Live data from Hacker News

New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

theverge.com

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know a novice user who sticks with iDevices (as opposed to Android) precisely because they have a physical home button. Numerous Android devices (including, I believe, all the Samsung lines and certainly the flagship S n and Galaxy Note lines) have physical home buttons. So its kind of odd that one would base a preference for iDevices over Android on a feature on which the two are not differentiated.

Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement. The flagship devices don't have a physical home button.

> Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement.

Honestly, I'd don't see much making Samsung's “vendor junk” any worse than Apple's, but, sure, if you prefer Apple's software to that provides by the major Android device makers, that's a legitimate reason to prefer iOS to Android. The patently false idea that Android devices, as a class, don't have a physical home key is not.

> The flagship devices don't have a physical home button.

Many Android flagship phones do. Google's Pixel line does not, but while Pixel might fairly be called an Android flagship phone (well, two, the base model and the XL) or Google's flagship phone(s), it's clearly not the whole of the space of Android flagships.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#72

Removing the home button would be a mistake. I know a novice user who sticks with iDevices (as opposed to Android) precisely because they have a physical home button. As they describe it, "it's a magic button that's always there and always gets you back out of whatever you're in". By contrast, they dislike Android devices because of the virtual buttons that are sometimes removed in favor of more content. Usability is…

I used to have Jolla phone and there was no buttons on front face at all. You could get to home screen with swipe. I found it much more handful than Android and iOS home buttons (physical or virtual).

Edit: there was also tap-to-wake which is awesome feature as well. Happy to see it on iOS.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement. The flagship devices don't have a physical home button.

> Non-Google devices are typically infested with all sorts of vendor junk, so that's not an improvement. Honestly, I'd don't see much making Samsung's “vendor junk” any worse than Apple's, but, sure, if you prefer Apple's software to that provides by the major Android device makers, that's a legitimate reason to prefer iOS to Android. The patently false idea that Android devices, as a class, don't have a physical hom…

There's a pretty clear difference between stock Android and non-stock Android. Yes, random non-stock devices also include customizations such as home buttons, but that's not the default experience. And the random other inconsistencies of such devices would rather defeat the purpose.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#74
post #72

Removing the home button would be a mistake. I know a novice user who sticks with iDevices (as opposed to Android) precisely because they have a physical home button. As they describe it, "it's a magic button that's always there and always gets you back out of whatever you're in". By contrast, they dislike Android devices because of the virtual buttons that are sometimes removed in favor of more content. Usability is…

I used to have Jolla phone and there was no buttons on front face at all. You could get to home screen with swipe. I found it much more handful than Android and iOS home buttons (physical or virtual). Edit: there was also tap-to-wake which is awesome feature as well. Happy to see it on iOS.

I remember that; I think it's a nice design, if made available consistently and not overridable by apps. There just needs to be some consistent action that always works in any context.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#75
I can't wait for the home button to disappear. It's served its purpose, but with facial unlock (works really well on the Surface with Windows Hello), tap to wake, sound unlock, etc and with 3D touch, there are better ways of simulating home button like behavior without the button.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#76
post #56
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same on the 6S. Not the least because of the audio jack. But the removal of the fingerprint reader is another problem. Looking at your iphone for face recognition is one thing but how can you discretely check your emails during a meeting?

> Looking at your iphone for face recognition is one thing but how can you discretely check your emails during a meeting? Facial recognition usually falls down in low-light situations as well, such as while laying in bed, or on a red-eye flight.

I just have the feeling that a fingerprint reader is less invasive compared to facial recognition.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donwvotes? Alright let me reframe the question: Are iOS and Android continuing to converging on the same features? What new innovations can be found in the mature mobile market or should be look to other form factors?

Apple very rarely actually innovates. Their innovations tend to be the perfection of an existing technology. I can't think of anything they've done first. They're the prime example of "second mover advantage". AR/VR is where the new innovations are happening. ARKit, Tango, Oculus, Hololens, etc.

They used to in the Jobs era. Haven't seen anything jaw dropping since then. Mostly new colors, difference sizes and minor UI improvements.. Swift is cool, but it doesn't increase sales.

AR/VR is interesting but won't take off until the hardware lowers in price..significantly.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#78
post #52
post #5

As a developer I'm more or less required to keep up with new hardware developments but I'm still fine with my 6S with 3D touch. The rest of the new hardware features work fine within a simulator. I'd rather buy an iPad Pro than a new phone this year. But I didn't like the design of the iPhone 6 compared to the 4 and 5. It's good to see it change finally. The 4 and 5 looked like a piece of futuristic technology, like…

Same on the 6S. Not the least because of the audio jack. But the removal of the fingerprint reader is another problem. Looking at your iphone for face recognition is one thing but how can you discretely check your emails during a meeting?

> discretely check your emails

You could always use the old-school keycode unlock.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#79
post #24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you can apply this strategy to ads too, to learn what kind of ad an user likes or dislikes, so they can target the ads a little bit better/easier. Which is exactly why I will refuse to give any facial recognition data to third party apps.

Why? If you are going to be seeing ads anyway, might as well see better targeted and useful ads that make your face cheer up. Don't get all the cynicism.

Would you mind having a person following you around 24/7, examining everything you do? It would "improve" advertising significantly.

Re: New iPhone leaks show tap to wake, attention detection, and virtual home button

#80
post #7

Handling a smart phone is already stressful enough. You can't touch the entire front of phone in fear of accidentally tapping something, even if the screen is off because it might turn on at any moment. With tap to wake you have to worry about just bumping it and with facial expressions you'd literally need to be concerned about just looking at it funny.

Not really - there's a reason why the Android phones that have tap to wake require two taps in quick succession, or similar. It's very difficult to accidentally trigger it. The facial recognition stuff seems odd to me, in the sense that I can't really figure out what it would be used for (aside from a silly smile detector in the camera app), but hopefully it'll be locked behind permission prompts (or barely accessibl…

"The facial recognition stuff seems odd to me"

Any type of "authentication" wouldn't make sense, that'd be as silly as a finger print scanner. Smile detector might be fun but certainly not worth the privacy trade off. There's only 1 useful feature I can think of and I've yet to see it done: when my head is sideways and the phone is sideways, I'm lying down, don't rotate the frickin' screen. Still not worth the privacy trade off, but people who don't care will be very happy.

Post reply on HN