I used Google Gemini to design the next iPhone. Here are the hilarious results
Macworld AI is everywhere. Whether we’re talking about Apple Intelligence, Genmoji, Siri, Gemini, or ChatGPT, it’s hard to avoid the sudden infusion of bots on our iPhones, Macs, and just about every other device we use. And it’s not about to stop anytime soon. Apple Intelligence is set to have a huge year in 2026, with the new and improved Siri finally getting its moment in the spotlight. In fact, Apple is rumored to be partnering with Google as the foundation for the new Siri, with a custom large language model with a reported 1.2 trillion parameters. That’s a lot of Gemini. With that in mind, I recently turned to Google’s chatbot to see what it knows about the iPhone, specifically the upcoming foldable iPhone. While the results were impressive and fantastical, it’s a far cry from anything Apple will release next year. But it gives a good glimpse into what Gemini can do and how it thinks. Let’s dive in. The Gemini iPhone: Features and specifications Before I cover the prompts I used to design a foldable iPhone, it’s important to point out that the process is usually much more elaborate. Designers hold focus groups, make “mood boards” to capture colors, text, and formatting ideas, and then develop detailed design specs. It’s not an easy process and can often take weeks or even months. I remember visiting Frog Design — the design lab famous for working with Apple in the early days — and talking about the highly technical process they use to determine user intent. I mention all of that because Google Gemini seems blissfully unaware of what it actually takes to design a product. The bot was happy to take my basic design concepts and dive right into creating an AI-generated mock-up. That said, Gemini is helpful for quick images to help you see what the final product might look like. I started by listing a few basic specs and asked Gemini to include a holographic display that emits from a tiny projector. Here are the prompts I used:Design a foldable iPhoneMake it thinner than the iPhone AirUse two displays that fold — about eight inches diagonallyProject a holographic display onto a tableUsing a tiny projector lens Of course, you can elaborate even further and write an entire page of instructions. Next, I asked Gemini to take my feature list and flesh it out more. I was impressed with the level of detail and excited to see my first design mock-up. Here’s part of the specs: FeatureSpecificationRationaleHolographic ProjectorMicro-LED or DLP Projector with a tiny, integrated lens.The core innovation, allowing for shared, interactive, and spatial computing experiences.Projected DisplayProjects a holographic image onto a flat surface (e.g., a table).Allows users to interact with a 3D or 2D interface (e.g., a full-size virtual keyboard, shared game board, or large-scale document) beyond the physical screen size.Camera (Internal)Under-Display Camera (UDC), likely 24MP resolution.Eliminates the notch/hole-punch for a truly seamless main screen experience.Biometric SecurityTouch ID integrated into the power button.A reliable and space-efficient solution compared to implementing Face ID on a foldable screen. The Gemini iPhone: First design mock-ups Gemini had listed the design specs and even named the device the Helios, which has a nice ring to it, though I prefer iPhone Fold myself. I then asked Gemini to show me the initial design mock-up. The first design iteration was not quite right, though — which is par for the course with modern chatbots. The design was far too thick, the projection didn’t look remotely possible, and in many ways, the device didn’t even look like an iPhone at all. And it didn’t actually fold. Google Gemini made some educated guesses about the next iPhone at first.Google Gemini/Foundry Yet, I only had to type in a few more prompts to adjust the mock-up. For example, I asked Gemini to make the phone thinner than the current iPhone Air, and that worked wonders. I also had to tell Gemini to make the projector lens much smaller. Chatbots respond to specific commands. “Make the design thinner” doesn’t work as well as “make the design thinner than the iPhone Air” because there’s a reference point. The next design looked better: Google Gemini made a valiant second attempt at this design, showing a foldable phone.Google Gemini/Foundry I wasn’t quite ready to accept the mock-up, and this is where you can really benefit from the instant gratification aspects I mentioned. I asked Gemini to start over with a new design, taking all of my previous comments into consideration. Lo and behold, Gemini created a mock-up that was quite impressive. It “felt” much more like an Apple product as well. I finally could live with the basic design for the holographic display, even if it wasn’t perfect. The iPhone Fold design by Google Gemini, a third attempt.Google Gemini/Foundry The Gemini iPhone: Tweaking the design and the mock-ups Once you have a design you like, it’s possible to then make minor adjustments — as long as you are specific about the prompts. For example, I asked Gemini to make the design “just a hair thinner” and that worked because Gemini understood my intent. It was also easy to change the color. I used this prompt: “Don’t change anything about the design except the color of the phone. Make it all white not black or silver.” Amazingly, that worked instantly and I felt like the design was starting to take shape. I decided to have some fun with my design and asked Gemini to put the phone in a coffeeshop instead so I could envision what it would look like in a familiar setting. I asked Gemini to put people in the background as well. Here’s what that mock-up looked like: Google Gemini can change the color of a mock-up very quickly.Google Gemini/Foundry Gemini surprised me with my next request. I asked the bot to add Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, to the photo. I was shocked because I didn’t think a Google product would take a recognizable person (even though he is a public figure) and add him to an iPhone mock-up image. However, Gemini was happy to oblige even if the result looked a bit comical. The phone was way too big, and the person in the photo didn’t really look completely like Tim Cook (who wears glasses). Google Gemini mock-up of someone who kind of looks like Tim Cook holding an iPhone Fold.Google Gemini/Foundry What’s wrong with this process Designing the next iPhone took me about 30 minutes, including all of the back-and-forth with Gemini asking for design tweaks. Anything worth doing and worth doing well takes time, though. Think of building a business. You can’t come up with an idea and launch a company in five minutes. You have to study your demographic audience, understand their motivations and desires, tap into their felt needs.  Creative work is the same. While I loved seeing instant results, I didn’t feel the final design relayed a working prototype of a legitimate product that could exist in the real world. Icons were too small, speaker holes were everywhere, the selfie camera is impractical, and the whole thing is just way too big. And none of the images showed a phone with an actual folding screen. Yet, it all seemed like an illusion. What was missing was the full design process — what are the user expectations, how does it compare to other devices, and who will actually use it? My main takeaway is that Gemini is a fine way to envision initial sketches, almost like the napkin phase of design, where you are roughing out an idea. When I asked Gemini to list all of the design specs and features first, eventually, things started to take shape a bit more.  It’s hard to say how this will translate to a Gemini LLM on the iPhone, but it’s a look into why Apple has taken such a long time to deliver its next-gen Siri. AI doesn’t live in the real world — it is a figment of our imagination. And the Gemini-powered Siri will need to have a much firmer grasp of reality.

