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iOS 12 developer beta points to bezel-less iPad with Face ID
Last year, early iOS leaks gave us a preview of the eventual iPhone X and some details on Apple's HomePod speaker. Now, 9to5Mac points out an icon in the iOS 12 developer beta that seems to show an iPad design with tiny bezels all around and missing the home button. Separately, code for accessibility features shows evidence of Face ID support in an upcoming iPad Pro likely scheduled for release this fall. The image doesn't show an iPhone X-like notch, so presumably new iPads would manage to squeeze a TrueDepth camera into the remaining bezel. With iPad sales remaining flat compared to last year, it seems likely that we'll see new devices soon, and now we have some idea at least of what they'll look like.
The iPhone 8 reportedly swaps the home button for gesture controls
The folks over at Bloomberg got their hands on some images of the next iPhone as well as some information from people familiar with the new model. Some of the features confirmed in their report were already known or at least heavily suspected, but there are also some new details about how the phone will function without the home button.
Your face might do more than just unlock the new iPhone
Apple's latest secret leak was from its own documentation -- and it's given plenty for developers to chew over. The latest code snippets shared by Guilherme Rambo and Steve Troughton-Smith offer all kinds of tantalising details that may (almost certainly) come with that new iPhone -- whichever model that may be. Not only are there further suggestions that the physical Home button will be ditched, but according to Troughton-Smith, some pointers inside the firmware for Apple's incoming HomePod suggest that a new iPhone could have a screen with a resolution far beyond that found existing models, as well as mentions of facial expression detection.
The Galaxy S8's home button shifts to prevent screen burn
Screensavers were originally a way to prevent burn-in on older CRT monitors. The now-classic moving images in early operating systems were created to keep any single pixel on the screen from remaining in place for too long, leaving behind a ghost on the display. Modern screens like the OLED ones on Samsung's Galaxy S8 can also suffer from burn-in. Since the new flagship's Home button is virtual now, the company had to do something to prevent it from getting burned in to your display. The solution? Moving the Home button image around a little bit.
Here's Apple's workaround when your iPhone 7 home button fails
The iPhone 7's non-moving home button may feel odd at first, but it has its perks... especially if it ever stops working. MacRumors forum goer iwayne has shown that the new iPhone will give you an on-screen home button (along with a warning that you may need repairs) if it thinks the physical key is broken. While that's not much consolation if your phone needs to be fixed, it does mean that you can keep using your device in a relatively normal way while you're waiting for your Genius Bar appointment.
Apple files patent for app access on lockscreen
Apple has filed a patent for something I would love to see implemented in a future iOS update: Quick access to certain apps directly from the iPhone's lockscreen. Patently Apple says that the patent application outlines a system of rotating the "slide to unlock" slider on iOS' lockscreen upwards, and then providing access to a number of apps directly, without having to unlock the phone and find the apps on the home screen. I could not love this idea more. I think one of iOS' biggest weaknesses is the home screen's lack of actual functionality. Apple has taken half measures by providing direct access to the camera app and a better implementation of the Notification Center, but most of the lockscreen is wasted space. There's almost no way to add information and functionality you want. It's a major loss, especially when you consider how Apple's competitors have handled things. Obviously Apple wants a good-looking way to do it, and I respect that. But this idea definitely seems like it offers some good possibilities. According to Apple's patent, the sliding display would feature a touch-sensitive home button, and the way you'd get access to these apps would be to enter some specific combination of gestures on that button directly. Of course, like all of the patents we see come out of Apple, there's no guarantee that this will ever be implemented in this way. But man, I'd definitely like to see more functionality on my iPhone's lockscreen, however it's put together.
How to fix an iPhone 4 Home button, Sprint or Verizon
I've never had problems with the home button on my Verizon iPhone, but if you do, you should check out this repair post from iMore's Allyson Kazmucha. Kazmucha, who founded the repair company PXLFIX, shows you how to remove the back cover, disassemble the internal components and pull out the home button on your CDMA iPhone. It's not an easy process as you have to dig through the battery and the logic board to get to the home button. The iMore post has detailed images, which should reduce your chance of making a costly mistake. As always, if you do decide to take apart your iPhone, proceed at your own risk.
BubCap is the TUAW Best of 2011 iPad accessory
Sometimes it's the little things that count. In our nominations for the best iPad accessories, several readers raved about BubCaps. These inexpensive little Home button covers (4 for US$5) hide the iPad or iPhone Home button to keep your kids from switching to another app and doing something fun like deleting all of your contacts or calling your boss. Apparently, a lot of parents need and use BubCaps, as they topped the reader voting in our TUAW Best of 2011 iPad accessory category. Our resident alpha geekette and mom of three, Erica Sadun, wrote a review of the BubCap solution back in June of 2011. As she notes, each BubCap is a separate sticker that comes in one of three levels of rigidity -- the more rigid, the more difficult it is for tiny fingers to press that Home button. The BubCaps are removable and reusable, and do the job they're designed to do. TUAW readers responded by giving BubCap 46.2 percent of the total votes in this category. Congratulations to Rob Mitchell of Paperclip Robot for winning the TUAW Best of 2011 award for the BubCap and for saving a lot of iPad-owning parents from embarrassment and/or data loss!
Meizu MX resurfaces, home button gets a nip-and-tuck, turns into optical trackpad?
It's been a while since we've seen the Meizu MX, but these latest shots from Mr. Blurrycam reveal that the phone could see a substantial tweak to its main home button. These photos are likely to be of a work-in-progress handset, with plenty of bizarre cutaways presumably obscuring details of the mole. In the leaked drawings, Meizu's upcoming smartphone looked an awful lot like its M9 predecessor, albeit with a bigger screen, running on a superior A9 Cortex processor. The main button apparently doubles as an optical trackpad, with the two flanking capacitive buttons rotating depending on orientation. While it still remains uncertain whether this nub will replace the squarish button found on the MX mock-up earlier this year, hopefully CEO Jack Wong will still manage to meet the December launch date -- if only for the sake of all those loyal Mei-yo. Fans of severely obscured photography can catch another glimpse after the break.
iPod touch prototype with capacitive home button leaked?
Ah, would you look at that. Earlier this year there were rumors about Apple ditching the physical home button on upcoming iOS devices, and now we have what appears to be a new iPod touch prototype matching such description, courtesy of CrunchGear via Mr. Blurrycam. According to its About screen, this "DVT-1" (a late milestone) device packs 128GB of memory -- twice as much as the largest available capacity option right now (remember that 64GB iPhone 4 prototype in Hong Kong?) -- as well as a model number "MC550LL" which isn't far off from those of the fourth-gen iPod touches ("MC54xLL"), though this similarity doesn't help prove its authenticity nor indicate whether it'll make it to the market. Still, if Apple does go ahead with this grubby device or at least its capacitive home button, we might see new touch or gesture controls for the bezel area below the screen à la webOS, as suggested by an earlier patent. But hey, let's not take this too seriously for now -- all this could turn out to be just a much belated April Fools' prank, right?
Found Footage: Clearing the way for the iPhone 3G
Watch this video at your own risk ... it truly is painful to watch as this iPhone gets a bullet right through the home button. I can't help but think if there was a much more humane way of getting rid of an old iPhone. Online auction sites or maybe an online classified ads site might be nice. Hmm ... yeah, if only those existed. On an iPhone? Click this link to watch the YouTube video.Thanks, Det!
