Apple's Craig Federighi: Uncertainty About Face ID Will 'Melt Away' Once People Get iPhone X

[flat five]

Unlock my phone, use Siri to send text message or call someone without me ever picking it up from my nightstand is one example.

i see.
at default settings, you'd be able to but yeah, there's an option to disable this.

with these smarter smartphones, we'll probably be seeing smarter voiceID soon.. and a 'hey siri' is likely to be much better at detecting your individual voice.. maybe not secure enough to unlock your entire phone but possibly enough for lower level security needs such as sending a text or making a call.

idk, maybe wait till 10.2

 

[lah]

So was Gruber told he could only talk about Face ID? His comments about the notch on his website are quite harsh so why didn’t he ask Craig the reasoning behind that? Afraid he’d never get another interview if he says ‘I’m not a fan of the notch, what we’re you thinking’?

It’s obvious that Apple is sending Craig around on a damage control tour because of the Face ID fail on stage. Seems he’s done other interviews today and they’ve all been about Face ID.

Also, Gruber makes a living by having inside access to Apple - I highly doubt he would do anything to jeopardize this. That being said I enjoyed the interview and Craig’s comments.

 

[nutriousmitten]

They’re really trotting out Federighi today to explain this. And Gruber certainly served up some softball questions. Can’t rock the boat too much though, even Gruber may not be christened with a month long review unit for the IPx in the next few weeks if he shows some dissent.

Waiting for Schiller to pop on one of these interviews and impatiently stick his foot in the mouth about something, as he often does.

 

[Brammy]

So was Gruber told he could only talk about Face ID? His comments about the notch on his website are quite harsh so why didn’t he ask Craig the reasoning behind that? Afraid he’d never get another interview if he says ‘I’m not a fan of the notch, what we’re you thinking’?

Probably, actually. I've given some of these interviews, and a few with Apple -- not nearly that high up; just with product managers. But I have interviewed c- level folks.

Granted, it depends on the company. When I wrote about games, I got some great interviews from the CEOs of companies. In Gruber's case, the conversation went like this: "You can have Craig for 20m to talk about FaceID" There is an Apple PR person there to make sure the conversation stays on target. Coming up with questions is always tough. You can please your base and ask a lot of questions the person can't or won't answer, and that's a waste of time.

I thought the questions and answers were pretty good, Yeah, there were a few times Craig defaulted to a bunch of marketing speak, but I liked the frank answers about blind people, sunglasses, and designing for developers who don't update their apps, but have the TouchID calls.

He also didn't get into the leaks. Which I don't expect Apple to publicly address for a while, if ever.

 

[B4U]

Hope he means when people can actually get the iPhone X. The demand would far outstrip the supply.

 

[flat five]

Wrong
iPhone on the desk leave it where it is press the home button and you’re in.

huh?
that same thing then applies to the other..
for faceID, it'd be
..leave it on the desk where it is and swipe up

(further.. swipe up with any finger any hand.. even use your foot if you're flexible enough.. or, someone else swipes up on your face if youre wanting to unlock the phone for someone else's usage..etc)

like pretend this-- look at your phone sitting on the desk right now.. then, imagine swiping it and it's open..

you're not seeing that? or yeah?

i'm pretty sure craigF is right.. almost every single concern regarding this new tech is going to melt away once people start using it..

seems like a sizable chunk of the population has no imagination. : )
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botched demo on stage in front to millions

here's what millions of people saw..

one iPhone didn't work as the user intended and one did (and worked exactly as the user intended throughout the rest of the demo).

what we actually saw was 50% of iPhone X will not properly detect a user's face and 50% of them will.. and the ones that do, appear to work great.

so, what we were able to learn from the botched demo is this.. if you buy an iPhone X and the faceID doesn't work, return it.. once you get one that does work, it will work flawlessly.. and there's a 50-50 chance of getting a good one.
and no chance of one that only works sometimes.

anything else is just people making stuff up.


.
[doublepost=1505535588][/doublepost]

They’re really trotting out Federighi today to explain this. And Gruber certainly served up some softball questions. Can’t rock the boat too much though, even Gruber may not be christened with a month long review unit for the IPx in the next few weeks if he shows some dissent.

