iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new privacy controls, and more

Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by mirthflat83 on Monday April 26, 2021 @03:59PM (#26947265)

Sorry, it’s not. Face ID: Just pick up your phone and your phone automatically unlocks with your face. This experience is way superior than having to position your finger at a specific place every time you want to unlock it. Putting it on the back is even worse, you need to actually pick up your phone from the desk just to unlock it. I swear HN readers would create devices with the worst UX possible.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by lwansbrough on Monday April 26, 2021 @09:02PM (#26950444)

If you haven’t unlocked your phone by the time you’re looking at it you’re doing it slower than I am. Typically my phone is unlocked before I’ve even fully pulled it out of my pocket. The muscle memory for thumb (or finger placement if it’s on the back) is a pretty low barrier to usability, and can be learned quickly.

Can you unlock your phone without moving it in front of your face? I can, if it’s sitting across my desk I can unlock it without picking it up or moving my head towards it. I do this regularly.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten how many usability compromises you’ve made in using Face ID, but I guarantee it’s slower.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by culturestate on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @12:49AM (#26952118)

> Perhaps you’ve forgotten how many usability compromises you’ve made in using Face ID, but I guarantee it’s slower

Counterpoint: with Face ID, if my phone is facing me I can interact with it just by looking in its direction.

Got a message while I'm at my desk? I look at it, it unlocks and shows me the notification. Cooking and a timer goes off? I look at it, it lowers the volume of the alarm.

Everything has trade-offs and different people use stuff in different ways, but I personally prefer Face ID to Touch ID.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by mackrevinack on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @02:31AM (#26952722)

but what do you if you don't want it to unlock? like if you were in work and someone send you a nsfw message that you don't want your coworkers to see, or maybe you are in a car with other people etc etc. ...there's no way to stop that right?

at least with a fingerprint reader you can choose to glance at the lockscreen messages first before unlocking

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by culturestate on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @04:02AM (#26953279)

You can disable the attention-aware features if you want to, even independent of Face ID itself, and it obviously respects DND settings.

I keep notification contents hidden while the phone is locked anyway, so I'd need to authenticate before it shows me the message in either case.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by asutekku on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @02:43AM (#26952799)

Just looking at the screen does not unlock the device as you still need to swipe up to close the lockscreen. Before that, it does exactly as you describe, shows a glance on the lockscreen.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by culturestate on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @04:05AM (#26953297)

To clarify, it does unlock the phone - i.e. you are authenticated as you after you look at it - but you're right that it doesn't open the full message unless you tap on the notification.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by NoPicklez on Monday April 26, 2021 @08:58PM (#26950409)

I'd argue that when I used to pick my phone up, I'd place my thumb on the touch ID location as I was raising the phone to my face and it would unlock quicker than face ID.

I don't have a problem with either options, but I do think touch ID was slightly faster.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by microtherion on Monday April 26, 2021 @04:12PM (#26947461)

I like Face ID with phones. For iPad, getting the angle right for the face to be recognized seems trickier, so overall the Touch ID experience was superior.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by neilalexander on Monday April 26, 2021 @04:19PM (#26947544)

I've actually found the opposite to be true - my iPad Pro will Face ID happily in any orientation and quite far off centre, whereas my face has to be very much centred for my iPhone to do the same.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by cpuguy83 on Monday April 26, 2021 @05:03PM (#26948094)

Probably you have the "requires attention" mode activated on your phone.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by neilalexander on Monday April 26, 2021 @05:23PM (#26948333)

I have "Require Attention" enabled on both devices.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by stjohnswarts on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @01:55AM (#26952502)

It's not "way superior" it's just different and slightly easier.

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Re:iOS 14.5 delivers Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, new pri... by katbyte on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @01:43AM (#26952435)

they both have their place, but with touchid my phone is often unlocked before i even look at it or without looking at it which is nice at times.

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