Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone X iPhone X: The five worst features in Apple's best phone

newellj said:
At the risk of being mistaken for one who has been asleep (maybe I was), I did not realize that the FaceID failures with passcode entered added another image. If it were explained that way, people would probably "cooperate" with "educating" the phone and results would improve...
Click to expand...

It was part of the demonstration when FaceID was introduced at the Apple event/presentation, but I think all anybody can remember is that FaceID failed on Craig Federighi at the start of the demo. :)

From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208108
"Face ID automatically adapts to changes in your appearance, such as wearing cosmetic makeup or growing facial hair. If there is a more significant change in your appearance, like shaving a full beard, Face ID confirms your identity by using your passcode before it updates your face data. Face ID is designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses, and many sunglasses."

That is still a bit vague, because "updates" could mean it replaces, but it's actually just adding more information to the FaceID library. The only time it does a full scan is during the initial setup, and after that I'm guessing it adds whatever image/depth data measurements (as measured by dot projector) fails when you enter your passcode. This article refers to a more detailed technical paper from apple that describes it as "if Face ID fails to recognize you, but the match quality is higher than a certain threshold and you immediately follow the failure by entering your passcode, Face ID takes another capture and augments its enrolled Face ID data with the newly calculated mathematical representation. This new Face ID data is discarded after a finite number of unlocks and if you stop matching against it. These augmentation processes allow Face ID to keep up with dramatic changes in your facial hair or makeup use, while minimizing false acceptance."

That article answers a question I've wondered about: My wife and I know each other's passcodes (we don't have landlines and need to be able to use each other's iphones in an emergency). I've wondered if she uses my iPhone, and enters the passcode enough times when FaceID fails, will FaceID start to recognize her? It doesn't sound like that will happen, because her face would not be enough of a match.

Quite frequently, especially just after the iPhone X was released, new X owners will get frustrated when FaceID doesn't work so they keep resetting FaceID and setting it up again as new. This is basically like starting the learning process over for FaceID. It's better to start with a quality setup in good light, and then let the machine learning do its thing.

I wore sunglasses yesterday for the first time since getting my iPhone X six weeks ago (it has been a particularly dark and wet winter in the Pacific NW). I was surprised that FaceID still recognized me. I figured I would need to enter my passcode a at least once or twice, like I did when it didn't recognize me without my regular glasses. I guess my sunglasses are a similar shape to my regular glasses, so maybe that helped. I have read that people had problems the first time they tried to use FaceID with sunglasses, but maybe they were not regular glasses wearers.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: newellj
sean000 said:
It was part of the demonstration when FaceID was introduced at the Apple event/presentation, but I think all anybody can remember is that FaceID failed on Craig Federighi at the start of the demo. :)

From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208108
"Face ID automatically adapts to changes in your appearance, such as wearing cosmetic makeup or growing facial hair. If there is a more significant change in your appearance, like shaving a full beard, Face ID confirms your identity by using your passcode before it updates your face data. Face ID is designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses, and many sunglasses."

That is still a bit vague, because "updates" could mean it replaces, but it's actually just adding more information to the FaceID library. The only time it does a full scan is during the initial setup, and after that I'm guessing it adds whatever image/depth data measurements (as measured by dot projector) fails when you enter your passcode. This article refers to a more detailed technical paper from apple that describes it as "if Face ID fails to recognize you, but the match quality is higher than a certain threshold and you immediately follow the failure by entering your passcode, Face ID takes another capture and augments its enrolled Face ID data with the newly calculated mathematical representation. This new Face ID data is discarded after a finite number of unlocks and if you stop matching against it. These augmentation processes allow Face ID to keep up with dramatic changes in your facial hair or makeup use, while minimizing false acceptance."

That article answers a question I've wondered about: My wife and I know each other's passcodes (we don't have landlines and need to be able to use each other's iphones in an emergency). I've wondered if she uses my iPhone, and enters the passcode enough times when FaceID fails, will FaceID start to recognize her? It doesn't sound like that will happen, because her face would not be enough of a match.

Quite frequently, especially just after the iPhone X was released, new X owners will get frustrated when FaceID doesn't work so they keep resetting FaceID and setting it up again as new. This is basically like starting the learning process over for FaceID. It's better to start with a quality setup in good light, and then let the machine learning do its thing.

I wore sunglasses yesterday for the first time since getting my iPhone X six weeks ago (it has been a particularly dark and wet winter in the Pacific NW). I was surprised that FaceID still recognized me. I figured I would need to enter my passcode a at least once or twice, like I did when it didn't recognize me without my regular glasses. I guess my sunglasses are a similar shape to my regular glasses, so maybe that helped. I have read that people had problems the first time they tried to use FaceID with sunglasses, but maybe they were not regular glasses wearers.
Click to expand...

