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Apple's iPhone 8 To Replace Touch ID Home Button With 'Function Area' (appleinsider.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rumor-mill dept.

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.

13 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Still playing catch-up by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once again the latest iPhone introduces revolutionary new ideas Android has had for years.

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    1. Re:Still playing catch-up by coofercat · · Score: 2

      Still, it means /. gets to fill up it's front page.

    2. Re:Still playing catch-up by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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...
    3. Re:Still playing catch-up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:Still playing catch-up by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      The virtual buttons are a shitty feature. WTF is this obsessive need to get rid of physical buttons with tactile feedback?

      Cost - the components themselves plus assembling them. It can add up to whole tens of cents!

      As a rule, if it has a touchscreen then two revisions down the line it will only have a touchscreen.

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      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:Still playing catch-up by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Unless they allow the disablement of the biometric shit, and allow good old fashioned passwords....I'm not buying it.

      Touch ID has always been optional. You're not forced to use it (in fact, you can't enable it without enabling some other more secure authentication first - even a 4 digit PIN is considered more secure).

      I would expect iOS 11 to have a new feature to disable Touch ID quickly - not only after reboot, 48 hours or 3 failed attempts (requiring use of the alternate authentication system) so if the police are forcing people to unlock their phones with fingerprints, you can temporarily disable it. Perhaps if you double-click the power button for example which will disable Touch ID until a successful login (using the more secure methods).

      So if they come around and ask people to unlock their phones, you can double-click the power and Touch ID is disabled for unlocking purposes until the phone gets unlocked via the alternate means.

    6. Re:Still playing catch-up by SandWyrm · · Score: 2

      They do allow for good old-fashioned passwords (of any length). The biometrics just make it so you don't have to enter it more than once a day. Or after restarting (hint hint for those at airport security).

  2. Facial Recognition... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, I have to re-register every time I shave in order to use apple pay? Oh, you are wearing a baseball cap, so you have to take that off to pay? Oh, you want to unlock your phone while walking down the street. Better take off your sunglasses... Apple, why you gotta keep losing desired functionality?!?!

    1. Re:Facial Recognition... by dknj · · Score: 2

      Not gonna happen. They are also incorporating wireless charging. Wireless charging (a) takes a lot of space (relative to a phone) and (b) increases the heat of a battery requiring either a much slower charge or a smaller battery design. So either all of this happens and you are getting a microprocessor with the same speed as an iPhone 7 (think Kaby Lake for phones) or you are not getting all these fancy bells and whistles until the iPhone 8s

      -dk

    2. Re:Facial Recognition... by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So, I have to re-register every time I shave in order to use apple pay? Oh, you are wearing a baseball cap, so you have to take that off to pay? Oh, you want to unlock your phone while walking down the street. Better take off your sunglasses... Apple, why you gotta keep losing desired functionality?!?!

      I know that venting your outrage over everything that Apple does is great fun but please do not trash talk facial recognition just because Apple is using it. You are severely underestimating what modern face recognition algorithms can do. If you set out to do it and if this: http://www.webrok.com/news/201... is your taste in sunglasses, you can certainly screw up facial recognition systems but modern facial recognition software has pretty impressive success rates even with subjects wearing headgear, different hair styles, 'normal' sunglasses or regular eye glasses and obscured faces (beards, scarves, veils). engineers@google.com already tried integrating face recognition login into Android and it turned out to be an embarrassing fail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... because the Android camera could not distinguish between an actual 3D face and a 2D picture of one. Hence the mention of 3D laser scanning module for the new iPhones in the article summary because 3D scanning is what you need for pattern recognition based security features that are hard to fool regardless of whether you are talking about face recognition or fingerprint scanning. On an unrelated note a 3D laser scanning module sounds like a pretty awesome addition to a smartphone for all kinds of reasons having nothing to do with facial recognition and a lot to do with a long standing desire on my part (as, I am sure, many others here) to own a fully functional Start Trek tricorder. A 3D laser scanning module built into your phone would be a major step in that direction. Being able to scan an object on my kitchen table with a smartphone and then sending it to a 3D printer after a short stopover on my laptop to clean up the scan would be nothing short of awesome.

  3. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can I still use a password?

    I'm unsure if I'm in a minority of people who don't like all this biometrics stuff or the majority are just told to like it.

    1. Re:Great by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fingerprint ID on current iPhones is entirely optional. And you still need to set a password in case the scanner fails to recognise you 5 times (or after a reboot)

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  4. Make Siri more useful by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yesterday, I needed to turn on the iPhone's flashlight and for some bizarre reason, it wouldn't let me swipe up from the bottom of the screen to turn it on. So I asked Siri to do turn it on and she said, "I can't do that." Siriously? A while back, the speedometer cable in my truck broke so I couldn't tell how fast I was going. I asked Siri thinking that she would be able to use the GPS to figure it out. "Hey, Siri, how fast am I going?" She said, "I've been wondering that for a while." Yeah, um, hey Siri, quit being a smartass millenial and do some work.