Apple has hidden a 'secret' tool inside all of its new devices that could transform your home
A YouTuber has lifted the lid on one little-known tool Apple has been hiding for years, and not many people know about it.
Marques Brownlee is a YouTuber that specializes in tech content, reviewing the latest products and offering useful tips.
In a recent clip, the content creator lifted the lid on a little-known part of Apple devices which just needs to be enabled to transform the product.
His videos have earned him over 21 million subscribers on YouTube and more than six million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
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In the YouTube video, Brownlee explained: “Did you know there is a secret part in all of Apple’s newest products and this isn’t the first time they've done this before.
“So, fun fact in every single Apple M3 and M4 product and the M2 iPads there’s a secret Thread radio that just hasn’t been enabled yet, see Thread is one of the foundational radios in matter the smart home protocol that Google and Apple and others have helped develop so Apple can, and I suspect probably will, enable all of these Thread radios sometime in the future all at once to help you more natively control Smart Homes.”
The YouTuber went on to detail how the tech giant has been doing since since ‘before the second generation iPod Touch’, which secretly had the tech for Bluetooth radios inside it but didn’t have it enabled until the firm’s iOS 3.0 update then, to quote Brownlee, ‘boom, they all had Bluetooth’.
He continued: “Also last year Apple randomly turned on the temperature and humidity sensors inside the HomePod Mini, which people found during tear downs but wasn’t activated until they turned it on, so yeah, it’s just kind of weird to see Apple stick some parts in a phone or a device for no reason but now when they turn it on, you can say I told you so.”
Thread radio in Apple devices could transform your home
If the feature is enabled in your phone, this could act as a backup during power cuts, according to a report by TechRadar.
Vividh Siddha, director of software engineering at Apple and president of Thread Group, spoke to The Verge, where he explained that an ‘important factor’ is users having the ability to use their accessories, such as the front door lock, during a power outage.
He continued: “If you have no infrastructure - your Wi-Fi router is down, your Thread border router is down - and you still want the ability to get into your house or do other things that might be smart home related.”
The revelation made by Brownlee prompted many people to take to the YouTube comment section to share their own reactions to the news, with one user writing: “Another example is our iPhones can suddenly control the narrowness and wideness of our flashlights.”
Another said: “In software development it is called feature flagging. Build a feature but don't activate it until when it is needed.”