Apple added a US titanium supplier for the iPhone Duo, committing up to $100 million to Pennsylvania-based Perryman Company while expanding domestic production of camera technology for the iPhone 18 Pro.
As part of its American Manufacturing Program (AMP), Apple said today (20 October) the deal with Perryman is over the next three years for titanium used in its products, including the iPhone Duo, which starts at $1,999.
The announcement follows reports of tight supply for Apple’s first foldable. The phone is due in stores on 23 October, but online delivery estimates slipped to January 2027 within minutes of preorders opening on 16 October.
Apple stated Perryman will melt, forge, and roll grade 5 titanium, which it said will contain at least 80% recycled material. Titanium is used for the Duo’s enclosure, providing durability, according to the iPhone maker.
It is also expanding its partnership with Qnity Electronics, headquartered in the US state of Delaware, to produce technology for the new variable aperture in the iPhone 18 Pro camera system.
Apple said nearly 100 components used in the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, from wireless chips to the silicon which powers key functions across the devices, are produced by US companies across more than a dozen states.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) Arizona plant will produce more than 100 million chips for Apple in 2026, while Corning’s Kentucky facility will make all cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches sold worldwide by year end.
Apple also highlighted investments with other AMP partners, including Broadcom for US-made chips and Amkor Technology, which is building a semiconductor packaging and testing facility in Peoria, Arizona.
“We’re thrilled to expand our work with companies producing advanced materials and components for our newest iPhone lineup right here in America,” stated Apple COO Sabih Khan.
Take a look inside your wallet. There is a good chance at least one piece of plastic in there does little more than display a barcode. Maybe it is your library card. Perhaps it is a gym membership, grocery rewards card or another card you pull out every once in a while. Until now, getting some of those cards onto an iPhone could depend on whether the organization offered its own digital pass. Apple is changing that with iOS 27.
The latest iPhone software lets you create your own pass in Apple Wallet from a physical card, photo or screenshot. Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel owners have similar options, which means you may be able to leave a few more plastic cards at home. Here is how to turn a membership card into a digital pass on all three phones.
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Apple added the ability to create your own passes in Wallet with iOS 27. This comes in handy when a membership or loyalty card has a barcode or QR code, but the organization never gave you an "Add to Apple Wallet" button. Apple specifically points to library cards and gym memberships as examples.
If you have an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone, you can create a pass from a photo or screenshot containing the barcode or QR code. Apple Intelligence recognizes the code and can give you the option to add it to Wallet.
Apple Intelligence on iOS 27 requires a supported device, including the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 family and later compatible models. Availability can also depend on your language and region. However, Apple also gives you a manual way to create a pass directly inside Wallet.
How to create an Apple Wallet pass from a photo or screenshot
First, make sure the barcode or QR code is clearly visible. A blurry photo could make the code difficult for your iPhone to recognize or for a scanner to read later. On a compatible iPhone, Apple Intelligence can recognize the barcode or QR code in a photo or screenshot and offer to create a Wallet pass.
On a compatible iPhone running iOS 27 or later:
Take a photo or screenshot that includes the barcode or QR code.
Tap Add Pass to Wallet when the option appears. If you're viewing an existing photo in the Photos app, tap the Info button or swipe up to find that option.
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Pro tip: After you create the pass, you can tap View Original Photo to see the image you used.
How to manually create a pass in Apple Wallet
You can also build a pass yourself in iOS 27. This gives you another option when you want to add the information manually.
Open the Wallet app on your iPhone.
Tap the + button, then tap Create a Pass.
Tap Create Pass Manually, then choose a template.
Tap any field to enter or edit its information.
When you're finished, tap Done.
How to edit a pass you created in Apple Wallet
Once you've created a pass, you can customize its appearance or change the information it contains. You can also add or remove fields if you want different details displayed.
Open the Wallet app.
Tap the pass you want to change.
Tap the More button, then tap Edit Pass.
To change the background or color, tap the paint palette button.
To change which fields appear, tap the Edit button > Add or Remove Fields, then select the fields you want.
To change information already on the pass, tap the field you want to edit.
