It appears Apple is catching Samsung’s bug. After accidentally including details about its new iPhones in an iOS 12 beta release this week, new digging has found it wasn’t Apple’s only error…
Sifting through the code of iOS 12 beta 5, 9to5Mac’s meticulous Guilherme Rambo has found iconography within the software which provides Apple’s first official confirmation that its massive iPhone X Plus exists. And Rambo’s track record is laudable.
Apple’s mistake was to include iconographic representations of the iPhone X Plus within iOS 12 beta 5's PassKitUIFoundation, which is used for storing the iOS wallet user interface. Compared to the existing iPhone X icons, the new representation shows a taller and wider model while still carrying the same notch for Face ID, Forbes reported.
Needless to say, the icons themselves still need to be polished before the final launch of iOS 12, but the discovery is not a coincidence. Rambo has also found icons for Apple’s upcoming ‘bezel-less’ iPads in the same release.
Consequently, what is perhaps most curious about this is whether these inclusions are errors in the first place.
After all, last year Apple made a genuine error in a beta version of HomePod software which contained a huge amount of data about its 2017 iPhones. This year, the ‘accidents’ are more subtle, even teaser-like and cynics could be forgiven for thinking Apple now has a taste for the free publicity they deliver ahead of release.
"That said, I think this is unnecessary," Gordon Kelly, a Forbes contributor said.
"Why? Because given the substantial price cuts Apple will make to this year’s new iPhones, I suspect they will sell themselves…"