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iPhone 5S to Include Sapphire-Covered Convex Home Button with Fingerprint Sensor?

tdale said:
Actually, many do. They mention 4.7 typically, not 10. Make a 4 and 4.7, simple, you take your choice. One size doesn't fit all, as the market has shown.
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if its just a phone then i guess one screen size should fit all. But phones were only phones pre-iPhone era. After it things changed. Its now a device that people do a lot of good stuff on. My primary email device is iPhone, GPS navigator, Primary (and only) camera is iPhone....and there's tonnes and tonnes of stuff can be done on it and people do.
So,
That leads us to one conclusion. The way one computer screen-size wont fit for all, Music pros need as large as 42-48 inches and often multiple monitors, cash counter would probably need just 10inches. Similarly, phones need different sizes. i would love to do some basic spreadsheet stuff on the go. some basic annotation of PDF and images. I see a lot of people watch videos/movies to kill couple of hours they have traveling back to home after work and so they don't mind carrying a phone that's bigger, bit uncomfortable cos benefits a lot more than the trouble.

For me, 4.5-4.7 inches will be great.
 
louiek said:
As for the fingerprint scanner, if iOS can detect what App/website you're currently trying to log into and with a press of your finger retrieve and enter the username/password information from a local keychain it'd be fantastic. It's actually a huge boost in security as you could happily assign 20 character complex passwords that you wouldn't have to remember.
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At least if something goes wrong with your password... you can change your password.

What if something goes wrong and you use your fingerprints to log in? Change your fingers?

:D
 
Last week I had a conversation with someone in fingerprint technology. What I understood this technique is far from perfect. Doing certain hand/ finger intensive jobs or even doing some household DIY activity can influence the ability to deliver continuous finger print scans.
 
NOV said:
Last week I had a conversation with someone in fingerprint technology. What I understood this technique is far from perfect. Doing certain hand/ finger intensive jobs or even doing some household DIY activity can influence the ability to deliver continuous finger print scans.
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Before Apple released the iphone, multitouch screens were not good enough. They innovated. They might do the same now.
 
"Sapphire prevents home button from being scratched"

this ....

May be good, but its gonna be useless, as its not the Home button being scratched that's the problem, since most people scuff their phones more than anything without a case.

its the fact, the Home button IS a button... :p

My solution..... eliminate the button, and make it touch on screen..... solves all problems...

.... maybe find a place on the phone where there be as minimal damage as possible, and put it there..

Finger-print sensor looks good....
 
I thought they were going to make the entire front glass and have the home button area work as the same of the rest of the digitizer? Maybe that was my wishful thinking.

I'm not too much worried about the finger print function as the security pass to my phone so long as that's the ONLY function of it.
 
Pardon my ignorance, but if current button design is concave, wouldn't going lflush present some sort of real estate benefit? Otherwise, I'd probably rather gain an extra .1mm in thickness to have a flush button rather than a convex one.
 
Once fingerprint sensors become ubiquitous, I'm sure thieves will learn to lift the last fingerprint from a home button and 3D-print a new thumb. ;)
 
MacAddict1978 said:
HAHA. So you're replying to a post about size options, and your argument is to cite a product line that DOES offer options as a rebuttal? That's brilliant.

There is one size iPhone (2 if you count a now EOL model).... with laptops you have several size choices, and tablet options. iPhonoe... you have the option Apple says is good for you.

Screen size is one of the reasons I went to Android.... It's an important feature to people, which is why apple bumped up to the mammouth 4" screen from 3.5" when everyone else already was dismissing 4" as too small

Apple has lost marketshare in mobile steadily.... things like screen size impact that loss. And making a phone longer and not wider.... dumb choice. There are only tens of millions of people out there with big hands....
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Apple bumped up to a 4 inch with little negative impact on developers or consumers.

Human sexual dimorphism would suggest that males might make use of a larger screen without issue, but most females would find it much harder to use one handed than the iPhone 4 inch screen. That, and the increased bulk of the phat phones would tend to make it less desirable with females.

So, my take is that Apple could and probably will make a phat iPhone in the future, though when they feel that they can do it with the the level of Apple attention to make it a class leader. I would guess that will occur when Apple shifts to a fully screen independent model for its mobile products.
 
akbarali.ch said:
if its just a phone then i guess one screen size should fit all. But phones were only phones pre-iPhone era. After it things changed. Its now a device that people do a lot of good stuff on. My primary email device is iPhone, GPS navigator, Primary (and only) camera is iPhone....and there's tonnes and tonnes of stuff can be done on it and people do.
So,
That leads us to one conclusion. The way one computer screen-size wont fit for all, Music pros need as large as 42-48 inches and often multiple monitors, cash counter would probably need just 10inches. Similarly, phones need different sizes. i would love to do some basic spreadsheet stuff on the go. some basic annotation of PDF and images. I see a lot of people watch videos/movies to kill couple of hours they have traveling back to home after work and so they don't mind carrying a phone that's bigger, bit uncomfortable cos benefits a lot more than the trouble.

