The one iPhone 8 leak to rule them all (2024)

For those who obsess about the iPhone, it was the mother lode.

After a long period without any substantive information (although plenty of whispers, speculation, and questionable photos), it finally happened: the biggest iPhone 8 leak so far.

In what looks like an understandable but massive mistake, pre-release firmware for the Apple HomePod somehow got uploaded to a public server.

There's a lot of interest in HomePod — the Apple "smart speaker" that's meant for music and has Siri built-in. Apple plans to release it in December, so getting a look at the software four months early is definitely a big deal.

But that was just the beginning. The HomePod software actually included a lot of information about a new iPhone — what has generally been called the iPhone 8 — including details on the exact shape of its edge-to-edge screen, a new kind of biometric security that involves facial recognition, and other features.

One of the key people in deciphering the leak has been Guilherme Rambo, an iOS developer from Brazil. Rambo has been revealing the details he and others have discovered in the HomePod software on his Twitter feed, including references to something called "Pearl ID," a virtual home button, and even an image of what the front of the iPhone 8 will supposedly look like (hint: get ready to hear the term "notch" a lot).

Rambo joins this week's MashTalk podcast along with CNET Executive Editor and mobile analyst Roger Cheng and Mashable Senior Tech Correspondent Raymond Wong to fully unpack this huge leak, explore what this radically redesigned iPhone will mean (to users and Apple), and analyze the info to figure out what's not in the leak.

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