Home button as tiny trackpad?

I think there are certainly many possibilities with the touch-sensitive home button. With the old home button, you had single, double, and triple clicks, as well as holding it down. Now only having double tap seems like a missed opportunity; so I would hope Apple is coming out with some functionality for a single or triple tap, or holding it down without clicking.

But I am doubtful that Apple will use the home button as a trackpad, since that would go against having more and more controls be screen-based. It could happen though.

 

Yeah, put a rubber "nipple" joystick in the middle like on ThinkPads.

 

I hope not. That would drive me crazy. I want the home button to remain a home button.

 

Why would you need to use a tiny "button" when you can use the entire screen? How does that make sense to you?

 

I think I'd enjoy that feature, but I can't see Apple ever implementing such a thing. Android phones.... Maybe.

 

Android would do anything to say they were the first ones to do it!

 

But they can customize it so you can use gestures or simply disable them all.

 

or just use the screen...

 

blackberries had a touchsensitive flat button

 

If I could do something to keep it just a home button, I wouldn't mind if they implemented that tech...

 

Yep, the Bold if I remember right. It worked reasonably well with the full keyboard setup. Less annoying than the Curve's trackball thingy or the Storm's button screen.

 

Maybe use it for typing. Each finger is a different group of letters, and touching vs. clicking lets you do two letters with each finger. Then you can tap the screen for the remaining six.

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

 

Some gestures would be nice

 

Make home btn bigger, like 5.5" big. Then you can have various gestures, like pinch to zoom... Oh wait

 

The home button wears out. I want to use a tap and double tap instead of a full press.

 

I've got the BB Passport, and the entire qwerty keyboard acts as a trackpad for scrolling 360 degrees, works great for browsing if you don't want to touch the screen (I work in trades). Also has features like double-tap to position a cursor wherever you want by swiping left/right, and swiping right-> left to delete words.

It'd be interesting, IMO, if the home button was replaced to encompass the entire bottom portion of the screen for features like this, only instead of a physical keyboard, it'd be a separate part of the actual screen, maybe with notifications the likes of which are seen on the version of the Note 4 that has the curved edge screen. This could always be on so that you don't actually have to turn your entire phone on and swipe to unlock to interact with your notifications.

 

Would bE blackberry type.. Wouldn't be that useful with a 5 inch screen right?

 

Quite possible, but it may be too small.

 

I was JUST thinking this same thing yesterday! Some things, especially gaming, would be great for this. Imagine using it for looking around in an FPS or something.

 

As opposed to doing those things on the screen, I can't see any advantage to this.

 

Could be used for universal gestures in the OS. Forward/back are pretty obvious. Swipe up could open the task switcher, and swipe down can bring down the notification menu. With the bigger screens, that would be easier than swiping from the top

 

My bet for iphone 6s - Apple adds a heart rate sensor to the home button.

 

Chances are the touchID button isn't capable of acting as a touchscreen sensor. Sensing a double-tap is far different than discriminating position.

 

If they would just allow me to double tap the home button for multitasking instead of their stupid "one handed mode" that would make me pretty happy.