Apple Reportedly Considered Going Full Palm Pilot With Its Foldable iPhone

If your memory goes back far enough, picture the biggest dork you knew in the year 2000. I know the image is blurry, but try to focus on what’s in that person’s hands. Are you picturing a dumb little computer phone thing with a dumb little plastic pen called a stylus? That’s because the Y2K-era turbo dweeb you’re remembering had the predecessor to the smartphone: a Palm Pilot, or perhaps an off-brand “PDA.” Full disclosure here: I desperately wanted a Palm Pilot myself. And look, they still work: Anyway, alongside the foldable iPhone expected to be announced at its event on September 9, Apple is reportedly toying around with taking the world back to the depths of Palm Pilot era nerdiness, because, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple developers have been considering releasing a modified “pencil accessory” to go with it. In other words, it would have a stylus. This is the one thing Steve Jobs didn’t want to happen. Gurman is quick to discourage readers from assuming this stylus is actually going to ship with the foldable iPhone. Nonetheless, his sources say one has definitely been developed, but may not actually be released. Gurman notes that a stylus might interfere with the operations of the phone—flopping out and falling on the floor when you don’t want to use it, perhaps—and it could mark up the delicate folding screen. But the Apple Pencil already exists as an iPad accessory, and is worth buying, so this wouldn’t be a heavy lift for Apple. Gurman says the foldable iPhone pencil accessory would be a little like the Apple Pencil, but shorter to match the size of the foldable iPhone. It would stick to the side of your foldable iPhone with a magnet. Too bad it might never see the light of day. My inner dweeb wants to try it out.