StandBy, one of a number of appealing new features in this year’s iOS 17 software update, enables iPhones to act as smart displays when plugged in and not otherwise in use. This means they can serve a secondary function as a reduced-brightness (or red-tinted) digital alarm clock with a few useful widgets while charging overnight. But based on a new report, Apple is considering a similar feature for the Mac.
Of course, your Mac is less likely to be sitting beside your bed during the night, so the analogy isn’t exact. But there’s considerable merit to the idea of the screen automatically transitioning into a more general info hub when it would otherwise be sleeping (and assuming battery conservation isn’t a concern). It could feature a clock, a calendar, weather info, smart-home controls, a rotating gallery of photos, or any number of other useful widgets or controls.
It seems that Apple feels the same way. In the subscriber-only version of his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg leaker-analyst Mark Gurman says Cupertino’s engineers are working on a new Mac display that will feature its own Apple silicon processor. That in itself isn’t new: the Studio Display runs an A13. But this device will be specced to act (like an iOS 17 iPhone) as a standalone smart display when not required for its day job.
Given that StandBy has only just been announced for the iPhone, and that this is the very first we’ve heard about this development for a Mac display, we’d expect this to be a long way from launch, if indeed it ever becomes reality. But it’s worth mentioning that, as The Verge observes, such a feature has been rumored in the past, only for the iPad.
Leaving aside the smart-display feature, there have been many rumors about Apple’s upcoming standalone displays. Last December it was reported that the company was working on multiple such devices for launch in 2023, and there are hopes–albeit in the considerably longer term–that a 27-inch mini-LED display is in the pipeline.