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

[rjjacobson]

Just hope all of you that don't like it , don't buy it the first day.
Then maybe I can get one early ;O

LOL you can have mine. I have many reasons I do not like the 8 -- like the lighting charger the magnetic one like my watch not fav -- watch gets bumped off too easy once in awhile, like the size of my 7 Plus already 8 looks too small for, me, like my fingerprint apple pay and opening, do not like the curved screen like Samsung -- too easy to hit according to my Samsung owing friends, etc.

But this year when I got my 7pus I also could not get for 6 or more weeks on AT&T Next so I did the apple monthly pay plan -- I got opening day this way and wanted the camera of the 7 Plus my big selling point. Closest apple store is 100 miles and no easy way to upgrade if I wanted to with apple plan, I cannot take to local store like I did with AT&T and trade in (we have Mac reseller in mall that does AT&T). So I am likely to pay out my 20 month apple plan and then see what I can get next fall. Of course there may be a killer feature none of us has heard yet LOL but the 7Plus rumors were pretty much spot on last year so I am expecting many 8 rumors to be mostly true ;-)

 

[Crow KC]

Im guessing Apple knows what they are doing when it comes to software and their OS so Im not worried. But Im still not getting this phone unless they have made the camera flush again. If not, Ill just stick with the SE-

Why such blind confidence? Certainly Apple has made many improvements over the years but they make mistakes too. A number of years ago, Apple redesigned the perfectly good keyboard on the iPhone and put the "." key next to the space bar on the right. Since that day, I almost always type "." when I intend to type space, at least until I recognize my error and then type very carefully. It's been years now, I use my phone heavily on a daily basis, and consider myself rather expert in operation of the system. But I cannot use the stock keyboard without making this stupid error constantly thanks to Apple needlessly changing something that wasn't broken. I could use a third-party keyboard, but I don't like any I've found.

And while Apple has supported a dvorak hardware keyboard via either Bluetooth or iPad Pro Smart Connector since day one, ten years in now we STILL don't have on-screen dvorak keyboard support, despite this being a clear preference of many of us and existing in the jailbreak world since a few months after the iPhone 1 launched.

Apple doesn't always make good choices, and they've admittedly gone somewhat downhill since Steve's passing, IMHO - Steve had the balls to see something in the future that he wanted and push for it even when the market seemed opposed to it at first, whereas Tim is a little less brave in this sense. I'm no Apple hater and in being quite the opposite I own a kind of ridiculous amount of their products, but to just become passive and saying "okay, I'll just happily accept whatever they feed me and be happy about it" is nonsense. A big part of what Apple ends up doing is based on the opinions they see both during testing and after release of new features, including those on this website.

The SE is a fantastic, underrated phone with a stupid name. And on all the devices I have with a stupid camera bezel, I'd much rather have an extra 0.1mm of thickness and additional battery life on the larger devices. The 8 I suspect will be a love/hate relationship for me. I'll want it because it supports some new features that will become more standard over time, that will likely ostracize older devices that lack the hardware needed to support them, but I won't want it because the changes seem like they'll be too annoying to swallow. A dedicated home button (the virtual one on the iPhone 7/7+ is just fine) may be the thing that finally keeps me from buying the best and latest iPhone, for the first time in a decade.

Then again Apple has a very humorous history with "anniversary" products. Remember the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh? A lot like the iPhone 8 really in contrast to all other Macs made before it. It sold like crap and most of those fancy new features ended up permanently dumped. Most people don't even remember it existed now. A part of me hopes and expects for that to happen to the iPhone 8. Whatever happens, I'll be hoping and expecting that they make something more balanced for the iPhone 9.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I know, right? They're going to give basic android features these really cool marketing buzz words.
[doublepost=1504104948][/doublepost]

I like Pixel phones with a fingerprint reader on the back. Your finger falls intuitively on the sensor and the screen comes on. Drag your finger down from the sensor and your notification screen appears. Apple with figure out something similar and as easy.

With raise to wake it might not be as bad. But I hate having to push the side power button every single time, then do some swiping and tapping just to get into my phone. Placing my thumb on the home button and clicking while it reads my print is as natural as breathing. I'll be disappointed if its even slightly harder to use. Apple has no problem making things harder to use - switching back to the old Apple TV remote from that newfangled swipey disaster is a breath of fresh air.

