The iPhone 8 can likely be unlocked even while resting

The firmware of Apple's HomePod speaker has proven to be a goldmine for those digging up on the capabilities of the new iPhone. The latest discovery, courtesy of iHelp BR, has uncovered strings related to the purported ability of the new iPhone's facial recognition feature to recognize the user's face even when the phone is at odd angles, such as lying flat on a table. 

The strings, specifically referred to as "AXRestingPearlUnlock" and "com.apple.accessiblity.resting.pearl.unlock", point to Pearl ID's ability to unlock the phone while in a resting position. Pearl ID is touted to be the successor to Apple's Touch ID, which the latest iPhone will likely discard in favor of the former. Pearl ID recognizes a person's face and supposedly captures more data points, making it inherently more secure. There is also evidence of Pearl ID working with third-party apps as indicated by the string, "APPS_USING_PEARL". Another string, "PEARL_AUTOLOCK", could mean that the iPhone will automatically lock itself when the user authentication fails. 

There have been many revelations about the features of the next iPhone by eager developers who got to play around with the HomePod's firmware. A recent reveal pointed that the new iPhone could very well record 4K videos in 60 fps with both the front and back cameras! Then, there is also the well known image of a glyph that gave a glimpse of how iPhone 8's front could look like, which was revealed via the HomePod firmware as well. 

The release of the iPhone 8 marks the 10th anniversary since Apple debuted the original iPhone, and is slated to launch alongside the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus sometime in September.