iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more
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- This is an issue of Apple's own artificial creation.
- This doesn't even solve the issue.
So this all started because Face Unlock didn't work with masks, that's not Apple's fault. But what is entirely Apple's fault is that they break an option which resolves this only when Face Unlock is enabled: "Require Passcode."
When you disable Face Unlock you can set Require Passcode to e.g. 15 minutes/1 hr, and it largely mitigates the aggressiveness by which your iPhone re-locks itself while you're e.g. out grocery shopping in a mask and trying to use a shopping list. But when you enable Face Unlock this option is removed (forced to "Require Immediately").
So Apple enforces "Require Immediately" in Require Passcode, it blows up in their face, and then instead of backing down when masks broke Face Unlock, they instead over-engineer a solution where you have to buy an Apple Watch to work around it.
Their new work-around solution doubles down on exactly the same anti-choice problems discussed above because they forget to mention in this press release that you MUST enable a passcode on your Apple Watch to use this feature at all (and they're relying on the Apple Watch being less aggressive to re-lock than the iPhone).
If you jailbreak your iPhone you can just switch it from "Require Immediately" to e.g. 30 minutes and this mask issue is almost completely gone in one fell swoop. This Apple Watch fix only kinda works (e.g. lost connection to the watch = relock, Watch thinks it is off your wrist = relock, etc).
If a mask is on the tip of my nose and loose fitting, it seems to work.
What exactly is the reason/rationale that it has to fail on facial recognition first before proceeding to use passcode?
C O U R A G E
Joke aside, it seems that Face ID was a tremendous technical effort so you could have instant access to your phone. Besides unlocking, there's no other serious application (memojis aside). The fingerprint reader was probably removed just to prop acceptance of Face ID. Also, Face ID is less secure. If you're detained or mugged, just looking at your phone will unlock it before you can react and look away.
IMO, the 3D scanner should be on the other side, enhancing your pictures with 3D depth.
That's what the LIDAR sensor on the latest phones is for. It only gets used in photos for the portrait-mode stuff, admittedly.
Portrait mode is Apple-speak for pseudo-depth-of-field, which is the effect that real cameras do that make the subject in focus but the background blurry.
It makes photos look way more professional.
Much easier to force someone to unlock the phone with their fingerprint than to force them to unlock with faceid if you have “Require attention” on.
You can’t physically force someone to look in a certain direction, but you definitely can force them to tap their finger on a surface.
* If you're concerned about someone who can see you typing, a biometric is better because they have far fewer chances to watch you — especially if you don't reboot outside of your home.
* If you're concerned about actual adoption, a biometric is better because you remove the constant frictional password entry cost which causes a large fraction of users to use short, easily-entered passwords.
* If you're concerned about someone who has enough access to construct a usable fingerprint / face facsimile but can't coerce you into providing a password or shoulder-surf it with a drone, a long password is better.
Excuse me, but this is ridiculously easier than forcing someone to use their fingerprint; just wait until they are distracted, show them the phone and ask them "what is this?". It unlocks in less than a second with "Require Attention" activated. We prank each other this way when we forget our phones around the house.
By the "they can just use violence" logic, no computer is secure and we should throw them all into the ocean. Security can improve the intermediate cases- focusing solely on the worst case is unproductive.
As far as hypothetical situations go, I prefer this over them cutting off my finger.
More seriously, in a situation where I'm detained or mugged, there will be a lot of external factors which are pushing me to unlock my phone, be it via passcode or biometrics.
FWIW, "SOS mode" (holding the power and volume up buttons) will purge information needed for biometrics to work and mandate a PIN on both TouchID and FaceID devices.
To better train the facial recognition system, perhaps.
If I have a mask on, swiping up immediately brings up the pass code screen. In this case immediately is <0.5 secs.
FWIW I have a new Apple Watch and have this issue. I just installed the update so I haven't tested the Watch authentication. If it can't detect a mask I'll have the same issue as before waiting for a number pad.
I always enable this when setting up an iPhone for a parent (or myself).
Personally, I'm getting the passcode prompt in less than 1 second.
Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if significant percent of users actually checks their phone at least one in 15 minutes. This would mean that their phones would be at unlocked almost all the time.
- When Face Unlock is enabled the iPhone doesn't take 15 minutes to re-lock. That's what is being requested, not what we have. 15 minutes would be much longer than the status quo.
