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Apple May Remove the Home Button On the Next IPad

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the death-to-the-button dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Steve Jobs is notoriously frugal when it comes to buttons so the latest rumor emanating out of Cupertino might not come as a huge surprise. Apple is reportedly planning to do away with the home button on the next-gen iPad and iPhone and replace its functionality with multitouch gestures. And as luck would have it, the newly seeded iOS 4.3 includes support for new multitouch gestures, one of which is the ability to use a four or five finger pinch to go back to the homescreen" The attached video demonstrates the new gestures for switching applications and demonstrates how you could function without the home button.

15 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Fun for people by somersault · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great feature for those with missing fingers!

    Okay okay so I'm just being awkward. But seriously, whenever I've used an iPad or iPhone, I've wished it had the Android "back" button. So much more convenient than hunting for application specific menus to get back to where you were.

    --
    which is totally what she said
    1. Re:Fun for people by s73v3r · · Score: 4, Informative

      Okay, see that right there? There's your first problem. "Around" somehow translates to "up"? "Around the other way" is "down"? That's not intuitive.

      Ever used a volume knob before?

  2. Home button will stay by tekgoblin · · Score: 4, Informative

    I do not think that Apple will remove a signature button from their iOS device lineup. The button also serves other uses such as a DRM or Hard reset on the device as well as other diagnostic functions besides just returning to the home screen.

    --
    TekGoblin
    1. Re:Home button will stay by Deag · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I always thought the home button was a good design to make the iphone easy to use for everyone.

      It also would affect the usability of the device to remove it. No matter what you do on your iphone, you have one button that brings you back to the start. This makes it very easy to use.

      Some multitouch gesture would be the complete opposite.

    2. Re:Home button will stay by carou · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I do not think that Apple will remove a signature button from their iOS device lineup.

      I never thought they'd ditch the iconic "scroll wheel" which had been a signature design feature since the very first iPod...

       

  3. Obvious play? by emocomputerjock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this because you can't patent a button but can patent multitouch gestures? Get enough people speaking your "language" and other manufacturers will have to pay to use your patented gestures.

  4. What if you crash? by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not all apps are as stable as you'd like. You need something to press to exit to your home screen if your app decides it just wants to freeze...

    1. Re:What if you crash? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then you reboot with the five finger death punch

  5. Now it's a mandatory 2 handed device? by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Replacing the home button with multitouch gestures? So using the device will now require you to use both hands? Great! That should be fun when the people driving around me need to not only divert their attention to controlling their iphone/ipod touch, but now must take BOTH hands off the wheel to operate it.

  6. Being serious, by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Informative
    Any massmarket device needs to be usable with one finger. Multitouch needs an alternative and accessible one-finger backup operation. What happened to accessibility?

    A "get me somewhere familiar" button should almost be mandatory on anything without a keyboard.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:Being serious, by TOGSolid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple
      Accessibility

      Bhahahahahahahahahahah

    2. Re:Being serious, by Moryath · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Accessibility is being sacrificed to Steve Jobs' irrational (bordering on personality disorder) dislike of buttons.

      It's almost to the level of a phobia.

      The iPhone would be FAR better with a slide keyboard. "Touchscreens" are shit-poor interfaces for trying to type on a mini-chiclet keyboard space unless you are using a stylus; sure the iPhone pops up a "larger" image of the button you are "pressing", but I can't read it past my thumbnail anyways, so it does little good.

      I've lost count of the number of times I misdialed a number simply because I was on the "edge" of the damn touchscreen dialing interface and bumped the 4 instead of 5 or 5 instead of 6. With a real touch interface, I'd have tactile feedback and I'd know which damn button I was on.

  7. Screen Space by kellyb9 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I like the idea for one reason - Maximized Screen Space. The entire front of the device will be a multitouch surface.

  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  9. It currently works on iPads only by YaHooL · · Score: 5, Informative

    On their What's new in iOS 4.3 page (You need an Apple ID to view link) they wrote:

    Test Multi-Touch Gestures for iPad - This beta release contains a preview of new Multi-Touch gestures for iPad. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps. We are providing this preview before releasing them to the public to understand how these gestures work with your apps. Test them and give us your feedback on the Apple Developer Forums.

    I attempted a 4-finger-pinch on an iPod-Touch-4th-Gen development device with the latest 4.3 iOS Beta. Beside of being a very uncomfortable thing to perform on a small screen, I didn't notice anything else happening.