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iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

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Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#401

Post by culturestate »

lwansbrough wrote: post #362
mirthflat83 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, it’s not. Face ID: Just pick up your phone and your phone automatically unlocks with your face. This experience is way superior than having to position your finger at a specific place every time you want to unlock it. Putting it on the back is even worse, you need to actually pick up your phone from the desk just to unlock it. I swear HN readers would create devices with the worst UX possible.

If you haven’t unlocked your phone by the time you’re looking at it you’re doing it slower than I am. Typically my phone is unlocked before I’ve even fully pulled it out of my pocket. The muscle memory for thumb (or finger placement if it’s on the back) is a pretty low barrier to usability, and can be learned quickly. Can you unlock your phone without moving it in front of your face? I can, if it’s sitting across my…

> Perhaps you’ve forgotten how many usability compromises you’ve made in using Face ID, but I guarantee it’s slower

Counterpoint: with Face ID, if my phone is facing me I can interact with it just by looking in its direction.

Got a message while I'm at my desk? I look at it, it unlocks and shows me the notification. Cooking and a timer goes off? I look at it, it lowers the volume of the alarm.

Everything has trade-offs and different people use stuff in different ways, but I personally prefer Face ID to Touch ID.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#402

Post by koyote »

ghaff wrote: post #222
ASalazarMX wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not have both? This whole topic would be a non-issue if we still had Touch ID as an option.

Now you're taking up a fair bit of front of the phone real estate (and adding some cost) for a feature that I'm guessing most people don't care about. [ADDED: As others note there are potentially other options though that don't involve putting the home button back.]

Fingerprint readers have been living under the screen in other phones for several years now.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#403

Post by diebeforei485 »

This works basically as advertised, almost as fast as Face ID, and good haptics (plus a lock button) on your Watch. If you're on a bus and someone steals your phone, it can be locked immediately using the watch.

It does not do a "partial scan" of your eyes and forehead. It just detects a mask and triggers the Apple Watch unlock.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#404

Post by deadmutex »

fouc wrote: post #371
justapassenger wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protect yourself against one giant tech corporation, by sending all your data through other giant tech corporation. Apple is really great at marketing.

True but Apple's current business model doesn't rely on advertising, unlike Facebook and Google.

Umm, Apple rakes in billions of dollars from ad revenue: https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/15/apple-ad-revenue/.

And Google's has brought in a lot of revenue from Hardware, Cloud, etc.: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121492/google-hardware-m...

I think thinking of them as one dimensional companies is overly simplified.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#405

Post by RangerScience »

Closi wrote: post #199
RangerScience wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yuuuup. It's unclear to me if this is collateral damage, but it's also wreaking havoc in directly measuring the impact of your own ads (ex: see and ad for an app, install the app, make a purchase in the app - folks want to be able to tell if that purchase is attributable to that ad).

> Folks want to be able to tell if that purchase is attributable to that ad Well, marketers and advertisers want to be able to tell if the purchase is attributable. Everyday folks typically either don't care or would actively prefer not to be tracked in this way.

> marketers and advertiser

I mean, they're certainly not robots or aliens, so what're they other than more folks? (Not that robots or aliens wouldn't also just be folks...)

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#406

Post by NightMKoder »

kalleboo wrote: post #379
NightMKoder wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. The new policy doesn’t seem to try to break ads attribution globally - e.g. the App Store ads attribution continues to work regardless of tracking transparency choices. They’re also not trying to prevent first-party tracking - i.e. app analytics and the like. Apple could have thrown a bone to folks and just allowed passing url parameters or similar through the App Store link…

> Apple could have thrown a bone to folks and just allowed passing url parameters or similar through the App Store links to the app after it’s installed I thought they already allowed this through deferred deep linking?

Hmm I’m not aware of a way to do that short of fingerprinting a browser and running the same fingerprint on app launch. Would you happen to have docs for that approach?

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#407

Post by katbyte »

mirthflat83 wrote: post #248
lwansbrough wrote: post #154

Touch ID is an entirely superior technology and Apple is profoundly stupid for removing it. It doesn't have to be in the screen, just put it on the back. The lengths they'll go to offset the removal of Touch ID are astounding, from IR face tracking, to degraded biometric security, and now to requiring an Apple Watch to unlock the phone with your mask on. Talk about a Rube Goldberg machine.

Sorry, it’s not. Face ID: Just pick up your phone and your phone automatically unlocks with your face. This experience is way superior than having to position your finger at a specific place every time you want to unlock it. Putting it on the back is even worse, you need to actually pick up your phone from the desk just to unlock it. I swear HN readers would create devices with the worst UX possible.

they both have their place, but with touchid my phone is often unlocked before i even look at it or without looking at it which is nice at times.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#408

Post by katbyte »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #287
tinyprojects wrote: post #164

Everyone is missing the point. This is the start of a major battle between two tech juggernauts. One look at the Facebook ads manager will show you Facebook is very scared about this privacy update and trying to do everything in their power to mitigate it. Apple is the gatekeeper and Facebook can't do anything about it. Their dominant revenue stream is about to be strangled. I think Zuckerberg realizes he is screwed…

>Apple is the gatekeeper and Facebook can't do anything about it. Antitrust. As much as I applaud Apple here- isn't this just more proof they they abuse their position?

is it? of all the possible antitrust things they do i think this is isn't one of them: protect the users and give them choice back? that would be a hard case to make

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#409

Post by stjohnswarts »

mirthflat83 wrote: post #248
lwansbrough wrote: post #154

Touch ID is an entirely superior technology and Apple is profoundly stupid for removing it. It doesn't have to be in the screen, just put it on the back. The lengths they'll go to offset the removal of Touch ID are astounding, from IR face tracking, to degraded biometric security, and now to requiring an Apple Watch to unlock the phone with your mask on. Talk about a Rube Goldberg machine.

Sorry, it’s not. Face ID: Just pick up your phone and your phone automatically unlocks with your face. This experience is way superior than having to position your finger at a specific place every time you want to unlock it. Putting it on the back is even worse, you need to actually pick up your phone from the desk just to unlock it. I swear HN readers would create devices with the worst UX possible.

It's not "way superior" it's just different and slightly easier.

Re: iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

#410

Post by toxik »

jdminhbg wrote: post #397
Someone1234 wrote: post #9

In regard to unlock w/Apple Watch: - This is an issue of Apple's own artificial creation. - This doesn't even solve the issue. So this all started because Face Unlock didn't work with masks, that's not Apple's fault. But what is entirely Apple's fault is that they break an option which resolves this only when Face Unlock is enabled: "Require Passcode." When you disable Face Unlock you can set Require Passcode to e.g.…

> you MUST enable a passcode on your Apple Watch to use this feature at all (and they're relying on the Apple Watch being less aggressive to re-lock than the iPhone). When you refer to the Apple Watch being “less aggressive to re-lock,” you’re really overselling it. The Watch does not re-lock for the entire time it’s on your wrist after you first unlock it (which you can do with FaceID on your phone). I go weeks with…

Your battery lasts weeks? I unlock once per day, which is when I put the watch on my wrist.
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