Right you are, but for a different reason: Face masks entirely break Apple Pay. If you have an Apple Watch, lucky you, you can use the watch to pay instead. If you don’t? Well, tough luck.
Unlock with Watch apparently does not work with Apple Pay.
/e: Wasn’t aware of activating Pay using the code. Oops. :D
1. https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/pub...
I might be misunderstanding you, and it’s far from ideal, but you can still use your passcode - I do it all the time.
I find Apple Pay so much easier to use with the Watch that I never can remember how to use it on the phone.
Apple reached phone perfection with the iPhone 4; they reached access perfection with touchID. Things have gotten worse since then.
I usually only replace phones when the battery starts going. But I'm thinking of getting the SE anyway, just in case it isn't available when this one (X) finally goes.
I bought a aftermarket headset lightning adapter. Wireless charging largely eliminated my complaints about charging. Fast charging with an 18w brick is great as well!
I only miss Touch ID when wearing a mask. Face ID is otherwise so much more reliable and fast.
Thank you, I tell people that I liked developing on that platform and the only reason I still don't is because XCode no longer supports it and I get critized like I'm a luddite.
It's a phone, you can't do a lot more on device other than add new sensors and new networking technology... it's like buying a new car because it has a 2021 instead of a 2020, it hasn't changed that much....
I still use an SE to control a few things around the house. Without a SIM, with the mobile radios and bluetooth disabled but wifi enabled, and with Apple's idiotic News app that nobody wants disabled, the battery lasts for 20 days. Peak iPhone.
FaceID is perfect.
Also, these are not “extreme” or “dire” or even uncommon conditions - most of Northern Europe, Canada, and the north-eastern USA experience several months of such conditions every year.
The touchID on my new MacBook Pro is extremely useful. Trained on right index finger.
If you support just one with the other disabled, it is wasted hardware/space in a device with extremely limited size/cost budget. If you require both, you haven't fixed the usability issues.
FaceID works better when your hands are dirty or unavailable (e.g. you're wearing gloves), TouchID works better when your face is covered or your look changed slightly[0].
FaceID has been a strict downgrade for me, there are very few situations where FaceID works and TouchID wouldn't have, the reverse is a daily occurrence. And things would be even worse if I couldn't work from home, as TouchID works just fine with a mask.
[0] in bed without my glasses FaceID works 0% of the time, even resetting the entire thing and re-registering my face with and without glasses, it works all of 2 days before it stops recognising me without glasses.
1. hold the phone far enough away from my face for faceid to work, and
2. focus my eyes on the screen
FaceID has been quite good other than the masks issue. I just wish Apple would allow a grace period for rechecking auth.
Apple doesn't always succeed with picking the ideal middle point between too few and too many choices (most frequently, it's skewed towards the 'too few' side) however.
In all fairness, I believe they require you to set a passcode on your watch if you use it for Apple Pay. And, honestly, especially right now--while I don't always use my watch to pay mostly because the Magsafe wallet makes pulling out a card very easy--it's pretty convenient.
When you refer to the Apple Watch being “less aggressive to re-lock,” you’re really overselling it. The Watch does not re-lock for the entire time it’s on your wrist after you first unlock it (which you can do with FaceID on your phone). I go weeks without typing a passcode on my Watch.
My face unlock works fine with sunglasses. If it detects a mask could it fall back to judging the remainder more thoroughly?
It such a shame that apple are good at removing useful features rather than just adding them.
This new Watch feature is great for people like me who are paranoid about punching in my passcode in front of a shop full of cameras and strangers, but it's a nice-to-have feature not a "required" feature as some of the above comments seem to complain it is.
Having used it for several weeks, this feature elegantly solves the issue.
Well, marketers and advertisers want to be able to tell if the purchase is attributable.
Everyday folks typically either don't care or would actively prefer not to be tracked in this way.
Apple could have thrown a bone to folks and just allowed passing url parameters or similar through the App Store links to the app after it’s installed. No third party needs to get the data and advertisers get to actually know ROI like they do with the rest of the web.
Alternatively I’d love if Apple actually took a stance against data aggregation. Take on the actual creepy corps like LexisNexis or Experian or Transunion. Interest tracking is peanuts by comparison. Not to say we shouldn’t start somewhere, but I hope tracking transparency doesn’t end here.
I thought they already allowed this through deferred deep linking?
I mean, they're certainly not robots or aliens, so what're they other than more folks? (Not that robots or aliens wouldn't also just be folks...)
