Apple Executives Address Lack of Face ID and Touchscreens on Macs

[bmac89]

Personally I am a fan of Touch ID but it actually makes more sense to have Touch ID on an iPhone/iPad and Face ID on a mac. Touch ID allows you to unlock a phone in your pocket or flat on the table whilst your face is literally in front of a laptop and your hand is more likely to be on the trackpad or mouse.

Apple can do what they want with their hardware but I wish they wouldn’t insist on such pathetic & dishonest excuses for their decisions.

 

[Bandaman]

FaceID on these machines would for me be a reason not to buy them. Great decision not to include

Yes, because never having to type a password while you're sitting at your computer would be such a huge inconvenience.

 

[NPC Compliant]

"more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard"

as if your face is anywhere but in front of the screen when you are using said laptop...

what a dumb excuse - plus if you are right handed your hand is likely on the mouse or trackpad when a Face ID prompt shows up, so it's actually less convenient to lift the hand and use the touch sensor.

Ikr, I almost did a double take reading that; the same logic applies to iPhone and iPad. Whoops…

 

[Born Again]

Register your pinky and it's no harder than hitting the delete key, and if you're anything like me you hit delete a lot. That said, I'd love FaceID on my Mac.

“Our customers have been telling us how much they love FaceID so we brought it our 2022 MacBook pros.”

 

[jonproject]

The implementation on the Mac would need to work at a range of distances - I suspect you are still very close to your iPad.

ALSO ....

Clamshell mode? Using a MacBook attached to an external Monitor.... all these things leave FaceID totally disabled...

It just won't work.

TouchID IS the most sensible options like it or not.

TouchID in clamshell mode. I’ll let you think about that one again.

 

[iLLUMI]

The notch is just a status symbol

The notch is the "new" Apple logo.

 

[bmac89]

The notch is the "new" Apple logo.

Apple should go all in and do a Facebook style rebranding - rename the company Nótch.

NótchOS the most courageous operating system ever.

 

[stocklen]

TouchID in clamshell mode. I’ll let you think about that one again.

External magic keyboard with Touch ID in clamshell mode.
I’ll let you think about that one again.

 

[Westside guy]

what a dumb excuse

Well, marketing has never been about adherence to the facts...

Silly statements like these are targeted at the faithful, not at the skeptical. It's the same sort of silliness they consistently used to justify a touch bar instead of a touch screen - they argued how superior of a solution it was, right up until the time they dumped it. Eventually they'll release a touch screen Mac, and the faithful will crow about it.

 

[Lcgiv]

I mean, do you hold the iPhone the same way you do a MacBook.

I mean, they could keep a form of touch id on iPhones as your hands are always on it

 

[matrix07]

Eventually they'll release a touch screen Mac, and the faithful will crow about it.

You must be one of the 5 people using Mac who want touch screen on it.

 

[The Mercurian]

Why do you say that?

Privacy. Facetime camera on your phone is sophisticated enough that it could do gaze tracking - i.e. know when and for how long you look at different parts of the screen. I dont' want that tech on my laptop.

Yes, because never having to type a password while you're sitting at your computer would be such a huge inconvenience.

My 2019 machine already has TouchId.... I don't need to type password already ?‍♂️ TouchId is the perfect solution it doesn't need improving

 

[CHLFC]

Tom Boger hasn’t considered accessibility. What is convenient to many can be an obstacle for others. I have upper limb disabilities and can’t reach Touch ID on my MacBook Pro. In contrast, Windows Hello facial recognition tech on my Dell is a dream for accessibility and accessing a laptop

 

[Eorlas]

But the Touch ID is not near where your hands are you always have to move it up right to use it, faceid would be better and give us touch screen we want it

there’s nothing to argue as the executive comment youre challenging is nonsensical.

the camera is pointed right at the user while the laptop is open and requires 0 additional input. theyre just continuing the trend of assuming the apple userbase is too stupid to want what it wants

 

[Bandaman]

My 2019 machine already has TouchId.... I don't need to type password already ?‍♂️ TouchId is the perfect solution it doesn't need improving

You still have to touch something. Face ID you wouldn't have to touch anything. So that would be an improvement, regardless of whatever this mentality you have is. I have Touch ID as well, and Face ID would definitely be improvement. Not wanting others to have features because you wouldn't use it for some reason makes no sense.

 

[Chewey_Delt]

Let me throw out a pure bit of speculation here. It’s not based on any technical knowledge, and I don’t want to discount the possibility that it may be partially my love of Apple leading me to find an excuse. But I would not be surprised if the lack of Face ID has so
Erving to do with security gestures that make up a small but important part of the Face ID security system on iPhones.

The first, and I think strongest speculation I have, is that Mac OS is just not as secure as iOS. The MacOS codebase is so inherently interoperable with so much code that has been around for a long time, code that they can’t get away with not supporting. It also wasn’t built from the ground up nearly as recently as the iPhone was. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that causes Apple to not have confidence in the security of MacOS. Why does that matter if there’s already TouchID? Because the very fact that you’re always staring at where the FaceID would be means that it would always have attention awareness and it might make it easier to bypass a software feature that forced you to confirm the system being triggered to check security by, for instance, asking you to confirm an authentication check with TouchID. This is very speculative, and paranoid sounding, but having some experience with needing to be extremely paranoid about digital security, and considering the much smarter security researchers and encoders that Apple employs, i really wouldn’t be surprised if the security implications surrounding a massive screen viewable to trigger by someone who’s hacked the machine to bypass or somehow mask the security prompt during an authentication check, with you constantly staring at that big screen, could be a part.

