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iPhone 8

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81–90 of 297 posts

Re: iPhone 8

#81
post #53

I'm so underwhelm right now... They are giving so much marketing to wireless charging, seriously?? that's $11 on amazon years ago!! FaceID, hasn't Microsoft and Android been experimenting with that for quite a while now? Apart from what has been motioned here already... can I just find a facebook picture of the person and unlock the phone!? I miss the days when Android imitated apple...

The "picture of person" attack works for basic version of facial recognition, like the one Google or Samsung have been doing for ages (though I think both now allow you to require a moving face with blinking or whatever).

What Apple (and Microsoft via Hello) are doing is a little more interesting, and they're actually capturing a 3D model of the face, using an IR projector that works a bit like the Kinect did. They feed that model into an on-device hardware accelerated machine learning engine to do the recognition, and the results are substantially more robust than the traditional 2D versions.

Personally, I'm still not entirely sold on using any kind of biometrics to unlock my device, but this does represent an interesting improvement.

I'm more interested in just having that machine learning hardware readily available and built into every new phone, it will be really interesting to see what devs do with it.

Re: iPhone 8

#82
post #52

Who wants an all-glass phone? I get that the designers want this, but do actual users really want something so fragile? I've only ever had phones with plastic or metal backs, and I've never bemoaned the fact that they weren't breakable enough.

The real question is - who wants wireless charging? This is how they achieve that..

The Nexus 5 had both wireless charging and a non-glass back, along with plenty of other phones.

And even if they were somehow mutually exclusive, I'd still take a non-fragile back over the ability to wirelessly charge.

Re: iPhone 8

#83
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was necessary for the wireless charging.

My old plastic/rubber back Nexus 5 had it. The glass is there for more than just wireless charging.

I think apple would be laughed out of Cupertino if they came out with a rubber iphone.

Not saying there is anything wrong with that... my moto x had a faux leather back. really cheap, but the phone was nice.

Re: iPhone 8

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it went far enough. Consider the circumstance where an office or agent wants your phone unlocked. Your passcode is protected, your thumbprint is currently in debate, but holding your phone to your face? If that just always unlocked your phone without any sort of interaction from you? That's an uncomfortable level of privacy loss.

Some friends and I have defeated a few other devices with face unlock features. It was the super technical task of finding and printing a photo found on social networking sites, then holding it up to the camera. I wonder if apple has hardened against this.

Did you watch the keynote?

Re: iPhone 8

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it went far enough. Consider the circumstance where an office or agent wants your phone unlocked. Your passcode is protected, your thumbprint is currently in debate, but holding your phone to your face? If that just always unlocked your phone without any sort of interaction from you? That's an uncomfortable level of privacy loss.

Some friends and I have defeated a few other devices with face unlock features. It was the super technical task of finding and printing a photo found on social networking sites, then holding it up to the camera. I wonder if apple has hardened against this.

30 seconds of googling would've told you that it uses a 3D mapping camera + IR to scan your face.

So no, printing a photo found on social media won't work. 3D printing a perfect model of a face might, we'll see.

Re: iPhone 8

#87

Who wants an all-glass phone? I get that the designers want this, but do actual users really want something so fragile? I've only ever had phones with plastic or metal backs, and I've never bemoaned the fact that they weren't breakable enough.

Their glass is actually more scratch resistant than the metal. Of course metal doesn't usually shatter. I'm pretty careful with my phone, but I've dropped it in a way that I'm sure would have done serious damage if I hadn't had a case. Three times that I recall off-hand. So there is no way I'd not have a case on this. Which bugs me because my 6s+ is still awe inspiring when I take it out of the case... but my case is…

I’ve dropped my bare iPhone 7 probably more than a dozen times, sometimes on hard surfaces, with apparently zero damage. Very impressive materials, though I do worry about the waterproofing.

Re: iPhone 8

#88

Neat, wireless charging, exactly like I had on my Nexus 5, around 5 years ago :) The best thing about the iPhone 8 is that it might finally make wireless chargers more commonplace, they are extremely convenient as Android users have been trying to tell for years. Here's another one trick Apple might want to pick up on: I own both an iPhone 7 and a Nexus 6P, and the fingerprint sensor being in the middle of the back o…

> Neat, wireless charging, exactly like I had on my Nexus 5, around 5 years ago :)

Wow and Google got rid of it probably because the iphone didn't have it. I wish the hardware team at google would stop trying to copy apple and just do the things that make sense. Wireless charging and a headphone jack makes sense.

Re: iPhone 8

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did say you have to look directly at the phone. If looking away is enough to prevent it from unlocking, that doesn't seem too bad.

> They did say you have to look directly at the phone. But it will work with sunglasses too? I find it hard to believe. Just slap some sunglasses on the perp and unlock his phone. easy peezy.

It learns your face and can work around haircuts, sunglasses etc.

Re: iPhone 8

#90
This may sound like the most ridiculous criticism, but I was really disappointed that the iPhone still uses the lightning charger port and not USB-C. Every other device charges with it including Apple's own laptops. Though seeing how long they take to adopt some features that seem standard to android users (like 4G LTE and wireless charging) in their smartphones, I guess this is to be expected.
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