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iOS 11 Dock and Gesture Controls to Replace 'iPhone 8' Home Button Entirely

Crow KC said:
I used a Galaxy S8+ - "perfect" is hardly the word I'd use to describe it. Sometimes it's not shown on the screen at all inside of an app, which makes it pretty useless in my book. I know there's ways to make it work but it's simply not intuitive nor friendly. And you can't operate it by feel, which you can do on every iPhone ever made to date, including the virtual ones on the 7/7+. We've all gotten used to little keyboards where we can't feel what we're doing, but it was a good tradeoff as we gained a huge amount of screen real estate for it. I'm sure we'll adapt to whatever Apple comes up with for the 8 in time too, but I surely hope it's better than the crap Samsung has done.
Click to expand...

Really? I find it very intuitive. There was no learning curve. I just hard press the middle bottom of the screen and it takes me to the home screen. I don't have to look for it or feel for it (and it is hidden with nothing to feel, so that is good). I don't think I have ever once failed to push it when I meant to, nor have I accidentally pressed it when I didn't want to.

Here is how you can "make it work". Put your thumb where you would think the home button would be. Press into the screen with that thumb.
 
ipedro said:
Why do you need a white front? There's barely anything on the front other than the screen anyway.

For reference, even the white iPhone 3G and 3Gs had black bezels.

iphone3G.0.jpg
Click to expand...
Yes, except iOS has become all-out white since iOS 7. Using a pre iOS 7 picture to prove a point is unfair and biased. iOS 6 and prior versions DID look good with the black fronts. From iOS 7 onwards the white bezels blend MORE than the black bezels (again, except for movies and tv series, but I spend much more time with WHITE background emails than movies; just like 98% of population).
 
This is all fine, but in addition I can see using the side power button as a home button. Maybe a single press goes home, a longer one sleeps the phone, or something like that. No harm done and learners have a physical button they can press.
 
My guess is that the side button is going to play a new role. It's been made more prominent for a reason.

Gestures could become the main method to get around iOS but a dumb proof physical button may be necessary. The new, elongated side button could have two pressing levels — like a camera shutter. Press to go home, press deeper to lock.

The side button could even be a place to put Touch ID for those who wear masks/helmets/face protection for work or leisure and can't use Face ID.
 
bigjnyc said:
what bothers you about the camera bulge? is it just an aesthetics thing? I'm seriously asking because not once has that bothered me, I rarely ever look at the back of my phone, its not that huge a bulge that it makes holding/carrying the phone any different. I guess laying it on a table but why would one care unless you are physically rocking your phone with your hands rather than it just laying there..... and on top of that most cases will even it out... I'm not trying to be a jerk just genuinely asking because I'm curious.
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When I bought an iPhone 1, I also bought a good case to enclose it, because it was an expensive thing. Then I realized that I bought this expensive thing in part because it was made of durable materials and because I appreciated it's "thin" design (way fatter than anything made today), so I ditched the case, and dedicated one of my front pockets to it to avoid key scratches and the like. No regrets about that. I only started using cases again when the phones became too thin for me to notice an increase in thickness from using a case. In particular, the Apple leather cases do not add much thickness, and the leather feel and appearance enhances the phone in my opinion. That said, I know plenty of others who shun cases on their phones, especially if they use a non-Apple phone. The biggest current reason that myself and others buy cases for the iPhone is to be able to set the phone down on a desk and have it sit level. That's just stupid. The SE just works as it should, and is a fantatic design. The screen being small is the only downside - I always preferred the iPad mini as my primary iOS device until the + came out.

I for one would shed no tears if the current iPhones were slightly thicker and heavier, because it would still be an incredibly light and thin phone, and would have increased battery life. Regardless of the practical tradeoffs, having the uneven bulge on one corner is really not an aesthetically pleasing design, and if Johnny Ive didn't heavily protest the thing internally to Apple, I'd be surprised.
 
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Crow KC said:
GREAT point! However, couldn't they shift these tasks to the power button?
  • Click fast to wake or sleep
  • Hold down for a couple seconds to enable Siri
  • Hold down for 10 seconds to bring up power off / reset prompt
  • Double-click for multitasking
  • Triple-click for accessibility features
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of overloading so much stuff onto one button, but it would work and all existing functionality could continue to work without much change to the interface - just which button you press.
Click to expand...

