Apple has set Tuesday for a home-focused launch, the next iOS 27.2 beta arrived with a redesigned Health app, and iPhone Duo pre-orders open on Friday night.
iPhone Duo pre-orders open Friday night
Pre-orders for iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable iPhone, open at 11pm AEDT on Friday, 16 October, with phones due on sale from Friday, 23 October. It starts at $3,499 including GST for the 256GB model, in star white and night sky, and is eSIM-only. Closed, it has a 5.4-inch outer display; open, a 7.6-inch inner screen — Apple’s largest iPhone display to date. It uses the same A20 Pro chip as iPhone 18 Pro. A Duo Case is $119, and a Folio with a kickstand is $199.
Apple is letting customers configure a shopping bag ahead of time, including trade-in and financing if you need them. Save your choices before 3pm AEDT on Friday and you can check out with one click when pre-orders go live at 11pm. Given the supply reports last week, popular configurations may not stay at October delivery for long.
Apple confirms a Welcome Home launch
On Thursday, Apple announced a “Welcome home” launch for Tuesday, 13 October, with an in-person experience for media in New York at 9am local time — 11pm AEDT here. There will not be a streamed keynote; the products are expected to arrive as press releases that evening. The company is widely expected to introduce its long-rumoured smart home hub, a new HomePod mini and an updated Apple TV, along with accessories developed with LG. Until Tuesday, that’s still expectation rather than fact, but the date is now official. Australian pricing and availability will matter more than the US figures once Apple publishes them.
iOS 27.2 beta 2 brings the new Health app
Apple released the second public beta of iOS 27.2 on Tuesday, the first major follow-up to the iOS 27 release in September. The redesigned Health app, first shown at the iPhone 18 Pro event, is in this beta, along with Dual Capture in Group FaceTime, Apple TV app profiles on iPhone, and Siri AI in French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. The public release is expected later this month. You don’t need to run the beta to get those features when it ships. iOS 27.1 is being reserved for iPhone Duo.
More products may follow later in the month
Beyond Tuesday’s home event and the Duo launch, reports point to another round of hardware later in October, including a redesigned iPad mini and new Macs — among them high-end MacBook Pro models rumoured to add OLED displays and touch. None of that is confirmed, and it’s the sort of rumour that can slip by a week or two. Tuesday and Friday are the dates that matter this coming week.
What to watch next week
The Welcome Home announcements land late Tuesday night, Australian time. iPhone Duo pre-orders follow at 11pm Friday. If you’re aiming for a launch-day phone, have your configuration, Apple Account and payment ready before then.
