thats Duo
written the night before I pick it up.
Foldable phones have been around for almost 8 years.
8 years is long enough for something that once felt new to become part of everyday life for many people. But I won’t own my first foldable phone until tomorrow.
And yes, it’s because of Apple.
That probably isn’t the most rational answer. But we can leave the question of whether it’s worth buying for the review. Before that, I want to share a small detail that matters to me.
In 2010, not long after the first iPad was introduced, Steve Jobs was asked about flexible screens in an interview. He said Apple didn’t yet have the technology, and it might take a few more years.
Back then, asking about a screen that could bend meant asking about the future.
A year later, on September 30, 2011, Apple filed a patent application for flexible electronic devices. Among the 6 inventors was a man named John Ternus.
5 days later, Jobs passed away.
And 15 years later, the man whose name appeared on that patent stood onstage at an Apple event and introduced a phone called iPhone Duo.
Put those dates together, and it feels like a short story. An interview, a patent, a launch. You can tell it in a few sentences. But those few sentences cover 16 years.
And 16 years is a long time.
Yet what we see is usually just a handful of moments people remember. The ordinary days in between, with no launches, no applause, and no one knowing what might eventually come of it all, don’t make it into a product presentation.
Of course, these dates don’t prove that today’s Duo came from that patent. Nor was it a product plan left behind by Jobs. The story of how technology develops is often more complicated than the story we’d like to read.
But for me, just knowing his name was there all those years ago makes it feel a little different.
Over the years, many Apple products have moved me. I also know that liking a company’s products doesn’t mean everything it does is right, or that every wait will end with something you’re happy with.
Still, knowing all that doesn’t make me look forward to this any less.
So I went ahead and placed an order.
Tomorrow morning at 8, I’ll pick up my first foldable phone. Then I’ll transfer my data, open the apps I use every day, reply to messages, read a few things, and take some photos.
Really, it won’t be so different from today.
I don’t need to rearrange my life just because I’ve bought a phone that folds. What I really want to know is whether it makes the little things I already do a bit easier, or gives me a way to use it that I hadn’t thought of before.
As for all those thoughts about the future and the passing of time, I’ll leave them here for now. Finding out whether the phone is any good starts with those little things.
The launch is over. Life with the phone is just beginning.
For now, that’s where I’ll leave the story of those 16 years.
Tomorrow is our first day together.
see you tomorrow.
