Apple’s iPhone X Face ID boo-boo

LOS ANGELES: Apple’s newest feature let it down during its big launch event in California on Tuesday, in perhaps the most awkward way possible.

Facial recognition is the headline feature of the brand new iPhone X, Apple’s most expensive and most futuristic phone. But when the company took to the stage to show it off yesterday, it seemed to go wrong.

Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi, stood on stage and showed how easy it was to unlock the phone just using his face. Except it seemed harder than he expected.

“Unlocking it is as easy as looking at it and swiping up,” he said, and made the gesture on the phone he was holding. Then nothing happened. Federighi tried again, and nothing happened again. He admitted defeat and swopped to what he said was a “backup” phone, which worked straight away.

Apple’s share price dropped in response to the awkward moment, but quickly recovered once Face ID started working.

It doesn’t seem that Face ID wouldn’t recognise Federighi’s face. Instead, it seems that Touch ID wasn’t enabled.

It’s far from the first time that there’s been a problem during a tech introduction. Perhaps most famous of all was during Steve Jobs’ tenure as CEO, when he was showing the iPhone 4 off in 2010, the phone was having trouble connecting to the internet because of the sheer number of wi-fi networks in the room.

Apple eventually got round to properly showing off the iPhone X, which it said is its vision for how phones will be over the next 10 years. It also revealed an iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, a new Apple Watch, an updated Apple TV and new software. – The Independent