HomePod firmware contains image of new iPhone design with a notch cut out at the top, likely for earpiece and sensors, and references a face detection feature
Eric Slivka / MacRumors :
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands a day after MacRumors first reported that HomePod firmware references a new iPhone screen design with a notch cut out at the top; today's find goes further, surfacing an actual image of the device inside the firmware plus a reference to a face detection feature. The significance is that Apple's own accessory code — shipped to developers ahead of the speaker's release — is leaking the flagship phone's industrial design before Apple says a word about it.
The arc runs long: the notch described here becomes durable enough that three years later Kuo reports even the smaller 5.4-inch iPhone 12 will keep it, just narrowed (a narrower notch across the iPhone 12 lineup), and the HomePod line itself keeps shipping with more capability than it advertises — Bloomberg later found a temperature and humidity sensor in HomePod mini, currently disabled.
First-order effects
- Apple's pre-launch secrecy for the next iPhone is compromised by its own firmware: developers combing HomePod code now have the notch layout and the face-detection feature in hand before any announcement.
- Eric Slivka's MacRumors scoop gives case makers, accessory vendors, and rival phone makers an unofficial head start on a design Apple has not confirmed.
Second-order effects
- Accessory manufacturers can begin tooling cases and screen protectors around a notched display without waiting for Apple's reveal, shifting the usual post-launch scramble to pre-launch preparation.
- A face detection reference in iOS-adjacent firmware pressures competing handset makers to answer with biometric authentication beyond fingerprint readers, since Apple appears set to make camera-based face recognition a headline feature.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, accessory firmware becomes a structural leak channel: Apple ships companion-device code early enough that every major iPhone redesign gets previewed through it, forcing the company to treat its own ecosystem software as part of its disclosure surface.
- The notch proves to be a multi-generational commitment rather than a one-off — once sensors and the earpiece move into the display area, the design constrains every subsequent iPhone until under-display components mature.
The trend: Apple's accessory firmware is turning into a recurring pre-announcement channel for unannounced hardware, and the notch-plus-face-sensing design it exposed here became the template for successive iPhone generations.