I agree. It doesn't make sense for a device that gets shoved in pockets and bags and is being held in your hands, subject to errant touches. Once it wakes, anything could happen, especially if it unlocks in the future.
So I don't see Apple implementing this until they figure out a way to make this foolproof. However, the benefits of incorporating the wake/touch ID into the home screen and eliminating the Home button are understandable -- it frees up a lot of real estate to make the phone have a smaller footprint, as well as another moving part prone to failure. Perhaps touch ID could be moved to the camera area instead (though that's not as practical on the 6 series phones).
This is trivially easy to engineer around. First, it's a capacitive touchscreen; unless you're in the habit of carrying spare fingers in your pocket or bag, it's not going to get activated while it's just sitting there.
Second, they could ignore any touches that don't "look" like specific actions. This is probably exactly the reason Nokia went with double tap, but Apple could easily do it with e.g. a combination of accelerometer and touch data so they could use a single tap. Palm rejection is largely a solved problem.
I'm not sure which way to go on this one. There are benefits both ways, the problem with Touch to wake on an iPhone and maybe an iPad is that the screen is always being Touched as it moves around in your pocket. Doesn't seem like a battery friendly way to do things.
Probably some sort of pattern recognition: a "tap" being different in duration and locale than having something in your pocket contact the screen perhaps? They do this now with the keyboard, the keystroke isn't completed with just a "touch", that case to allow for typos to be aborted.
Though, yes, I'd probably keep it turned off most of the time (and so I'd like that in the control panel I can call up from the screen like Do Not Disturb, screen rotation lock etc.).
"After the iPad came out, many otherwise intelligent people admitted that they occasionally tried to touch the screen on their MacBook..."
After experiencing the then-new iPad at an Apple Store for all of five minutes, I then walked over to a MacBook Pro and proceeded to raise my hand to the screen to touch it in the same fashion. I was surprised that my entire way of thinking about computer interaction had changed.
I think the best thing is the investments into the trackpad technology.
I agree with Jobs that touching a laptop or desktop screen isn't very enjoyable, however cool and seemingly translatable. But the way Apple've been pumping R&D into touch surfaces, gesture control, and the direct interaction it takes within OS X is incomparable to any input method ever for a computer. I can't imagine using a touchscreen to work with a code editor, which means I would lose "gestuability" shortcuts I can currently use speed up my workflow. The trackpads in MacBooks (and Magic Trackpad) mean I can use those in tighter contexts.
One thing I'd welcome is the ability to turn the volume up or down using the volume buttons without having to unlock the phone. It's incredibly irritating having to do that, IMO.
"After the iPad came out, many otherwise intelligent people admitted that they occasionally tried to touch the screen on their MacBook, having become accustomed to fondling their operating system. "
don't get this at all. in fact I have a touchscreen windows 8 laptop and I forget that it HAS touch. I'll be browsing a site, point to something to show someone accidentally touch the screen and it's clicked a link or moved, or zoomed in, quite frustrating imho. luckily I don't use the laptop much. where I did (and still do) fail is switching between android phones and iphones, on android I'll go to press the non-existant home button to switch apps etc. then when switching back to iphone after a while I'll attempt to press BACK next to the home button lol
The video that you linked to in this sentence, "Jailbreakers have already done it", promotes piracy. I recommend linking to another video such as this: or
Comments
I agree. It doesn't make sense for a device that gets shoved in pockets and bags and is being held in your hands, subject to errant touches. Once it wakes, anything could happen, especially if it unlocks in the future.
So I don't see Apple implementing this until they figure out a way to make this foolproof. However, the benefits of incorporating the wake/touch ID into the home screen and eliminating the Home button are understandable -- it frees up a lot of real estate to make the phone have a smaller footprint, as well as another moving part prone to failure. Perhaps touch ID could be moved to the camera area instead (though that's not as practical on the 6 series phones).
This is trivially easy to engineer around. First, it's a capacitive touchscreen; unless you're in the habit of carrying spare fingers in your pocket or bag, it's not going to get activated while it's just sitting there.
Second, they could ignore any touches that don't "look" like specific actions. This is probably exactly the reason Nokia went with double tap, but Apple could easily do it with e.g. a combination of accelerometer and touch data so they could use a single tap. Palm rejection is largely a solved problem.
I'm not sure which way to go on this one. There are benefits both ways, the problem with Touch to wake on an iPhone and maybe an iPad is that the screen is always being Touched as it moves around in your pocket. Doesn't seem like a battery friendly way to do things.
Probably some sort of pattern recognition: a "tap" being different in duration and locale than having something in your pocket contact the screen perhaps? They do this now with the keyboard, the keystroke isn't completed with just a "touch", that case to allow for typos to be aborted.
Though, yes, I'd probably keep it turned off most of the time (and so I'd like that in the control panel I can call up from the screen like Do Not Disturb, screen rotation lock etc.).
Guess I should have clarified.. Being able to adjust RINGER volume with the volume buttons when locked.
"After the iPad came out, many otherwise intelligent people admitted that they occasionally tried to touch the screen on their MacBook..."
After experiencing the then-new iPad at an Apple Store for all of five minutes, I then walked over to a MacBook Pro and proceeded to raise my hand to the screen to touch it in the same fashion. I was surprised that my entire way of thinking about computer interaction had changed.
I think the best thing is the investments into the trackpad technology.
I agree with Jobs that touching a laptop or desktop screen isn't very enjoyable, however cool and seemingly translatable. But the way Apple've been pumping R&D into touch surfaces, gesture control, and the direct interaction it takes within OS X is incomparable to any input method ever for a computer. I can't imagine using a touchscreen to work with a code editor, which means I would lose "gestuability" shortcuts I can currently use speed up my workflow. The trackpads in MacBooks (and Magic Trackpad) mean I can use those in tighter contexts.
Huh? You can already do that.
"After the iPad came out, many otherwise intelligent people admitted that they occasionally tried to touch the screen on their MacBook, having become accustomed to fondling their operating system. "
don't get this at all. in fact I have a touchscreen windows 8 laptop and I forget that it HAS touch. I'll be browsing a site, point to something to show someone accidentally touch the screen and it's clicked a link or moved, or zoomed in, quite frustrating imho. luckily I don't use the laptop much. where I did (and still do) fail is switching between android phones and iphones, on android I'll go to press the non-existant home button to switch apps etc. then when switching back to iphone after a while I'll attempt to press BACK next to the home button lol