iPhone

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac, pulled a quote from this Mashable iPhone X review:

One important limitation of Face ID: It only lets you register one face. That may strike many as unnecessarily limiting since Touch ID lets users register up to 10 [sic] fingerprints, but Apple says it found the number of people who register more than one person’s fingerprints is miniscule.

Ben continues:

The idea that hardly anyone registers more than one person’s fingerprint didn’t ring true to me, and our poll shows that it’s not true for 9to5Mac users at least.

At the time of writing, the majority of our readers have more than person’s fingerprints registered for one or more of their iOS devices. Almost half (48.98%) have one other person registered, and a further 6.85% have more than two people.

I would certainly agree with this. I have my entire family “fingered” on my iPhone 6s, and the Touch ID performance is still very fast.

Ben’s take on adding a second face to the Face ID registry:

My guess is that doing all these checks for more than one person would make face-recognition noticeably slower than Touch ID, and Apple was concerned that reviewers and consumers alike wouldn’t respond well to that. That, I think, is the real reason Apple limits Face ID to a single face.

Interesting perspective.

First things first, this is not news. Apple has been very up front about the Face ID edge cases.

That said, I did find this interesting, was wondering how long it would take before someone verified this theory.

From the linked Mashable article:

With both sets of twins, the other twin unlocked the iPhone X, even though neither one had registered his face with Face ID on the iPhone X. With the Franklin twins, we had both brothers remove their glasses and had the other brother register. Again, Face ID failed to tell the difference.

Look, Apple never claimed Face ID was perfect and, in my tests, it could not be fooled by photos or videos of my registered face.

But also interesting is the claim that Windows 10’s facial recognition tech was able to distinguish between twins.

Not much of an issue. Unless you are a twin. Especially an evil twin.

UPDATE: I’m told that the Windows facial recognition tech is iris scanning, not true facial recognition. Requires facing the camera with head aligned, just so. Does pick up the difference between twins, but clearly loses in convenience to Face ID.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes reading Jim Dalrymple’s iPhone X first take.

With that as a foundation, read Matt Panzarino’s Disneyland-based iPhone X review. It’s fun, informed, and interesting.

Too much to excerpt the whole thing, but here’s a bit on Face ID:

Going in to this review, my threshold for “success” was whether Face ID worked as well or better than first-generation Touch ID. I didn’t expect it to nail the speed of the second-gen sensor, which is incredibly fast. As long as it landed between the two I would be happy.

Face ID works really well. First, it’s incredibly easy to set up. You choose to enable it and then rotate your nose around the points of a clock twice. That’s it. Second, it worked the vast majority of times I tried it, it never once unlocked using a picture of myself or another person’s face and the failure rate seemed to be about the same as Touch ID — aka almost never. As hoped, it’s definitely faster than the first generation of Touch ID, though perhaps slightly slower than the second gen.

The “slightly slower than second gen” comment is interesting. I wonder if that will improve as users develop the swipe up timing muscle memory. Certainly, the timing should improve with next generation processors.

I experience failure with Touch ID at least once a day or so, almost always due to sweaty fingers from a workout or, perhaps, dirt of some kind on my fingers. Face ID eliminates that issue (my only complaint about Touch ID).

At several points, the unlock procedure worked so well in pitch black or at weird angles that I laughed out loud. You get over the amazement pretty quickly, but it feels wild the first few dozen times you do it.

So important. Really glad to read these reviews, hear the positives on Face ID in the wild.

Jason Snell, Six Colors, on the iPhone 8:

This is the fate of the iPhone 8. It will be ignored by many of Apple’s most committed followers, who see it as a speed bump on the road to the release of the iPhone X in early November.

The iPhone X is stealing the iPhone 8 thunder, no doubt. But there’s a lot to appreciate here, especially if you have an older phone:

Instead, it will soldier on, doing its job as the latest iteration of the existing iPhone line, providing a substantial upgrade to people who haven’t bought an iPhone in two or three years and aren’t interested in paying $999 for the very first generation of a new iPhone, if they could even find one in stores. These people are ready for a better version of their existing phone, and the iPhone 8 will deliver that to them.

