Journalism of Courage
Apple’s first Face ID demo failed during a live session at the launch of the iPhone X on Tuesday. It was an embarrassing moment, which invited a lot of flak from the tech community. Now, in a statement to Yahoo, Apple has explained what exactly happened during the presentation.
During the launch of the iPhone X, Apple’s VP for Sofware Engineering Craig Federighi struggled to unlock the iPhone X while demonstrating Face ID, one of the marque features in the tenth generation iPhone. Face ID didn’t work properly at first attempt, prompting the executive to use his passcode to unlock the device. Later, Federighi was able to unlock it just by having a glance at the device.
Apple has offered an explaining saying that too many people were handling the device for “stage demo” ahead of the actual launch. There’s nothing wrong with Face ID. In fact, it performed exactly it was supposed to function.
“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,” an Apple representative told Yahoo.
The news will come as a relief for those who assumed that Face ID had failed in its first public test. Apple claims the new Face ID feature is more accurate and secure than Touch ID, which lets users to unlock the device using a fingerprint. Apple calls its Face ID feature as the”future of how we’ll unlock our phones”. Face ID learns your face, every time you glance at the iPhone – even in dark.
This is possible thanks to the “true depth camera system”, which also includes an infrared camera, and a dot projector that puts out 30,000 dots and creates a model of the face. Software then compares the image already stored, and unlocks the phone it it matches. Face ID will work with Apple Pay, and other third-party apps.
Apple iPhone X is the company’s most advanced smartphone ever made, featuring an all-new design, edge-to-edge display, better dual-camera system, wireless charging, and many more new features. The company also announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone Plus. Both smartphones are seen as more natural successors to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. At the event, we also saw the unveiling of the Apple Watch Series 3 and a 4K-ready Apple TV.