Waiting for Schiller to pop on one of these interviews and impatiently stick his foot in the mouth about something, as he often does.

nah.. next step if they feel they're losing ground in a PR 'situation' regarding iPhone X will be -->
videos showing real people using the phone in real world scenarios..
and next step after that would be an early release.. even if it's only able to go out in select quantities..

(no facts)

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

"Peoples faces will melt away once they see the iPhone X"

People's faces will (literally) melt away when the iPhone X "sees" them (by shooting a million IR dots directly on to their skin and into their retina).

 

[live.cn]

That's a very big "once"

 

[Wackery]

this is the one time I stand with apple. they're doing something genuinely new even if they didn't present it that welll. iphone 8 and others are old hat, Iphone X or go home

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

Now everyone's worried because they can't imagine life without Touch ID.

I don't use that, either.

 

[ani4ani]

It's like this with every new technology... Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and even iPhone X. Instead of keeping an open mind, some people's first instinct is to assume the worst and try to discredit it. They never learn.

The dumbest thing I've read has to be, what if a robber forces you to unlock it by looking at it. What???? How is that any different than a robber putting a gun to your head and asking for your passcode or forcing you to unlock it with Touch ID? SMH

I think the point is, a thief wouldn't have to force you to do anything with FaceID, he would just hold the phone up in front of you....as would a police officer etc. Apparently all you have to remember to do is close your eyes and everything will be fine. Yea right. Apple can't make all the claims they make about it being easy, fast and accurate and then at the same time argue that the reason for the keynote failure was too many folks had looked at the phone? The FaceID system is scanning constantly so you might not even be ware you looked at your phone.

My take is that Apple will ultimately get it right, it must be pretty hard to implement something that I genuinely believe was not intended for the phone or perhaps even considered originally. Even now listening to the interview, they haven't solved simple issues like a button having to perform the same function etc. Personally I think the first incarnations are going to be a bit ropey as they struggle to get the balance between convenience and security. TouchID took time to refine too.

 

[Abazigal]

I'm insulted. Do you think I know nothing about Apple? Where is your proof Craig ever used the X before his botched demo on stage in front to millions? Didn't you read that FaceId had an epic fail in front of everyone?

Cook is responsible for this mess. I can't believe he has not been fired already

If the CEO of any company were to be fired over each and every slip up, who knows how many CEOs companies like Samsung and Google would have burned through already.

 

[vader_slri]

When i want to see the screen, i press on the power button once without unlocking, couldn't it have been the same here?

But if you wake the X by pressing the sleep/wake button, FaceID will unlock the phone when it senses your eyes reading the screen. If you eliminate the swipe up, you wouldn't be able to read the notifications on the lock screen at all.

 

[Avieshek]

“Combinations of biometrics”
My prediction: they’re still working on under-glass TouchID. Users will have the choice of being authenticated with TouchID, FaceID, or both. With the option of both, they can tout having biometric security that only 1 in 50 billion could fool. (1 in 50,000 for TouchID times 1 in 1,000,000 for FaceID)

And hence, the registered name, Pearl ID.

 

[redheeler]

dude, they literally announced a brand new high-end smart phone with updated design and features.. and touchID.......
about 3 minutes before they announced faceID..


if you don't want faceID.. and you'd rather have touchID..
why would you not get an iphone 8?
what feature(s) are you not liking on the 8 that you want on the X?

iPhone X has:

• OLED display.
• Optical image stabilization on both back cameras.

The first one is something I've been waiting for years for Apple to add. But the way Apple has done the current iPhone X is just too much of a compromise. Actually managed to make a $200 more expensive iPhone with less usable screen space...

 

[ani4ani]

Thank you for admitting that you were one of those people. I said again and again that the majority of people critiquing Face ID will love it when they actually see it in use and hear the explanation / tech behind it.

Serious question though... How do some of you doubt Apple time and time again? Like, so many of you judged Face ID without seeing it. You know Apple isn't stupid. You know they are the biggest company in the world...

How could you possibly think this Face ID would be crap?

I think being the biggest company in the world (by the way they are not, they are biggest publically traded company in the world - there are bigger companies) and making bad decisions are mutually exclusive. VW are the biggest car company in the world and they have made some terrible decisions and implementations in the recent past ( do you think Car companies intentionally make decisions that lead to huge recalls?)

Apple have made plenty of mistakes too and have had numerous product issues that they didn't intend. Some of their recent launches have led to unintended issues, e.g. Maps, SIRI and antenna issues etc.