If you are considering an update, but stuck on the fence between an iPhone 8 and iPhone X, spend some time digging through Jason’s detailed iPhone 8 review. It just might change your thinking.

Steven Levy, Wired:

I’ve had this phone since last Tuesday. Apple had given me this early peek in part because I was one of the first pre-release reviewers of the original iPhone. Given that history, we all thought it would be interesting to get my impressions of what the company clearly believes is the next milestone in a journey that has pretty much altered our relationship with technology. Sure, with every single iteration of the iPhone, Apple has claimed that it’s the best one the company has ever made. But for this anniversary edition—coming at a time when critics are griping that the company had tumbled into an innovation trough— they’re pushing for something higher. Tim Cook calls the iPhone X “the future of the smartphone.”

This is a great read, all the way through. I love the open, with Steven choosing what feature to show people who see his phone, ask what it can do. Lovely writing, makes me want an iPhone X, which is exactly what this pitch is supposed to accomplish.

Remember, as cool as the original iPhone was, it didn’t really begin changing the world until Apple let third-party software developers take advantage of its innards—stuff like the camera, GPS, and other sensors. Maybe something similar, albeit not on such a grand scale, will happen with the iPhone X. Those who shell out the cash for this device will enjoy their screen and battery life today. But the real payoff of the iPhone X might come when we figure out what it can do tomorrow.

I see the iPhone X as the very beginning of a brand new product line. I think the payoff will come as those future iPhones X evolve.

Getting (or dreaming of getting) an iPhone X? This is a terrific summary of the various gestures built into the phone.

Only thing that would make this better would be a video of same. Nice job, Jonny.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

In the United States, Apple will charge flat rates of $279 for iPhone X screen repairs and $549 for any other damage to the device, unless it is a manufacturing defect covered by Apple’s standard one-year limited warranty. The fees vary in other countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

These prices do not apply to customers who purchase AppleCare+ for the iPhone X, which costs $199 upfront in the United States.

Is it just me, or is it getting pricy in here?

The iPhone X opened for pre-orders early this morning (just after midnight PT).

In the first few minutes, folks were getting November 3rd ship dates. I’ve gotten feedback from folks who used the online Apple Store, as well as AT&T and Verizon. Some international reports as well, obviously via other carriers. No reports of T-Mobile orders delivering on Nov 3, though that could simply be the small sample size.

About 15 minutes in, the ship dates slipped first to 1-2 weeks, then 2-3 weeks. By this morning, delivery was 5-6 weeks out.

From this Bloomberg article, from yesterday afternoon:

Given reported production bottlenecks, iPhone X delivery times will be four to six weeks by 8 a.m. New York time and should remain largely unchanged in the following days, said Gene Munster, a veteran Apple analyst and co-founder of VC firm Loup Ventures.

IPhone X demand and supply should sync about three to four months after launch, while it typically takes two to three months for a new iPhone to reach global supply-demand equilibrium, Munster added in a note to clients on Thursday.

Take that with a grain of salt, but an interesting projection.

And, if you have plenty of cash and don’t mind soiling your soul a bit, there’s always eBay, Craigs List, etc., with no shortage of locked in price gouging iPhone X pre-orders for sale.

If you are planning on ordering an iPhone X at just past witching hour tonight, this is worth a read. Lory Gil walks through the process, highlights things you can do to squeeze every second out of the purchase process, make sure you maximize your chances of success.

John Gruber deconstructs yesterday’s Bloomberg article that accuses Apple of downgrading its Face ID technology to make it easier to meet production goals.

Read Gruber’s detailed post, then consider the damage done by Bloomberg’s article. Will people accept Apple’s official response? Will the accusation of a weaker Face ID shift the thinking of potential buyers? It’d be interesting to see a poll of buyer thinking.

Gruber brings up some really interesting food for thought. In these days of fake news, is it possible Apple is the victim of a disinformation campaign here? Or is there a nugget of truth at the core of it all?

