Apple iPhone X
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It’s 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone and Apple has marked the occasion with a new handset that doesn’t just jump one generation, it jumps several. The firm has leaped straight from iPhone
7 (via the iPhone 8) all the way to iPhone X, bypassing the iPhone 7s and leapfrogging the iPhone 9 altogether.
Despite rumours of limited stock, thousands of people queued around blocks the world over to pick up the new handset, in scenes we haven’t seen for a few years. All Apple had to do to get so much attention was redesign the iPhone. That sounds easy, but the redesign involved the removal of the Home button, and to make that possible Apple had to rethink the way you interact with the phone.
Face ID
The iPhone X feature that’s received the most attention is Face ID, Apple’s technology for unlocking the iPhone X and authenticating your ID. It replaces Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint technology that served the same purpose.
Setting it up is easy. In a process similar to Touch ID, where the Home button records several impressions of your fingerprints, the you’ll need to move your head in different angles as the TrueDepth camera system records different spots on your face. It takes a few minutes, and then it’s ready to go.
Face ID only allows a single person to register
their face. Touch ID lets you register different fingers; you can use this capacity to register the fingerprints of other people who you want to have access to your device. This is handy if you’re okay with, say, your other half having access to your iPhone. Maybe Face ID’s one-face limitation will change if Apple decides to use Face ID on the iPad, a device that’s more likely to have multiple users.
By default, Face ID requires your eyes to be open in order for it to work, But if you go into Settings > Face ID & Passcode and turn off the Require Attention for Face ID setting, Face ID will work when you have your eyes closed.
I had some concerns about Face ID because I’ve got so used to Touch ID, which feels like it has seamlessly integrated with how I use my iPhone. But for me, there was actually nothing to really be concerned about. Face ID is much closer to the idea of seamless integration than I imagined with Touch ID.
When it works, Face ID works really well. To access your iPhone X after it’s been sitting in your pocket, purse, bag, desk, and so on, you need to unlock it using Face ID. At first, I had a tendency to wait for the lock icon on the screen to unlock. But the key is to not wait. You should swipe up to get to the Home screen as you’re looking at the iPhone X. It takes some practice, but before too long, unlocking your phone will feel effortless.
I’ve had some conversations with Android users who have tried the iPhone X, and their main beef with Face ID is that it’s too slow compared to a fingerprint scanner. In their limited time with the iPhone X, they’re not accessing the Home screen in the manner I described above – and since they’re not invested in the iPhone, they’re not willing to learn, either. It’s still true that access to the Home screen using Face ID isn’t as fast as using a fingerprint scanner, but it’s maybe a second slower. If that one second is all the difference to you, then I hope you’re using that time wisely.
Using Face ID with some third-party apps is done in a manner similar to that of Touch ID. For example, with the app for my bank and with