With iOS 10 now available to developers, many of them are pouring over the lines of code to find out more of Apple's plans for iOS 10 and the iPhone 7. One of the oft-requested is a dark theme for dialog boxes and systems screens. It now appears that Apple is going to offer just that in the latest update to its smartphone.
The so-called dark mode has been highlighted by Andy Wiik using the iOS 10 code simulator, and he has tweeted the resulting screen caps of the mode in action.
As well as being high up on the feature requests from users, dark mode will have practical advantages for Apple when it switches to an OLED display. Unlike an LCD screen where there is an all-over backlight that is 'masked out' to create a black pixel, each pixel on an OLED display is individually lit. Because they are unlit, black pixels are more energy-efficient than white pixels. Android smartphone users with OLED displays already know this, and with Apple's continued belief that consumers want thin devices, battery capacity will be at a premium.
The saving in using dark mode on the first iPhone to use OLED technology will be immense, and I would expect that increase in usable time to be promoted heavily on stage. Who doesn't want more power?
The issue I have is that the OLED iPhone is not expected to be this year's presumptively named iPhone 7, pencilled in by the geekerati for an announcement in early September, but next year's iPhone 8. That handset will be launched as the 'tenth anniversary handset' and is expected to pack in a huge number of leaps in technology for Apple, including the aforementioned OLED screen, but also an edge-to-edge display and curved glass construction.
Once more Apple is in the position where it has to deal with a leak that points towards a radical change in the iPhone that will follow the iPhone that is about to go on sale first.
Perhaps Tim Cook thinks that the addition of the dark mode will be a nice 'one more thing' for the iPhone 7 this September, and the power savings can be a second bite of the cherry in 2017? With today's well-informed consumer base, dark mode simply reinforces the advanced nature of the iPhone 8 and the Osborne Effect that will hang around the neck of the iPhone 7. The maintenance release style of the iPhone 7 will be skipped over as slow sales reflect the iFans waiting for the true next-generation iPhone from Apple.
Now watch what else we know about the iPhone 8.
