Apple to Remove Home Button From Future iPads and iPhones?

[carloslegarda]

No more home button

I think Apple is being consistent.

Apple had one button on the trackpad of their laptops.

Now the trackpad IS the button.

Perhaps the iPhone screen will be the button. Squeeze it/Pinch it to activate.

 

[kalsta]

Okay, I'm going for a record as to how many people I can quote (and possibly offend) in one comment…

Five-finger pinch? That would be incredibly awkward, considering the thumb is much shorter than the rest of the fingers.

Um… have you actually tried it, like on a table top or something? Might have saved you the embarrassment of such a comment.

People used to complain about having to reset WinMo phones. Yet, especially at the beginning, Apple knew their code wasn't perfect either.

So Apple came up with what I think is the most brilliant design innovation ever: put the "reset" button front and center, and make the user click it all the time! It was an example of hiding something in plain sight.

By using a physical button, Apple's engineers were assured of the ability for a user to easily get out of a stuck software loop without having to poke into a tiny hole or take the cover off. It was insanely clever IMO.

Great comment!! I never thought of it quite like that before, but you are right. Very clever.

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.

Gosh, my mind boggles as to your work environment, that the click of a home button draws unwanted attention. I'll be pondering that one for days…

Come on guys.. this is apple we are talking about.. if you know them, you know they dont make stupid design decisions.... (dont talk about antenna, dont talk about glass back)

Don't talk about the original iMac 'pucklet' mouse… Don't talk about removing the buttons on the iPod shuffle, only to return them on the next…

Apple never proposed a five-finger pinch. Gruber proposed it as something that sounds stupid so that he can have something easy to mock -- the very definition of straw man.

Methinks you're gonna be a little embarrassed about that comment when you get the iOS 4.3 update.

Add the gestures but keep the button. It helps me orient the device and i hate using the top button to turn it on.

When there are no buttons, there is no right way to hold it. Just ask Jony Ive! This is what Apple would love to be able to do I think, and it's why Steve's now famous quote 'don't hold it that way' is so ironic.

If anything the iPhone needs more buttons. It's a phone. Where the hell is my 'answer the call' button?!

Welcome to the 21st century. Where have you been?

… my 16-year old son has cerebral palsy and is also a technology addict. He gets by just fine, typing on his MacBook and iPad by typing with his little finger. Without the home button, he would not be able to use an iPad.

And that, at the end of the day, is the most compelling reason I've seen to keep the home button. There's absolutely no reason why we can't have the new gestures AND the home button.

 

[louis Fashion]

One Finger Gesture

I have a gesture for them. Leave it alone. Too many reasons NOT to remove the button. Disabled, children, the old folks like me....

AND, a fan button for MacRumors!

 

[batchtaster]

Unlikely.

They will have to, one way or another. Even if it's decades from now and the iPhone has been replaced with another paradigm. Or they eventually just plain die off. One way or another, we'll stop hearing about it.

 

[MacAddict1978]

bull dung

Anytime a feature is found all sorts of crazy ideas float out of someone's... mouth.

Considering one of the thing's the iPad achieved is that a toddler can use it or grandma, that would throw that out the window.

Honestly, I'm not sure I like the gesture feature as a whole, and I'm a nerd. In some ways very nice, but depending on the app you're using, I can see lots of people accidentally flicking away their app or interrupting a movie or game by accident. As it is, double taping to enlarge at time screws up on all of IOS devices and that's a one finger move. (Particularly when trying to bring up the video controls or adjust the video size.)

Hopefully it's a feature you can turn off. I think a lot of people will find it more aggravating than helpful. Not everyone is goo goo for multi-touch. I like flicking between my apps, but I don't really care about accessing the multi touch menu. Customizing would be nice, kind of like you can do with the mouse buttons.

I really don't see the button going away. Then again, Apple usually doesn't have a problem alienating customers. Sorry Gram.

 

[Tailpike1153]

For those worrying that you wont be able to use iphone with one hand with physical button gone perhaps you are forgetting about this patent that apple has

+1. Good show. I was going to post the same patent pic.

 

[SkippyThorson]

One button is the minimum

One button should be the absolute least Apple provides for all those who just want to pick up a device and use it without having to learn... It should just be natural. I can sort of see the why minimal feel would go to the iPad, which has the screen real estate to spare...

On the iPhone and iPod Touch, the draw is portability, and portability is simplicity, and simplicity is using it with one hand while on the go.

I picked up the new 6th generation iPod Nano at a local Apple Store after it first came out, and I remember thinking to myself, after I went to the Artist section, that I had no idea how to get back to the home screen.

