iPhone Duo orders capped at two in the US, HomePod Sound Glow reaches older models, and moreiPhone Duo orders capped at two in the US, HomePod Sound Glow reaches older models, and more

Apple is limiting US buyers to two iPhone Duos each, three days before the phone goes on sale on Friday 23 October. The rest of this morning's smaller news covers HomePod software, a privacy case over the Photos app, the App Store's new head on games, and GM's Apple Wallet car keys.

iPhone Duo: a two-per-customer limit, and some earlier deliveries

MacRumors found that Apple's US website and Apple Store app stop a buyer adding a third iPhone Duo to the bag, with the message that a maximum of two can be bought per customer. Nothing on the product page mentions it beforehand. MacRumors could not tell whether the cap was in place when pre-orders opened on 16 October, and buyers on Reddit disagree, some saying they ordered four. Apple's stores in China, Singapore and Hong Kong already listed a two-unit limit.

At the same time, some early orders are arriving sooner than promised. MacRumors cites the YouTuber Matt Gonzalez, whose 512GB Star White order moved from December to 20 to 30 November, and forum members whose 1 to 8 December window became 16 to 23 November. A buyer in Japan who had been quoted 3 to 10 December was moved to launch week: 24 October by MacRumors' account, 23 October by 9to5Mac's. 9to5Mac says the changes so far affect orders placed with Apple directly. New orders were already quoting delivery in late January within half an hour of pre-orders opening.

Adding it up from Apple's US store on 18 October, two of the cheapest 256GB model come to $3,998 before tax. Against the $5,000 a 2TB Duo fetched on eBay, a phone Apple sells for $3,199, the cap trims what one account can flip rather than ending resale. If you have an order in, open it in the Apple Store app before Friday rather than placing a second one. Every change reported so far has been earlier, though 9to5Mac warns some could be errors that get reversed.

HomePod Software 27.2: Sound Glow on older HomePods, and a lock for the touch controls

The HomePod Software 27.2 release candidate, out to developers and public beta testers since 19 October, brings Sound Glow to the HomePod (2nd generation) and the original HomePod mini as well as the HomePod mini 2. MacRumors and 9to5Mac agree that the original 2018 HomePod is left out. The top of the speaker lights up with two or three colours taken from the album artwork of what is playing, according to 9to5Mac, and MacRumors says it also works with podcasts and Apple's ambient music. To turn it on, touch and hold the HomePod in the Home app and find the Sound Glow switch in its settings, or use Control Center on an Apple TV the HomePod is paired with. MacRumors expects the update to reach everyone next week.

The same release adds Lock Controls, which MacRumors says turns off touch on the top of the speaker. 9to5Mac reports that intercom, timers, alarms, Check In and FaceTime calls still respond to a touch, and that the switch reaches every model, the 2018 HomePod included.

This is more than Apple promised. Its 13 October Newsroom post described Sound Glow only for HomePod mini 2, and a footnote there says controlling Sound Glow by voice needs an Apple Intelligence iPhone. A HomePod on a shelf children can reach is the case for Lock Controls; Sound Glow is worth a look on a mini, where the whole top is the light.

Apple Photos faceprint lawsuit: a judge narrows the case but sends the core to trial

A federal judge in Illinois has dissolved one subclass in the class action accusing Apple of collecting faceprints through the Photos app without consent, but refused Apple's request to end the case. The suit, Doe v. Apple in the Southern District of Illinois, claims Apple breaks the state's 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act when Photos builds face data to sort people into albums. AppleInsider reported the ruling on 19 October.

We read the order. Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel signed it on 30 September, and kept it provisionally sealed until 7 October, which we read as the reason reports are arriving only now. She ruled that face crops, the cut-out thumbnails of faces, are not biometric data, and so decertified the iCloud Subclass, whose claim rested on them; its members stay in the larger Local Device Class. On whether the faceprints themselves count, and whether Apple controls them on the device, she left the questions to a jury. Apple argued encryption kept it from the data; the order answers that Apple could still remove that encryption or delete the data, so encryption alone does not win. She denied the plaintiffs' bid for an early ruling on liability, apart from one point she reserved, and gave them until 14 October to file a revised class notice. No trial date is set.

