Apple's Face ID Feature Works With Most Sunglasses, Can Be Quickly Disabled to Thwart Thieves

[BulkSlash]

Has there been any comment about the angles it can work at? The picture on the article has it scanning a face at a fairly oblique angle; if it can do this it would be great for when I just want to check something on the phone when it's flat on the desk. Picking up the phone and pointing it at my face isn't exactly a chore but it would be more cumbersome that how Touch ID works.

 

[Mefisto]

I've personally been robbed at knife point two times, successfully, that is. The thieves got away with my phone and wallet. Both of those guys at least were so on edge during the whole shebang that I would think pointing the phone at my face or trying to wrestle one of my fingers for a chance at opening the phone were quite literally the last thing on their minds.

So that scenario really doesn't worry my in the least.

 

[aristobrat]

I still don't see any real benefit over Touch ID.

IMO, the benefit is that the screen can now go from the top of the phone down to the true bottom of the phone.

I suppose Apple could have left TouchID in and wrapped the screen around that sensor, but "bottom ears" would have caused toooo many heads around here to explode.

 

[Wowereit]

You must’ve never got out of the pool or had messy hands and had to use your wet hands on touch ID

I've said more convenient in some and less convenient in other ways...

Doesn't work slower, and has less potential of someone else unlocking it against your will than Touch ID.......

It is significantly slower.

Look at the time it takes to get to your home screen to do something:
- tap the screen to wake / use power button to wake
- scan your face until the lock symbol gets unlocked
- swipe up from the bottom

Touch ID is way faster.
Press button, short (but still sort of unnecessary) animation, done.

 

[Macalway]

I still don't see any real benefit over Touch ID.

They've replaced it with something that's more convenient in some and less convenient in other ways, works slower and has more potential of someone else unlocking it against your will.

Not saying Face ID sucks, but shouldn't the new thing be significantly better and not just different and for many people even worse?

They wanted both, but the tech didn't work (presently), so they compromised. Probably the only decent choice for them; a no-brainer,

Trade offs.

 

[Theophany]

Good guy Craig

 

[jljue]

You must’ve never got out of the pool or had messy hands and had to use your wet hands on touch ID

Or used your hands enough to where the skin on your fingerprints start cracking and peeling. Yes, I use a lot of hand lotion, but I also use my hands for small, tedious tasks, cleanup, washing kids, etc. and still have issues with this if I'm not careful. Also, I don't have to worry about taking off my gloves to unlock.

 

[Return Zero]

OK, that seals it... I'm now completely sold on Face ID over Touch ID. I will be preordering this puppy.

 

[Sadman88]

Grip the buttons on both sides to disable?

 

[L-Viz]

i would like to know if you can teach the iPhone X how your left hand looks, not your face. As a result, you would have HandID instead of FaceID...

 

[macTW]

I've said more convenient in some and less convenient in other ways...



It is significantly slower.

Look at the time it takes to get to your home screen to do something:
- tap the screen to wake / use power button to wake
- scan your face until the lock symbol gets unlocked
- swipe up from the bottom

Touch ID is way faster.
Press button, short (but still sort of unnecessary) animation, done.

On stage he used the swipe up feature. If you're comparing optional settings, compare it to Touch ID with having to click the home button after unlocking... and even then, you can get to the home screen with face ID in less than a quarter of a second.

Tap screen is instant. Scan face is as quick as Touch ID finger registering. The swipe up I presume, like clicking the home button for Touch ID, is optional.


I assume that because the Touch ID change to click the home button was presented in the exact way the swipe up was, and then it was an option.

 

[convergent]

Ha! What else are they supposed to say when they just went all-in on it as the ONLY option on the iPhone X?

If Face ID turns out to be a giant fail it will be interesting to see how they spin the giant crow they will have to eat.

Right... it is of course "the best security we've ever included in an iPhone", because they have no choice but to say that since its the only one. Better would have been including both until this was proven.

You must’ve never got out of the pool or had messy hands and had to use your wet hands on touch ID

That is the one use case where FaceID will be better... in a dozen or so other use cases it will be way worse. Both would have been the correct way to go.

