iPhone 14 Clues we Found Hidden in IOS 16

 

We're just hours away from the expected iPhone 14 announcement at Apple's "Far Out" event on Wednesday (see our Apple event live blog). We are also expecting to learn the release date of Apple's next major iPhone operating system - iOS 16.

The new version of iOS will work on iPhone 8 and up, and beta versions are already available for developers or the general public. iOS 16 offers much-requested features, such as the ability to customize your lock screen or edit sent iMessages. But if you take a closer look at the new operating system, iOS 16 may also reveal some hints about the iPhone 14.

While Apple told us a lot about the new features coming to the current iPhones, it didn't mention anything specific about what to expect from the iPhone 14. This is not surprising. Apple never discusses new products before announcing them. Sometimes the company reserves specific software announcements for its annual iPhone event to debut features exclusive to the latest iPhone.

For example, Cinematic Mode was missing from Apple's iOS 15 announcement and instead launched as an iPhone 13 feature in the fall. Although if you look closely, there were some subtle hints in iOS 15. Since Apple introduced portrait mode for FaceTime calls in iOS 15, it's easy to imagine that Apple is building a portrait mode for video recording -- essentially a cinema mode.

It looks like iOS 16 is no different. Several features seem to have the potential to offer hints as to what we can expect for the iPhone 14 series. One of those clues is actually buried in iOS 16's code.

 

The IPhone 14 may have an Always-On Display

I was disappointed to see that Apple didn't include Always-On Display in iOS 16. It's a handy feature found on many Android phones and even the Apple Watch. The always-on display shows basic information like the time or weather when your phone is sleeping. Instead of lighting up your entire display like your lock screen, Always-On Display only turns on part of the screen to save power. This is a great feature and will make the iPhone more visually appealing.

Apple-focused site 9to5Mac reports that it has discovered multiple references in iOS 16 that suggest support for always-on display could be in the iPhone's future. The blog also found references to backlight management tools, as well as hidden flags for engineers that could allow them to test the feature on the iPhone 13 Pro.

 

 

But always-on display support may be limited because the screen's refresh rate will have to be reduced to 10Hz or even lower to use less power. Below the iPhone's typical 60Hz refresh rate. The always-on display for the Apple Watch operates at 1Hz, which is not supported on any current iPhone (the 13 Pro can go as low as 10Hz), and this could mean that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Debuts on Max. New hardware will likely be required.

Even without these hints in the code, the optimized and customized lock screen always points to the on display. In particular, the way iOS 16's notifications are shuffled to the bottom of the screen makes me wonder if Apple is experimenting with ways to conserve screen real estate. This is important for always-on displays as this feature only uses certain parts of the screen to conserve power.

iOS 16's new lock screen widgets are another possible clue, as they feel more akin to the Apple Watch's complications and are therefore more visible. Some Android phones have similar widgets on their always-on display.

 

 

Visual Exploration Can Mean a More Powerful Cinematic Mode

One of the more subtle features of iOS 16 is a redesigned Visual Look Up that can identify objects, people, pets, and landmarks in photos and provide additional information or context. A nifty addition this year is the ability to tap on any image to remove the background. You can literally tap a foreground subject, such as a person or dog, away from the background and add a "cutout" to other apps to share or create a collage.

I can see that the cinematic mode gets a boost from the machine learning that powers the new visual lookup tap and lift tool. That machine learning acceleration could potentially be combined with the new A16 Bionic chip to improve Cinematic Mode videos. Subjects can be more reliably "cut out" and the background looks more focused. Apple can also use separation technology to make Cinematic mode do more similar things to portrait mode, such as swapping the background for black or placing your subject against a white background.

Cinematic mode made its debut in the iPhone 13 series and is essentially Apple's portrait mode for video. While Cinema Mode is fun to use, the results can be hit or miss. It's reminiscent of when Apple introduced portrait mode with the iPhone 7 Plus: initially it worked but not well. Over the years, Apple has improved Portrait Mode to the point where it's actually pretty awesome. 

A Pro Mod For the Camera App

Without reading a single rumor, you can guess that the cameras in the iPhone 14 series will be better than the ones in the iPhone 13 lineup. Many of these improvements will likely come from computational photography-powered features like SmartHDR and Deep Fusion, which are tied directly to the chip powering the phone. So an iPhone 14 powered by the A16 chip would theoretically have new camera features or better photo-processing techniques that the iPhone 13 lacks.

Apple's addition of a custom lock screen in iOS 16 has me hoping for a change to the camera app on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. New professional features like ProRaw and ProRes video recording can make the camera app interface feel a bit cramped. Perhaps there could be a pro mode that could be toggled on and off and provide a shortcut to tweak camera settings on the fly. Or maybe Apple will clean up the camera app's interface to make it more visually appealing.

 

 

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone still has one of the best camera apps on any phone sold today. But as a family can outgrow a home, the number of features and modes has begun to outgrow the app's original intent.

However, these are all speculations and we won't know anything about the next iPhone until Apple announces it. But if there's one certainty, it's that it will run iOS 16.