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Apple's iPhone 8 To Replace Touch ID Home Button With 'Function Area' (appleinsider.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Apple Insider: Apple will ditch the home button when it debuts a new 'iPhone 8' model later this year, and will dedicate the extra screen real estate to an area for virtual buttons, according to KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Adding detail to his previous predictions regarding the next-generation handset, Kuo in a note to investors obtained by AppleInsider said the full-screen design will allow Apple to integrate a "function" area never seen in an iPhone. The device is expected to adopt a 5.8-inch OLED panel in a form factor similar to the current 4.7-inch iPhone 7. Despite having extended screen real estate as compared to current iPhone models, the actual active display area on "iPhone 8" will be closer to 5.15 inches on the diagonal, with the remaining bottom portion dedicated to system functions like virtual buttons. While Kuo failed to elaborate on an exact implementation, the note suggests Apple plans to hardcode a set of always-on, static system controls into iOS. Whether the so-called "function area" is capable of switching to an active display mode for in-app activities like watching videos or playing games, remains to be seen. With the deletion of current Touch ID technology, Kuo believes "iPhone 8" will incorporate new bio-recognition assets to take over device security and Apple Pay authentication duties. The analyst did not offer predictions on the type of biometric tech Apple intends to use, but a report earlier today said the company could integrate a 3D laser scanning module capable of facilitating facial recognition and augmented reality applications. Kuo in a note last month said Apple might integrate a dual biometric system utilizing optical fingerprint readers and facial recognition hardware.
And hopefully Apple will get it right. My android phone has two "soft" buttons next to a physical home button, and I hate those little fuckers. It's entirely too easy to accidentally press them. Since the screen on the iPhone is pressure sensitive, they better make the buttons react to a forceful push rather than a touch, but they probably will; they usually pay a lot of attention to this stuff.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
WTF is this obsessive need to get rid of physical buttons with tactile feedback?
They already removed the physical home button in the iPhone 7. It's now a software button that just looks like the old Home button. Instead of "clicking" it now vibrates the phone.
If you're physically holding the phone, it does almost feel like a button. If you're not, or if you're holding it wrong (why does that sound familiar), the physical feedback is just off and the phone just sort of shakes.
Oh, and because it's a software button, it now occasionally just doesn't work and does nothing, with no ability to tell whether or not you're pressing hard enough or that the phone has crashed. Because Apple fired their QA staff, generally the phone will have crashed and now you get to do the new "reboot the phone" gesture which had to change because the home button isn't a button any more.