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New iPhone To Have Tap to Wake, Attention Detection, and Virtual Home Button, Says Report (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the what-to-expect dept.

HomePod's firmware has revealed several new features coming to the upcoming iPhone, such as a tap to wake function, facial expression and attention detection, and virtual home button. "Apple accidentally released the firmware over the weekend resulting in a frenzy of analysis about previously unknown features," reports The Verge. From the report: Developers including Steve Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo have been tweeting their findings, notably the discovery of the new iPhone's bezel-less screen design. They've also concluded that the resolution for the iPhone 8 could be as much of a visual leap forward from current-generation iPhones as the iPhone 4's Retina display was from the original iPhone. Apple is using codenames for both its face recognition feature and the bezel-less phone, called "Pearl ID" and "D22" respectively. A potential "attention detection" feature is also mentioned in the code, with some speculating that may mean the phone will remain silent for notifications if it knows you're looking at the screen already. Facial references such as "mouthstretch," "mouthsmile," and "mouthdimple" were also found, which are most likely a nod to Apple's rumored facial recognition feature that can even detect faces in the dark using infrared. A tap to wake feature has also been discovered, and should be similar to the Windows Phone function that allows users to double-tap the screen to wake the phone.

9 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. So, basically... by ChodaBoyUSA · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Apple still playing catch-up by copying Android devices. Got it!

    1. Re:So, basically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What you mean is playing leap frog. When you hate Apple, it's easy to ignore when they advance and only pay attention to when they are in an R&D phase. How's that Android Pay/Samsung Pay going? Pretty funny that Apple was so late to the game with NFC, but had the right strategy and transaction technologies to make it actually proliferate.

    2. Re:So, basically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This. Fucking fucktards are bitches about what phone they carry around to the point that they ignore the fundamentals on how technologies develop. It floors me that adults are acting like the 6th grade bitches and comparing what they got for Christmas as a token of their self esteem.

      Anyone can own a phone. Now show me what you do with it.

    3. Re:So, basically... by markdavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >"So Android stole a bunch of ideas from other technologies (none of these are original to Android) and you get your panties in a bunch about your best girl being molested by Apple? Fucking wow."

      Most everyone using Android phones KNOWS that companies constantly copy and cross-license and evolve. It just seems to be the Apple fans that mostly think that only Apple "innovates" and it becomes necessary to remind them that they copy just as much as anyone else does. If you like Apple products, that's great. And I am glad they exist, they have some great (but overly expensive) stuff. But those who go around acting like Apple stuff is God's gift to man often make me want to puke. Gotta make sure all those cases have the "cutout" so the Apple logo shows through to make sure everyone knows you have an iphone...

    4. Re: So, basically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Courageous, even.

    5. Re:So, basically... by clonehappy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I am an Apple fan. I am under no impression that most things they do are at all innovative. What they do, however, is implement things very well that are sometimes half-assed on other platforms.

      The reason I really enjoy my Apple devices isn't because they do anything that I can't do on other platforms, it's because things work consistently the way I'd expect, every time. If I want to hack things or run random binaries and experiment around with unproven technologies, I'll do it on my PC.

      When I need an appliance that operates as expected when I need it to, it's Apple all the way. I know that isn't what you want to hear, but it's the truth.

  2. Re:Courage! No fingerprint scanner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    With android all you need is a photograph of the persons face to unlock.

    Not so secure, eh?

    How much you want to bet Apple gets it right, again?

  3. Volume versus the bleeding edge by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One of the things that people forget when they complain that the iPhone isn't always on the bleeding edge is the supply chain issues. It's not that Apple cannot make a bleeding edge phone that works great. The "problem" they have is that they sell 200 million phones a year. So any feature they add to the iPhone they have to be able to source potentially 200 million copies of that hardware. For bleeding edge stuff that's often just not possible. That's not to say Apple couldn't be more aggressive than they have been but just remember the supply chain issues when you sell that many of any product.

    1. Re:Volume versus the bleeding edge by vux984 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One of the things that people forget when they complain that the iPhone isn't always on the bleeding edge is the supply chain issues.

      They don't sell 200 million of the iphone 7 plus 256GB though; nor even 200 million iphone 7 plus.

      The iphone 7 plus is just 40% of all iphone 7 sales. iphone *7* sales, not iphone sales which also include 6S, 6S Plus, and SE. The SE by itself is around 25% of all iphone sales. So the iphone 7 plus is just 40% of iphone 7 which is likely less than half all iphone sales; so we're down to 30-40 million units a year. That's a lot, but Samsung flagship phones all achieved those kinds of numbers.

      If they want to get some bleeding edge tech on their phones, they can just restrict it to their top line SKUs, or introduce an even higher end sku where supply chain issues would be an issue. (But simply bundling anything supply chain constrained with their largest storage skus would more than do it. They make up just a fraction of the total unit sell through; and would bring the numbers down comfortably into the low millions.