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Comment by tiffanyh | Hacker News Reader

FaceID

There's folks in this thread talking about why FaceID is lacking from this display given there is presumably just an iPhone 11 logic board in this display and I think they are missing the bigger picture here. I'm not certain FaceID will ever come to a non-iOS device, here's why...

With your iPhone/iPad - the OS knows you want to be authenticated because you pick up the device and the device uses that pickup/accelerometer to indicate when to trigger FaceID.

But on your laptop or Studio Display, they are stationary devices while in use. So what would macOS use to trigger when FaceID should be initiated? If the trigger event is you pushing a key on your keyboard, then how is that any better than you pushing the TouchID button?

EDIT: as a total aside, I still don't understand why my biometric is my "password". Shouldn't my biometric be my "username".

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I don't think this argument makes much sense. Windows Hello has logged me in by face for years on my Surface Pro. It works well, and there's no onerous trigger or precise button-pushing needed. Sit down, tap the mouse/keyboard any way you like, and you're logged in.

> Sit down, tap the keyboard ... and you're logged in

How is that a better experience than on macOS where you "Sit down, tap the [touchID] key ... and you're logged in"?

Not wanting to sound argumentative, just playing devils advocate.

How is that a better experience than on macOS where you "Sit down, tap the [touchID] key ... and you're logged in"?

One concrete example. When working at my desk I have my MacBook plugged into a screen/keyboard/mouse and stashed away to the side with the lid closed. In this state the touchID key is not accessible and so touchID cannot be used. While Windows Hello works with the webcam I have over my screen.

Tapping a specific key is quite different to just pushing the mouse sideways without looking.

> With your iPhone/iPad - the OS knows you want to be authenticated because you pick up the device and the device uses that pickup/accelerometer to indicate when to trigger FaceID.

Actually, this description is not quite accurate. The phone doesn’t depend on the accelerometer alone. Keep your iPhone on a desk or table and just peek over it (from above) to have it unlock. The trigger here could be a touch on the display to wake it up, or a notification that turns on the display and your face happens to be above it (or close enough with you looking at it if attention is turned on) to unlock and show the notification details (if setup that way). It’s the display turning on that’s a major trigger to keep FaceID ready to go.

The larger reason why FaceID may not make it to Macs is because they’re or could usually be shared devices, whereas iPhones and iPads are usually personal devices attached to one user account (I don’t have inside knowledge of Apple’s views on this, so this is just another speculation).

>So what would macOS use to trigger when FaceID should be initiated?

The equivalent system on another OS? At least when talking Android that should be easy since accelerometer(/gyroscope w/o gravity) are already available from the OS side. When talking windows/linux that's arguably harder but not impossible. The only major caveat is required hardware for that. But this situation is somewhat similar to Microsoft Hello, except we're not talking entirely about cameras.

These are just wishful ideas though, and you are right: we know Apple will never open their face ID implementation ever, let alone give users outside their ecosystem the possibility of using Face ID for any of their services/products. To that end, I don't even know if there's a use case where someone could need Face ID on a non-Apple device.

What's better is you can use it with a different keyboard. Apple's external keyboards with TouchID are fine but they're not universally preferred. Some people want their longer throw clicky mechanical keyboard, some people want a particular keyboard layout that Apple doesn't offer, some people want their Kinesis Advantage for wrist issues, etc.

This is how FaceID works already on the iPad Pro. If you use it with a keyboard there's no TouchID on the keyboard. Any key press wakes it up and it does a FaceID scan to check who's trying to wake it up.

The part that isn't covered is activating FaceID other than on wake up. On the iPad it still has you double click the wake button, they'd need a button on the side of the monitor or something if keeping a separate hardware activation button is required.

Also the defacto auto-login on macOS is with Apple Watch. That just works and most people I know with Macs have Apple watches already.

Sudo / security approvals appear on your watch too so you double press the side button to approve.

I use this with a Mac Mini but I don't love it. Most of the time when I lock my computer at home it's because I don't want my cat to be able to walk across the keyboard and type things into whatever window happens to be active.

Unfortunately using unlock with Apple Watch means that I can be reading in a chair on the opposite side of the room, and when the cat walks across my desk the computer helpfully goes "lemme unlock that for you so we can type in this important sdxvi90weraklxczkopk."

If Apple sold a webcam with FaceID built into it as an alternative to their keyboard with TouchID, I would definitely buy it. I don't like the keyboard options, it's either $150 for the too small one (I like having full size arrow keys and the isnert/home/etc block), or $180 for the too big one (numpad puts the mouse unnecessarily far away).

I'm quite happy with a tenkeyless layout but I don't see Apple adding a "just right" keyboard size in between their existing models.

Interesting. Mine only works if I'm within 1m or so of the desk.

Agree with your points about keyboard. I am fine with the basic Magic Keyboard though. I actually quite like that. I don't need Touch ID on it.

This was more of a problem in my previous apartment where the computer desk was in a nook behind the living room couch. Sitting on the couch would only put you about 4' away from the computer.

Not positive if it's still happens in my current layout, I got in the habit of pushing the keyboard back below the monitor when I get up so that the cats won't walk across it.

Just add a $400 watch to your $1500 display to go with that $2000 computer. Oh and you better grab a $430 iPhone SE or perhaps a $800 iPhone 13 to replace your Android phone and actually use your watch.

Worth it.

How does windows hello work?

They’d do the same thing the App Store and iTunes Store purchase prompt does. You confirm you want to purchase in addition to the FaceID prompt.

My desktop keyboard does not have a TouchID button.

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