Elizabeth Stinson, Wired:

A COUPLE YEARS ago, Apple went on a shopping spree. It snatched up PrimeSense, maker of some of the best 3-D sensors on the market, as well Perceptio, Metaio, and Faceshift, companies that developed image recognition, augmented reality, and motion capture technology, respectively.

And:

Perhaps the most important feature in the new flagship phone is its face-tracking technology, which allows you to unlock the phone with your face or to lend your expressions to a dozen or so emoji with Animoji. Apple thinks the iPhone X represents the future of mobile tech, and for many, that’s true. But if you trace most of consumer technology’s most impressive accomplishments back to their origins, more often than not, it’ll lead you to a drab research lab full of graduate students. In the case of Animoji, that research happened to have taken place nearly a decade ago at a pair of Europe’s most prestigious technical schools.

And:

Algorithmic facial tracking is notoriously difficult pull off. Li calls the human face “one of the holy grails in computer graphics” because it’s so difficult to work on. Unlike a static object, the face is constantly deforming; there are no simple rules for a computer to follow.

This is a fascinating article. Animoji is not the goal, but rather a playful implementation that shows what is possible, how far Apple has come down this road.

UPDATE: As you’d expect, Apple responded:

Customer excitement for iPhone X and Face ID has been incredible, and we can’t wait for customers to get their hands on it starting Friday, November 3. Face ID is a powerful and secure authentication system that’s incredibly easy and intuitive to use. The quality and accuracy of Face ID haven’t changed. It continues to be 1 in a million probability of a random person unlocking your iPhone with Face ID.

Bloomberg’s claim that Apple has reduced the accuracy spec for Face ID is completely false and we expect Face ID to be the new gold standard for facial authentication.

There’s no room for interpretation here. The Face ID accuracy remains the same. Nothing has changed. Calling out Bloomberg’s report as completely false is a strong, necessary statement. A black eye for Bloomberg.

Alex Webb and Sam Kim, Bloomberg:

As of early fall, it was clearer than ever that production problems meant Apple Inc. wouldn’t have enough iPhone Xs in time for the holidays. The challenge was how to make the sophisticated phone—with advanced features such as facial recognition—in large enough numbers.

As Wall Street analysts and fan blogs watched for signs that the company would stumble, Apple came up with a solution: It quietly told suppliers they could reduce the accuracy of the face-recognition technology to make it easier to manufacture, according to people familiar with the situation.

And:

The company’s decision to downgrade the accuracy of its Face ID system—if only a little—shows how hard it’s becoming to create cutting-edge features that consumers are hungry to try.

If the facial recognition tech still works, this is not an issue. If facial recognition works well enough to not be fooled by all but the most unique situations (twins, for example), this is not an issue.

If reducing accuracy allows Apple to ship, this (if true) is a logical decision. It’s what businesses do. The key is to compromise without reducing quality to the point where it breaks. I think Apple would eat the delay before they shipped an iPhone X that didn’t meet their security standards.

We’ve seen plenty of examples of iPhone (and other Apple product) shortages that lasted months, with demand outstripping supply. I don’t believe Apple would risk the iPhone X reputation by shipping an iPhone X with less-than-effective facial recognition.

[VIDEO] Portrait Lighting and Portrait Lighting effects are unique to the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. The two videos, embedded in the main Loop post, take you through the process. They are both worth watching, both short and to the point.

Provocative title, easy article to dismiss, but take the time to make your way through.

Sam Byford, The Verge:

Yes, the iPhone X has a 5.8-inch screen compared to the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch display. It’s also true that the X’s is higher resolution. But the 8 Plus’ screen is actually bigger. The X uses a narrower aspect ratio, so while it’s longer on the diagonal, you still get more surface area on the Plus overall — and that’s before you account for the notch and the rounded corners.

And:

Apps, websites, and so on have 414 horizontal “points” — the unit of measurement that the screen is divided into for design purposes — to fill on the Plus, while the X has 375, the same as the regular iPhone 8. The X has more vertical points, of course, because of the taller screen, but a lot of that will be occupied by the notch and home button bar.

This would not be an issue if Apple had release an iPhone X Plus at the same time as the iPhone X. This is a bit like comparing Apples and bananas, but since there is no iPhone X Plus, this is a worthwhile point.

