BloombergMark Gurman revealed today that Apple has developed new speakers equipped with ‘screens and cameras’, suggesting that we may see a future HomePod-like device with a built-in display and camera feature for FaceTiming and other features.
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Before these rumors, MacRumors Contributor Steve Moser was browsing through the tvOS 14.5 beta code and found that Apple has added FaceTime and iMessage frameworks, along with a new AVFCapture framework related to image capture.
You may be wondering what tvOS code has to do with the HomePod, but in April 2020, Apple started using tvOS as the basis for the software used on the ‘HomePod’ rather than iOS. watchOS, tvOS and the software running on the ‘HomePod’ are all variants of iOS, but each is distinguished by the device on which the software is intended to work with unique interfaces, APIs and more.
This means that features included with tvOS are also included in the HomePod software as it has the same base code. Therefore, the frames FaceTime, iMessage and image capture added to tvOS in tvOS 14.5 could actually be designed for a future HomePod with a screen and a camera, as described by Gurman.
The omeHomePod and HomePod mini can already use FaceTime audio, but the FaceTime framework discovered in the 14.5 beta differs from any code associated with the existing audio FaceTime feature. The frameworks are available in the tvOS 14.5 beta and the 14.5 HomePod software beta for select testers.
Gurman says there is no “threatening launch” planned for the camera-equipped speaker, so it will be possible that no product will appear. It’s also quite possible that the iMessage, ‘FaceTime’ and AVFCapture frameworks introduced in tvOS 14.5 have a very different purpose, which is completely unrelated to a ‘HomePod’ and may remain hidden in the code or can be used for an unspecified feature going to the Apple TV or the HomePod in the future.
In semi-related news, the 14.5 beta also suggests that Apple may be able to develop a sort of trivia game for Siri, where Siri can provide users’ trivia questions to answer. It is referred to in the code as ‘Siri Edutainment’, but it is not clear if it is a built-in Siri feature or support for a third-party product.