If it had the face scanner to auto unlock, and simply a Taptic "click" anywhere near the bottom of the screen, that would be just as good as the TouchID home button is now. But please for the love of God, don't make me press a side button with my thumb and then start doing a bunch of swiping every single time I pick up my phone.

 

[JM]

You say “holding just the content”. Seriously? Do you really believe this:
View attachment 715150
Blends more with iOS than this:
View attachment 715152

Really?

I'm really detesting my black phone. thanks

 

[Nozuka]

interesting. i already got used to the top notch on the white mockup. i don't hate it anymore.

 

[strategicthinke]

I'm really detesting my black phone. thanks

I made the mistake of buying a slate/black iPhone 5 when it was launched.
I know the feeling... :/

 

[Fuzzball84]

Take my money. Take my house, take the dog, take the wife, take the baby, take the safe!!!!!

Its going to be amazing, its magical....

 

[Guda.FL]

So basically Blackberry 10 type OS gestures. If I recall me claiming that I will never remove myself from a home button. Interesting how things work out. Will be an adjustment period.

 

[Crow KC]

If it had the face scanner to auto unlock, and simply a Taptic "click" anywhere near the bottom of the screen, that would be just as good as the TouchID home button is now. But please for the love of God, don't make me press a side button with my thumb and then start doing a bunch of swiping every single time I pick up my phone.

I have confidence that we'll get tap to wake, but would expect that if we lock the phone with an app open, it'll unlock to that same open app, and then we'll need to use a gesture rather than a button to get back to the home screen. It should be pretty minimal and easy to get used to. I for one simply don't want any stupid face recognition. I just don't. Fingerprint works fantastic already. Just replace the mediocre fingerprint sensor on iOS devices (that I have to reprogram once every few weeks) with one as good as the one on the MacBook (which I've never had to reprogram since buying when it first came out), and I'm a happy camper. What's wrong with fingerprints?

 

[Vanilla35]

Seems Apple is taking a big risk here. The above description sounds at least a lot more complicated than the Home button. Ease of use is why the iPhone became so popular. Start adding in new gestures and asking people to relearn how to use the iPhone and it could start making people hate their phone. I think about all the non-tech people in my life and can imagine the conversations I'll have with them.





Except that it could mean blends color-wise, which is how you are interpreting or it could mean there is no gap between the last column of pixels and the bezel. So it doesn't confirm anything, just reconfirms existing rumors regarding edge-to-edge pixels.

I'm expecting to jailbreak this phone and put a virtual home button on it. My GF might start to complain if she doesn't know how to use it effectively.

 

[newdeal]

way back in the day there used to be a jailbreak tweak that did the swipe up in place of home button pressing. It was awesome, likely its still around but I haven't jailbroken a device in years. Hopefully it works as well with such a small bottom bezel. I notice trying to bring up control centre with a swipe up while in apps currently doesn't work as well as I would hope (maybe its just me but it takes forever to get from the little arrow appearing to try to get control centre to actually pop up). Hopefully Apple has fine tuned it

 

[bbplayer5]

As long as there is a tap gesture to wake the screen up...

 

[Aleh]

Why not? Did you ever use it? It works perfectly.

Mainly just because it takes up useful screen space while providing functionality that was done outside of the screen

 

[google]

They should be giving credit to someone who uncovered it way back in Feb

https://twitter.com/simcumcise/status/832690470564352000

 

[TrueBlou]

This is true, but what I'm reading here is the equivalent of changing a car's steering wheel, which works perfectly for the intended job, to two buttons labelled "left" and "right" that you have to hold down for different amounts of time.

When something works very well, as the home button does, there's no need to change it.

EDIT: I should also add that there's no NEED for this change. Nobody is complaining that the home button doesn't work well. In fact the home button + TouchID is one of Apple's greatest innovations.

I love the home button and Touch ID as much as the next person but there won’t be one anymore (apparently) with the iPhone 8, which means one way or another there is very much a need for some kind of change.
A virtual home button is the obvious replacement and for all we know, considering we’re commenting on speculation, there may be one.