Samsung Galaxy owners already have a similar option through Samsung Wallet. Samsung says almost any membership card with a barcode can be stored in the app.
On a Galaxy phone running the latest available Samsung software:
Open Samsung Wallet.
Tap All.
Tap Memberships.
Choose how you want to add the card.
Select Import from Gallery if you already photographed it, or choose Take a picture to scan its barcode or QR code.
You can also choose the option to enter membership information manually.
Follow the onscreen instructions to save the card.
Samsung also supports participating memberships that are already built into Wallet. Once you need the card, open Samsung Wallet and select the membership. The barcode can then appear on your screen for a cashier or compatible reader to scan. Menu names can vary slightly depending on your Galaxy model and Samsung Wallet version.
How to turn a membership card into a Google Wallet pass on Pixel
Google Wallet can save passes from images when they contain a barcode or QR code. Google specifically lists library cards, gym passes and parking passes as examples.
On a Google Pixel running the latest software:
Take a clear photo of the card and make sure its barcode or QR code is easy to see.
Open Google Wallet.
Tap Add to Wallet.
Tap Photo.
Tap Manual.
Tap the photo library icon.
Choose the photo of your card.
Add a name and description for the pass.
Tap Add.
When you need the card, open Google Wallet and select the pass. You can then scan its barcode or QR code at the reader.
Tip: Google also lets you return to the original image you used to create the pass. Open the pass and tap the More button in the upper-right corner to find the original image.
You may also see Everything else under Add to Wallet. Google uses this option for creating other types of passes from a photo. Select Everything else, accept the consent terms if prompted, then take a photo or choose one from your phone. Google will preview the information it detects so you can review and manually edit it before tapping Add.
What kinds of cards should you try?
Start with cards whose main purpose is giving a business or organization a barcode or QR code to scan. A library card is an obvious candidate. Gym memberships and store loyalty cards may work well, too. Parking passes and other simple barcode-based credentials can also be good candidates, depending on how the organization verifies them.
The easiest test is to look at the physical card. If the person behind the counter normally scans a static barcode or QR code printed on it, there is a reasonable chance a digital version can work. Keep the physical card until you have successfully tested the digital version. Some scanners may have trouble reading a phone display, and some organizations may require the original card.
What these homemade digital passes cannot replace
There is an important limit here. Creating a digital pass from a photograph does not turn every card in your wallet into an official digital credential. Do not assume you can photograph a driver's license, credit card, secure workplace badge or another sensitive credential and use the resulting image as an official replacement.
Some digital credentials require verification from the organization that issued them. Payment cards also have separate security and enrollment requirements. Event tickets deserve extra caution. Many ticketing services now use barcodes that refresh or change to prevent fraud. A screenshot of one of those codes may fail at the gate. Whenever an issuer provides an official Add to Apple Wallet, Add to Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet option, use that instead.
I like this iOS 27 addition because it fixes a surprisingly annoying limitation. I have had plenty of cards with perfectly usable barcodes that could not go into Apple Wallet simply because the organization behind them never created a digital pass.
Now Apple is giving iPhone owners more control over that process. Samsung and Google already offer useful ways to accomplish something similar, so this is one of those rare phone features that can help you regardless of which of the big three you carry.
I would start with the low-risk stuff. Put your library card or gym membership on your phone and see how it goes. If it saves you from carrying another card around every day, great. Just remember that a photo-based pass and an official digital credential are very different things. Your phone can replace more of your wallet than it used to, but I would not empty the whole thing yet.
If your phone could replace every card in your wallet tomorrow, which physical card would you be most nervous about giving up for good? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Canadian watchdog says academic Vladan Djokic's phone hacked using NSO's Pegasus tool; ex-prosecutor Rade Bajic reveals Apple warned him his device was targeted by 'mercenary spyware'
John Ternus' Apple is waging war on advertising identifiers.
Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images
Apple roiled the ad industry with an unexpected new crackdown on web trackers.
The tech giant has now issued a rationale for why it's stamping out "identity resolution."
The ad industry has concerns Apple's latest privacy move may hamper targeting and measurement.
Apple's latest privacy crackdown left the online ad industry scrambling for answers. Now, the tech giant has finally offered some.