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Real Madrid working with Apple to create 2026 immersive documentary
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez has confirmed that the club is collaborating with Apple on an immersive documentary set for release… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Amazon slashes iPad 11 to just $279 for Black Friday Deals Week
Apple's 2025 iPad 11 is discounted to $279.99 as Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week kicks off. Plus, save up to $293 on iPad Air and iPad Pro models.Amazon's iPad deals start at just $279.Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week runs November 20-28, and includes fresh price drops on numerous Apple products, including the iPad 11 for $279.99. This special price reflects a $70 discount off retail on the standard 128GB Wi-Fi configuration.Grab the $279 iPad 11 deal Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Black Friday sale slashes the better-than-AirPods Beats Studio Pro to an insane $150
Macworld We listen to music while working, commuting, traveling, cleaning, shopping, and so on, and we know you do too. So why not do it in style? The gorgeous Beats Studio Pro just got an insane 57 percent discount at Amazon this Black Friday. That means you can get a pair for $150, the best price we’ve ever seen and $50 under the previous all-time low. The Beats Studio Pro are some of the best headphones out there, delivering rich sound whether you’re listening to your favorite tracks or taking calls. If you connect them to your device via USB-C, you can even enjoy lossless audio for an even better listening experience. You can either go with the fully-adaptive Active Noise Cancelling, or pick the Transparency mode to actually listen in on the world around you. The Beats Studio Pro have an impressive battery life, with up to 40 hours of listening time on a single charge, while a quick 10-minute recharge provides an extra four hours of playback. When we reviewed these headphones, we gave them a 4.5-star rating and their coveted Editors’ Choice award, praising the Beats Studio Pro for how lightweight they are and how clean and balanced the audio is. So go treat yourself and grab a pair of Beats Studio Pro for $150, the very best price we’ve ever seen. Get the Beats Studio Pro for 57% offBuy now at Amazon

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Apple TV's 'The Hunt' has disappeared days before its premiere
"The Hunt" was set to debut on December 3, 2025, but it's been removed from the Apple TV app and elsewhere with no explanation as to why."The Hunt," or "A l'ombre des forets," has disappeared from Apple TV listingsThis comes just weeks after Apple TV also postponed the premiere of "Savant" shortly before it was set to air. At the time, it was rumored that the decision was made following the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.Now, it appears that another Apple TV show has been canned at the final hurdle. Although this time, Apple TV has yet to comment on the move. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Matter 1.5 adds security cameras and much more for the first time
The latest update to the Matter smart home standard has launched today: Matter 1.5. The headline news is that smart cameras get support for the very first time. This effectively brings HomeKit compatibility to a much wider range of cameras, and this is not the only new product category included in today’s launch … more…