I just wouldn’t object if there were no virtual home button, so long as it’s replacement is simple and elegant. We will be dealing with a device that’s basically all screen, with no physical home button, so the rumours say. For such a massive change in physical interfacing, it just seems logical that the entire UI is updated to best suit that device.

I doubt very much Apple would take the removal of something we’ve gotten used to for 10 years lightly. I’m perfectly happy to put my faith in them that for such a huge change in form factor and interface, they’ve considered it very carefully and come up with an elegant solution. Likely far more so than any of us, or the source of the rumours could do.

Heck, I’m still hoping the reason they switched from a physical button for the home button on the 7 series, was a step towards integrating it within the screen of the 8. Though the way rumours are going I expect to be disappointed there.

Some of which may sound a little contradictory and it is. I have my preference, which would be a home button integrated into the screen. But if necessary, I’m not so rooted in the past that I can’t accept changes and roll with them.

At least we don’t have very long to wait until we find out the truth.

 

[zorinlynx]

Pulling a carriage with a horse worked well too. No need for changing to cars.

That applies when the new invention does something better or more efficiently.

Can you explain what could be faster or more efficient than simply pressing a button, and authenticating with your fingerprint which is already on said button when you press it?
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there is very much a need for some kind of change.

Why is there a need for change? What's wrong with the home button? Nobody seems to be able to answer this question properly.

Horses were slow, smelled, made everything dirty, and it was cruelty to animals to subject them to hauling stuff around cities. Cars, even with their flaws, were a vast improvement. Cars were a good idea.

How is having to do some odd gesture better than simply pushing a button, which is something that is intuitive to everyone, immediately?

 

[Crow KC]

Why not? Did you ever use it? It works perfectly.

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.

 

[TrueBlou]

That applies when the new invention does something better or more efficiently.

Can you explain what could be faster or more efficient than simply pressing a button, and authenticating with your fingerprint which is already on said button when you press it?

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?

 

[Crow KC]

View attachment 715139
What about this:

Now that's a sharp looking phone right there! And a hell of a lot more Apple-like than many of the other "leaks". I'll be looking forward to seeing if you're right about this one!

 

[t76turbo]

I really don't think I am going to like the lack of a home button. Maybe I will like it. But I even dislike the feel of the home button on the iPhone 7 that a family member had.

 

[blancoBronco]

View attachment 715118 Many, many people despise black bezels. Apple has offered more white iPhones than black iPhones since iPhone 5s.
Also, iOS is completely white, it does NOT blend well with the black bezels. Except if you use your iPhone and iPad for movies and watching series, the black bezels are worse to blend with books, emails and websites (all white).
Finally, Jony Ive has always preferred white iPhones for personal use.

Lastly, why couldn’t it have white bezels and a black NOTCH?

I have never heard of someone HATING the bezel, rather they wanted the color on the back and didn't care about the front bezel color. it looks stupid with a white front when the phone is off, it is clear that it isn't actually a full screen display. If the bezels were white and the notch was black, that wouldn't be bad, its the white notch that makes it look silly

 

[ipedro]

That's not going to work too well when the notch is white, is it?

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.

 

[zorinlynx]

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.

This is why I love the home button so much. It is always there, and pressing it *ALWAYS* returns to the home screen. It's one of the most genius things about iOS that makes it easy to use and lets you get out of a "bad situation" quickly.

It seems ludicrous to me for Apple to throw this paradigm away. The iPhone is built on being an easy to use, uncomplicated device.

 

[strategicthinke]

I have never heard of someone HATING the bezel, rather they wanted the color on the back and didn't care about the front bezel color. it looks stupid with a white front when the phone is off, it is clear that it isn't actually a full screen display. If the bezels were white and the notch was black, that wouldn't be bad, its the white notch that makes it look silly

We both agree that the notch should be black (albeit only if iOS does use a black status bar, otherwise white will be fine on my books).
Also, there are two people on this post alone (me and my colleague in one of the previous comments) that bought black iPhones and HATED the black bezel. One should not universalize one’s own opinion on a subject.

 

[Crow KC]

Another gesture that probably isn't going to work with VoiceOver/Accessibility (some people forget/don't know that the home button has other functions besides getting to the home screen and Siri). Welcome to the world of the inaccessible iPhone.

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.