“As Apple demonstrated its new flagship phone onstage, the $999 iPhone X, the face-recognition unlocking feature failed. Bigly and splashily,” David Pogue reports for Yahoo Finance. “In fact, though, Face ID performed perfectly. It appears somebody at Apple set up the phone incorrectly.”
Pogue reports, “I was able to contact Apple. After examining the logs of the demo iPhone X, they now know exactly what went down.”
“‘People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time,’ says a rep, ‘and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode,'” Pogue reports. “In other words, ‘Face ID worked as it was designed to.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The stream of “Face ID failure” articles epitomizes fake news or, if not willful disinformation, a pitiful lack of understanding about how basic iOS security works.
Now, if you’re in a coffee shop, with your hard-to-get iPhone X face up on the table, will it be trying to Face ID everybody who walks by staring at it due to its rarity and inherent coolness? We guess so – unless you have to be holding your iPhone in order for Face ID to start scanning (Apple hasn’t been clear on this). If not, you’ll likely have to enter your passcode in such cases.
And, yes, Apple personnel should have realized what would happen if employees handled the iPhone X demo units. The iPhone X would try to Face ID anyone who so much as glanced at it and caused it to go to passcode lock screen during Federighi’s demo. Luckily for Federighi, it seems nobody triggered the passcode requirement on the backup iPhone X unit.
SEE ALSO:
U.S. Senate Democrat Al Franken wants Apple to provide more information on Face ID facial recognition technology – September 13, 2017
Police: Apple’s new Face ID technology will make it harder for authorities to bypass enhanced security – September 13, 2017
What really happened with Apple’s onstage Face ID glitch: Face ID worked perfectly, as intended – September 13, 2017
Trying to face ID everybody all the time while sitting face up on a table sounds like a battery drain.
You have to touch or pick up the phone to trigger it.
Just like TouchID, you have to be doing something that requires identification. If it is lying on a table, it doesn’t need to check FaceID, so it doesn’t. If you touch the screen, press the side on/off button, say “Hey Siri,” or pick the phone up in a way that it recognizes as preparatory to use, it will try to authenticate you.
If you are an Apple stagehand and you pick the phone up to make sure it is plugged in, it will try to authenticate you. If you aren’t the registered owner, it will only try that a few times (set in Settings) before it requires the passcode.
Actually, no, because even if you don’t have to handle the iPhone X to trigger Face ID, after a few Face ID attempts, the iPhone X would go to passcode lock and stop scanning for faces.
First 2014, Then 2016
NO BODY LIKES YOU!!! and that is funny!
what a joke of a guy/gal
I like him.
Hearing opposing views doesn’t upset me. I like hearing and thinking about topics and ideas I don’t agree with. It helps me better understand why I believe what I do believe.
Part of being an adult.
Hearing opposing views is fine as long as they have at least some merit and are not wrapped up in hyper-partisan political glaze topped with personal insults and stupid labels.
“It appears somebody at Apple set up the phone incorrectly.”
Correction:
“It appears somebody formerly at Apple set up the phone incorrectly.” 🙂
Don’t believe what you saw with your eyes. We will tell you what really happened.
I’m sure it’s like the Apple Watch, if you lift your phone it will try to authenticate. Otherwise if it’s sitting on the table, it won’t be scanning anything.
So what you’re saying is that the media…
Is looking at it wrong.
There is certainly some range to FaceID, and with all-things security at Apple, I’m quite sure they’ve figured out the right range and angles to have it self-engage. I highly doubt people walking by at a coffee shop or airport are going to get FaceID’d.
But once it launches a zillion people will post and show off it’s range and we’ll learn pretty quickly Apple’s figured it out pretty darn well.
Just a little egg on the Face ID demo.
As someone who has done literally thousands of software demos, you make certain shit works in these situations. You’re Apple and should be very well aware of timeouts, people handling phone who don’t have access, etc. You turn that shit off or make damn sure somehow it doesn’t happen.
This will blow over soon but unnecessary egg on their face for what should of been a flawless presentation of a new technology. You’re Apple, not Microsoft guys.
So what you’re saying is that the media…Is looking at it wrong.