Your explanation was clearer. ;)

I was in the category of owner you describe in your penultimate paragraph. I didn't realize that I was actually aborting the learning process. Having said that, though, I would say that for me FaceID's accuracy rate was not an issue. The issues related more to the hardware's need to scan my face within a certain distance and angle. Currently, TouchID just works better for me (and it doesn't hurt that I've become very familiar with TouchID and its limitations).
 
  • Like
Reactions: sean000
Newtons Apple said:
My friend bought an X and has loved it up till yesterday.

He said when he gets a call, he can not answer it. It is like his screen is locked up. I know this is happen to others and am guessing that Apple is working on a fix.
Click to expand...

Does he have a screen protector on it? Reason I ask...before I dropped my phone and cracked the screen protector, I had one that covered the entire screen with holes punched out for the sensors. It would freeze up all the time. Now that I have another screen protector that doesn't cover the notch at all I haven't had that issue in about a month.
 
Can you add more than 1 face to Face ID? My fiancé knows my password for my current phone and I have no problem with her having access to it. When I get the X, can I add her face to it so she doesn't have to enter my passcode each time?
 
potentmf said:
Does he have a screen protector on it? Reason I ask...before I dropped my phone and cracked the screen protector, I had one that covered the entire screen with holes punched out for the sensors. It would freeze up all the time. Now that I have another screen protector that doesn't cover the notch at all I haven't had that issue in about a month.
Click to expand...

No, no protector. He brought it over for me to look at and it works fine unless you call his number and the phone like locks up.
[doublepost=1517860235][/doublepost]
nyy13251 said:
Can you add more than 1 face to Face ID? My fiancé knows my password for my current phone and I have no problem with her having access to it. When I get the X, can I add her face to it so she doesn't have to enter my passcode each time?
Click to expand...

You can not add more than one face, she will have to use your passcode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Statusnone88
Relentless Power said:
My strongest appreciation for touch ID is that it doesn't require you to have the phone at a specific angle to unlock it. And touch ID has become very consistent over the years, but I really do like Face ID and I think it will be useful in many situations where touch ID was not. But I still think it's early to disparage against Face ID's future and what changes Apple makes from this point forward to optimize it more.
Click to expand...

I think the next version will solve many of the issues with v1. I suppose the reason this particularly irks me is that this is an issue at all considering the high cost of the phone.
 
Raist3001 said:
Totally agree, although V2 of FaceID will most likely be seen in the 2019 iPhone.
Click to expand...

I think we will likely see software tweaks to the way FaceID works, so future improvements will likely be available to the original iPhone X. It's possible that the configuration of the dot project itself will be improved for 2018/2019, but I could see that being more to support FaceID from an angle (the table problem) and in landscape mode (although maybe they can figure out how to make that possible with a software update).
 
Raist3001 said:
Totally agree, although V2 of FaceID will most likely be seen in the 2019 iPhone.
Click to expand...

I think you're correct. I think version two of Face ID will likely be more hardware oriented with upgraded sensors/cameras, where the 2018 iPhone X will likely be more towards the improvements software related. Only because I think hardware components for Face ID still have some yield issues and is not something that would likely be upgraded every single year in that respect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Raist3001
I honestly don’t share the writers views.
For his issue with FaceID in the morning, I'm also near-sighted and mine has no trouble with me and my bleary morning sideways face. Maybe I’ve just trained my phone more, who knows.

I can’t really say much on the battery life to be fair. 9 out of 10 days my phone gets popped on a wireless charger quite a lot. It’s got a full charge in the morning and then it’s topped up regularly in the car, at my desk or sitting at home. The days when I’m away from power the phone has lasted me just fine.

Personally I don’t miss the alarm clock icon, obviously I wouldn’t complain if it was there. But I never used it before anyway. I know when I switch my alarms on, that’s enough for me.

The rest seem to boil down to an individuals use. A button to toggle between maps? Well as even the reviewer said, that’s what swiping along the bottom of the screen is for.

I didn’t need a tutorial when I got my X either, I’ve always found gestural control of touch screens to be second nature. Indeed because of what they are, they’re my preferred method.
I used to miss some of my touch screen gestures when I switched from my iPad to my iPhone. Happily many of those can now be replicated, albeit in a different manner to the iPad. But I can remember how to operate more than one device.....

..... At least for a few more years until I’m older and dribbling into my Horlicks :D

But hey, we’re all different and some of us are going to have different issues to the rest of us with any device.
 