Only Illinois citizens are in the class. Anyone elsewhere loses nothing, and owners in Illinois should expect a class notice before anything is decided.

Carson Oliver, the App Store's new head, on iPhone games and Apple Arcade

Carson Oliver, who took over the App Store from Phil Schiller, gave his first interview in the role to Polygon by email. As The Next Web relays it, he said more premium games came to the App Store this year than last, many of them from independent studios, and that for a generation of players the first gaming device "wasn't a console or a PC". He would not say whether a 77 per cent rise in premium mobile games in 2025, reported by GamesIndustry.biz, matches Apple's own figures. On Apple Arcade, he signalled nothing is changing and said developers choose how to sell: a hit like Balatro can work as a paid download or inside Arcade.

Not everyone is persuaded: AppleInsider's headline on 20 October was that Apple still does not understand gamers. When we checked the games of Apple's Indie Games Week, Vampire Crawlers was a $9.99 paid download rather than an Arcade game, which is Oliver's point in practice. If you pay for Arcade, search it before buying a premium game, since some, Balatro among them, are in both.

Which GM cars get Apple Wallet car keys, and when?

General Motors has started putting digital car keys in Apple Wallet, beginning with three Cadillac electric cars, according to the timetable from GM's late-September announcement that MacRumors reported on 19 October. The 2025 to 2027 Lyriq, 2026 and 2027 Optiq and 2027 Vistiq get it in September and October. In December it reaches the 2027 Escalade and Escalade IQ and IQL, the 2026 and 2027 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and the 2026 and 2027 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. Setup runs through the car's own app, inside an OnStar-connected car with the physical fob nearby, and the app's What's New section says when a car is ready. Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet are supported too.

Apple's own support page is the one to read before setting it up. It lists no car makers, but it does say that unlocking by simply walking up to the car needs an iPhone 11 or later, excluding the iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd generation) and iPhone 16e, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later. Owners of an SE should keep the fob.

Our take

Of this morning's five, the HomePod update is the one that changes something in homes that already own the product, and it costs nothing: no new hardware, two switches in the Home app. Apple could have kept Sound Glow as a reason to buy the $149 mini 2, and its launch post read that way. Sharing it with the 2020 mini and the 2023 HomePod is the more generous choice, and the 2018 HomePod missing out is the only catch.

The Duo cap reads differently. We read a limit three days before launch, after delivery dates slid into January and then started creeping back, as a sign that supply is still the constraint and Apple is deciding who gets the early units. For a buyer, the practical advice is patience with an existing order rather than a second one. The car key rollout has the same lesson in a smaller way: the feature arrives in waves, and the app on your phone, not the dealer, is where you will hear first.

The faceprint ruling matters beyond Illinois for a quieter reason. The judge would not accept that encrypting data puts it out of a company's control, and a jury will now weigh that on a feature the court describes as one users cannot switch off. APPDOOK will follow the class notice, the first point at which Illinois owners hear from the court directly. Oliver's interview, meanwhile, promises continuity; the test of a new App Store chief is the first rule he changes, not the first interview he gives.

Also today

WhatsApp is testing a setting that would open every link shared in a chat inside the app rather than in your default browser, according to WABetaInfo as reported by 9to5Mac. The switch, under Settings > Chats, would also clear the in-app browser's cookies and cache. It was found in a TestFlight build and is not yet available even to beta testers, so treat it as unconfirmed until WhatsApp releases it.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Privacy Badger tracker blocker is now available for Safari on the Mac, MacRumors reports. On the EFF's own site we found it needs Safari 26.5 or later and installs from the App Store; the EFF says Safari on iPhone seems to lack the extension features it needs.

Jason Sudeikis told the Talk Easy podcast that no writers' room has started for more Ted Lasso, 9to5Mac reports, though he would like to make it. Apple has not announced a fifth season since season 4 ended on 7 October.

Apple's second Designers of Tomorrow show, themed Design for Presence, opens at Design Miami Paris on 21 October with work by Salem S. Charabi, Isabel Rower, Yoonjeong Lee and the Mexican studio Parafernalia, Wallpaper reports. Each used Apple tools in making their piece.