Apple is really great at marketing.
Once they figure it out, their story will change very quickly. It’s naive to think that sending data to other huge company is proper solution.
CEOs are easily replaceable when business slows down. Especially if you aren’t rockstar founder, with majority of voting rights, and just a very effective administrator.
Apple's clients are much more directly the users. Their financials seem to make it clear that they are way more profitable from user-oriented products and services than anything they could return on data processing and sale to advertisers or worse. They "couldn't figure it out", because they don't need to squeeze any lemons, they have far better things to sell than lemonade. (It's Google that looks far more undiversified beyond their single lame lemonade stand, and way more at risk if advertisers get bored of the taste of lemonade.)
And Google's has brought in a lot of revenue from Hardware, Cloud, etc.: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121492/google-hardware-m...
I think thinking of them as one dimensional companies is overly simplified.
I wish they had an external version of it, e.g. an apple keyboard with touchID or support for generic webcams for FaceID so it'd work when docked, etc.
So it's coming, just slowly.
FaceID surely won't ever work with webcams however -- it uses a custom-built depth sensor separate from the camera.
iMacs could absolutely have the entire camera module, depth sensor included. Things would be rather more complicated for the laptops, the cover is thinner than an iPhone. Though obviously not as bad as the protruding back cameras, the front cameras module is still rather deep and would likely require increasing the depth of the cover to fit flush.
Surely Apple could release a FaceID-compatible USB webcam if they wished. It's probably less likely for them to FaceID certify third party hardware, though.
(That said, I think Apple's other excuse for not supporting FaceID on more hardware is it uses the ML capabilities of some of their mobile A* chipsets. Maybe another thing they might claim can only be done with M1+ macOS.)
Makes using my laptop docked way more enjoyable.
https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-mac-with-a...
I don't have a problem with either options, but I do think touch ID was slightly faster.
Can you unlock your phone without moving it in front of your face? I can, if it’s sitting across my desk I can unlock it without picking it up or moving my head towards it. I do this regularly.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten how many usability compromises you’ve made in using Face ID, but I guarantee it’s slower.
Counterpoint: with Face ID, if my phone is facing me I can interact with it just by looking in its direction.
Got a message while I'm at my desk? I look at it, it unlocks and shows me the notification. Cooking and a timer goes off? I look at it, it lowers the volume of the alarm.
Everything has trade-offs and different people use stuff in different ways, but I personally prefer Face ID to Touch ID.
at least with a fingerprint reader you can choose to glance at the lockscreen messages first before unlocking
I keep notification contents hidden while the phone is locked anyway, so I'd need to authenticate before it shows me the message in either case.
Cooking with TouchID is an exercise in frustration.
Ideally I'd like them to be able to combine auth mechanisms but we can't have everything.
Built into the screen is by far superior of all. The worst is at the back, with power button at the side not far from it.
Have they fixed it?
If people think that Face ID is inaccurate, then they clearly haven't used under-screen readers. They're slow, unreliable, and imprecise.
It's especially draining when every first interaction with the phone is essentially "Are my fingers too sweaty? oily? Did I tap long enough? Did I press hard enough? Too hard? Did I even tap the right place? Screw it I'll just enter my PIN".
For now. I'd wager in the next year or two we will see TouchID in the power button or under the screen. Are there Android phones with this tech already? Yes, you can almost always count on Android phones to have new types of tech before Apple but in my experience Apple's version is much more polished/solid/secure as whole. Android had "Face unlock" for at least a year or two before Apple but it was total crap. I had a coworker who had it and he ended up turning it off because it was so buggy/unreliable. FaceID for me had been pretty rock solid and I'm very happy with it. I'll be happier with a TouchID backup but I'm more than willing to wait for a secure and seamless version and not something rushed to market.
Not really true in the case of TouchID though. Sure other things had fingerprint scanners before iPhone but they sucked hard.
https://www.samsung.com/ph/support/mobile-devices/can-you-un...
So I assume both can be tricked but one is a little better.
The main use case for phone locking is that you leave your phone in a cab, a bar or wherever else in public and someone picks it up later. That person isn't going to know who you are and have a picture of you. They're still prevented from being able to take the phone they just saw laying around and go through your emails, etc.
No room on the front - fine, but under the screen readers have been improving a ton and I'm sure Apple could figure out something.
Don't want the sensor on the back - I don't understand this. Why not? It works for other devices, and they could even make the Apple logo into a reader to be discreet.
