upgrades still are going to sell you. Like Cam, I think you cover deals very closely. I'm curious your thoughts on the positioning here. do these airpods you know feel like they are positioned to take down the rest of that market or is this apple still just like kind of living in its own world here um i think it's a little bit of both i i was thinking about this before you asked because um uh you know the airpods pro 3 occasionally drop in price they're normally listed at 249 but they're almost never that expensive um normally they're 199 189 um a couple months ago i think they dropped down to one 169 or 179 so i think like apple's mo is just offering something at every kind of price point but um the the 149 price point for the apple or the airpods 5 with the wireless charging case i feel like the pro 3 offers just enough more um of course i'm looking at a spec sheet it's got the heart rate sensing um better battery life um not really all that much more that's uh improved over the AirPods five, aside from the noise isolating tips.
54:10Yeah, I'm not sure if I would leap to the AirPods five. But you know, if that's your budget, and you're cool with the fit, it's probably it's probably an okay way to go. Well, you bring up a really good point, which is I think when it comes to the iPhone, the price of the price, like you're gonna pay that price, you can pay it in different ways, you can pay it in installations, but like, you're gonna pay that price. And when it comes to the AirPods, it's the very rare Apple product where the price is totally fake. If you buy it from apple.com, that's what you pay. But if you go anywhere else, most weeks of the year, you're going to get some kind of deal on it that I think, and because it's an Apple product, you're like, oh man, that's like, I feel pretty good about getting this.
54:48So I do think there's a real question here of, you know, is this the AirPods five's price or is it going down? Or Or does this spell the end of some of these deep discounts on the AirPods Pro 3? Or does Apple just need to launch an AirPods Pro 5 to get these numbers on the same page? Because this is too much. I think it's an interesting strategy. I think I'm very glad to see ANC become standard. That feels like essential in 2026. And at$129, even if that is the price, I think that's actually quite aggressive for Apple, particularly with the set of features that they're offering. Wireless charging is a bit of a bummer to not have, but that's actually not uncommon at earbuds at that price point.
55:32I think those are all the big things. I'm curious, are there any other highlights that I think we didn't touch on that you guys are like, Jake, why have we not talked about this? Or anything from the chat that we should pull in just before we dip out?
55:48Dominic Preston:We didn't talk about the Apple reference image in the pro camera, which is really interesting. This kind of synth ID related ability to verify that a photo was taken on an iPhone 18 Pro and it is like digitally signing the photograph pixel by pixel and then creating an uneditable reference image version. So you can always verify this was the original shot taken on my iPhone 18 Pro. Yeah, this was wild. They announced this and it felt like they went above and beyond. So this is a thing that's been brewing for a couple years now outside of Apple. I remember, I think it's, what, maybe it's two pixels ago, they added a feature where the camera will sign the photos and it will say, taken by a camera, which feels weird, feels very weird.
56:47And that's not like a perfect system. But Apple, what are they actually doing here? Do we know yet? Because they said there's literally a digital negative that will prove out the veracity of your photo, which I do think may actually be taking this to another level beyond what we've seen from other manufacturers.
57:08Dominic Preston:Yeah, I mean, the claim seems to be not just that the file itself that you take kind of marks it as this was taken on a camera, this was taken on an iPhone, but really that there's this this file in your in your iCloud or somewhere that you can kind of point to and show to someone and say hey look here's this photo here's this file and it proves this is a real photo i took not something i made with ai i don't know like how you're going to access that and use it to verify things and and who they think is going to be in a position to do that and whether those people which really screams like journalists and professional context are they really taking all their photos on an iPhone anyway.
57:45Dominic Preston:Maybe some, but you know. I get the impression there's like a very small contingent of people who care very deeply about building these features and they're fighting the good fight. Like this stuff is crucially important in a world where you can prompt anything and have it generate very quickly. And right now, I think it still feels so intangible in some ways because for the most part of photo, you can tell what's happening And that's not where the, this metadata often gets stripped as it gets uploaded to different platforms and shared around. I think that is one of the bigger problems. Apple's ability to, I think, give you that additional layer of evidence and proof.
58:28It's going to be fascinating to see that play out. And if that's something that people are actually able to lean on and rely on. I agree. That's like quietly one of the bigger deals of the software features announced at this event.
58:38Dominic Preston:I'm actually not even sure it's the software feature, though, although it clearly is partly. But they say that it is the sensor in the main camera that is doing this somehow. So this is, although they kind of bury this slightly, because I think they want to sell the idea that every photo you take with your iPhone 18 Pro will do this. It actually reads more like every photo you take with the main camera in your iPhone 18 Pro will do this. Maybe that's not true, because they could obviously use the main camera to capture something kind of behind the scenes of your telephoto and shot to still use it.
59:10Dominic Preston:I don't know. um but this on some level it's a hardware feature but they've been they've not gone into a lot of detail about what exactly is happening there it just says uh it's powered by the new sensor in the main camera that can sign every pixel it sees oh that is that's really fascinating that it is a hardware level authentication i mean in that case this seems like something that is potentially going to be something that we'll have to see if the industry adopts that kind of technology spreads that sounds, I mean, that is kind of the level of veracity you need in order to prove this stuff is real.
59:44And we saw Apple kind of pulling those sort of like we're doing specialized, you know, co-processors throughout its devices today, as it talked about privacy and security. So that's very interesting to hear. Okay. I think that's all the big products. This is a really, really interesting event, I think even beyond the iPhone Duo. We're going to have a ton more at TheVerge.com. If you haven't already, please head there. We've got hands-on coverage with the iPhone Duo, the iPhone Pro, the Apple Watches. We're going to have a bunch more from Allison and V on the show tomorrow. So please stay tuned.
1:00:21And thanks so much for joining us. This is an interesting one. That is it for myself and Dom and Cam. Remember, you can subscribe to The Verge for ad-free episodes for podcasts, exclusive newsletters, and a whole lot more. We also love hearing from you. Email us, vergecasts at verge.com, or you can call the hotline 866-VERGE-11. The Vergecast is a production of The Verge and Vox Media Podcast Network. Today's show is produced by Eric Gomez and Travis Larchuk. See you next time. Rock and roll. Labor Day savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at$399. Plus, save up to an extra$1 ,000 and get free delivery on appliance purchases of$998 or more.
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From the publisher
Live from Apple Park, Nilay Patel and Victoria Song join Jake Kastrenakes, Dominic Preston and Cameron Faulkner to talk about the iPhone Duo and the new Apple Watches. We also talk about the new iPhone 18 Pro's variable aperture and the AirPods 5.
Further reading:
All the news from Apple’s ‘Surprise and shine’ event
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