iPhone 8 Design and Face Unlock Leaked by Apple Itself
Unlike most iPhone 8 rumors, the latest one is based on something Apple itself released, not a leak in the company's supply chain.
According to a pair of iOS developers, the HomePod speaker's firmware is a trove of secrets, revealing not only the design of the next iPhone, but one of its new biometric security methods.
Credit: Guilherme Rambo
First off, Steve Troughton-Smith, who famously leaked the news of iOS 11's Files app, revealed code showing that the next iPhone will use infra-red scanning to perform a facial recognition unlock. Ostensibly, the iPhone would use this feature so that your face can unlock the device in the dark. Bloomberg reported earlier that the iPhone 8 would have a face scanning feature, and that it could possibly replace Touch ID.
MORE: iPhone 8 Video Gives You a Full 360-Degree Tour
The iOS developer found references to this in the HomePod's firmware, specifically in the code relating to BiometricKit, the package of technology that handles TouchID in current Apple hardware. In screenshots from a file named com.apple.dyld shared on Twitter, we see phrases such as BKFaceDetectOperation, pearlInfraredCaptureStream.
Brazil-based iOS developer Guilherme Rambo responded to Troughton-Smith's tweet with something just as cool, as he found a new iPhone icon in the HomePod code. This glyph appears to confirm the often-leaked, nearly-bezel-less design that we've seen in renders and other leaks.
Apple reportedly plans to reveal this redesigned iPhone 8 along with the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus phones in September. The bezel-less handset may cost $1,000 or more, due to its premium components and features.
See also : Top 9 iPhone 8 Rumors
