APPLE FAR FROM HOME

DOROTHY of Oz once said there was no place like home and Apple confirmed it.

The tech giant’s new top model smartphone loses its home button for the first time in its 10-year history and it’s immediately confusing.

Yes, the iPhone X looks striking and futuristic, with its bigger-than-ever 5.8-inch edge-to-edge display.

Yes, the display’s colours are brighter thanks to OLED technology and a Super Retina resolution.

Sure, its stainless steel sides flow seamlessly on to its front and back glass panels, and its ever-so- slightly heavier body feels well weighted. But how do you use this phone without a home button?

Despite years testing Apple’s handsets, I found myself slightly dumbstruck before it. Thankfully, the adjustments are easy to make ... as long as someone explains them to you.

To wake this phone, you lift it or double-tap it. To unlock this phone, you look at it while it scans your face.

Moving a finger up the screen will make the lock screen disappear or get you out of an application, and holding your finger halfway up will show your open apps.

They’re simple gestures but it will probably take some time for 10-year Apple iPhone veterans to stop pressing the bottom of the screen and swearing at themselves.

And while this change might represent a mild annoyance, there are serious questions swirling around Touch ID’s replacement.

Apple says its advanced, 3D face-scanning technology, Face ID, is more secure, with a one in one million chance someone else can foil it, compared with a one in 50,000 chance with the iPhone’s fingerprint reader.

But, in multiple demonstrations, I watched experts try and fail to unlock the handset with their first attempt. That doesn’t mean it’s not secure, of course, but it could mean that you spend more time eyeing off your phone in frustration than just touching your thumb to its big button and using it. Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson travelled to Cupertino as a guest of Apple.