Late on Monday, Apple published a blog post laying out its rationale for new restrictions that block technology used to identify and track consumers across websites. The changes are implemented through WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari and other browsers on iPhones and iPads.
Apple said the change was designed to target "identity resolution," a method adtech companies use to connect separate data points about users — such as email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, browsing history, or information about the device they're using — to identify and track them across devices.
The method grew in popularity as many web browsers, including Apple's Safari, began phasing out third-party tracking cookies, the small files dropped on a user's device that were traditionally used for web tracking. The ad industry deploys tracking to precisely target specific audiences and measure whether their campaigns are working.
In its blog post, Apple said that while users might readily offer their email address to log in to a website or sign up for a newsletter, most wouldn't expect it to also be shared with other companies for invisible tracking purposes.
"It's not enough to block cross-site cookies to prevent cross-site tracking today because the tracking industry has not stopped trying to track users on the web," Apple said. "They have ushered into what they call the post cookie era and in our latest releases we have put strong protection in place."
The blog post explains that Apple is implementing "domain-level" blocking, a broad intervention designed to ensure that identity providers can't circumvent the restriction by changing how they send data.
Apple took the adtech industry by surprise earlier this month when it came to light that it had begun blocking the domains operated by several companies that offer alternative identifiers, without warning. The blocked domains included those operated by The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5, Permutive, and Audigent.
The stakes are high for adtech companies that have invested heavily in building identity graphs and alternative tracking identifiers to mitigate the impact of the loss of third-party cookies. Apple's latest move threatens to undermine those efforts and put a dent in their businesses if targeting its users across the web becomes more difficult.
The initial rollout had also blocked The Trade Desk's ability to serve ads at all on Apple-operated browsers. Apple rolled out a fix a few days later that restored The Trade Desk's ad-serving domain from being blocked alongside its advertising identifier, Unified ID 2.0.
The ad industry braces for fallout
The ad industry is now bracing for impact as more users begin updating their devices to iOS 27. Ad pros previously told CMO Insider that the change will make it harder for advertisers to identify and reach people across the open web.
Industry insiders said that by effectively shrinking the pool of users they can target, advertisers are expecting less reach, higher prices to reach the audiences they can still identify, and more difficulty in controlling how often people see an ad and measuring whether their campaigns worked.
Identity resolution has become widespread across the open web. An academic paper published in September that analyzed 600,000 websites over 41 months found that 83.76% of those sites were using alternative identifiers by May 2025.
If advertising becomes less effective on the open web, marketers could funnel more of their budgets into so-called "walled garden" platforms like Meta and Google, which aren't as heavily reliant on alternative identifiers because they have reams of their own logged-in user data. Apple, too, has a growing advertising business within its App Store and apps, including News and Maps.
Apple isn't backing down
There are still unanswered questions about Apple's exact definition of an identity resolution provider, and the company has already demonstrated it can add domains to its block list without warning.
There's also an indication Apple is only getting started. First reported by AdExchanger, Apple has created a broader list that can dynamically block potentially hundreds of adtech, martech, and data companies. Affected companies may not realize they've been added to the list until they begin experiencing disruptions.
In Monday's blog post, Apple linked to its long-standing tracking-prevention policy, which acknowledges that its blocking rules may have unintended impacts. Those include disrupting the funding of websites that use targeted or personalized advertising, advertising measurement, and fraud prevention.
The policy states that while Apple will try to limit unintended impact, "when faced with a tradeoff, we will typically prioritize user benefits over preserving current website practices."
Ever since Apple launched its Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature in 2017, the tech giant has been locked in a cat-and-mouse game with the adtech industry, which has persistently developed workarounds to its privacy updates. Adtech companies have argued that these techniques were necessary to help publishers effectively monetize their websites with ads while still maintaining user privacy.
Apple, which has long held that "privacy is a fundamental human right," makes it clear in its policy that it won't allow workarounds to proceed on its watch.
"We treat circumvention of shipping anti-tracking measures with the same seriousness as exploitation of security vulnerabilities," the Apple policy states. "If a party attempts to circumvent our tracking prevention methods, we may add additional restrictions without prior notice."
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