I have always been fascinated by technology. It has become an integral part of my daily life and has fundamentally changed the way I interact with the world around me. Even writing this article is an example of that. I can lie here or sit with my phone, dictate what is going through my head and turn those thoughts into something I can develop, communicate and share.

For me, technology has never simply been about having the newest gadget. Assistive technology has allowed me to be creative, communicate and work in ways that would have been much more difficult without it. Artificial intelligence has taken that even further. For someone who is neurodiverse, the right technology can help create a more level playing field. It does not remove my differences, but it can give me different ways of working with them.

My fascination goes back a long way. I can remember being about 10 years old and using one of those white or creamy coloured computers in the library. I remember exploring Microsoft Encarta and being fascinated that I could interact with information rather than simply read it from a page. Looking at the human body, exploring different subjects and suddenly having information presented visually felt completely different.

Think about where we are now compared with around 30 years ago. The amount of technology sitting in the palm of our hand is extraordinary. I can dictate, research, communicate, create images, make videos, use artificial intelligence, manage my work and access information from almost anywhere. Sometimes I think we become so used to technology that we forget just how significant that progression actually is.

Today, 9 September 2026, was Apple’s latest product event, and I watched it with that same sense of curiosity. I have been an Apple user since the iPhone 3G and I have owned many different iPhones over the years, right through to my current iPhone 16. There was definitely a time when I wanted a new phone every year. Life changes, priorities change and spending money simply because there is a new model is no longer particularly important to me.

What has never disappeared, though, is my fascination with innovation.

I have never completely locked myself into one technology company either. My wife would probably describe me as a bit of a technology flip-flopper. At one stage I was a Mac user, but at the time the assistive technology I needed for my work did not integrate in the way I needed it to. Windows worked better for me, and having used Windows for most of my life, that became the environment I returned to.

A lot of people will also know that I am a massive fan of Microsoft Surface. I am probably slightly biassed because I spent five and a half years working with Microsoft as their dyslexia consultant, but that also gave me the opportunity to see one of the most interesting periods in the development of Surface.

Microsoft was experimenting with what a computer and mobile device could look like and how we could interact with them. In 2019 it announced Surface Neo and Surface Duo as two new dual-screen devices. Surface Neo was the larger Windows concept that ultimately never made it to market, while Surface Duo became Microsoft’s dual-screen Android mobile device.

I owned both the original Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 because I genuinely wanted to understand the concept and see how two screens could change the way we worked. I also spent some time looking at Google’s Pixel Fold. I could see the productivity possibilities of these devices, but there was always one barrier for me: Android.

That is not because Android is bad. It simply is not the ecosystem that works best for me. I use an iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple services alongside my Windows environment, and that combination works incredibly well for the way I work. Moving completely across to Android simply to have access to a folding device never really made sense for me.

And that is why Apple’s announcement interests me so much.

Apple has now announced the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone. Closed, it has a smaller outer display, and when opened it provides a much larger internal display. The technology itself is interesting, but what fascinates me far more is what that additional space could mean in everyday use.

What does it mean for reading? What does it mean for dictating while reviewing information at the same time? What does multitasking look like? Could having more screen space reduce some of the friction people experience when trying to work from a traditional smartphone? Could a device like this become useful as a form of assistive technology even if that was never its primary purpose?

Those are the questions I want to explore.

There is also something I find quite amusing about the naming. Earlier this year Apple introduced the MacBook Neo, and now we have the iPhone Duo. Anyone who followed Microsoft Surface closely will immediately recognise those words because Microsoft announced Surface Neo and Surface Duo together back in 2019. I am not suggesting there is anything more significant behind it, but as someone who followed those products closely, it certainly caught my attention.

For the first time in quite a while, I am genuinely curious about a completely different iPhone design.

It is probably the first Apple hardware announcement since the Apple Watch where I have thought that I would really like to get my hands on the device and understand what it can do. Not because I have already decided it is brilliant, and certainly not because it has an Apple logo on it, but because it represents a different approach to a device that has become increasingly familiar over the past two decades.

That difference interests me.

There is another interesting change happening at Apple as well. John Ternus has taken over as CEO after previously leading Apple’s hardware engineering. Having someone with such a significant hardware background leading the company makes the next few years particularly interesting to watch.

I hope we see more experimentation, not just from Apple but across the technology industry.

One of the things I have always admired about technology companies is when they are prepared to try something different. Not everything works. Surface Neo is a good example of that. It was an interesting concept, it was announced to the world and ultimately it never became a commercial product. Surface Duo did reach the market, but that product line also eventually came to an end.

That does not mean the experimentation was pointless.

Innovation needs ideas that do not always succeed. Companies need the freedom to build things, test things, learn from them and occasionally get things wrong. At the same time, these are businesses. Commercial realities, customer demand, strategy and shareholder expectations will always influence which products survive.

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and others all approach innovation differently. They all have enormous resources, but having money does not automatically mean every experimental idea becomes a successful product. Sometimes the most interesting technology is the technology that teaches the industry something, even if the original device itself disappears.

Technology has done too much for me personally for me not to be excited about where it goes next. Assistive technology gave me opportunities. Mobile technology changed how I communicate. Artificial intelligence is changing how I turn thoughts and ideas into action.

Now folding technology may give us another way of interacting with the digital world.

Will the iPhone Duo prove to be an amazing device? I do not know yet, and I do not think anyone really will until people have spent proper time using it in everyday life.

Would I love to play with one, explore it and understand what it could mean for accessibility, productivity and neurodiverse ways of working?

Absolutely.

For me, that is the exciting part. Apple has announced a phone that has made me genuinely curious again. It has made me think about what a smartphone could become rather than simply how much faster the next version might be.

And sometimes that curiosity is exactly what innovation should create.