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Comment by carlosjobim

1 month ago

Cell phones from other brands have Touch ID and it works great. Apple has Touch ID on their iPads and it also works great. As it does on the MacBooks. As it does on the iPhone SE. It should be brought back.

TouchID doesn't really for me on my Macbook or iPad. It has about a 25% success rate. I think one issue is that I work with my hands a lot.

  • It works OK for me on Mac, but all touchID drops to about 50/50 for me in Winter, under the (otherwise) best circumstances. Dry air, I guess.

    On iPhone, specifically, it was awful for me. I was too likely to have wet hands (raining, just got out of shower, whatever—even dried, the higher moisture in my skin meant it didn't work) or gloves on or some other problem that made it fail. Trying to hold it the right way, one-handed, to get a finger in the right position (waaaaay down near the bottom) was also a high-risk maneuver for a drop, and was not a way I'd otherwise have tried to hold the device.

I am not a fan, simply because of the screen real estate that needs to be sacrificed.

Other phones tend to have it on the back, and I have heard there's good progress in having embedded thumbprint readers in the screen.

I have, however, really come to like Face ID.

[UPDATED TO ADD] I think that it's interesting that folks ding comments they disagree with. I upvoted all the responses to my comment, even though they may disagree with me, because they were made in good faith, and contribute to the discussion.

  • "needs to be sacrificed"? You yourself give other options.

    * Some iPads have the finger print reader on the side of the device, on the power button.

    * Old Google Pixels had it on the back, conveniently able to be accessed with your index finger as you take the phone out of your pocket.

    * Current Google Pixels have it where you just touch the screen.

    My Google Pixel 10 has both an in-the-screen fingerprint reader, and a Face ID, and I use both. They're both useful in different situations.

    • > My Google Pixel 10 has both an in-the-screen fingerprint reader, and a Face ID, and I use both. They're both useful in different situations.

      That sounds great.

      > Some iPads have the finger print reader on the side of the device, on the power button.

      My main iPad is a Mini (latest gen). It has the Touch ID on the top. I find it to be a bit "flaky." It often misses prints. However, I think it works amazingly well, given that it's just a strip.

      I also have an iPad Pro, with FaceID. That works nicely. I like that it works in both portrait and landscape. That didn't happen in my older phones, but seems to be the case in my latest (17 Pro).

  • >I have heard there's good progress in having embedded thumbprint readers in the screen.

    Samsung phones have had a perfectly working finger print reader under the screen for many years now. There is no more progress to be made, it is complete.

  • Face ID is severely lacking compared to MS Hello, simple as. It's at best 50:50 hit/miss compared to Hello which logs me in always. Granted, that figure doesn't include false positives, but the difference is substantial and makes Apple's implementation look really lame, to the point I'd like to see it removed.

    • I haven't had that happen, so I think it works fairly well. Even with a mask.

      In fact, it works so well, for me, that I was worried that it was too generous, but it is actually very secure.