{"id":619805,"date":"2026-09-09T23:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619805\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T23:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:54:10","slug":"iphone-duo-memes-the-duolingo-owl-is-hooting-mad-that-apple-stole-his-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619805\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone Duo Memes: The Duolingo Owl Is Hooting Mad That Apple Stole His Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple announced its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo<\/a>, at Wednesday\u2019s \u201cSurprise and shine\u201d event<\/a>. It\u2019s a huge product drop from an iconic tech company, so naturally, people have thoughts to share. The reactions are pretty funny.<\/p>\n

Many tech observers thought Apple might name its folding phone the iPhone Ultra, but the company went with Duo instead. That ruffled the feathers of a certain fictional owl: Duo, the mascot of language app Duolingo. (Duo\u2019s used to wading into newsy issues \u2014 he once pretended to be murdered by a Tesla Cybertruck<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an exciting Apple event!\u201d Duo snarked on X<\/a>. \u201cI sure hope my brand doesn\u2019t get infringed upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

what an exciting Apple event! i sure hope my brand doesn\u2019t get infringed upon \ud83d\udc9a<\/p>\n

\u2014 Duolingo (@duolingo) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Welp, guess what, Duo?<\/p>\n

The name news led to a witty monologue of Duo discovering the news. \u201cit\u2019s called the iPhone WHAT??? oh god oh god my SEO my SEO.\u201d <\/p>\n

Duo even went the \u201cCan I speak to your manager?\u201d route, reaching out to new Apple CEO John Ternus<\/a> to complain.<\/p>\n

One X user suggested<\/a> the app \u201cjust change your name to Foldlingo, since they should have just called it the iPhone Fold\/iFold to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just change your name to Foldlingo, since they should have just called it the iPhone Fold\/iFold to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u2014 daytrailing (@daytrailing) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Samsung: Apple\u2019s reheating its leftovers<\/p>\n

Apple rival Samsung, which released its first folding phone, the Galaxy Fold, in 2019, and has been bringing out new models ever since, commiserated with Duo, writing<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, @DuoLingo. They copied us too #Solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samsung was a little more bitter than Duo, though. It also posted<\/a>, with Apple unmentioned but clearly implied: \u201cLet us know when you\u2019re done reheating our leftovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us know when you’re done reheating our leftovers \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\u2014 Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

While a folding phone is new to Apple, that\u2019s not the case with phone-makers in general. Google, Motorola and Chinese brands like Honor, Oppo and Huawei are already there. This led to jokes about Apple being late to the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited for Apple to finally invent the folding smart phone today!\u201d snarked one Bluesky user.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wrote another<\/a>: \u201cCan\u2019t WAIT for Apple to call their folding phone \u2018revolutionary\u2019 a DECADE into the folding phone market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We have a folding phone at home\u2019<\/p>\n

Shark researcher David Shiffman brought the Apple news back to his topic of interest, posting a photo<\/a> of a small, curled-up shark with the dialogue: \u201cMe: Can we get the new Apple Duo folding phone? Mom: We have a folding phone at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Folds like we did on Lake Ontario\u2019<\/p>\n

More than one person used the iPhone Duo announcement to jab at Apple Maps for renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America<\/a>. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month to get US agencies to relabel the lake, which straddles the US-Canada border.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cracking noises ensue\u2019<\/p>\n

Although folding phones aren\u2019t new, some people joked about the sheer idea of folding up a phone. Wrote one, \u201cWelp. Apple has normalized folding your phone. [cracking noises ensue].\u201d<\/p>\n

And another wrote, \u201cjust a reminder that apple CANNOT stop you from folding your current phone in half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hand over $2,000, please<\/p>\n

The iPhone Duo doesn\u2019t come cheap: Its starting price is $1,999, and a fully tricked-out version soars to more than $3,000, which naturally led to more jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, I could buy a PS5 and a Switch 2 and still have plenty of money left to not get an XBox,\u201d wrote one Bluesky user.<\/a><\/p>\n

And another Bluesky user offered a sarcastic solution to the price problem, writing<\/a>, \u201cbuying the left half of an iphone duo until i can afford the right half of an iphone duo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Gael\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple announced its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, at Wednesday\u2019s \u201cSurprise and shine\u201d event. It\u2019s a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":["post-619805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}