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Sketchy Rumor Claims Sapphire-Covered Capacitive Home Button for iPhone 5S

That'd be real neat, but I'd be surprised if Apple did anything so weird these days.

Seems like they prefer the straight & narrow.


What's odd to me is that they still have the power button, & didn't just build that functionality into the home button on a long press & hold. For a designer & product guy ceo that didn't like buttons, having an extra redundant one is odd.
 
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Drunken Master said:
Who are these gorilla hands that ruin their home buttons anyway?
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quagmire said:
It's not necessarily the users fault. With the iPhone 4 design, dust got behind the button easily which decreased it's functionality. I know for me, I had to click 3-4 times to get the fast app switching drawer to pop up( when it should take 2) on my old 4. Or I had to click twice to go to the home screen.
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Unggoy Murderer said:
I don't have gorilla hands by any stretch, and my old iPhone 4's home button has started to become less reliable. I did make heavy use of the multitasking feature, so I did a lot of double clicking. For a near 3 year old device, I'm more than happy to put it down to wear and tear, and my mum doesn't let it get in her way of using it :)
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TXCherokee said:
Yes, really. My old 4's home button completely failed after 6 months and again at 18 months. My 22 month old iPad 2's and my new 5's button is already not registering every push.

I'm glad you've had a good experience, but this a well documented issue with many people that is large enough to warrant a fix.
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kimvette said:
I had mine fail in my iPhone 4 - it's been dropped, run over, and beat up (and only a couple minor scratches to show for it). The only problem I have had is the home button became intermittent. All I had to do to get it to work was drop it flat, face down and it would work perfectly for a few days. I finally bothered to open it up and reseat the connector a while back and it has been absolutely perfect since then. My iPhones have been my most reliable phones to date - I've had Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and way back, NEC. Reception is excellent and the build quality is great. On the Samsung the volume buttons acted up from time to time, and the Nokia the volume buttons acted up but I had scored a used Nokia which I gutted for parts to keep mine going.
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Wow.

My dad still uses my 1st generation iPod touch, my mom my 2nd gen, my wife my old 3GS and 1st gen iPad, and I my iPhone 4S and 4th gen iPad and have yet to have one home button ever fail to register a button push.

I didn't realize the problem was so wide spread at all.

Saladinos said:
I've never like capacitive buttons on any device I've used - going back to the original Playstation 2 all the way to today's latest Android phones.[/url]
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What capacitive button on the Playstation 2? Are you sure you don't mean the PS3?
 
charlieegan3 said:
Really don't buy this one at all. Sapphire? Aren't iOS devices expensive enough as it is?
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Sounds like they need to keep the price of the phone high, thus using more expensive materials instead of just lowering the price of the phone. They've got to justify those fat subsidies they get somehow.
 
This could conceivably remove the old-fashioned bars and so the phone could have a larger screen while being smaller overall. I think those bars are like the iMac chin. Looking dated now.
 
cmichaelb said:
I love the home button; the lack of one is one of my biggest complaints about android devices.
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I don't have a problem with a home button as such, I just don't like the current design. It's old, it's dated and it spoils the looks of the gorgeous iPhone 5 IMHO.

I wouldn't mind something like the home button on the S4 - wider, slimer and flush with the surface of the device. I would prefer a capacitive home button if they could do it right as like you I've had problems with them in the past.

I was just reading how Apple have a tap to select patent so that would seem a good option. A flush sapphire chrystal "button" that you tap rather than press but has the same affect. As long as it not big and round I would be happy with that.
 
Raftysworld said:
I seriously hope this rumor is true. Can you imagine how jealous Android fans would get? :)
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Seriously? Get real. This is barely any, actually if any better than them moving headphone jack to the bottom of the phone.

I'd rather have a bigger screen, but I hate Android.
 
TXCherokee said:
Yes, really. My old 4's home button completely failed after 6 months and again at 18 months. My 22 month old iPad 2's and my new 5's button is already not registering every push.

I'm glad you've had a good experience, but this a well documented issue with many people that is large enough to warrant a fix.
Click to expand...

It's good to see that you say it's a well documented issue with "many people", not with products..
To receive 4 faulty home buttons is statistically quite remarkable. I'd relax my thumb-press, or stop playing video games to lower its obviously overly developed muscularity... ;)
 
Is it just me or are these fingerprint sensor rumors getting out of control just like the NFC rumors last year for the iPhone 5 ?

Don't get me wrong. I would enjoy this feature & would love to see how Apple would implement something like this, but I just don't think it's happening this year.

Next year's iPhone 6 (if that's how it pans out), might be a different story.....
 
I hate capacitive home buttons. My experience with Nexus 4 told me that it's way too easily to be triggered.

Still, I was a victim of the delicate Home button breaking, so I hope Apple implements something that uses a pressure sensor instead of going capacitive.
 
6.png


Now this ^ I would actually stand on line for :D
 
Forget the home button.

The big story here is the idea of sapphire crystal to replace gorilla glass Sapphire crystal is nearly indestructible.. My wrist watch has a sapphire crystal, and is utterly scratch proof

If true, this is huge
 
Drunken Master said:
Who are these gorilla hands that ruin their home buttons anyway?
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I'm one of them. I had an iPhone 3G that had a home button fail well before my contract ran out, and my iPhone 4's home button is starting to flake on me. It's pretty common, actually. It's the reason I won't buy an iPad until this gets fixed. I'll be damned if I'm going to drop $500 on something that is rendered useless by a broken button.
 
Would Apple want to make a fully indestructible device? They would hurt their case partners bottom line.

It's also the same logic on why we would never seen a greater battery life. Those external battery accessory residuals play a role.
 
This doesn't add up at all. If they removed the physical home button and replaced it with a capacitive one, why would they put a hole in the scratch resistant front glass to place a different scratch resistant material over the capacitive home button?

The only reason to use a different material is if they are still using a physical home button, which could of course have capacitive elements, but that's not what this article suggests.
 
Dunno if its been mentioned but if they went that route, the case designers would have fun because my otterbox defender has a plastic button that pushes the physical one. Kinda defeats the purpose of capacitative button if you don't actually push it, no? :)
 
theanonymousbob said:
I'm one of them. I had an iPhone 3G that had a home button fail well before my contract ran out, and my iPhone 4's home button is starting to flake on me. It's pretty common, actually. It's the reason I won't buy an iPad until this gets fixed. I'll be damned if I'm going to drop $500 on something that is rendered useless by a broken button.
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An iPad with gestures enabled doesn't need a home button at all.
 
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