The X’s screen may well be better quality — we’ll have to see how Apple’s first attempt at an OLED phone turns out, but I have high hopes for the panel itself. Obviously, there’s also no denying that the X makes far better use of available space; the iPhone 8 Plus’ chunky bezels are pretty anachronistic for a phone at this price in 2017. But I’m too used to the Plus layouts, and the accompanying information density, to go back to what’s often going to feel like a smaller phone in actual use.

All fair points.

The other point that Sam makes that struck home for me concerned availability:

Even if you’ve read all of the above and still want an iPhone X, good luck actually getting one. Supply chain reports suggest that Apple is only able to produce the device in alarmingly low quantities, meaning that you could be waiting for several months before you’re able to pick one up.

The use of the word “alarmingly” aside, the availability question is something to consider. Of course, we won’t know for sure until at least Friday.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Starting on Monday, October 23, iPhone Upgrade Program customers will be able to get a “head start” on the iPhone X pre-order process by getting pre-approved for an iPhone Upgrade Program loan.

If you are part of the iPhone Upgrade Program, this is worth a look, will get you through checkout that much quicker this Friday.

Here’s a link to the photo. I actually like the iPhone 8 design, but there’s no denying the extra screen real estate you get with the iPhone X, notch and all.

Read the article for Zach Epstein’s take on the photo.

Reuters:

Apple Inc’s older iPhone 7 models are outselling the recently launched iPhone 8 ahead of the early November debut of the premium iPhone X, broker KeyBanc Capital Markets said, citing carrier store surveys.

Traditionally, new editions of the iPhone have sold quickly as fans queue for the latest upgrade, but early surveys have added to chatter that the iPhone 8 is not proving as popular as its predecessors.

1. Not clear if this is true. These are not Apple’s numbers.
2. If true, not clear if the motivation is demand for the iPhone X dimming demand for the iPhone 8, or a statement about the relative perceived values of the iPhone 7 vs iPhone 8.

No matter, this is the first time Apple has created this type of choice for the iPhone consumer, pitching a next generation product at the same time (give or take a month) as a new product that extends an existing line.

Nikkei Asian Review:

A tech executive familiar with iPhone X production told Nikkei Asian Review on Thursday that manufacturers are still struggling to perfect 3-D sensors and in particular dot projectors in Apple premium handset’s TrueDepth camera system, though the person could not pinpoint exactly the problem.

And:

The executive’s comments were confirmed by Jeff Pu, an analyst with Taipei-based Yuanta Investment Consulting, who also identified the dot projector as the troublesome component holding back mass production of iPhone X.

Nonetheless, Pu stuck to his view voiced late September that iPhone X will enter mass production in mid-October and begin to be shipped from China in the third week of this month. He is, however, cutting his forecast of the volume of iPhone X that will be produced this year, from 40 million units to 36 million.

Is this much ado about nothing? If this is an actual problem and the issue is not resolved, will Apple push back the current preorder schedule (set for October 27th, just after midnight PDT)? That’s two weeks from today.

Keep your eye on this one.

The winning third party charger is about half the price of the Apple fast charger and just a bit slower.

Tim Cook famously said, “If you’ve ever seen what can be created on an iPhone or an iPad with that pencil, it’s really unbelievable.”

As soon as I heard those words, I thought it inevitable that we’d see Apple Pencil support for iPhone.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Of the 832 individuals surveyed, 28 percent said they plan to purchase iPhone X as their next smartphone. An additional 20 percent of respondents said they intend to buy iPhone 8 Plus, while 17 percent will go for iPhone 8.

Lots of intent numbers to process. Small survey size, but not hard to see this as representative.

Interesting to see how many people have their eye on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Frederic Filloux, Monday Note:

Access to superior image sensors, a giant entertainment library and the PlayStation ecosystem… By any measure, Apple acquiring Sony makes a lot of sense.

I’ve heard this argument floated before, but without the “access to superior image sensors” logic. Camera hardware is only becoming more important to Apple and iPhone over time. Interesting post.