Comment by hungerstrike | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hungerstrike | Hacker News Reader

Face ID is going to be a monumental failure. It's going to annoy everybody who likes things to happen fast all the time because Face ID will definitely cause a delay and frustrate every user at some point.

Here are quotes from 2 of the very first reviews of this device:

"I will admit I have not tried Face ID yet, but it's hard to imagine a facial recognition system that solves the problem of having to carefully aim a phone at your face." - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/face-id-on-the-iphon... "[Face ID] worked the vast majority of times I tried it"... (NOTE: Not ALL the time) - and "...it’s definitely faster than the first generation of Touch ID, though perhaps slightly slower than the second gen." - https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/31/review-the-iphone-x-goes-t...

And while everyone is holding their breath to see if Face ID works, I can see a bigger problem - The lack of a home button is probably the worst design decision. They should have gone with dedicated virtual home button or better yet, stick with the iPhone 7 style home button. iOS 10 and 11 already has too many problems distinguishing between "global gestures" and "application gestures". Half the time when I start scrolling near the bottom of the screen the control center shows up. I'm looking forward to Apple's time being over. They are already obviously struggling to keep their market share because they can't come up with innovations that people actually want.

"It's going to annoy everybody who likes things to happen fast all the time because Face ID will definitely cause a delay and frustrate every user at some point."

It doesn't. FaceID is faster and as reliable as TouchID was for me. Not to mention, with winter coming, have you tried using TouchID with cold fingers? Spoiler alert: it mostly fails.

"The lack of a home button is probably the worst design decision."

Disagree. App switching is faster than ever, the new gestures stick after ~30 minutes of use, unlocking my phone takes less time.

"Half the time when I start scrolling near the bottom of the screen the control center shows up."

The control center isn't accessed by swiping up on iPhone X, it's accessed by swiping down from the upper right "ear" of the screen. So this is a non-starter.

Source: I've been using my iPhone X with FaceID since Friday afternoon, iPhone user since 2008.

Every time anyone says Apple is going downhill, they have their best quarter ever.

Face ID is actually ridiculously good at recognizing my face. I haven't made any conscious effort to adjust how I look at my phone, which is usually just me lounging back in a big chair with it near my lap. That's terrible posture I know.

I think I've only had to readjust it once or twice, and it is for milliseconds.

Plus, the home bar is really like a virtual home button that you just have to swipe up for instead of pressing down.

> I will admit I have not tried Face ID yet

Sounds like a solid review!

I tried it... Over 5 years ago on Android.

Huh, I didn't realize that Android also has an exact, functional clone of FaceID–and not only that, but 5 years ago? Don't you think that in 5 years, Apple may have improved the technology to actually work?

Not even remotely the same thing. Android's version of facial recognition could be fooled by a photo. Face ID is so good that people have to argue over whether or not identical twins being able to trigger it is less secure than Touch ID.

Well, at least you are aware of your bias in your approach to FaceID.

I use and like fingerprint unlock, which is what 60% successful? If face is better than that, then it's an improvement. I can't imagine it's worse.

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