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CSA's Chris LaPre gets candid about camera support in Matter 1.5
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Major Matter 1.5 update official, finally delivering camera support & more
After a run of minor updates, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has officially announced Matter 1.5, bringing long-awaited support for cameras and much more.The Matter 1.5 update has been long awaitedMatter, the unifying smart home standard, has only been around since 2022. Developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), a member-driver organization, it has seen at least two updates each year.Earlier in 2025, it released minor spec bumps, bringing primarily quality of life improvements. Now, Matter 1.5 is being rolled out with new device types and other improvements that will potentially come to supported platforms — including Apple Home. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple generates $2.4 million per employee but is only third in tech ranking
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DoorDash confirms user data theft for an unknown number of customers
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iPhone assembly is shifting to India, but Chinese workers still face long hours for low pay
A new report into iPhone manufacturer Foxconn's operations in China claims it is still using more temporary staff than the law allows — but also that the Chinese efforts are losing out to India.Crowds of workers at the end of their Foxconn shift in Zhengzhou — image credit: Gilles Sabrie for Le MondeApple launches its new iPhones every September — although that may be changing — and consequently manufacturers are at their busiest in the summer. Without fail, Foxconn has for years hired very many temporary staff, such as 50,000 more in August 2024 for the iPhone 16 range.Once the iPhones have launched and demand has been met, Foxconn lets those workers go. As Le Monde describes in a new report, it makes iPhone assembly seasonal work. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Amazon Black Friday Deals Week starts now, Apple gear on sale from $9.98
From blowout prices on Apple Watches to savings of up to $500 off Macs, Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week is off to an aggressive start, and we've rounded up the deals worth buying.Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week slashes prices on Apple - Image credit Amazon, AppleSave up to 51%: Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week offers holiday discounts on Apple products, third-party electronics, and more. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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AirPods Pro 3 Black Friday deal now live at $220 all-time low
The official AirPods Pro 3 Black Friday deal is now live at Amazon. Amazon’s 2025 Black Friday week sale is now live and offering Apple’s brand new AirPods Pro 3 at $219.99 shipped. more…

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AirPods Pro 3 Black Friday deal now live at $220 all-time low
The official AirPods Pro 3 Black Friday deal is now live at Amazon. Amazon’s 2025 Black Friday week sale is now live and offering Apple’s brand new AirPods Pro 3 at $219.99 shipped alongside AirPods 4 with ANC at the $109.99 all-time low. more…

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M5 Vision Pro goes on sale in two more countries as gradual global rollout continues
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Doordash data breach exposes names, addresses, phone numbers, and more
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Another Apple TV show has been pulled from the release schedule at the last minute
In September, Apple controversially cancelled the launch of new series The Savant, seemingly in the wake of the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk. The company said it looks forward to releasing the show at a later time, but two months on, there’s still no release date in sight. It’s listed as “coming at a later date” in the TV app. Meanwhile, Apple TV has perhaps just repeated the same fiasco for a second time. The service was set to premiere French-language series The Hunt on December 3, having released a trailer earlier this month. But now, all references to The Hunt have been scrubbed, including removal of the press release from the Apple TV PR newsroom and the YouTube trailer is now marked private. more…