I don't think anyone doubted FaceID without seeing it? I didn't read one article about it before the keynote, but seen plenty from folks since the keynote, once it had been seen. Apple themselves have put plenty of column inches into explaining the issue from they keynote. They introduced the doubt.

I have no doubt Apple will eventually get it right

 

[JamesPDX]

"Peoples faces will melt away once they see the iPhone X"

You got that right!

 

[folksingersandy]

Here in Chicago over the past two years there’s been a rash of strong-arm confrontational phone thefts (often at weapon-point) on public transit and on the street. With Touch ID, at least the mugger had to go to the trouble of intimidating you at gun-or-knife-point into pressing the Home button (or knocking you out cold and then putting your finger on the button). With Face ID, all they’d need to do after grabbing it is point it at your face.

 

[marioguarneros]

i'd agree, but it is not new tech, it is apple playing catch up.

How exactly is Apple playing catch up here? Catch up means that another company currently has an equal or better implementation of the same feature/technology, I'm not trolling, if there is currently another smartphone with something like this or better that works as promised then I'll agree with you but credit where credit is due, Apple are bloody good and have a high record of success implementing things just right. Even back then with Touch ID, Apple implementation was waaaaaay better than anything available at the time for what I can remember.

You know what I would argue Apple is actually catching up on? Wireless charging. First smartphones to come with it were gimmicky but the technology definitely has improved and I don't see Apple bringing anything new in that area (yet). The Apple "wireless" mat won't be available until 2018; after doing a quick search in Amazon and considering the new Face ID I think they missed on a great opportunity by not launching a stand up wireless charging like the ones already available. Something like an Apple branded wireless charging dock, that way your phone is already facing you (no pun intended) while sitting at your desk.

 

[JamesPDX]

It takes up the space of a home button amount of space. Plus as someone who lives in a climate with rain or snow 5 months a year I do appreciate not having to remove gloves or wipe off the Touch ID constantly those months from now on. Not to mention while I’m sweaty at the gym.

These are good points.

 

[canadianreader]

huh?
that same thing then applies to the other..
for faceID, it'd be
..leave it on the desk where it is and swipe up

Yes it does apply to Face ID as well. I answered the person who stated that you needed three steps for Touch ID to access Home which was wrong.

 

[lutieren]

Don’t think your math is correct on this.

Touch ID:

1. Pick up phone
2. Place Thumb on Home Button
3. Press Home Button

Face ID:

1. Pick up phone
2. Smile
3. Swipe up

Huh? Why do you have to pick up your phone to use Touch ID. That's the most important reason why face ID will never top Touch ID. A lot of people are like me, who works in front a desk, where my iPhone sits flat in front of me, where I unlock it to check messages sometimes hundreds of times a day. I only have to move my index finger a few inches to do that. Now try moving your entire head forward and upward to accomplish that. Then do that a hundred times in a roll. That's not taking multiple retakes into consideration. You will literally have to head to the chiropractor's office after a day. Face ID sucks as a primary unlocking mechanism.

 

[Robstevo]

Touch ID is bulky?

It would required multiple additional sensors, thus taking up space and what for? The better face ID becomes, the less relevant the discussion will be.


Only thing I don't like about getting rid of the bottom is the fact Apple have replaced it with awful gestures. They could have done much much better gestures imho ie a force Touch gesture for the home button instead of the swipe up. Thus keeping the swipe up for control centre.

Instead they have moved that gesture to the very top right of a large device.
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I guess Touch ID was playing catch up too then? Because fingerprint sensors were around years before Apple introduced Touch ID.

Apple never said Touch ID was broken. They're saying Face ID is better. And unlike the gimmicks on Android devices, I'm betting it actually works... just like Touch ID.

The stuff in android phones and windows hello have been working for years. Windows hello especially.

 

[Larry-K]

Maybe it should be "Faceplant" ID.

 

[antonis]

Don’t think your math is correct on this.

Touch ID:

1. Pick up phone
2. Place Thumb on Home Button
3. Press Home Button

Face ID:

1. Pick up phone
2. Smile
3. Swipe up

That is incorrect. With Touch ID, step 1 is not needed, steps 2 & 3 are actually one single step.
You got Face ID steps correctly.

It's 1 step with Touch ID vs 3 steps with Face ID.