I don't think it's crazy when one considers that Samsung will put that stuff on a phone, and whether it works or not is the customer's problem. We've forgotten Samsung's earlier "face unlock" attempts, haven't we? I haven't, it was bad enough to be one of the major factors in getting me to quit using Samsung phones (and Android in general). So to argue "well, Samsung does it", meh, maybe Samsung does, maybe Samsung lets the person that stole my phone unlock that phone with my photo.
Apple is the gatekeeper and Facebook can't do anything about it. Their dominant revenue stream is about to be strangled.
I think Zuckerberg realizes he is screwed in the long run, and only his bet on VR with Oculus will save him.
Antitrust. As much as I applaud Apple here- isn't this just more proof they they abuse their position?
And don't get me started on choice. It's a step in the right direction but Apple doesn't give a shit about choice or they'd allow multiple App stores, side loading, browsers, etc. They wouldn't be fighting with repair shops.
So are you saying it's time to make popcorn and watch the ensuing mayhem?
Sorry, it won't.
I have really poor timing, and upgraded from a Google Pixel 2 to an iPhone with face id (and no touch id)just before the pandemic. Now I have to type my passcode to unlock whenever I'm wearing a mask because I have a Garmin watch and won't consider downgrading to an Apple watch. The Garmin watch kept my Pixel unlocked for me since it was a trusted bluetooth device.
I don’t have an Apple Watch, and am running 14.4.2.
Depending on how either is implemented I could see it getting "used" to a masked face with enough samples. The question for me is if this makes it more susceptible to false positives, e.g. unlocking for people other than the owner wearing a mask.
Other than battery life, the excellent app WorkoutOutDoors roughly replicates the workout functionality of Garmin watches for $10, but with arguably better maps. A feel like I need to mention it when there‘s an opportunity because the solo developer behind it is doing such great work.
Also some very useful features like backing up the on-watch settings, allowing you to restore them if you ever have to reset your Watch.
The Garmin I have is 3 years old and still going strong.
Another neat feature was/is "trusted location", where your phone would remain unlocked while at home, for example. I used to have this enabled, but unfortunately the option disappeared after an update on my Xiaomi phone a whole back :(
Anyone knows if Safari in 14.5 is equivalent to a specific Technology Preview release?
https://developer.apple.com/safari/technology-preview/releas...
I would have more respect for Apple if they just came out and said it, but the fact they haven't mentioned it at all, is just cowardly.
As an aside - earlier betas didn't seem to like various colored masks in my experience (turquoise being the main one) - which seemed to be fixed in later versions.
For context: worked at a COVID-19 Testing/Vaccination site - mask on more hours than not each 24... I _LOVE_ this feature still.
As others have mentioned Facebook must be worries as their main (only?) revenue stream via ads could now lose significant appeal to marketers.
Could Facebook pivot to a product company and release a fantastic VR/AR device to lure gen z away from iPhones? A Facebook glass? It’ll be interesting to follow their hiring for VR related jobs
[0] https://www.gadgetish.com/osx.html
Edit:
However, the Windows version works only with Android phones: https://www.gadgetish.com
Clicked allow updates.
Crashes every time I open. Displays check for updates screen, then immediately crashes.
It seems there is an incompatibility with Big Sur in the Sparkle Framework (I use it for updates).
Will look into it.
I had resigned to thinking they got screwed with bad hardware from qualcomm
ehhhh there was a lot of uncertainty around that. they just said a future update and it wasn't on time.
I had my doubts and other people had their doubts, dual sim modes have been neglected for some time and there are still several limitations in iOS that make it seem like its not much of a priority.
until the last few incremental updates you can tell from Apple's own communications on their forums that they thought of Dual Sim as more of a temporary traveller's use case, with them popping in a local sim card in different countries here and there. As opposed to someone that doesn't want to bother with two phones (or a handicapped VoIP number that also wouldn't have an iCloud account) and just always has two numbers in the same country. They are catching on, but the skepticism is there and they are incrementally fixing it successfully.
> 5G Auto: Enables Smart Data mode. When 5G speeds don’t provide a noticeably better experience, your iPhone automatically switches to LTE, saving battery life.
Having used an iPhone 12 in an area with 5G service, I haven’t yet noticed the phone reporting LTE speeds, but given the way the statement above is worded (‘noticeably better’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting), I wouldn’t be surprised if the phone is mostly on LTE when it’s sitting idle or when I’m doing something like web browsing or music streaming that’s otherwise well within the capabilities of an LTE network.
