Apple's still-unannounced smart home hub appears to borrow its idle-screen design straight from the iPhone Duo.
Leaker pdfu posted setup screens for a 'Photo Face' feature said to belong to the hub, letting users pick photo collections, Memories, or shared albums from iCloud Photos to display on the device. Setup prompts appear when the hub is first activated, and iCloud Photos has to be turned on for the feature to work. According to pdfu, this Photo Face is identical to one planned for the iPhone Duo's StandBy mode, which may explain why Apple hasn't enabled Duo StandBy screens in the Xcode simulator yet. Bloomberg separately reported the hub's interface leans heavily on clock displays and photo slideshows, which lines up with what's in these screenshots.
Sharing a StandBy-style face across a phone and a stationary hub suggests Apple wants one consistent idle-screen language across its hardware, not a one-off gimmick for either device. It also hints the hub is less a standalone product and more a shell for software Apple has already built for the iPhone.
Smart displays with photo slideshows and glanceable widgets aren't new - Amazon and Google have sold them for years - so the real test for Apple's version is whether a half-dome metal base and tighter iCloud integration are enough to justify buying a screen you already have on your phone.