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Apple Offers a Temporary Workaround if the Home Button Fails on an iPhone 7

merkinmuffley said:
The permanent fix for this is to replace Tim Cook with someone who understands the process of releasing quality products that have been tested.
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The article has nothing to do with the quality of the products. Apple added a notification and workaround similar to Assistive Touch (which was always around) in case the Home Button was to fail so clearly these devices were in fact thoroughly tested. It would be best if you actually read the article.
 
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The only thing I'm not clear on from the OP and the rest of the thread is whether iOS reported the home button/Touch ID not working and/or disabled it due to the Taptic Engine being broken (which would be an overreaction imo) or whether the Taptic Engine going crazy was due to a wider hardware issue and the Touch ID was genuinely broken (in this case the OS degraded gracefully and did "the right thing", which is good)
 
palooza said:
Not sure why people seem to think the home button is weak to be honest. I own a repair shop and repair hundreds, the only real home button failures I've seen is when it's been ripped off when the screens smashed..

Only seemed to be a massive problem in the iPhone 4/4's so not sure why people think it's across the whole iPhone range.
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Personally I've seen more problems with the power button than the home button yet people don't seem to talk about that as much. I don't think I've even seen an iPhone with a non-working home button myself.
 
I think that this is a good sign from Apple. Before they would ignore an issue like this and pretend it doesn't exist. Here they are accepting that there is a problem and offering a way for users to still use their phone easily. I will be glad when they fix the hardware to not fail but this is still a good sign.
 
I7guy said:
A phone is not a car and not meant to be repaired as such.
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As compared to the success of the Samsung Galaxy note 7? /hyperbole
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If the sales decline,a sales decline is a sales decline.The iPhone 6 record stands unbroken
 
marvz said:
You know how many iPhone 7's have been sold, right? Millions. If only one of 1 million iPhones has this problem it means 0.0001 %. But yeah this iPhone is such an experimental device. Please stop posting this nonsense.
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Then don't post such arguments if you don't know nothing. iPhone's old physical Home Button is the part that has to be repaired the most.
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I guess the only people that can post are the people that have all the answers
mdlooker said:
I'm more concerned why Apple is holding back on technology than anything else. Aah Apple if you can OBVIOUSLY put a home button on the screen itself, ummm why not get rid of the bezels and do this now?

Is there a purposeful "drip" of technology to scrap in billions year over year?? :mad:
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I often thought they were holding back on technology so they can "drip" it out to make more money, but now am I'm convinced that apple is not doing that they are just not as focused as they once were.
 
With all Apple's resources they still can't perfect the button? My original Nintendo controller went through way more stress than any iPhone button and still works for decades! It is ironic that Apple can write software to detect a broken button but can't just make it work.
 
merkinmuffley said:
The permanent fix for this is to replace Tim Cook with someone who understands the process of releasing quality products that have been tested.
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Oh, very, very excellent & well thought out reasonable suggestion sir!!!
Now that the phone has been on sale for over 5 weeks & we have heard of a SINGLE instance of a home button failure out of the literal millions and millions of units sold, it makes perfect sense to call for the head of the CEO on a platter!!!!!!
You are not being ridiculous & wearing your hatred for the man on your sleeve at all.
Nope.
Not at all.
Very sane & level headed.

/extreme sarcasm
 
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kas23 said:
It's probably like how your great grandmother born in the 30's use to cover her sofa in plastic.
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Funny, that's how I feel about iPhone cases. You buy this $1000 state of the art pocket computer with beautiful industrial design engineered to fractions of a millimetre. Then you stick it in a $7.29 piece of bulky rubber for the entire time that you own it.
 
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ipedro said:
Funny, that's how I feel about iPhone cases. You buy this $1000 state of the art pocket computer with beautiful industrial design engineered to fractions of a millimetre. Then you stick it in a $7.29 piece of bulky rubber for the entire time that you own it.
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Because you know deep down a) it isn't industrial design and b) you need to look after it fir the next user
 
 
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No company makes perfect products. There will always be issues with hardware but at least the iPhone doesn't explode :eek:
 
Adam Warlock said:
Just one more point of possible failure that will end up frustrating customers. The car manufactures began using touch controls for volume, temperature, etc a few years back until, unsurprisingly, they started returning to physical buttons shortly thereafter. Software is much more prone to bugs than hardware failure. Physical buttons are best in many instances!
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I think the majority car manufactures don't know how to implement touch successfully as interface is not on their top priority. Toyota, Honda, BMW all have done a terrible job. Having played around with Teslas, I think they almost got it right but you are definitely right about about physical buttons . i think there is a balance as sometimes a old analogue switch is the best solution like you said.

Personally, I love old school switches. But god have the manufactures made some horrible interfaces.
 
chr1s60 said:
Then again, I'm in the minority that believe the Macrumors world will be in shock next year at the announcement of the iPhone 7s and not some new hyped model.
[doublepost=1476537310][/doublepost].
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Macrumor world have hardly been shocked by anything on the recent years. Most things rumored have become true to the point that when Apple holds media events, everyone here knows almost exactly what to expect.
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RuffyYoshi said:
I thought making it non moving would eliminate problems. ffs
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What problem? Problem caused by ware and tare of moving parts? Yes, it does eliminate that. But things are not tied to only one kind of problem. On this occasion the problem could be simply just a bug related one.
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ani4ani said:
Because you know deep down a) it isn't industrial design and b) you need to look after it fir the next user
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He does have a point. Cases make smartphones subjectively Ugly! Nothing is meant to live forever.
That being said, I do keep it in a case too but only because I do sell them after a year or 2 and get at least a half of what I have paid. Zero scratches/marks + original box means lot more of my money back on eBay.
 
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Telos101 said:
I'm not sure this is correct.

If you read the original thread where the problem was first identified, iwayne says the haptic feedback 'spazzed out' and fired off three or four times when the button was pressed once. Subsequently the button failed to work at all. (although apparently now it's working again, but that's by the by). Doesn't this suggest there's a one-to-one correspondence between a properly functioning Taptic Engine and a working home button? Otherwise I don't understand why the prompt would have appeared in the first place. I mean, if the pressure sensor just flat out failed, how would the diagnostic even know if the user had pressed it? Pretty sure this indicates a tight non-modular integration between the two components of the system.

This is beyond earlier accessibility features. No other iPhone model automatically raises the alarm when the home button cocks up and provides a temporary onscreen solution.
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My best guess is as the Home Button malfunctioned it sent random signals to the Taptic Engine, imagine it like a button that's stuck. On the iPhone 7 page, it says "The Home button on iPhone 7 is an advanced solid-state button designed to be durable, responsive, and pressure sensitive. Working in tandem with the new Taptic Engine, it gives you precise tactile feedback as you press." So it's clear from the wording that Home Button and Taptic Engine are separate units.
 
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