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The Next iPad Pros Will Shrink and Lose Their Headphone Jacks, Says Report (9to5mac.com)
According to supply chain blog Macotakara, the new iPad Pro models that will be introduced later this year will be slimmer, feature Face ID, and have no headphone jacks. 9to5Mac reports the details: First off, the report offers additional details on the 2018 iPad Pro dimensions. The 10.5-inch model is said to come in at 247.5mm (H) x 178.7mm (W) x 6mm (T), compared to the current dimensions of 250.6mm x 174.1mm x 6.1 mm. Meanwhile, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is said to stack up at 280mm (H) x 215mm (W) x 6.4mm (T), which compares to the current-generation model at 305.7 x 220.6 x 6.9 mm. With these dimensions, it seems that Apple is focused more on reducing the overall footprint of the 12.9-inch model, fitting the same size display into a considerably smaller body. The report goes on to explain that Apple is likely to ditch the headphone jack with this year's iPad Pro models, a move the company first made with the iPhone 7. While Apple includes a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter to ease the blow for iPhone users, it will not do the same for iPad Pro users, according to today's report.
Today's report corroborates that this year's iPad Pro models will feature Face ID, but it notes that there is no support for landscape Face ID as earlier reports had indicated. This presents an interesting problem for the iPad Pro, which is used commonly in landscape mode with accessories such as the Smart Keyboard. Macotakara notes, however, that Apple is moving the Smart Connector on this year's models to "the lower rear side -- close to the Lightning connector." What exactly this means is unclear, but the report explains that "the next iPad Pro Smart Keyboard may be changed to vertical position specifications." This is seemingly implying that the iPad Pro would dock vertically into the Smart Keyboard, but how that would work is vague at the moment.
Today's report corroborates that this year's iPad Pro models will feature Face ID, but it notes that there is no support for landscape Face ID as earlier reports had indicated. This presents an interesting problem for the iPad Pro, which is used commonly in landscape mode with accessories such as the Smart Keyboard. Macotakara notes, however, that Apple is moving the Smart Connector on this year's models to "the lower rear side -- close to the Lightning connector." What exactly this means is unclear, but the report explains that "the next iPad Pro Smart Keyboard may be changed to vertical position specifications." This is seemingly implying that the iPad Pro would dock vertically into the Smart Keyboard, but how that would work is vague at the moment.
Fortunately FaceID requires your eyes to be open. I think it's probably pretty difficult to open the eyes of someone sleeping without waking them. Seems more secure than a fingerprint.
And if you are some sort of high profile individual who is afraid of or can't take the risk of being attacked by a super expensive face scan and 3D mask created of your likeness or something, then just don't enable FaceID. It's completely optional.
FaceID is meant as a convenience feature for the majority of average people who don't need to worry about several-thousand dollar tech attacks against them because they just aren't important enough to spend those kinds of resources to attack.
For my personal use, I have found that switching to a phone that uses only USB-C, the P20 Pro in this case, I didn't really care about the headphones jack: I thought it would bother me, but since head phones are included and an extra dongle is also there, I has not had an impact.
When I bike to work, I use a bluetooth sports style head set and in the car, I use Android auto and never head phones. I think it is technically illegal where I live to use headphones on both ears in the car anyhow.
It does remind me of the old says when companies would come out with weird proprietary connectors for headphones so that you would have to buy their special headphones if you wanted to listen to music on your phone. Now, you can buy a dongle from them. Sure, maybe they only make 1$ on it, but how many iphones did they sell?
Plus people will probably just buy new headphones with that lightning connector, which will be basically all profit.
They'll not just lose their headphone jacks, they'll lose their customers!
While end-users do not seem to have picked up on this yet, "biometric" authentication is a security failure, and face recognition makes it even worse.
That's a bit like claiming that door locks on the front of your house are a security failure because they can be defeated. Most people at most times don't actually need or want strong security - they are just keeping out the casual snoopers. You're quite right that if you are serious about security it isn't enough by itself but for most people they don't need more than this. The good news is that you can enable other features (like requiring pass codes) to make it more secure.
I warned about this long ago.
So did lots of others. We're aware.
If you think it's bad someone can get your fingerprint while you sleep, wait until it's your face.
Is this a big problem where you live? Are you a secret agent? If I have to be worried about someone being in my house while I sleep I'm worried about them BEING IN MY HOUSE, not using my iPad. Seriously, let's worry about actual problems before we worry about the ones from a James Bond film.
No they don't. The moment an app needs to go full screen they fail miserably, requiring vague often-misinterpreted swipes from off the screen and as a significant number of apps need to go full screen, from movie players to games, this isn't a theoretical problem suffered by a small handful of people. Android's implementation is particularly shitty because it also allows you to rotate the screen at any angle, while only allowing the buttons to appear on the "real bottom" of the phone, which means the side of the screen you're supposed to swipe from is frequently not where you'd expect it to be.
I've gotten to the point I will not get an Android phone that doesn't have dedicated buttons. Thankfully there are still quite a few of them left, except at the very "high end" which are generally phones nobody in their right mind would want anyway.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.