“A number of new photos have started appearing online claiming to give additional insight into the design choices that Apple has made with the upcoming iPhone 7,” Paul Morris reports for Redmond Pie. “A set of new photos purportedly show an actual iPhone 7 model with a white exterior and a flush, touch-sensitive Home/Touch ID button.”
“If accurate, the new design would essentially mean that the curtains are about to come down on Apple’s iconic mechanical Home button that has been a staple part of the iPhone ever since the original launch in 2007,” Morris reports. “Throughout all of those iterations, what has always remained constant is the mechanical Home button. Sure, it’s advanced with time to include a Touch ID sensor, but it’s always been there and it’s always been a mechanical operation.”
“It is being claimed that the Home/Touch ID button depicted in the visuals below is flushed with the rest of the bezel without the usual silver ring, and doesn’t offer the traditional clickable action iPhone fans have become accustomed to,” Morris reports. “There has been plenty of historical speculation about Apple testing out a pressure-sensitive Home button – including the granting of a patent by the USPTO for a pressure-sensitive liquid metal option – so it’s by no means beyond the realms of possibility that the iPhone 7 could lose the Home button as we have come to know it.”
Read more and see more photos in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds just like the Force Touch trackpad in MacBooks!
I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million — and three to five years — to mature the technology before it can used in large scale. — Dr. Atakan Peker, one of the Caltech researchers who invented Liquidmetal, May 2012
SEE ALSO:
No Home button? Liquidmetal body? What can we expect from next year’s Apple iPhone 7? – October 19, 2015
New Apple patents show continuing work on Liquidmetal – August 11, 2015
The Turing Phone is not made out of Liquidmetal – July 15, 2015
Why does Apple keep extending their partnership with Liquidmetal? – June 25, 2015
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2016 – June 23, 2015
Two new Liquidmetal patent filings from Apple revealed; list watch and jewelry among potential uses – April 23, 2015
Liquidmetal’s Apple alliance yet to bear fruit – September 30, 2014
Apple’s new Liquidmetal-related patent sparks speculation – July 7, 2014
Apple patents method for embedding sapphire displays in LiquidMetal device chassis – May 27, 2014
Liquidmetal-Visser agreement paves the way for more rapid adoption of amorphous metal manufacturing – May 21, 2014
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2015 – May 21, 2014
If it’s completely flush with a ring that’s just painted on, there’s not going to be any way to know if your thumb is on the Home button without looking at it. I hope Apple keeps the silver ring. The shiny-ness of it looks nice, and it helps you orient your thumb to the reader without looking at it.
if they can make this flush with the surface, how about making the camera lens flush with the surface?!
Android devices like the HTC 10 or Nexus 6P use a touch sensitive fingerprint scanner that has no moving parts. The scanners are slightly recessed so you can feel the dip with your finger without having to look. They work just fine (fast and accurate). The HTC 10 implementation also allows the fingerprint scanner to operate as a home button; Apple may do something similar (as it’s hard to tell from the picture). Either way, no real need for that tactile push when a touch sensitive pad will also work.