For me, 4.5-4.7 inches will be great.
Click to expand...

Yes, but this is why the tablet was introduced as the middle ground device between smartphone and laptop. All of what you mentioned, is the reason to buy a tablet.
 
MacAddict1978 said:
Apple has lost marketshare in mobile steadily.... things like screen size impact that loss.
Click to expand...
The reason they had any marketshare to lose in the first place was that they introduced a product that was 5 years ahead of the physical button-riddled competition. Then the competition borrowed all the ideas and caught up. The fact that Apple has any share at all on a market that was already saturated by big players like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Blackberry since aeons, is amazing. The fact that they're losing part of a market share nobody ever dreamed that Apple would have is massively unsurprising. This is the downside of leaving loyal pro customers in favor of going all-in with consumers; the consumer hive mind is a fickle friend who can turn on you in a split second and declare you uncool and yesteryear, because their attachment to the brand is superficial and built from the top down, not the ground up. Once you're uncool, introducing new screen sizes won't change it.
 
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IF the home button really is convex, it won't be a physical button as many people here can't seem to imagine. Simply a small subtly raised surface on the glass to provide tactile feedback. It can't be accidentally pushed because it won't be a real button. It would activate only if a finger is on it. If it's locked, it will only unlock with the owner's finger/thumb on it. If it's already unlocked, any human finger will do. For purchases or app downloads, the owner's finger will be required.

The use for security in a mobile payment scheme is IMHO already crystal clear and a foregone conclusion. Otherwise, there's not much benefit to Apple to implement a fingerprint scanner.

But the really intriguing possibility to me is if the scanner can be used as an optical sensor like some of the gaming mice on the market. Because then the "button" becomes a much improved game controller - finer movement/aim control.

As innovative as some of the game developers have been in adapting to a touch screen control, it still can't come close to the tactile feedback of a physical controller as well as having the advantage of not having your finger take up precious space on a small screen. An optical sensor on the home button goes a LONG ways to addressing that.
 
Add me to the "who cares" group.

I fail to see why the majority of the people would care...
 
Anuba said:
The reason they had any marketplace to lose in the first place was that they introduced a product that was 5 years ahead of the physical button-riddled competition. Then the competition borrowed all the ideas and caught up. The fact that Apple has any share at all on a market that was already saturated by big players like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Blackberry since aeons, is amazing. The fact that they're losing part of a market share nobody ever dreamed that Apple would have is massively unsurprising. This is the downside of leaving loyal pro customers in favor of going all-in with consumers; the consumer hive mind is a fickle friend who can turn on you in a split second and declare you uncool and yesteryear, because their attachment to the brand is superficial and built from the top down, not the ground up. Once you're uncool, introducing new screen sizes won't change it.
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I agree with most of your points except that consumers attachments to brand and cool are two different things. You can possess boh of them like Apple did and does but anyone who votes on merits of cool will leave and come back a dozen times because they never had loyalty. True brand loyalty keeps millions of customers even when you're he most uncool thing around. Just ask Microsoft and Blackberry.

Apple's new commercials (iPhone and FaceTime montage ads) go a long way to promote Apple brand as much as current phones and features. This creates loyalty that lasts a decade.
 
sebbyRIOT said:
I really hope this is inaccurate. A convex home button?

*shudders*
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Why would u "shudder"? Is it really that big of a deal? Relax a bit and just wait and see what we get. I'm excited for a change in the home button. I bet the entire home button is going to be completely redesigned in both form and function. And I also think it's gonna be the nicest feature on the phone.
 
flux73 said:
But the really intriguing possibility to me is if the scanner can be used as an optical sensor like some of the gaming mice on the market. Because then the "button" becomes a much improved game controller - finer movement/aim control.

As innovative as some of the game developers have been in adapting to a touch screen control, it still can't come close to the tactile feedback of a physical controller as well as having the advantage of not having your finger take up precious space on a small screen. An optical sensor on the home button goes a LONG ways to addressing that.
Click to expand...
Not sure where you're extrapolating that possibility from but it certainly seems like one of those APIs Apple would lock away from developers for both security reasons and button stress. Imagine your gateway to your phone being pushed and rubbed thousands of times a day for a game? It wouldn't last.
 
irDigital0l said:
Your welcome to the squad after Apple introduces a larger screen iPhone.

Your probably the same type of people who said crap about the iPhone 5 when it first came out.

"4-inches? Steve would never have done that, I want it to be smaller, durrr"

:)
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No, actually you are very wrong but that is to be expected!
 
The actually make stickers that go onto the home button that make it convex. Only reason I tried one out is because it came with my glass.t case. And honestly, it wasn't bad. AT ALL. In fact, I quite liked it.

I am not convinced that we are getting a convex button, but if we are, I don't think I will hate it, unless they do something REALLY strange.

One thing is for sure though... broken home buttons are going to be more than $5 to fix now! ;)
 
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