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New iPhone To Have Tap to Wake, Attention Detection, and Virtual Home Button, Says Report (theverge.com)
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.
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.
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?
I don't think it will be as simple to crack this as it was to crack that Android feature. Apple is reportedly adding a 3D scanner which is a key component when doing hard-to-crack facial recognition and which would defeat something as simple as snapping a photo of your mark with your iPad (you being an evil Apple user of course) and then using it to unlock his Android phone. So let's just wait and see how Apple does with this. They seem to have done OK with their fingerprint scanner, at least I have not seen any reports of mobile phone thieves lifting people's fingerprints off their stolen iPhones on an industrial scale and then spending a few hours making latex fingerprint casts and using them to unlock iPhones. In the mean time, if it really pans out that Apple is adding a 3D scanner to the iPhone I can't wait to see what other things that scanner can do. If it can scan a face it should be able to scan objects which opens up interesting possibilities for 3D printing. At the very least, if this feature turns out to be reasonably hard to crack it would make for a quick and easy to use one half of a very effective two factor login procedure.
>"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...
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.