For what it is worth, iOS 11 already offers a 5-click emergency mode that also allows you to power it off. I could see that replacing the normal hold to power off and using a long press for something else. With tap to wake functionality they may even replace the wake function of the button with the home button functionality, though that wouldn't allow for a click to sleep option. I assume with the longer button they have more functionality in mind for it though.
 
TheSapient said:
Really? I find it very intuitive. There was no learning curve. I just hard press the middle bottom of the screen and it takes me to the home screen. I don't have to look for it or feel for it (and it is hidden with nothing to feel, so that is good). I don't think I have ever once failed to push it when I meant to, nor have I accidentally pressed it when I didn't want to.

Here is how you can "make it work". Put your thumb where you would think the home button would be. Press into the screen with that thumb.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I learned that. But having to press into a vague area on the screen where something's supposed to be but isn't presently is not intuitive at all. Could I get used to it and function? Sure. But kind of like using Android in general, it wouldn't be the pleasantly easy, refreshingly intuitive that iOS tends to be better at. I just don't see Apple making that sort of move, and I personally hope they don't.
 
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I suppose that none of them existing applications will work right on the iPhone 8 until developers make updates that take the curved corners into account. Or they'll run in a zoomed rectangle for compatibility wasting a lot of the screen of the new phone. One more reason I might just skip this phone and wait for it's successor. Then again, the 7s+ should be a great option too, and the future of iOS devices will probably largely be dictated by sales numbers between the 7s/7s+ and the 8. As the 8 will cost more, I'd guess they anticipate selling less of the 8's, but if it's dramatically less than the expected figure, that will probably pretty much can some of the new features.

Either way, a positive outcome will be there, because this research and pushing boundaries that Apple is doing with the 8 is gaining them a lot of knowledge and flexibility that they can reapply differently in the future.
 
I don't know if this was said but keep in mind these gestures really only matter on the phone that costs minimum 1000 dollars (rumor). I would dare say most people will buy a 7S with a home button.
 
I don't see how the 'notches' or 'ears' offer enough room for:5 connection dots, carrier name, WIF-FI, wifi connection strength, downloading icon, time, locked/unlocked + lock icon, location services icon, alarm icon, do not disturb icon, bluetooth icon, bluetooth accessory battery icon, TTY icon, battery %, battery icon, charging icon.

So either Apple is going to kill a lot of the above icons, or they have another solve rather than just using the two small areas to the side of the speaker.

Oh, and it's not going to be called iPhone 8!!!! They won't release a 7s/7s+/8 all in the same year!!! It'll be a pro, or edition model.
 
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ipedro said:
The new, elongated side button could have two pressing levels — like a camera shutter. Press to go home, press deeper to lock.

The side button could even be a place to put Touch ID for those who wear masks/helmets/face protection for work or leisure and can't use Face ID.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea! I hope you are secretly an Apple employee letting us in on a secret. ;)

Pretty much my biggest reason to not buy an iPhone 8 is the loss of Touch ID. If it's moved to the lock button, that would remove that inhibition for me. And two levels of pressure sensitivity is consistent with force touch so it makes intuitive sense for the device. I'm a little skeptical that such a thin button could be an accurate fingerprint reader, but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this one!
 
TrueBlou said:
We whinge and moan on a semi-regular basis that Apple doesn’t do enough to push iPhone forward. Then we whinge and moan when they change too much. To hell with it, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs and all that. I think we’re long overdue a major redesign to completely modernise iPhone and iOS and I’ve got reasonable confidence that Apple know what they’re doing with interfaces.
Click to expand...
I wanted to reply to this with a meme of The Hound asking Gendry "what are you whinging about?", but it doesn't look like anyone has made that meme yet. So let's just pretend, unless someone wants to be awesome and make that...
 
strategicthinke said:
Yes, except iOS has become all-out white since iOS 7. Using a pre iOS 7 picture to prove a point is unfair and biased. iOS 6 and prior versions DID look good with the black fronts. From iOS 7 onwards the white bezels blend MORE than the black bezels (again, except for movies and tv series, but I spend much more time with WHITE background emails than movies; just like 98% of population).
Click to expand...

