A major leak Friday night says the new phones Apple is expected to announce at its fall event on Tuesday will be called the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X is Apple’s high-end, tenth anniversary phone, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are the successors to last year’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
The information was found by developer Steve Troughton-Smith and the folks at 9to5 Mac when they combed through the master code of the new iOS 11 operating system, just released by Apple.
They found a lot more than that, including solid evidence of some important features in the new phones, and images of other forthcoming products. The leak may steal some of Apple’s thunder when it formally announces its new products on Tuesday at its press event in Cupertino.
3D Animoji
The top of the line iPhone X will have new 3D “Animoji” for Messages that move with the movements of your head, mimic your facial expressions, and can even say your words. The head and face movements are tracked by a new 3D laser/sensor on the front of the phone.
Oh man. Is the world ready for new 3D emoji in iOS 11’s iMessage? (via @9to5mac) pic.twitter.com/vBpoeuOFlX
— Cabel Sasser (@cabel) September 9, 2017
Another code spelunker, Guilherme Rambo, tweeted a screen showing the set-up process iPhone X users will follow to set up the 3D tracking. It’s thought that the new 3D facial recognition technology–referred to in the firmware as “Face ID”–will also handle the authentication for unlocking the phone and doing Apple Pay transactions, replacing TouchID.
Face ID enrollment process (with layout issues on first page) pic.twitter.com/KczOHEy9ir
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) September 9, 2017
LTE Apple Watch, New AirPods
The firmware also contains some images that appear to confirm a couple of other products to be announced on Tuesday–the new LTE Apple Watch and the second version of Apple’s popular AirPod wireless earphones.
An image of the new Watch shows a phone call button on the watch face. Another image shows the Watch’s doc containing a button to turn on and off LTE service. The new AirPods look largely the same as the first version, but will probably pack some performance upgrades.
…in full, animated glory ???? pic.twitter.com/dbU6WaU1B4
— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) September 9, 2017
New Camera Effects
9to5 Mac also found mention of some new camera effects that build on the Portrait Mode introduced with the iPhone 7 Plus. Where Portrait Mode distinguished depth of field to set off the subject in the foreground with a blurred out background, the new effects are thought to use the flash to create new depth effects in photos. The ones listed in the code are Contour Light, Natural Light, Stage Light, Stage Light Mono, and Studio Light.
Side Button Duties
The iPhone X will almost certainly have no physical home button. The functionality of the home button is being distributed to other parts of the hardware and software of the phone, the firmware code suggests.
A thin horizontal bar at the bottom of the phone’s apps will serve as a place to swipe up to move between apps. The iPhone’s side button will also get some new duties. Double clicking the button will bring up Apple Pay, while pressing and holding the button will activate Siri.
If this leak is true (and Apple isn’t playing a massive trick on Apple geeks by putting fake names and photos in the firmware code) it will fill in many of the remaining question marks about Apple’s much-anticipated new phones. Let’s hope there will be some new features left to talk about when Apple formally introduces the new gear in Cupertino on Tuesday. Fast Company will be there. Please tune into our live blog for the play-by-play and commentary.
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