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iPhone losing the home button?

What if the iPhone becomes unresponsive?

What are we to do with no physical button?

Magically finger the iPhone's screen in some revolutionary way? :p
 
i can see this happening for the ipad but iphone not so much because of the screen size. but im very excited that i waited for the 2nd gen ipad if this is true

EDIT: i wonder if they will get some sort of multitouch gesture area like the palm has
 
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I doubt even the maxiPad would lose it's home button.

We need both the home button and sleep/wake button in order to do a hard reset in the event of a malfunction, which does happen. I needed to do it the other day. Also yes, the iPhones screen is much too small for 5 finger gestures. With the maxiPad, what if someone only has 4 fingers? It will not replace it. End of story

It's been part of the iPhone since day 1, I doubt it will ever be removed
 
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Gestures work so well for webOS I'm glad to see apple going this route... I use gestures on my jailbroken iPhone and love them
 
Sounds reasonable, only way to get a truly thin bezel device which I think would be Apple's ultimate goal.
 
F123D said:
No home button could possibly make the screen larger without sacrificing the size of the phone.. :)
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I predict happening. Bigger screen can happen if the home button goes away and the phone would keep the same dimensions.
 
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F123D said:
No home button could possibly make the screen larger without sacrificing the size of the phone.. :)
Click to expand...

Mario Loco said:
That's exactly what I predict happening. Bigger screen can happen if the home button goes away and the phone keeps it's same dimension.
Click to expand...

citizenerased85 said:
good riddance! it's unnecessary & will make way for a bigger screen
Click to expand...

They just recently changed the display technology and had to have all the devs redo their apps; I doubt they'll change it again.

I hope they don't take away the home button.
 
On the other hand. The phone may be still too small to perform 5 finger swipes. I just watched the iPad video and the swipe would need a lot of real estate to function.
 
iphone3gs16gb said:
What if the iPhone becomes unresponsive?

What are we to do with no physical button?

Magically finger the iPhone's screen in some revolutionary way? :p
Click to expand...

My Palm Pre has no home button. I would assume Apple would do something like Palm. Hold down the Lock/Power button for 4-5 seconds and menu pops up. Asking if you want to reset or restart.
 
if that was the case, how in the world would somebody with missing fingers use the phone?

Also, one handed use is absolutely critical when using a small device like a phone. Would be very uncomfortable and cumbersome to need both hands (one to hold the phone, other for 4-5 finger gestures) in order to do basic things on the phone. Would completely defeat the ease of use that the touchscreen brings.
 
palmerc2 said:
With the maxiPad, what if someone only has 4 fingers? It will not replace it. End of story
Click to expand...

I agree with the home button being essential to iOS but this argument holds no water.

What if someone has no legs? They can't ride a bike.
What if someone can't see? They can't watch TV.
What if someone has no hands? They can't play tennis.

Anybody with a handicap is not going to be able to do anything that they want to do, because they're handicapped. It's life.
 
Why assume the home button is going to vanish completely?
I for one would love a design with the home button on the side. (if done right)
Of course it has to be a little bit less responsive than it is right now, otherwise one would always push it by accident. (Maybe even use a slider switch?)

I don't really know the answer and hope Apple will surprise us.
But having the home button removed and extending the display would definitly
be a nice move in my opinion.

IF we get a "home button-less"-iPhone at all, then I would expect it to
be in the next major update of the iPhone in 2012.
 
palmerc2 said:
It's been part of the iPhone since day 1, I doubt it will ever be removed
Click to expand...

There was this thing called the "Click Wheel". It was probably the most iconic button ever made, so much that a rectangle with a circle in it became synonymous with "mp3 player". You guessed it: Apple killed it in favour of multi touch.
 
I'd prefer not to have a home button. The button usually gets less responsive for me as time goes by. By the time I sold my old iPhone 3G, the home button was terrible. Maybe I press it too hard? I've been trying not to on the iPhone 4, but it's still getting less responsive, especially when I try to double click.

Finger gestures would be welcomed for me :)
 
I'm not sure about losing the home button, but I am glad they have introduced a better way of bringing up the multi-tasking bar on the iPad. Double-clicking the home button is such a bad way of doing it.

Hope they introduce some sort of gesture for the iPhone, but I'm not sure how they would do it with the smaller screen.
 
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