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Appl3FTW

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 15, 2012
5,552
1,252
Like touch capacitive home button. I think it would look sleeker and increase screen realty.
 

lalacharlee

macrumors member
Jan 25, 2013
33
0
It would definitely cut out the home button issues (I suffer with a loose home button which I have grown to live with) I think the iphone would be a lot better with the same look, but not an actual button. Think you're onto something.
 

bookwormsy

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2010
281
172
I personally like the button. My gripe with touch buttons is that they're too easy to accidentally push. When I was playing around with my friends droid 4, I kept brushing against the touch buttons and weird stuff happened. Plus my otterbox overs the home button. :/
 

bryanc28

macrumors 6502
Dec 7, 2007
385
79
Arlington, Va
I personally like the button. My gripe with touch buttons is that they're too easy to accidentally push. When I was playing around with my friends droid 4, I kept brushing against the touch buttons and weird stuff happened. Plus my otterbox overs the home button. :/


This is very true. I tried to like the Galaxy Note 2, but I kept on hitting the one capacitive button. It is annoying as hell. Trust me, be glad that the iphone has a home button!
 

Appl3FTW

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 15, 2012
5,552
1,252
Well it would definitely be a good idea... About the accidental use, I think there should be a touch hold to activate it
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Could eliminate it by being gesture-based like Blackberry 10.

This.

Swipe from the bottom in some way that it doesn't accidentally happen for home. You could literally that a 1/2 off the bottom of the phone (with some crafty redesigned internals). I'm not a fan of physical buttons, eventually fail, dust, dirt and moisture can get around them etc.
 

ledlauzis

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2011
39
0
localhost
I am working for service center which is dealing with Apple device repair and mainly we are dealing with two things: replacing shattered screens and replacing broken iPhone home buttons.
Apple is aware of this issue and the iPhone 5 home button is much more durable but failure rate for iPhone 4S/4 home buttons are ridiculously high.

So to sum it up. I hope Apple will introduce home-button-less iPhone because it would look better and would lave more space for screen but this would take away like 1/5 of our income as a service center.

Read more at http://ubuntulife.net
 
Last edited:

Cod3rror

macrumors 68000
Apr 18, 2010
1,772
82
I'd love if they got rid of the home button and replaced it with gestures.

If you've ever used the Zephyr Cydia tweak you'll know just how awesome gestures are. Swiping up to get rid of the app or show the multitasking switcher is much more intuitive, dynamic and pleasant.

Blackberry has also shown that it can be done well.

It would also allow for a smaller, more durable device. If Apple wants to innovate, they should replace the home button with gestures.
 

Cody21

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2012
544
0
Knoxville, TN
I like the idea of a gesture based UI and doing away with the button completely. Or at least making the button touch sensitive.
 

tmanto02

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2011
1,217
452
Australia
When some android phones freeze there are no physical buttons to hold to do a forced restart. I do like having that option
 

Appl3FTW

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 15, 2012
5,552
1,252
if that's the case, then make like a small button to press on the side for hard restart functionality.
 

RAPTORSKI

macrumors regular
Jan 24, 2013
160
0
British Columbia
yes

I'd be all up for a smaller (height wise) non-physical home button. It would definitely allow for a longer screen without making the device taller, yet it would keep the home button functionality.
 

KieranDotW

macrumors 6502a
Apr 12, 2012
623
68
Canada
I personally like the button. My gripe with touch buttons is that they're too easy to accidentally push. When I was playing around with my friends droid 4, I kept brushing against the touch buttons and weird stuff happened. Plus my otterbox overs the home button. :/

I don't know if this is just marketing bs but whatever technology Apple used to ignore accidental taps on the iPad mini screen due to the smaller bezel could come into play here.

Personally I'd rather have gesture-based than those light-up Android-style touch sensitive buttons or on-screen buttons. I really liked the gesture-based multitasking and menu functions on Blackberry Playbook OS, probably would have kept my Playbook if it wasn't for the apps.
 

irDigital0l

Guest
Dec 7, 2010
2,901
0
Yes, my iPhone 4 home button has issues now.

Yes its 2 years, but it just shows the wear-and-tear of physical buttons.

I would totally ditch a home button for more screen space.
 

Agent-P

Contributor
Dec 5, 2009
2,502
23
The Tri-State Area
I would love if the iPhone moved to a capacitive home button. IMO it's much sleeker than a physical home button.

And for all you whiners about accidental presses, once you've used the device for like an hour then your hands will remember where the button is and avoid pressing it (yes, even in landscape mode). I would know because both phones I've had since my 4S have had capacitive home buttons.
 

Orange Crane

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2012
268
0
It doesn't seem a stretch that the gesture functions of the iPad would eventually make it to iPhone. On iPad the only thing I use the home button for is in conjunction with the sleep button, for screenshots.
 

HankHowdy

macrumors 68040
Dec 2, 2012
3,501
392
Victorville CA
I'd love if they got rid of the home button and replaced it with gestures.

If you've ever used the Zephyr Cydia tweak you'll know just how awesome gestures are. Swiping up to get rid of the app or show the multitasking switcher is much more intuitive, dynamic and pleasant.

Blackberry has also shown that it can be done well.

It would also allow for a smaller, more durable device. If Apple wants to innovate, they should replace the home button with gestures.

Yes! Love that tweak. The home button becomes useless. :)
 

Appl3FTW

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 15, 2012
5,552
1,252
iphone 6 will be groundbreaking and blow everything out of the water again... think circa iphone 4.
 

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
This is very true. I tried to like the Galaxy Note 2, but I kept on hitting the one capacitive button. It is annoying as hell. Trust me, be glad that the iphone has a home button!

Looks like you don't even know what a Note 2 is since it doesn't have "the one capacitive button".
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
I actually dig on the physical home button: it's easy to find by touch, it gives you an orientation reference, it provides positive feedback, plus it makes double (or even triple) clicking possible.

FWIW, the capacitive buttons on my Android devices drove me nuts.
 
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