People see the touch screen, and think sure, it makes for a great interface in the individual Apps, but to get back to the Home screen, you automatically look for the button that gets you back to the start.

Why do you think that every Reset button on every product is a physical button? It's intuitive, and it's natural.

 

[aluren]

I like the multi-gesture/no button feature for future iDevices. I think a simple solution to those that still needs a button is that when you hold the power button, instead of getting just the "slide to power off" option, you get a scrolled down menu to "Go home" like the home button, "Reset Device", or "Power Off". Another way to go home would be to just put like two fingers on screen and hold for 2 seconds or something. There just so many ways to isolate a specific gesture to go home that we don't need a home button anymore.

I'm really impressed with the multi-touch features in 4.3 because right now it's a PITA to double click the home button. It feels more cumbersome to me than using 4-5 of my fingers on screen.

 

[Lennholm]

As for needing two buttons, no they could do like other devices and let a long press on the physical power button bring up a menu of what you want to do: reset, dfu, power off, etc.

A menu would not constitute a hard reset because it relies on software and further interaction. A hard reset is a way to physically reset a device regardlesss of its state and it's absolutely necessary to have

 

[batchtaster]

Why do you think that every Reset button on every product is a physical button? It's intuitive, and it's natural.

One button should be the absolute least

You people do remember that these things have 2 buttons? Power and Home? You take away the Home button, you still have one left.

Home button <> reset button.
Power switch = reset button.

 

[NoExpectations]

Fine with me...now eliminate all that wasted black-space above and below the screen by changing the screen size from 3.5" to 4".

 

[jtredway]

They will have to, one way or another. Even if it's decades from now and the iPhone has been replaced with another paradigm. Or they eventually just plain die off. One way or another, we'll stop hearing about it.

True, technically, you will stop hearing about it at some point in time.

But my comment was that it's unlikely people will just get over a bad user experience design. Instead, they will lobby for a change or they will adopt a more user-friendly product.

 

[NoExpectations]

5 finger pinch a bit too much. But why stop there?....how about a 5 finger 2 toe pinch to answer the phone?

 

[MacNut]

The home button is how I know what end is up, try answering a call with no home button and find out you are holding the phone upside down. Personally I would like to see more buttons like on android phones. I would love to see favorite buttons but of course Steve has button phobia as it took him decades to add more to the mouse.

 

[batchtaster]

True, technically, you will stop hearing about it at some point in time.

But my comment was that it's unlikely people will just get over a bad user experience design. Instead, they will lobby for a change or they will adopt a more user-friendly product.

And eventually if Apple stick to their guns, even the lobbying goes away. The floppy-disk lobbyists did. So did the "customizable Apple menu" people, and the ones who demanded Apple let them use iTunes with their Pre (the Pre also went away as well), and the ones who demanded 10.6 for PowerPC.

Switch, die out. Whatever shuts them up the fastest.

 

[SkippyThorson]

You people do remember that these things have 2 buttons? Power and Home? You take away the Home button, you still have one left.

Home button <> reset button.
Power switch = reset button.

Power button = On to use / Off to not use.
Reset button = Go back to the beginning.
Which one sounds more like the Home button?

*So wait a second, you've edited your comment. You're not comparing what I said regarding Power vs Reset in comparison to the Home button's function anymore, and instead proposing that the Power button be repurposed?

Remember what happened when Apple changed the iPad's Mute switch to a Rotation Lock switch? Repurposing physical buttons that once did one thing, to now do something else... That's possibly even worse than eliminating it altogether. Now, instead of taking it away and making it simpler, you leave it there, change it, and cause confusion about it. Much better!

 

[batchtaster]

Power button = On to use / Off to not use.

Reset button = Go back to the beginning.

Which one sounds more like the Home button?

No....

Power = hold to turn on, hold to turn off, press to wake, press to sleep.
Reset = off, followed by on.

Ask any person to "reset" their computer and see what they do. Home isn't "reset" any more than Expose-F11 is reset on a Mac.

 

[tigress666]

+1 My sentiments exactly. Well put, sir.

Madame actually .

I do computer support for a living, and if they're too stupid to remember how to pinch something, then they're too stupid to own the device. Or an ATM and PIN card. Or an email address with a password. Or a mouse with more than one button. Or a keyboard with more than one button. Or to own even the present-day iPhone which already requires you to know numerous gestures (which people seem to be able to handle). Or to sit and beg for a treat. Cos dogs can learn that last one. They will either sink or they will swim. If it's important enough to them, they'll learn to swim. Or they'll buy a different device and it'll become a non-issue. Any of those is fine by me. What do I care what phone they use if I don't get a cut and being "the Mac guy" means they come to me with their iPhone? If you won't learn the gesture I showed you, here's another gesture, and recommendation to buy a different device, especially if it means you'll stop coming to me.