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6 reasons why your new Mac needs a second storage drive
Macworld Black Friday season is upon us, and that means it’s a great time to find a bargain or two on one of the best Macs around. Whether you’ve just pulled the trigger or simply have your eye on a new computer, though, there’s one thing you should really consider: pairing it up with a capacious external storage drive. Why? Well, there are plenty of reasons, from freeing up precious internal space to saving you wads of cash. And with SSD prices getting lower all the time, there’s no need to opt for a slower hard disk drive (HDD). Pick up an external drive and you can elevate your Mac experience, particularly if you don’t travel with your device a lot. Here are six reasons why you should consider getting an external storage drive for your Mac. Save money We all know that Apple’s Macs are pricey machines, but there are a few areas where this is starker than with their internal storage. Upgrade a drive in the M5 MacBook Pro from 512GB to 1TB, for example, and you’ll have to pay $200. For a 4TB drive, meanwhile, the upgrade cost is an enormous $1,200. That’s a pricey decision for anyone who wants a built-to-order Mac. Thankfully, external storage is nowhere near that expensive. A 1TB external SSD can be yours for under $100, while you can snag a 4TB drive for well under $300. There’s no need to pay Apple’s extortionate prices. Granted, there are some caveats. Apple’s SSDs are incredibly fast and are likely to be much zippier than any external drive you pick up (even if you get an SSD instead of an HDD). There’s also the hassle of having a loose storage device cabled up to your Mac. But for the massive savings you can make on an external drive, that’s often all worth it. Storing large files and apps Add a few oversized files and apps to your Mac, and its internal storage can quickly become overloaded. That’s especially true if you opted for one of the smaller storage options, but it can happen to anyone who has used a Mac for long enough and built up a sprawling library of files. That’s where an external drive can come in handy. Instead of constantly performing organizational gymnastics and deleting old files just to free up a few scraps of space, buy a spacious external storage drive and use that instead. As we saw earlier, it’s much cheaper to purchase an external SSD than to pay for one of Apple’s own internal upgrades, and it has the added benefit that you can take your drive anywhere and connect it to a different Mac and still have access to your files. You can even install apps on connected drives and use them that way. Just make sure the storage device is connected to your Mac whenever you want to run the app. Using an external storage device with your Mac provides the user with a lot of flexibility.Thomas Bergbold Time Machine backups Backing up your Mac is incredibly important if you don’t want to lose all your important documents should the worst happen and your Mac dies. But if you’re intimidated by the various options at your disposal and how you actually go about backing up your files, getting an external drive could be the ideal solution. All you need to do is connect it to your Mac and set it up as a Time Machine drive using our simple instructions, and you’re good to go. Keep it hooked up and your Mac will back up on its own schedule, without you needing to lift a finger. Considering how affordable spacious external disks can be, that’s a great way to ensure your files are safely protected should your Mac kick the bucket. And for an extra layer of protection, you might want to harness the powers of a cloud backup app to keep your files sequestered offsite. That’ll keep them safe if both your Mac and external drive are taken out of action. Easy replacements There was a time when you could open up a Mac and swap out its internal storage. Unfortunately, those days are long gone now, meaning that once you’ve made your choice and bought your Mac, you’re stuck with whatever internal storage capacity you opted for. That’s not the case when it comes to external disks, however. They’re far easier to chop and change–just connect a different drive up to your Mac and away you go (provided it’s formatted for macOS, that is). If your external drive dies, there’s no need to worry about a costly trip to the Apple Store for a laborious replacement, either, as you merely need to get a cheap replacement drive to step into the breach. That means that substituting an external storage disk isn’t as much of a problem as swapping out a dead or insufficient internal SSD. Versatility We’ve alluded to it a little in previous sections, but a key advantage of using a peripheral storage drive is its versatility. You can connect and disconnect it whenever you need, put whatever you want on it, hook it up to a different Mac, format it for Windows and other operating systems, and more. And when you’re done with your current Mac, you can keep your external drive and use it with whatever device you buy next. It can keep up with your evolving needs, giving it a degree of flexibility that you don’t get if you stick with the drives already inside your Mac. With those, you lose them as soon as you sell or recycle your Mac. Not so with a separate SSD. Safer beta testing Software betas are a good way to try out new macOS features before they’re released to the public, but they’re also a good way to render your Mac inoperable if something goes wrong. Betas tend to be full of bugs and glitches, and while many will be fairly harmless, there’s a chance you could encounter one that causes damage and requires you to factory reset your Mac, potentially erasing your files in the process. Many companies have the option to buy an empty case so you can use an SSD module you already have.Thomas Bergbold That’s why it’s a great idea to not only back up your Mac, but to install macOS betas to an external disk drive. If you must run beta software, doing so this way creates a degree of separation between your important documents and the beta. It means that if you run into a serious bug and need to reinstall macOS, you only need to do so on the connected drive, not on your Mac itself. That way, you shouldn’t need to erase your primary disk drive and lose any files stored on there, enabling you to continue testing out the beta without as much of the risk attached to it.

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Apple Black Friday deal: up to $250 gift card with purchase of Mac, iPhone, iPad and more
The Apple Store today announced its Black Friday shopping event, which runs November 28 through December 1. Shoppers can get up to a $250 gift card when buying eligible Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch and more. Apple’s gift card promotions don’t generally represent the best value for money. For instance, you can buy AirPods 4 on Amazon right now discounted more than the $25 gift card value Apple is offering in this promotion. Similarly, the 15-inch MacBook Air is discounted by $250 right now on Amazon, exceeding the $200 gift card Apple is offering … As always, for the best deals around, check out 9to5Toys. more…

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MacBook Air Black Friday deals: Prices slashed to $749 at Amazon
Official Amazon Black Friday MacBook Air deals are in full swing, with $250 price cuts on both 13-inch and 15-inch models.Amazon's Black Friday MacBook Air deals are live - Image credit: AppleAmazon's Black Friday Deals Week offers heavily discounted prices on MacBook Air and Apple Watch models. On the MacBook Air side, you can grab a $250 discount on both 13-inch and 15-inch retail models, with prices dipping to as low as $749.Amazon's best Black Friday MacBook Air deals Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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