New iOS Gestures Point To Death Of The Physical Button

techcrunch.com

6 points·iamclovin··4 comments

I think the real value of getting rid of the physical button is just the increase of screen real estate.

There's a heck of a lot of potential retina pixels around that home button down there.

A gesture can probably be used to replace the functionality of quickly snapping back to the home screen, taking a screen shot of resetting the phone, but I still kind of like the idea that it's an explicit operation, rather than hoping the phone interprets my gestures correctly(especially when it might be experiencing a problem.)

That said, I'm not opposed to the idea, extra screen real estate wouldn't be a bad thing. The author correctly brings up phone orientation when removing from your pocket/holder. Will I have to look for the ear speaker now?

Near the end, the article touches on the fact that orientation matters for the phone part, but not the software - part of me wonders if even that is necessary.

Would it be too hard to install two microphones and two earpiece speakers in the thing? I imagine they'd also have to have some kind of weird aerial switching as well, though, as traditionally those are always at the one end; I seem to remember it was to pass regulations.

I like the idea of being able to use the phone in either orientation, but it just seems like it'd be jamming in redundant hardware into precious space with no extra benefit.

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