Poll: Do you want to see the home button eliminated?

[BergerFan]

I agree. It would be foolish for Apple to remove the home button. Even though it's not needed other than to wake up the iPad if it doesn't have a smart cover, I think if Apple wants to continue to reach the masses it should remain. It is still in keeping with the minimalist nature of Apple products. I would bet that there is still only a small percentage of users who even use the gestures that became available with ios5. To expect grandma to pick up the four finger swipe or the five finger swipe is a stretch. The button is completely intuitive.

^^ This.
With the Home button, there's zero learning curve. Everybody get's it, instantly.
There's no way Apple will introduce such usage fragmentation, when they're all about accessibility and unification.
Those gestures are great, I use them a lot, but any new user(kids, anyone), will have to be shown them first, before they become instinctive.

The Home button isn't going anywhere folks.

 

[bjmach]

I use the home button quite often myself. Especially when i'm switching between apps, double clicking the home button brings up the bottom bar of open apps and makes it convenient to switch. Don't see how they would achieve that without a physical home button

 

[AppleBlogAt]

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The home button is a trademark of apple so let it be but if they decide to change it, they will do it for a better alternative.

 

[HazyCloud]

I use the home button quite often myself. Especially when i'm switching between apps, double clicking the home button brings up the bottom bar of open apps and makes it convenient to switch. Don't see how they would achieve that without a physical home button

Swipe through apps with 4 fingers and swipe up to get the multitasking tray. All of that is possible now.

I'd personally like to see it go just to see how Apple handles powering off, Siri and screenshots.

 

[iSolidus]

I wouldn't mind if they removed it. A physical button is just one more dust catcher to get filthy. As the saying goes, less is more.

 

[Blorzoga]

I use the home button quite often myself. Especially when i'm switching between apps, double clicking the home button brings up the bottom bar of open apps and makes it convenient to switch. Don't see how they would achieve that without a physical home button

Try swiping up with 4 fingers. It does the same thing

 

[borgqueenx]

it wont be gone. although id like it gone.
Watch my words on this.

 

[iDvisic]

Try swiping up with 4 fingers. It does the same thing

Is this enabled by default? I know it/love it/use it all the time (along with the 5 finger pinch to return to icon view and the 4 finger left/right swipe to move between apps)--I just can't remember if multitasking gestures default to off or on in settings. (If not, those who don't know it's there might find it's disabled.)

My only complaint is that you can't do a double fiver finger pinch to switch to the first icon page. Hitting the button once, then again to get to those first icons, is so much easier than "5 finger pinch followed by several swipes".

Granted, I may just need to organize my apps better so I don't have 5,000 pages of them....

-->iDv.

 

[Arran]

Keep it. It's affordance is explicit: It invites the new user to push it - just to see what it does. And in so doing they discover it's function.

And just for the record, I'm a minimalist at heart - but minimalism can sometimes be taken too far.

 

[bjmach]

Swipe through apps with 4 fingers and swipe up to get the multitasking tray. All of that is possible now.

I'd personally like to see it go just to see how Apple handles powering off, Siri and screenshots.

Well then just tried all that on my Ipad 2 and it worked awesome. I did not realize this guess I just got dependent on the home button and never paid attention to the gestures. I actually like this better than the home button. Thanks!!

 

[ericrwalker]

The question is, will removing it make it harder to jailbreak? Will there be other options for DFU mode.

 

[HazyCloud]

Well then just tried all that on my Ipad 2 and it worked awesome. I did not realize this guess I just got dependent on the home button and never paid attention to the gestures. I actually like this better than the home button. Thanks!!

You can also use four or five fingers to pinch to get to the Home Screen.

 

[bjmach]

You can also use four or five fingers to pinch to get to the Home Screen.

Yep tried that too...I guess there really isn't a need for the home button

 

[snow blind]

I wasn't expecting so many people to want to keep the home button! It's like those people who wanted Apple to keep the right side numeric pad on the keyboard when they designed the newest wireless model.

 

[HazyCloud]

Yep tried that too...I guess there really isn't a need for the home button

Kind of. The problems would be with Siri and screenshots. Those require use of the Home button. That's why I'd like to see it go to see what Apple comes up with.

 

[homeboy]

The home button on the iPad has seen its last days. When Apple introduced the four finger gestures I was delighted and stopped using the home button immediately.

I always found it unnatural to double tap the home buttons for multitasking. It totally broke my smooth and silent flow of tapping and swiping. Sort of like eating something with your hands to then occasionally have to pick up a fork and knife.

It's unintuitive.

 

[lilo777]

If Apple removes the button...

the Samsung will sue them for copying [button-less] Galaxy Tab design.