Apple Wants to Fix Safari's Cramped Layout on iPhone Duo

Apple is considering changes to Safari on the iPhone Duo that would give websites access to more of the outer display, although the company has yet to settle on an approach. The challenge is allowing pages to occupy the area beneath Safari's side-mounted controls without making parts of a website inaccessible. In an Friday, October 23 WebKit post, Apple's Jen Simmons explained that an existing web setting could enable this, but Apple's research suggests many sites would not handle it correctly. That setting, viewport-fit="cover", allows a webpage to expand into areas that would otherwise be reserved. Website developers must then leave enough space around important content to prevent it from being covered by the interface. According to Simmons, many sites fail to make those allowances on every edge. Apple is investigating whether another solution could offer developers more control with less risk of obscuring content. A header's background could, for example, span the screen while its navigation links remain within the unobstructed portion. For now, Safari 27.1 restricts webpages to the area beside the controls and uses the page's background color to fill the remaining strip. This limits the width available for content on the outer display. The arrangement stems from the screen's proportions. Apple placed controls along the side of the device because the outer display is shorter and wider than other iPhone screens, preserving more height for apps and webpages. Separately, Safari 27.1 adds automatic two-page PDF viewing when the ‌iPhone Duo‌ is held partially folded like a book. Flattening or closing the device returns the document to a single-page view. Developers can also test experimental support for detecting the screen's folding posture and positioning content around the device's middle fold. Those features are available behind Safari feature flags, while the proposed change to content beneath the controls remains under investigation. Popular StoriesApple Retail Staff Told to Warn Against iPhone Duo Walk-In PurchasesSome Apple retail employees have been told to warn customers against visiting to purchase an iPhone Duo without a pre-order on Friday, October 23. Apple Store employees told MacRumors that they have been advised that there will likely be no iPhone Duo stock available for walk-in purchases on launch day. Staff have been instructed to discourage customers without pre-orders from coming in...Here's What Apple's Apps Look Like on the iPhone DuoTuesday October 20, 2026 11:12 am PDT by Juli CloverWith just three days to go until the iPhone Duo is released, Apple is getting ready for the launch. Behind the scenes, the App Store now has screenshots of Apple's built-in apps running on the Duo. We've seen some apps in marketing materials, but images of the ones we haven't seen give us an idea of what it will be like using the iPhone Duo day to day. Many apps are shown in landscape...Mark Gurman: Apple Made 'Major Mistake' With iPhone Duo Pre-OrdersDespite knowing that the iPhone Duo would face "severe supply constraints" due to manufacturing challenges, Apple chose to begin iPhone Duo pre-orders on Friday instead of waiting until it had more inventory ready, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, he called this decision a "major mistake." "Let me cut to the chase: Apple made a major mistake here," he...