Doesn't work slower, and has less potential of someone else unlocking it against your will than Touch ID.......

Did you watch the keynote. It was clearly slower, after the face was in front of the phone. But worse than that, with TouchID, you can unlock it while you are pulling it out of your purse or pocket so its unlocked long before you'd have the thing up in front of your face.

And that improved potential to block unwanted access is going to in real terms be way more false fails. I predict there will be a huge increase in cases where a pin is needed. And for what? I haven't heard anyone complain about TouchID being too easy and having their phone broken into. If its 1:50,000, that would mean you'd need to be in a group of 100K or so people randomly trying to break into your phone ... and long before that happened you'd reach the 5 fails.

The bottom line is TouchID wasn't broken, and they chose to replace it with something that is not is good in way more scenarios than the ones where it is better. They should have put both into the X and we'd all then agree its better.

 

[dojoman]

I still don't see any real benefit over Touch ID.

They've replaced it with something that's more convenient in some and less convenient in other ways, works slower and has more potential of someone else unlocking it against your will.

Not saying Face ID sucks, but shouldn't the new thing be significantly better and not just different and for many people even worse?

It doesn't look slower for me. I'm tired of Touch ID, it has more failure logins for me due to my sweaty fingers. Can't wait to get rid of Touch ID all together including iPad.

 

[Zorn]

The theft question makes no sense in the first place. When phones get stolen in public by thieves, it's someone grabbing it and running. No one is going to sit there and try to point it at your face to unlock it, hoping that neither you, or anyone around you will realize what is going on.

Any thief that has enough privacy with you, and knows enough to care about the security features, can just hold you at gunpoint and demand that you type your password into the "sign out of iCloud" setting.

 

[cableguy84]

Sounds like damage control from Apple

 

[dugbug]

Yes it will require the pin to reenable face id

 

[TechZeke]

I still don't see any real benefit over Touch ID.

They've replaced it with something that's more convenient in some and less convenient in other ways, works slower and has more potential of someone else unlocking it against your will.

Not saying Face ID sucks, but shouldn't the new thing be significantly better and not just different and for many people even worse?

Let's be frank; Face ID was created to find a way of getting rid of the large bottom bezel required to keep the home button and touch ID there. This was going to have happen eventually. Considering the sheer amount of R&D and time had to put in, Apple couldn't have known Face ID would actually be more or less secure at the start of the project.

 

[MrX8503]

If the cops are playing with your phone, there's a chance it'll require a passcode due to the phone scanning the cop's face multiple times and failing.

 

[dugbug]

Sounds like damage control from Apple

Why seems plausible to me. They will be in the public hands soon enough

 

[dlewis23]

spend $1000 to buying more hassle

You have never even used it so how do you know its more hassle?

You and so many others are rushing to judgement on a product you have never used. So many did the same thing with Touch ID and look how that turned out.

 

[AJ5790]

So then it can easily be used while sleeping. It can easily be used by cops.

Except you have to look at it. Do you sleep with your eyed open? It can be quickly disabled before a cop has your phone.

 

[Futhark]

So then it can easily be used while sleeping. It can easily be used by cops.

Do you sleep with your eyes open?

 

[Rigby]

I hope the two-button grip also works to disable Touch ID on the other iPhones with iOS 11. Much more discrete than clicking the power button 5 times while you hand over your phone to a cop.

 

[44267547]

Why dont they mention that stuff at the keynote to avoid crique in the first place? Such details are what we want to hear!

Apple can't address every single feature or capability the iPhone has in two hours. Those keynotes are completely condensed to address the major critiques with the new iPhone. If they addressed all the fine points, that Keynote would be much longer than two hours. Not To mention, The keynote is addressing other new hardware and software as well, combined with the iPhone.

 

[QCassidy352]

I'm not knocking Face ID... I think it will be quite good. But Touch ID is already awesome, and I've not heard anything that would convince me Face ID is a step forward, just a step sideways. One can come up with scenarios on which each would be better than the other, but in general, I think users will find them both usable and totally satisfactory in almost all cases. Having both would be cool, as it would allow workarounds for those odd scenarios that do come up, but that's not what's offered.