With winter dry skin (and/or light abrasion from woodworking projects), I can't even unlock the phones at all.
Fingerprint reader in the back of the phone is one of the most ergonomic designs IMO, there's no need for it to be under-screen, I suggested it because Apple favors minimalist design.
Anyway, where is that famous new setting? Nothing seems changed to me under “Privacy”?
Edit: I see iOS is still good at autocorrecting after I press “send”. Absolutely maddening.
> famous new setting
Privacy -> Tracking
Edit: yeah I’m quite positive it was.
It stayed off after the update for me.
> ...and the ability to unlock your iPhone using Face ID while wearing a face mask.
Unlocking the iPhone with Face ID during the pandemic has been an exercise in frustration...
!
/s
Edit: 5 minutes and already got the first downvote
Wtf? What possible benefit does this have? Securing your phone against people who stole it (and your watch) but aren't willing to put on a mask?
If Face ID can't detect anything when a user wears a mask then I completely agree with you. It seems really silly to require the mask in order for the watch unlock to work. I don't understand the security model there.
Oh, wow. I'm usually aware of Apple's new offerings, and I completely missed that there's a "waterproof" version of the iPhone X available. I just have the regular water resistant version.
People just leave you out of group chats if you don't have an iPhone now because building a decent chat application for iOS is too fucking hard.
If not, then I applaud you. If you do, but keep notifications off, that's kinda respectable too.
But I'm guessing you do get a notification when you get a new text message, chat message or email.
Why should only native apps, that go through a dictatorship approval process from Apple, be allowed to send you notifications.
Of course, you should always be able to say "No" to a site or app sending you notifications. This is the case on Android, as could be the case on Apple.
Progress Web Apps are opening up the potential for developers to spend less time on the *worst* development platforms (xcode and android studio), and more time on their product.
That being said, it would be cool if an app could not "force" notifications to be allowed. Like, you could choose "Allow", "Deny" or "Hide" which would trick the app into thinking you had allowed notifications, but then just not show them.
It would stop bad advert behaviour. Although, on Android, I have never seen this be abused (yet).
I hard disable the permission to ask me for push notification permissions on every browser I can, because under no circumstances do I want a website to send me a push notification. Ever.
This does however show an interesting trade-off of SwiftUI: by being a more abstract definition of a view hierarchy, they can change out implementations more easily than before to further optimise in each OS release.
I'm hoping that they're essentially going down the route of rendering SwiftUI directly to Metal, their graphics API, as I'd expect that to be much faster and less energy intensive.
I don't know how good you're at knowing how fast you're going. When the margin's that tight, you're going to either be very rich with a Tesla that's going below the speed. Or quite rich with a car like BMW that lets you set top speed. Or you're just going to go slow. like 10km/hr slower especially if you can't afford it.
The knock on effect was ridiculous. The trip took longer, and the amount of road rage witnessed on a daily basis was quite visible, wasn't a happy period for sure.
Next time don’t speed.
It also only enables unlock and not other features that require face id
Me too. So I made a program that does exactly that: https://www.gadgetish.com/osx.html
It also works with Android phones, Android Wear watches, Tizen (Samsung) watches, ... even some earbuds or smart tags.
You made a fair and necessary question but I'd be embarrassed to even think about storing the password on disk, even if encrypted.
Or even disable the lock screen altogether but require it for certain apps.
It does not do a "partial scan" of your eyes and forehead. It just detects a mask and triggers the Apple Watch unlock.
It's not like it fails, it literally never even tries to use the watch, goes directly to normal faceid.
Gone are the times when apple software would just work...
Managed to make it work. I usually don't put the mask over my nose as, having glasses, makes them all foggy and I can't see anything (protip: I don't care about how effective that is, the mask for me is just the minimum to confirm to current regulations).
Seems that faceID is really anal about the mask being OVER the nose before it's recognized as a mask! This is why it wouldn't work before.
So if you're having problems, be sure to wear a mask as apple expect you to.
As a result, although my watch has a passcode i almost never type it in. It's easier to put on my watch and then unlock my phone.
I do want to look the manager who decided that in the eye. What serious attack vector is this supposed to close? Somebody sawing your hand off and unlocking your phone? You have much bigger problems then.
Worked just fine!