
iOS 11 Dock and Gesture Controls to Replace 'iPhone 8' Home Button Entirely - janober
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/08/30/dock-gestures-home-button-iphone-8/
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orloffm
The thing is that the button always works reliably while all their interface
swipes are laggy and become unusable under heavy load, in battery saving mode
and as usual, in a few years after they stop optimizing for the old hardware.

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TekMol
But isn't that an implementation detail?

I would assume that if they want, they can assign a non-changeable interrupt
to the swipe recommendation call.

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otoburb
The swipe needs to be recognized as such before the prioritization, while a
separate home-buttom IRQ feels more immediate and hence "reliable" under most
mental models.

One could argue that _any_ tactile event would generate an IRQ so it shouldn't
matter whether the interrupt handler is from the screen or home button, except
that there intuitively seem to be many more branches and CPU cycles required
to determine the actual priority/intent of a tactile interrupt versus a
smaller set of branches required for the home button.

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walterbell
Are there comparative latency numbers between SW dock and HW button, as Apple
reports for the Pencil?

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limeblack
A bezel-less and home button-less iPhone sounds cool but but what are they
going to do with all the functionality the home button delivers? It does
currently does the following

1\. Home Button(Obviously) 2\. Access Siri 3\. Music App Controls—When the
phone is locked 4\. Accessibility Controls 5\. Dismiss Control Center 6\.
Touch ID 7\. Reachability

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joezydeco
9\. Hard Reboot

10\. DFU mode

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bjtitus
On the capacitive touch iPhones these functions use a combination of the power
button and volume rocker instead.

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intoverflow2
Worried they're too busy chasing the industrial design dream of an entire
screen surface that usability and sensibility is being thrown out of the
window.

Normally I'd have faith but honestly things are getting weird over there.

~~~
dx034
Let's see what they do about the iPhone SE. Its success already appears to be
an issue for Apple (lower margins) and a radical redesign of the flagship
version could steer more people towards the SE (esp if it receives an update).
Wouldn't be surprised if they discontinue the SE.

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jbob2000
I remember reading that the reason for getting rid of the home button is that
certain cultures around the world strictly do not use it, out of fear that it
might break and require repairs. Instead, they use the on-screen accessibility
button to replace the features of the home button.

The fear of using the home button has gotten so bad that even store employees
are recommending to use the accessibility button and advise against pressing
the hardware switch.

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Spivak
This fear is well founded. Assuming that a person doesn't accidentally crack
their screen the first thing to break on an iPhone is the home button. Long
time heavy users of iPhones almost always have to resort to the accessibility
buttons.

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dbbk
I have never encountered this myself nor heard of it happen to anyone I know.

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sidawson
You have now. That's -exactly- why I use the onscreen accessibility menu.

I figure, given how many times a day I use the home button, if I can half
that, I double the lifespan of the device (over my previous iDevice, on which
the home button stopped working & I thus had to throw out).

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dbbk
One outlier doesn't translate to "long time heavy users of iPhones almost
always [do]".

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usaphp
That cutout on the front would be so non appleesque. I a sure I'll get used to
it, but it seem like they should have found a better way to put it. I still
can't stand that android watch that had a black bar on top or seomthing

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Gaelan
Remember the camera bump?

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usaphp
I actually don't mind the camera bump. I don't see it and it does not bother
me at all. Not sure why people make such a big deal out of it. Also if you put
a case on your phone which 95% of people do - the bump won't even be
noticeable.

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freehunter
Hmm, I'm not sure about the dock. I have iOS 11 on my iPhone 7 Plus and my 10"
iPad, and I do like the dock on my iPad, but it's an iPad-only feature. I'm
not convinced they'd exclude the "Plus" size phones from the dock but include
it on an iPad and the iPhone 8.

I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I would expect that if the dock was coming
to iPhones, it'd be in the beta for current large iPhones. As of right now,
it's an iPad-only feature.

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TekMol
Seems like a logical progression. Why waste screen estate if you don't have
to.

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hitgeek
I hope this is not the case.

I love the elegant simplicity of the home button.

this part of the original iphone launch is one of my favorites:

"And on the front, there’s only one button down there. We call it the home
button. Takes you home from wherever you are."

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amrrs
I think everytime there's a change being introduced fear and uncertainty have
clouded initially but eventually we've gotten used it.

* New Flat Icons on iOS as opposed to the earlier skeuomorphic ones

* FB Messenger

* Snapchatish features on FB

* Windows 10

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dx034
None of those radically changed the way you use it. Windows 10 changes many
features but most users only use the browser anyway (plus Office at work).

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zimpenfish
Do we really think that on their flagship phone, they're going to remove
TouchID and thus the possibility of Apple Pay? I can't see it making sense for
them.

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sjburt
The rumor is that the sensor is on the back.

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zimpenfish
The flaw there is that then interferes with payment because your hand is in
the way of the payment doodad - a lot of the ones in the UK that I've
encountered are designed for flat contactless credit cards, not "phone with
hand underneath".

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mikeash
NFC is short range but not _that_ short range. You usually need a finger on
the back of the phone anyway just to hold it.

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zimpenfish
But for stability, it would need to be high up the back - I can't physically
hold the phone stable and have my index finger sufficiently on the back for
sensoring unless it's at least halfway up and central.

Also, having just tested, this completely blocks thumb usage - there's just no
way it can be done!

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mikeash
I don't get it. I can comfortably hold my phone pinched between my thumb and
index fingers at just about any location. The finger on the bottom just needs
to be a little closer to the center of gravity. A sensor where my 6+ says
"iPhone" on the back (about 1.5" above the bottom) would work fine. But even
if the sensor was up high, so what? It'll still work if your finger is between
the phone and the reader.

As for the thumb, just flip your phone over. Although this would suck if you
need any visual feedback, obviously.

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zimpenfish
> I can

Yeah but you != me. And I am by no means the least dextrous person I know.

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mikeash
I can't picture how a lack of dexterity would prevent this. But even if it
did, we're back to my original point about range: it's OK to have your fingers
in between, it'll still work.

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odammit
I really hope they embrace "shake to undo" or as I like to call it "break to
undo".

That's such an absurd feature.