  • Like
Reactions: raqball
Relentless Power said:
I think you're correct. I think version two of Face ID will likely be more hardware oriented with upgraded sensors/cameras, where the 2018 iPhone X will likely be more towards the improvements software related. Only because I think hardware components for Face ID still have some yield issues and is not something that would likely be upgraded every single year in that respect.
Click to expand...

Much better said. These are my thoughts as well. I am only counting on a software improvement for FaceID. Perhaps iOS12 will contain software upgrades to better interpret the data from the sensors? Giving us a more reliable scan? If that's possible without a hardware upgrade.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 44267547
Relentless Power said:
I think you're correct. I think version two of Face ID will likely be more hardware oriented with upgraded sensors/cameras, where the 2018 iPhone X will likely be more towards the improvements software related. Only because I think hardware components for Face ID still have some yield issues and is not something that would likely be upgraded every single year in that respect.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. Perhaps 2020 iPhone. Apple needed 2 years to mature TouchID, I think the same could be said about FaceID.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MHO1
TrueBlou said:
I honestly don’t share the writers views.
For his issue with FaceID in the morning, I'm also near-sighted and mine has no trouble with me and my bleary morning sideways face. Maybe I’ve just trained my phone more, who knows.

I can’t really say much on the battery life to be fair. 9 out of 10 days my phone gets popped on a wireless charger quite a lot. It’s got a full charge in the morning and then it’s topped up regularly in the car, at my desk or sitting at home. The days when I’m away from power the phone has lasted me just fine.

Personally I don’t miss the alarm clock icon, obviously I wouldn’t complain if it was there. But I never used it before anyway. I know when I switch my alarms on, that’s enough for me.

The rest seem to boil down to an individuals use. A button to toggle between maps? Well as even the reviewer said, that’s what swiping along the bottom of the screen is for.

I didn’t need a tutorial when I got my X either, I’ve always found gestural control of touch screens to be second nature. Indeed because of what they are, they’re my preferred method.
I used to miss some of my touch screen gestures when I switched from my iPad to my iPhone. Happily many of those can now be replicated, albeit in a different manner to the iPad. But I can remember how to operate more than one device.....
Click to expand...

I am pretty much exactly the same as you wrote.

1. faceID works great for me. I was worried about it but it's been stellar so far.
2. Battery life for me has been insane! I am a light users but after 3 days off the charger I was at 22% last night when I finally plugged it in.
3. Don't care about the Alarm icon.
4. The authors Maps comment is odd. Sounds like he just wanted to nit pick
5. I didn't need a tutorial either. The gestures are intuitive and after about an hour I was rocking along.

If I could make a few changes I'd do the following:

1. Add an option to allow faceID unlock direct to home screen without having to swipe up
2. Close apps without having to hold before swiping up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TrueBlou
raqball said:
I am pretty much exactly the same as you wrote.

1. faceID works great for me. I was worried about it but it's been stellar so far.
2. Battery life for me has been insane! I am a light users but after 3 days off the charger I was at 22% last night when I finally plugged it in.
3. Don't care about the Alarm icon.
4. The authors Maps comment is odd. Sounds like he just wanted to nit pick
5. I didn't need a tutorial either. The gestures are intuitive and after about an hour I was rocking along.

If I could make a few changes I'd do the following:

1. Add an option to allow faceID unlock direct to home screen without having to swipe up
2. Close apps without having to hold before swiping up.
Click to expand...


Totally agree with your suggestions, I’ve made the same two suggestions already to Apple on their feedback page.

If you haven’t already done that I’d urge you to do it. The more of us who ask for the same thing, the more chance there is we’ll eventually get it.
In case you don’t know, the product feedback page is here
 
  • Like
Reactions: raqball
Raist3001 said:
Much better said. These are my thoughts as well. I am only counting on a software improvement for FaceID. Perhaps iOS12 will contain software upgrades to better interpret the data from the sensors? Giving us a more reliable scan? If that's possible without a hardware upgrade.
Click to expand...

Based on past performance, 2019 for a gen 2 seems likely. (Analogy: 5S -> 6 -> 6S) Which is a bit of a bummer from my point of view. I've been an annual upgrader but neither the 8 nor the X did it for me this year, and I'm not sure I want to (thinking in historical terms) buy a 6 if there's a 6S coming a year later...which would mean making this 7 go for three years. :eek: :D
[doublepost=1518044439][/doublepost]
jav6454 said:
Announces != Released
Click to expand...

Typically close enough not to matter. And in any case, the X was a 2017 announcement and was also released in 2017, even though it didn't make the usual/expected time window. It would be a little surprising if there are similar delays in coming years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Raist3001
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back