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Apple Dismisses Rumors of Ever Putting Touch ID on Back, Side, or Under Display of iPhone X

Rogifan said:
Except Apple never said, never hinted this is something they were working on. And people who have contacts inside Apple like Gruber and Rene Ritchie never said Apple was working on this. So basically people are suggesting Apple is fudging, spinning or worse, lying because of unverified rumors from people or media outlets that as far as we know aren’t on the inside with Apple.
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Exactly this! I feel like Apple is usually ready to admit that they tried something and that it didn't work. This suggests that what they ended up with is superior. When people complained that the new macbooks weren't touch screen, Steve Jobs said they tried it and it didn't work. Your arm gets tired. Regardless of whether you agree with that or not, it wouldn't benefit Apple in the least to deny trying something that they ultimately decided was inferior.

Secondly, nobody seems to realize all the tech hardware that makes up Touch ID. Just look at the image on this article. The Touch ID sensor is made up of many layers of components. It has to have a metal ring around the lens to detect the presence of your finger. Developing something that would exist under the screen and have absolutely NO obstruction of pixels would mean they would need to redesign Touch ID from scratch to work in a totally new way. It doesn't make sense that they would do this, especially if they already thought Face ID would be superior.
 
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840quadra said:
I love when people throw the Prada out as a debate point of them being first. Sure, they were fist to market with the Prada, however, Apple didn’t design and test the iphone in 4-5 months. In fact, they also had some terrible prototype concepts leading up to their iPhone OS Multitouch system.

IIRC, Those prototypes were in 2005, a year before the Prada hit the marketplace.



As a Pixel 2 owner, I am glad they didn’t. Personal preference, but I simply dislike the sensor being on the back. At least they didn’t put it next to, and make it feel like the Camera lens, as in the case of Samsung.
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It's indeed over. I really do miss the good old days before Apple attracted so many mainstream customers. Back when they had a customer base that was not so cantankerous and stubbornly attached to patterns and methods. Can you imagine the whining that would have ensued throughout the internet if these folks were around for the switch to OS X?
 
michelalano said:
Exactly this! I feel like Apple is usually ready to admit that they tried something and that it didn't work. This suggests that what they ended up with is superior. When people complained that the new macbooks weren't touch screen, Steve Jobs said they tried it and it didn't work. Your arm gets tired. Regardless of whether you agree with that or not, it wouldn't benefit Apple in the least to deny trying something that they ultimately decided was inferior.

Secondly, nobody seems to realize all the tech hardware that makes up Touch ID. Just look at the image on this article. The Touch ID sensor is made up of many layers of components. It has to have a metal ring around the lens to detect the presence of your finger. Developing something that would exist under the screen and have absolutely NO obstruction of pixels would mean they would need to redesign Touch ID from scratch to work in a totally new way. It doesn't make sense that they would do this, especially if they already thought Face ID would be superior.
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Understand, this entire rumor was based on the premise that Apple couldn't possibly come up with an ID system better than touch. Notice, this narrative continues even after the iPhone X gets into the hands of users who are saying pretty unambiguously that FaceID is in fact better. We hear some version of this narrative every time Apple abandons a technology in favor of a better one.
 
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cyclonus5150 said:
It's indeed over. I really do miss the good old days before Apple attracted so many mainstream customers. Back when they had a customer base that was not so cantankerous and stubbornly attached to patterns and methods. Can you imagine the whining that would have ensued throughout the internet if these folks were around for the switch to OS X?
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True, but the switch to OS X was kind of painful for the installed base. Apple made it somewhat less so by allowing OS9 to run in Classic Mode, but it was awkward for quite awhile.
 
I believe that Apple never seriously considered putting Touch ID on the back, as that would be seen to be just copying many Android phones, and it doesn’t make much sense as an interactive button like the existing Touch ID.

But I figure if Apple had found a way to put it under the screen then they would have, because why not? It could always supplement Face ID.
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RuffyYoshi said:
"We figured that an intrusive notch would be better than to elegantly hide the touch id mechanism under the screen."
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To be fair, if they wanted to embrace the rounded corners of the display as they have then they would’ve needed a notch anyway for the speaker and camera.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:

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Spill...what?? I can play with matches now?? Go ahead...cigarette-burns can't bother me??? I guess I don't get this one... at all! :p
 
So, how many people have chimed in, so far, on the notion that Apple intentionally promulgated those false rumors themselves? I mean, it could be that Apple wants to discredit the various rumor mongorers, and find a way back to the days-of-yore, when they were actually able to surprise the public during their keynote speeches... and so they created a few mock-ups and "accidentally" allowed information about them to reach certain highly successful spec predictors/commentators. It's also likely in this scenario that the fake rumors were specifically revealed to certain suspected internal leakers, and that the publication of those rumors were quickly followed up by the dismissal of certain employees...

