Apple HomePod Firmware Suggests Facial Recognition Tech In iPhone 8

Apple’s next iPhone is expected to feature facial-recognition technology and an edge-to-edge display, if design leaks are to be believed.

Firmware for the upcoming Apple HomePod sent out to developers last week was found to contain code references to an  infra-red facial-recognition unlocking feature for another device, code named D22, thought to be the next iPhone.

“I can confirm reports that HomePod’s firmware reveals the existence of upcoming iPhone’s infra-red face unlock in BiometricKit and elsewhere,” tweeted Steve T-S, a developer with access to the firmware.

Apple TouchFace

Deeper delving into the firmware threw up an icon used to represent the D22 device, which bears the shape of a smartphone, notably one without a traditional iPhone home button or indeed speaker grills or any hit of a screen bezel.

Such leaks need to be taken with a pinch of salt as they could simply be holding icons or deliberate misdirection by Apple.

However, the critical acclaim piled onto the Samsung Galaxy S8 with its edge-to-edge display and the emergence of smartphones with bigger displays fitted into handsets that can still be used in one hand, would mean Apple would do worse than not adopt the design cue itself.

While the iPhone 7 has seen an evolution in the design of Apple’s smartphone, it has been some way from being revolutionary in the fashion that earlier iPhones were.

As such, Apple could do with a good doe of innovation and redesign with the next-generation iPhone, notably adopting at least a Full HD resolution, something that has been absent from all but the recent iPhone Plus handsets; Android phones are well ahead with QHD display equipped handsets.

We will have to wait until at least September before we get an idea on what the next iPhone will look like and if it can compete with some of the top Android smartphones.

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