2024-05-01 14:01:12
Wed, 4:01 p.m. · Software: iPhone · imjThe iPhone is a tightly packed package of controls, sensors and cameras behind a high-resolution OLED screen. Lots of components have to work together for various functions and share an energy source. In order to be able to offer innovation in the hardware and software areas every year, a wide variety of teams work on the iPhone. Some use their own operating system, which differs significantly from the usual iOS interface. Depending on the department and development status, a different operating system is used.
Over the nearly two decades of iPhone development history, some details about internal versions have come to light, for example through lost prototypes, incompletely reset test copies or reports from former Apple employees. You can read a lot of information about the history of its creation in the Apple Wiki.
Experimental Hardware: NonUI
To test new hardware components, Apple’s developers use a rudimentary operating system that differs significantly from the usual iOS appearance. It largely consists of simple buttons and text boxes that hardware developers use to evaluate sensor data, start tests and implement hardware-related routines. Many functions run via command line; Instead of the Springboard, as Apple internally calls the app-filled start screen, there is a Switchboard app. You can use it to start experimental apps.
Gear instead of Apple logo
Buttons are usually simple rectangles, labels full of internal gags. The hardware team has to quickly create a simple user interface to test new functions and cannot take finesse and usability into account. At least for a while, hardware engineers used an unofficial name for their hobbyist OS: Skankwerk. Even when booting up, Skankwerk differs from its usual appearance. A gear appears on the screen in place of the bitten apple.
Operating playground: InternalUI
The most exciting version is probably the internal operating system that the software development team works with: Under the simple name “InternalUI”, developers try out different versions of various features. This is almost certainly where core elements of iOS were created, such as app switchers, home screen widgets and dynamic island animations. Here developers try out variations and decide which shape will ultimately be visible to users. If an iPhone with InternalUI were released to the public too early, it would be fatal for Apple.
The user interface of the InternalUI (here from 2020) is already very similar to the finished result. (Source: Orangara1n | theapplewiki.com, License: CC-BY-SA)
Production and testing: LLDiags and CarrierOS
There is a separate operating system for testing hardware components (low-level diagnostics) that does not require a graphical user interface. It’s called “LLDiags” or simply “Diag” and simply presents a text console that is operated via an external keyboard. The special variant “CarrierOS”, on the other hand, consists of a largely complete iOS on which additional diagnostic apps are installed. Mobile network operators use this to test new versions for compatibility with their infrastructure. An iPhone with Diag OS only shows a command line interface. (Source: @matteyeux | theapplewiki.com, License: CC-BY-SA)
The Public: Release iOS
You will probably never see all of the variants described above unless you work directly at, with or for Apple. In this case, there is again a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which prohibits divulging details. Users only see the “Release iOS” branch. When Apple unveils future iOS versions at its developer conference on June 10, app developers will likely receive a preview in the form of a “developer beta.” It will combine features that have matured over the last year in nonUI and InternalUI.
Creative selection
If you would like an insight into the development process at Apple, you can read about the development of some of the features of the first iPhone in the book “Creative Selection”. Author Ken Kocienda was involved in the creation of Safari and developed the first iPhone on-screen keyboard. He now works at Humane, the start-up that recently introduced the AI Pin.
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