(doffs tin-foil hat)
 
TurboPGT! said:
I laugh because, I knew this as obvious reality long before Apple confirmed it. But people that don't know any better, people that don't know how real products are made, bought into the tech media garbage spewed all summer long.

It really is disgraceful the way people get their "information" from unsubstantiated rumor.
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Yet you are on a site called MacRUMORS. You expected not to read rumors here?
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MadeMyDay said:
Face ID is a generational evolution, not a technological compromise.
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Ah, so how will you use it in certain use cases that TouchID works better... like in the movie theater when you pull your phone from your pocket and want to glance down at a message; or in a meeting where you are trying to discretely check a message under the table. You can't do either of these with FaceID and they are both real examples among many where TouchID is better. So how is that not a compromise... and how is having one biometric option instead of two not a compromise?
 
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cyclonus5150 said:
It's indeed over. I really do miss the good old days before Apple attracted so many mainstream customers. Back when they had a customer base that was not so cantankerous and stubbornly attached to patterns and methods. Can you imagine the whining that would have ensued throughout the internet if these folks were around for the switch to OS X?
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Oh I remember the whining back then. :) But OS X had a few things that Face ID doesn't:

  1. OS X was technically far beyond Mac OS or Windows. Mac OS's memory management had been obsolete for many years.
  2. OS X had Steve Jobs. His RDF influenced not only the public but also Apple's own developers. It made them strive for what they rationally understood to be impossible.
If Steve Jobs were alive today then far more people would line up at Apple Stores for facials.
 
zarmanto said:
So, how many people have chimed in, so far, on the notion that Apple intentionally promulgated those false rumors themselves? I mean, it could be that Apple wants to discredit the various rumor mongorers, and find a way back to the days-of-yore, when they were actually able to surprise the public during their keynote speeches... and so they created a few mock-ups and "accidentally" allowed information about them to reach certain highly successful spec predictors/commentators. It's also likely in this scenario that the fake rumors were specifically revealed to certain suspected internal leakers, and that the publication of those rumors were quickly followed up by the dismissal of certain employees...

(doffs tin-foil hat)
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Any company worth its salt will always put out (read as leak) "ideas" to see or feel the pulse of its customers...or future customers. You pick a tech company, they do it. You pick a car company, they do it.

To put the TouchID/home button on the back, someone will gripe or sue as it was their idea. I am still not froggy with FaceID/TouchID. I prefer the code to get into my phone. I would use those features for apps...just my preference.
 
IJ Reilly said:
True, but the switch to OS X was kind of painful for the installed base. Apple made it somewhat less so by allowing OS9 to run in Classic Mode, but it was awkward for quite awhile.
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Amen. It did require quite a bit of change management although I feel like the energy was far more positive even though the entire Mac OS was being completely swapped out for an all alien replacement. Think about that for a moment. Today's tech press and associated eyeballs waste colossal amounts of time, pixel and hyperlink desperately trying to convince anyone who will listen that Apple is flailing at an attempt to retain an authentication method for it's phone. When it doesn't happen, they are inconsolable, irrationally rejecting any and every notion that Apple indeed intended to abandon said authentication method for a better one. Imagine this crowd back in 2002? Steve would have lost his mind.
 
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This guy is lying out of his ass. I believe him when he says what they wanted to do as the future was Face ID. The rest is just filler and twisting of words.
 
Well, that settles it. I was holding out for the update of the iPhone SE but if Apple is going to replace Touch ID with Face ID on all phones released in 2018, including an updated SE, then I might as well buy the current iPhone SE and use it as long as possible.
 
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lynmond said:
FaceID is a nonsense. Being forced to LOOK at your phone to use it. Utterly impractical in so many scenarios. Apple will be aware pre-order demand (sales volumes) are down for X as many (like me) want to retain TouchID functionality...so hope to push people towards X as the inevitable direction of travel.

PS of course they tried to implement TouchID in X, to deny is folly.
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Yeah why would anyone look at a phone at all? Why even have a screen??
 
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