Early versions of iOS adapted to the bezel color of the phone, at least in some parts. I remember there was part of the interface that would show a white background if you had white bezels and a black one if you had black bezels. I bought a black-bezel one to get a slight increase in battery life. Since those days though, I've generally always had white-bezel iOS devices, simply because I want a silver back (anything but silver looks just awful if it gets scratched). Anyways, the software knows the details of the color configuration of the device, so anything is possible.
 
So no home button will take some getting used to. How will you take screenshots, i wonder?
 
TrueBlou said:
We whinge and moan on a semi-regular basis that Apple doesn’t do enough to push iPhone forward. Then we whinge and moan when they change too much. To hell with it, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs and all that. I think we’re long overdue a major redesign to completely modernise iPhone and iOS and I’ve got reasonable confidence that Apple know what they’re doing with interfaces.
Click to expand...

Haha, too true! I'm looking on the bright side of this even if the iPhone 8 is something I can't bring myself to purchase. Even if it sucks, a lot of good R&D is being done by Apple and this will affect their future devices positively. And we'll have more tried-and-true 7s/7s+ designs to choose from for the time being, if we so choose (though I don't personally suspect there'll be anything enough in those to motivate me away from my 7+...).
 
carpleror said:
I wanted to reply to this with a meme of The Hound asking Gendry "what are you whinging about?", but it doesn't look like anyone has made that meme yet. So let's just pretend, unless someone wants to be awesome and make that...
Click to expand...

How about this - customer reaction to Apple's iPhone 8 announcement on September 12th:

;)
 
Crow KC said:
I used a Galaxy S8+ - "perfect" is hardly the word I'd use to describe it. Sometimes it's not shown on the screen at all inside of an app, which makes it pretty useless in my book. I know there's ways to make it work but it's simply not intuitive nor friendly. And you can't operate it by feel, which you can do on every iPhone ever made to date, including the virtual ones on the 7/7+. We've all gotten used to little keyboards where we can't feel what we're doing, but it was a good tradeoff as we gained a huge amount of screen real estate for it. I'm sure we'll adapt to whatever Apple comes up with for the 8 in time too, but I surely hope it's better than the crap Samsung has done.

Remember that iOS devices have never included very much of a user manual, only a few rudimentary basics to get started. You can't use Samsung's virtual home button without really learning about how it works in different settings.
Click to expand...
The problem you had lies in your first sentence: Samsung. TouchWiz is a horrible example of Android.
 
TrueBlou said:
Just playing devils advocate. But who are we, who have no concrete knowledge of the new device or how it works, to say what is and what is not more efficient?
Click to expand...

Well, we being relatively intelligent people, who can say with 90% certainty that this is how the phone will operate, can say this.

And those who don't, are also the ones likely to say "But where is the home button? Apple would never do something like this!"
 
strategicthinke said:
How do you think people use their iPhones most of the time?
(a) Safari, email, Apple Music, iBooks/Kindle
or
(b) Watching movies.
Answer that question with sincerity and then guess which bezel works best for that kind of use.
Click to expand...
then how about this: there are plenty of things in iOS that are not black or white (photos, videos, images in safari, etc.) and plenty of third party apps that are different colors, and black is less obtrusive
 
Not convinced this is good idea. Why ditch it? Oh I know why? Cook sees phones without home button have bigger market share. Wants bigger market share. How long before he makes iPhones an Android OEM?

Gestures are inferior to the home button. The home button works with minimal training. My mom, my kids. Everyone. Gestures? Device about to become unusable.
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The Cappy said:
The problem with gestures is that they not intuitive for many people. I use them all the time. But my parents? When they’re baffled by their iOS device, there’s always that one button they can hit. Now, when they’re stuck, the solution will be to swipe a finger up from the bottom. And why are they supposed to think of that? There’s no cue that this is an available action. You have to already know about it.
Click to expand...
Samer for children who currently use the iPad just fine. If they get trapped they just go to the home button. Now, confusion. I just hope its false.
 
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