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Apple to Remove Home Button From Future iPads and iPhones?

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ctdonath said:
I'm more inclined toward "about time!"
The clicky big round button seems a non-sequitur in the rest of the design. Indeed, I find the sharp distinct "click" a distraction, esp. when working in a very quiet environment and trying to avoid drawing attention. Now that we have double-clicking it's twice as annoying. Not a big deal, but not nothing either. Yes there are other buttons, but they are small, discrete, quiet, and optional.

Dunno what gesture would be a suitable replacement.
Click to expand...

I have a gesture for that...

...anyway, these are just speculations, let's see what is really going to happen. Maybe they are going to use a resistive button.

Anyway a physical button is always good to have. Beside as someone else has pointed out the home button is not just to retun at the home screen - force quit, screenshots, and also for restoring the device.
 
Try doing that on your iPhone. I just did. It's way too small. I can barely even fit five fingers when they are all pinched together. There's no way they can move, so this would be impossible to do on a screen that small.
 
Fraaaa said:
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I have a gesture for that...

...anyway, these are just speculations, let's see what is really going to happen. Maybe they are going to use a resistive button.

Anyway a physical button is always good to have. Beside as someone else has pointed out the home button is not just to retun at the home screen - force quit, screenshots, and also for restoring the device.
Click to expand...
Thats what i'm also thinking the button needs to stay. If they remove it, it would be really weird to use.
 
The iPad sans button is logical and allows the pad to become more and more functional in other applications aside from pure-portable computing. On iPhones and iPTs the button is comforting and not such a bad feature.
 
room237 said:
What is wrong with having ONE button? Jeez. It's easier to tap one button than to make a four or five finger gesture.

I make a one-finger gesture to this idea.
Click to expand...

+1

It's much easier to tap a button than try to do a gesture. You're always bound to get the gesture wrong or the device read your gesture wrong. You imagine how frustrating that would get?

stewart715 said:
That's fine, but the phone should be at least SEMI usable with one hand. Without the home button, it's not.
Click to expand...

Another reason this is a *bad* idea (especially for the iphone, not sure how usable the ipad is with one hand).

PinkyMacGodess said:
To me, the idea that the home button would disappear kinda makes sense but for my Mom, it will be a deal killer. She loves her iPhone and has surprisingly taken to it very well but the one thing that makes it so much easier for her to use is the 'home button'.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It was easy to teach my mom how to use it cause, hey, if you accidentally hit the wrong icon and find yourself somewhere you don't want to be, hit that button mom. It would be a lot harder to say, do this gesture. It's not as easy to remember as a button sitting right there reminding you its there to get you back to the home screen if you get confused.

This and the fact that gestures are never always read perfect would be my biggest reasons for disliking this idea. And personally, for me it would be the gesture thing and the not usable in one hand thing (and even so, it's still quicker to just go, hit a button vs remembering to do a gesture).

It's not a good idea to replace the home button with a gesture.
 
MacRumors said:
How in the world would a normal person figure out or guess that they need to do a "five-finger pinch" to get back to the home screen?
Click to expand...

You have got to be kidding. I don't think this is going to take a manual to explain how to use a "five-finger pinch" to get to the home screen.

Monkey-see, monkey-do.

I like the home button, but getting rid of as many physical buttons as possible makes sense. One less thing to break.
 
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The only benefit of removing the home button that I can think of would being able to make the screen bigger while still maintaining the same size footprint.
 
no button -> no plastic -> no color problems

Probably they're trying a version without the home button so they have no problem with a white version, it would be only glass without plastic. :rolleyes:
Anyway I think the home button is one of the most useful thing in the world, it would not be so easy to use without it
 
i'm for expanded muti-touch gestures - i'm also for keeping the home button - maybe make it less conspicuous
 
I've been playing around with gestures on my iPad, and I'm liking them already. They could certainly do away with the home button if they wanted to. I can't imagine why though. I agree with the comments about it being the one thing that people just intuitively know how to use.

There's absolutely no way that that we will see 4-5 finger gestures replace the home button on the iPhone. Just try to do it now. It's really hard to even get all your fingers in there, and my hands aren't that big. Maybe they will figure out some other gesture that would work, but I still can't think of a single reason to get rid of the home button in the first place.
 
Love the new gestures; however, the only time I would use the five finger "pinch" to close an app is when my iPad is the "wrong way round." (home button not at bottom).

How about touch sensitive bezel, Apple?
 
This would be a good look for the iPad, but I'm not sure I can say the same for the iPhone. I'm looking forward to see what becomes of this...
 
I can see the home button moving somewhere else for the iPad, maybe one on the sides? A smaller bezel iPad with the same 10" screen sounds great! Judging from iOS 4.3, we could possibly be seeing iPad 2 lacking the normal home button.
Regarding the iPhone..I don't think the 5-finger gesture will be incorporated. Instead, again i think the home button will be moved to the side or become much smaller and this will allow a bigger screen for the iPhone. Since almost all of Apple's competitors have phones with bigger screens, it would make sense why they might make this change.
 
I would like to see the bezel at the bottom include a touch surface, so instead of the home button it could include a right to left swipe for the home button. Also it would make gaming cool to have the touch areas on the bezel to free up screen space... although it would only work as one big button otherwise you wouldn't know where the separate buttons are.
 
Nishi100 said:
How about touch sensitive bezel, Apple?
Click to expand...

The whole reason there's a bezel in the first place is so you have room to hold the device without accidentally setting off any touch controls. If they put touch sensitivity into the bezel, they'd have to be very careful about how it works.
 
Porchland said:
Apple killed the click wheel at a time when many people thought it was the defining characteristic of the iPod, and now nobody misses it.

If Apple gets rid of the iPhone/iPad home button, it will be because they found an easy, intuitive way to perform the same functions without it.
Click to expand...

What? Says who? I for one love the simple, elegant and physical click wheel design. Removing it from the Nano was stupid. I'll never buy one unless I plan on putting it into a watch. Still probably won't because I oppose the removal of the click wheel.
 
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Ios is built too much around the home button for them to remove it.
 
BillyBobBongo said:
What about people who might have lost a digit or two? No iPad for you! :p
Click to expand...

i lold in a dark humour sort of way.

its an excelent point though. would kill acessibility to people with such problems.

regardless of how small a population that might be.

on another take 3 finger pinch would work on an iphone.
 
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