iPad 3 'Home Button' Parts Start Circulating in China

[MacRumors]

Claimed iPad 3 parts have been circulating for some time already, but a few more pieces to the puzzle are starting to appear. 9to5Mac posts this photo of iPad 3 home buttons in comparison to the existing iPad 2 ones.




No real surprises, though it should help kill already sketchy rumors that Apple might do away with a home button altogether. The backside is slightly tweaked, though we'd be hard pressed to draw any conclusions from it. The biggest takeaway is that iPad 3 parts are continuing to leak as production and shipment draws near.

The iPad 3 is expected to arrive in early 2012, anywhere from February to April in timeframe. The iPad 3 is also expected to carry an ultra high resolution 'Retina' display.

Article Link: iPad 3 'Home Button' Parts Start Circulating in China

[thedarkhorse]

smaller bezel.

[3bs]

Originally Posted by thedarkhorse

smaller bezel.

Is it smaller? I'm not sure. And I always thought it was a completely smooth circle with no edges

Edit: on 9t5Mac they do say several times in the post that the home button is smaller

[adder7712]

Looks the same to me.

[chrf097]

Not to be rude, but is this really that important? I mean, they look identical! I hardly see any difference! I doubt the iPad is going to change much. A higher-res screen and maybe some minor visual changes, with all the biggies under the hood. Just my 2 cents. It's MacRumors News and Rumors you care about. Is it really that big a deal if the iP3 has a pretty much identical home button? Not something to really care about.

[xionxiox]

Looks like we'll get the iPad 3 part by part just like the 4S.

Originally Posted by adder7712

Looks the same to me.

Of course it looks the same, it's just a home button.

Originally Posted by thedarkhorse

smaller bezel.

What exactly about these pictures suggests that? They're both the same size and shape.

[David085]

Hoping the iPad 3 is cheaper cost since it will be smaller in size compare to the iPad, and iPad 2

[xionxiox]

Originally Posted by David085

Hoping the iPad 3 is cheaper cost since it will be smaller in size compare to the iPad, and iPad 2

I hope you're being sarcastic.

[sammich]

What's next? They changed the colour of the underside of the standby button?

[daneoni]

I'd prefer it if Apple got rid of the physical Home button entirely and went capacitive. There's too much variation in tactile feedback/build quality and it can easily go wonky.

[David085]

Originally Posted by daneoni

I'd prefer it if Apple got rid of the Home button entirely. There's too much variation in tactile feedback/build quality and it can easily go wonky.

I agree they should do away with the home button and have a touch or gesture to go back to the home screen it will be much better

[Shadyriley]

The home button I'd too iconic for them to take it away, its part of their design and brand. I think they put a led under the white circle for notifications when it's off.

[D.T.]

Originally Posted by David085

I agree they should do away with the home button and have a touch or gesture to go back to the home screen it will be much better

This is already implemented in the current iOS: four fingers up to open the running apps/playback/brightness, and the five finger pinch to go back to home/springboard (there's also the found finger "flip" between apps but it's a little flaky).

That being said, I still use the physical button 99% of the time, probably from habit, but it works so much more consistently vs. the gestures.

[qtx43]

Of course the button is smaller because it's oon a smaller 7.85" device! /kidding

[_Matt]

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Do I have to be the one that says it? The fronts of both home buttons are identical, but the pictures show that Apple has modified the inside of it to make it more resistant to wear and tear. The iPad 3 one focuses the pressure into a smaller area sensor, so it has a longer life.

[adder7712]

Originally Posted by D.T.

This is already implemented in the current iOS: four fingers up to open the running apps/playback/brightness, and the five finger pinch to go back to home/springboard (there's also the found finger "flip" between apps but it's a little flaky).

That being said, I still use the physical button 99% of the time, probably from habit, but it works so much more consistently vs. the gestures.

The gestures might conflict with some apps. I used 5 fingers on a game of Fruit Ninja and it took me back to the Home screen, so I disabled it. A gesture area or a touch sensitive button below the screen would be a good replacement for the home button.

[Force332]

Originally Posted by D.T.

That being said, I still use the physical button 99% of the time, probably from habit, but it works so much more consistently vs. the gestures.

My girlfriend is the same way. She still uses the home button for everything. She says she keeps forgetting that you can use gestures.

Me on the other hand, I literally haven't pressed the home button on my iPad 2 since iOS 5 launched.

[Prodo123]

Originally Posted by David085

I agree they should do away with the home button and have a touch or gesture to go back to the home screen it will be much better

Would you like to hear how many times my hand accidentally pressed the touch buttons an Android phone?

[Bathplug]

When my iphone 4s home button was faulty I jailbreak'd just to add a gesture to swipe down from the top to act as the home button and swipe left to open the multitasking area, worked great. Forget all this 4 or 5 finger gesture crap.

Anyway this new button only looks slightly smaller. I'd still welcome a smaller bezel anyday.

[danahn17]

Originally Posted by Prodo123

Would you like to hear how many times my hand accidentally pressed the touch buttons an Android phone?

Agreed. I switched from a 3GS to a AT&T Galaxy SII that has no real buttons and the home button is one of the things I miss most about an iPhone.

[kobyh15]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

The home button is an object of comfort for many users...especially new users. They may not know anything about iOS but they know if they get in trouble they can press the home button to get out. It's not going away yet.

[Yebubbleman]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Image


Claimed iPad 3 parts have been circulating for some time already, but a few more pieces to the puzzle are starting to appear. 9to5Mac posts this photo of iPad 3 home buttons in comparison to the existing iPad 2 ones.

Image


No real surprises, though it should help kill already sketchy rumors that Apple might do away with a home button altogether. The backside is slightly tweaked, though we'd be hard pressed to draw any conclusions from it. The biggest takeaway is that iPad 3 parts are continuing to leak as production and shipment draws near.

The iPad 3 is expected to arrive in early 2012, anywhere from February to April in timeframe. The iPad 3 is also expected to carry an ultra high resolution 'Retina' display.

Article Link: iPad 3 'Home Button' Parts Start Circulating in China

Y'know, to be fair, it's not like we really need the home button for anything on the iPad anymore; the five-finger multi-touch pinch gesture works just as well for going back to the home screen and the four finger swipe up works just as well for bringing up the multitasking menu. The only two things that the home button would be missed for would be for physically resetting the device (though I imagine that if the home button were removed, an alternate method for invoking this would be devised) and for going from page x of apps on the home screen back to page one.

I mean, I'm not saying that I want the button gone; I don't...but given Apple's minimalist tendencies, I don't think it'd be all that far fetched for it to go away in a future generation of the iPad. On the iPod touch and iPhone, on the other hand, that thing ain't goin' anywhere, but that's not the topic at hand.

[neilpryde23]

someone once mentioned the idea of having the white square on the home button light up/glow as a notification setting. I thought that would have been kinda cool, especially for the iphone since it doesn't have a notification light other than the entire screen lighting up (i think you can also jailbreak it and make the flash go off for notifications too). Too bad this picture of the home button doesn't support that idea.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by daneoni

I'd prefer it if Apple got rid of the Home button entirely. There's too much variation in tactile feedback/build quality and it can easily go wonky.

I don't. A lot of the patent interfaces center around the Home Button.

[AppleScruff1]

Now that's a button. Nobody can innovate and create a button like that except Apple.