Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. plans to transform the way people use its next high-end iPhone by eliminating the concept of a home button and making other adjustments to a flagship device that’s becoming almost all screen, according to images of the new device viewed by Bloomberg News and people familiar with the gadget.
And:
Apple is preparing three new iPhones for debut next month. One of the models, a new high-end device, packs in enough changes to make it one of the biggest iPhone updates in the product’s decade-long history. With a crisper screen that takes up nearly the entire front, Apple has tested the complete removal of the home button—even a digital one—in favor of new gesture controls for tasks like going to the main app grid and opening multitasking, according to the people and the images.
Are we about to enter the buttonless era?
With cameras capable of scanning sophisticated enough to verify your face, there’s a world of possibilities for hands free gestures. Imagine unlocking your phone, starting a podcast, scrubbing forward a few minutes, and adjusting the volume, all without touching your screen.
Fascinating article, lots of design details said to be in the about to be released iPhones.
We’ve already seen the preview of the “swipe up” in iOS 11 on the iPad, and we’ve seen content from the leaked HomePod firmware suggesting this on the iPhone as well.
If I had to bet, we’ll see something like double-tap-to-wake and swipe-up becoming first-class gestures for all iOS devices, eventually. Now that “everyone” understands smartphones, the home button is not quite as strictly required (although I’m sure I’ll miss it in some aspects).
Two things:
First, the mealy mouthed escape hatch in the post.. .”Apple has tested the complete removal of the home button…” So if it doesn’t ship, they point to this. Gurman used to have sources… if he doesn’t KNOW when we’re 2-3 weeks from the event, eh.
Second, gestures will need to work a LOT better to replace a button. I occasionally have to swipe up 2 or even 3x to get control center sometimes (once usually is fine…but ‘usually’ not ‘always’). We’ll see but I think hiding affordances like this is generally not good UX. It’s fine to put power user, cool extras behind this, but hand a new top of the line iPhone to someone who hasn’t been following this. How do they do?
Obviously, all of this is set. We’ll see how it plays and then how it works.
Apple is fracturing the iPhone line like they did with the MacBook / Pro. We used to have one model iPhone. Now we have four models.
that isn’t fracturing, thats having a couple of tiers. just like one macs. it’s not fracturing in the context that the word is used for android because theres no damage dealt to developers who are trying to support a million different pieces of hardware of wildly varying OS versions in popular use. android has many different older versions of it in use while iOS is mostly on 10. and all the various android hardware configs are much more diverse than a couple of different sized iPhone screens.
so stop panicking or spreading FUD.
But it could be fracturing in the sense that you used to be able to buy one iPhone that was the best iPhone out there regardless of whether you were a rich person or Jane Middleclass. It was Gruber, I think, who remarked that this was like Coke – rich or poor, we all drank the same Coke. Rich or poor we all got the same iPhone. This changed slightly with 2 sizes but the principle held. Sure, more money bought a bigger phone and more storage but not a BETTER phone with features that didn’t exist on other models.
If the top phone this year has meaningfully different capabilities then they’ve moved away from that – want the best? Pony up. The rest of you get something lesser.
Whether this will be good or bad for business is up in the air. I wonder, though, if we see the features in the top end phone trickle down to the standard model next year. If so, they’ll have a tough sell for it year after year. Except for people who convince themselves that they NEED the best right away, the rest of us can just wait 12 months.
Based on the way swipe up has worked in iOS thus far, its going to be terrible.
Ever try to swipe up with a keyboard on the screen? It never works.
Keep the home button. Its so much better.
Imagine unlocking your phone, starting a podcast, scrubbing forward a
few minutes, and adjusting the volume, all without touching your screen
For fine things like adjustments and scrubbing, I still think feedback matters, and “just do it in the air because who needs to touch something” might well be less ideal.
You mean like in 2015, when they were selling the 5S, 5C, 6, and 6 Plus at the same time?
(Or the period just after that when they had all of those AND the 6S and 6S Plus?
Or right now when they have the SE, the 6, the 6S, and the 6S Plus and the 7 and the 7 Plus?
At this very moment Apple is selling five different models of iPhone.)
Having three new ones rather than two is not a huge fracture, what?
So we’ll all have the ability to use our iPhones as though we are Stephen Hawking.
<
blockquote>Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family!!!
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it >>>http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash24TopApp/GetPay$97/Hour…
I agree the swipe gesture would have to be retooled. I’d expect iOS 11 does just that so it’s reliable and seamless, if for no other reason than the iPad will need easy dock triggering. I haven’t tried the beta, but no one has complained about the gesture on iOS 11 beta on iPads.
That’s not true. If you consider the camera and the screen, the Plus models definitely had new features. Just ask my wife, who uses Portrait mode all the time on the 7+, or Gruber, whose biggest regret of using the 7 is the camera.
And, note they trickle this stuff down. So, I’d expect in ~2 years the new form factor to be standard everywhere.
Finally, this is a good thing for many consumers. Totally reworking the UX for everyone might be a bit much at this stage.
I’m assuming the iOS 11 Dock gesture on the iPad is far more reliable than the current Control Center.
I’ve been using the iOS 11 beta on my iPad. The swipe gesture isn’t any better.
The Plus was a 6 generation add. However, yes, you’re right there were a couple of new things. I think that despite that, my point stands – until now, iPhones have largely been the same and priced tightly in a range. You didn’t have a Plus and a Plus Pro. The rumored Pro/8/whatever breaks that model. It’s decisively different and significantly more expensive (esp if the alleged $999 model is 32g).
I still want to know what make it worth the extra money aside from being the darling of the early adopter, I want the latest crowd. The iPad Pro has actual features that let you do things that the iPad cannot (Pencil support, etc). So far no post I’ve read has posited anything similar for the top end iPhone. Nicer screen, no bezels… aren’t capabilities. I’m intrigued for the event.
It wasn’t on my iPad Mini2 in the 3rd public beta, but it might well be now. It’s hard, though, to outdo the reliability of “push button, have thing happen” and while I’ll all for the new, I think new also needs to be at least as good and hopefully better. I wonder about the use of gestures which, to a degree, are hidden from the user and not completely intuitive. Again, we’ll see in 2 weeks.
That’s disappointing.
I guess we’ll have to see what Apple does: revise the gesture in time for RTM, just for this device, or use something else.
And this is precisely why they’re doing it only on one device for now (assuming everything pans out).
I llook at the iPhone 8 much as the 20th anniversary Mac. I believe it will be more of a milestone iPhone and will not set a precedence.
That’s a ways off till we see for sure of course, but that’s my guess.
Imagine the frustration. Not to mention neck injury lawsuits.