One of the most interesting feature of iOS 17 is StandBy mode, a widget-based landscape display intended primarily for nightstand use.
This has definite, uh, echoes of Amazon’s Echo Show, and it’s being suggested that this is indeed Apple’s first move toward a HomePod with a display …
StandBy Mode
On iOS 17, when your iPhone is switched off, and you place it on a charging dock in landscape orientation, a new display appears.
By default, this is a clock on the left-hand side, and a calendar on the right. However, both are widgets, giving access to other choices. Swipe up on the clock, for example, to get a choice of clock style, as well as a calendar view.
Swipe up on the calendar to get other options, including appointments, reminders, and weather data.
As we explained in our tutorial, however, these are smart stacks, enabling much greater levels of customization.
A sneak preview of a future Apple product?
It’s long been suggested that Apple is working on a future HomePod with a built-in display, to act as a HomeKit hub which you can control in the same way some of us use an old iPad.
We could have sold the iPad for around $150, so effectively the project has cost us that plus the mag-mount and cable, which is a total of around $180. Time-wise, it took maybe 15-20 minutes to get it all set up.
For that, we’ve got a control panel which is handy for us, and a smart home which is now easily controllable by non-tech people regardless of whether they use Apple or Android themselves.
Macworld has its own Standby Mode tutorial, and suggests that this is just a first step towards such a device.
It seems clear that StandBy is laying the groundwork for a future Apple product that integrates HomePod with a display, either built-in or by docking your iPhone or iPad.
I think this is a smart take. The feature is obviously useful on its own for those of us who keep our iPhones docked on an upright MagSafe charger while at home, but it definitely makes sense that if Apple does plan a future HomePod device with a display that it would work in the same way.
If you’re on the iOS 17 beta, are you using StandBy mode? Are you interested in a future HomePod/Home-hub device with a similar display? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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