You're also forgetting the on/off switch. If all else fails, turn the damn thing off and start again.

Wow, how elitist of you. My mom is not so computer literate, but she loves her new iphone. But I don't think she'd love it so much or find it easy with gestures. Just cause she's not so computer literate doesn't mean they should ignore her. Think of this, there are a *lot* of people like her. Apple ignores that market, apple loses money. In fact, Apple tends to do catering towards being simple and easy to figure out, which means they are catering to that market. Sure, they might be able to learn eventually, but they are going to find it frustrating and decide it's easier to find some other phone or just stay with their "dumb" phones.

So you propose they forget their money makers because you want to feel elite? Go get a linux machine or a unix machine. Obviously if you want to feel elite, you should be using those.

And turning off the iphone doesn't put it back to home screen (and I'm glad it doesn't! I'd find that annoying when I want to turn it off but have it come back on to what I was doing. Having a home button gives us that choice).

Not to mention, even for us computer literate, that button is nice. Have you forgotten the argument about wanting to be able to use the iphone with one hand? Not so easy with gestures, particularly ones that require you use the whole hand, or enough of the hand you can't hold the phone at the same time.

So go take your elitist self and go buy a Nokia (? I think that's the one my friend has specifically cause he can run linux on it). If you want a phone that only the computer literate can use, then find another phone. cause you know what? Simplicity of use is nice even when you are computer literate. Except for when you want to feel you are above everyone else. I think you forget that Apple's philosophy is to keep things simple. If they are experimenting with this gesture thing, it's cause they think that it adds to that. I personally disagree.

 

[Maaz]

the home button barley takes any space, they will have a bezzel no matter what so why not just keep it within the bezzel area? they should give users a choice, and gestures will not always be more suitable for certain moments.

 

[Swinny]

I call BS on this I think...looks to me as though someone has seen the gestures, overthought their significance and decided to take a punt on a rumour in the hope of grabbing some kudos should it come off. Wild conjecture at best.

Watching the video of the gestures in use on an iPad, they look great, and I really see how they would make the day-to-day use of it that bit more fluid and quick...typing away in one app, swiping back/forth to another for reference etc, this seems to really work from a convenience point-of-view.

...but to suggest that just because they've been added that Apple will lose the physical home button seems mad. From a usability and accessibility stand-point, I just don't see how they could make it work without that single, but oh-so-important, little button.

 

[farmboy]

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.

Well, all I can say is that Apple has been very cognizant of these things since way back in the System 3-4-5-6-7 etc. days, when various methods were incorporated system wide to assist those with ability issues. Don't think that will change. Even if the button was eliminated, they will have another intuitive way to accomplish those tasks. I'm sure someone will be sure to tell us of some condition that won't have a solution, though.

 

[SkippyThorson]

No....

Power = hold to turn on, hold to turn off, press to wake, press to sleep.
Reset = off, followed by on.

Ask any person to "reset" their computer and see what they do. Home isn't "reset" any more than Expose-F11 is reset on a Mac.

I challenge you to find a person you've ever said "reset your computer" to and why. No one says "reset" your computer. It's always "Restart", as in "Reboot". Ask someone to "reset" their settings and see what they do. Power them off, followed by on, or restore them back to the beginning - the default?

Your argument about the terminology of "reset" is ludicrous.

*You edited again. I'm not saying that "reset" as pertaining to the iPhone is to actually power off or on, you're understanding me incorrectly. "Reset" is more the action of going back to the beginning, like I said. For instance, the first iPhone - no multitasking. You hit the Home button, and what you were just doing is now gone, only returning you to a Home Screen, where all you can do is select the next function. To leave, you hit Home, in turn, "resetting" your position to that Home Scree, and leaving your previous function.

(I'll admit, "Power = hold to turn on, hold to turn off, press to wake, press to sleep." is actually a good idea. / Also, I'd like to add, if you "Reset" your Airport Extreme, do you simply turn it "off, followed by on", or do you revert everything to the beginning - the default?)

 

[Mav3067]

For ... sort of

I am for this idea, however, I would rather the functionality was moved to the sleep/power button with holding it down making it power off still, a double press to sleep and a single press to return to the home screen. As for the app launcher/multi-tasking bar I would be fine with this being a multi-finger gesture (perhaps a double tap to allow for the smaller size of the iPhone while still being one handed).

 

[Zootopia]

I love it!

Perfect, this is exactly what Apple should focus on. The buttons are weak, and unnecessary! + I can see this making navigation even faster..

 

[harley3k]

They could just make the whole screen a button - like the new Macbook trackpad.