I said “first,” but though I have other paranoid potential reasons, I’m quite tired because it’s quite late, and none of the others are in any way more informed than that first one. They’re all speculative.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple wasn’t telling us the real reasoN because of a security Insight it might trigger from a hostile party.

 

[Whathappened]

But the Touch ID is not near where your hands are you always have to move it up right to use it, faceid would be better and give us touch screen we want it

I don’t want no Touchscreen but I wonder how Face ID would be abused by malware to get elevated rights in literally a blink of an eye.

 

[Admiralbison]

Why is it a concern if one Apple device cannibalizes another Apple device?

they have had Apple devices overlap for decades and Apple still makes $$$ regardless which device you get.

Also those who don’t want touch screens on Macs will probably cheer like it’s some sort of innovation if Apple does do it in the future.


IF Apple made Macs touchscreen, then they know they would have to put MacOS on the iPad Pro line otherwise it would make M1 iPads questionable as to why they are still being run my iOS.

 

[cmcbhi]

Let's clarify the subject.
I don't own a laptop, I use an iMac.
Face ID on a "Mac" is useless to me; I unlock with my unlocked Watch.
I can see how Face ID on a MacBOOK could be useful, but not mandatory.
JMHO

 

[darngooddesign]

I mean, they could keep a form of touch id on iPhones as your hands are always on it

I mean, they could but I dont see Apple having duplicate forms of authentication.

 

[Baretta]

there’s nothing to argue as the executive comment youre challenging is nonsensical.

the camera is pointed right at the user while the laptop is open and requires 0 additional input. theyre just continuing the trend of assuming the apple userbase is too stupid to want what it wants

Indeed. The remark that “the finger is already on the screen” ignores that the face is exactly on the cam for 99% of the time with better placement (as everybody with an IQ>30 seems to realize, except staff)

 

[TailsToo]

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern, a pair of Apple executives have addressed what is probably the most contentious and talked about features missing on the Mac - Face ID and touchscreen input.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Mac is the lack of Face ID. Since Face ID's launch on the iPhone X, some have wondered if Apple will ever bring it to the Mac. A report earlier in the year suggested it will happen in the future, but the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with the notch, and the lack of Face ID, have brought the debate back to the mainstream.

Addressing why the Mac lacks Face ID, Tom Boger, Apple's vice president of iPad and Mac product marketing, told Stern that Touch ID is more convenient on the Mac since users' hands are already on the keyboard.

Touch ID on the upper-right hand corner of the keyboard lets users easily authenticate by just placing their finger on the sensor. Still, Face ID on the Mac would presumably be even easier, as the Mac would unlock once a user looks at the display, similar to Face ID's behavior on the iPhone and iPad.
Another hot topic of debate surrounding the Mac has been touchscreen capabilities. The notion has been that if Macs were to gain touch input, it would cannibalize iPad sales. John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, seemingly agrees and said that it's not something Apple has felt the need to do.
Ternus and Boger also addressed more specific questions about the newly launched 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and Apple silicon in general. Recent MacBooks feature non-user upgradeable RAM, so the amount of RAM can't be upgraded down the line if a user finds they need extra memory than what shipped with the computer.

Both executives say that Apple silicon's "unified memory architecture" enables higher performance on Macs with Apple silicon, suggesting that similar performance levels would not be achievable without UMA.

The new MacBook Pros brought back many features enjoyed by Mac users that were taken away during the laptop's redesign in 2016. Most notably, Apple has brought back additional ports such as HDMI and MagSafe, removed the Touch Bar, improved the displays, and more.

Speaking generally to the reversal of changes this year, Boger told Stern that Apple is always "listening to its customers," which meant it ultimately needed to undo some of its previous Mac design decisions.
In the full article, Stern also reviews the new MacBook Pros, applauding the return of more ports, full-size function keys, and more.

Article Link: Apple Executives Address Lack of Face ID and Touchscreens on Macs

The translation is: we felt it would be more profitable for Apple to leave off TouchID, and in a generation or two, we’ll add it to much fanfare.

 

[travwill]

They have to save some dumb feature to make minor changes next year to sell more. They hold back these things on purpose. Apple major fans still upgrade…

 

[amaze1499]

FaceID was introduced to iPhone 2018. 3years + I am sure Apple tested it as well on every device they have in the lab or on paper. It seems like this is a strategy not to include it.... yet.

 

[ILoveCalvinCool]

Thank god Apple is resisting facial and thumbprint recognition on Macs. I feel the same way about those that I did the touch bar, and it took five years for them to come to their sense on the touch bar. Luckily, Apple seems to have learned that unnecessarily pushing the envelope with "features" few users want is usually a dead end.