If you're new to AirPods, considering buying a pair, or just want to pick up some new tips.
Apple Offers a Temporary Workaround if the Home Button Fails on an iPhone 7
With the introduction of the iPhone 7, Apple did away with the classic click-mechanism home button in favor of a "solid-state" pressure sensitive one that uses haptic feedback to mimic traditional button presses.
The programming that controls the Taptic Engine-powered feedback is deeply integrated into iOS 10, so much so that it appears Apple's latest iPhone is able to automatically offer a temporary workaround when its diagnostic software senses that the technology is playing up.
MacRumors forum member 'iwayne' shared the above picture of his iPhone 7 display after the device unexpectedly turned itself off while charging and the haptic feedback began malfunctioning after a restart. A dialog prompt warns that the home button is in need of repair, but presents an alternative onscreen home button for temporary use until the phone has been turned in to Apple for servicing.
MacRumors has previously noted that the Taptic Engine can become unresponsive if the OS freezes, which forced Apple to change the reset process for the iPhone 7 series. Apple has also apparently safeguarded against instances when the button's haptic sensor system breaks completely, but whether or not its failure rate is any better than a physical button remains to be seen.
Rumors suggest Apple will ditch the iconic home button entirely for next year's "iPhone 8" in favor of one built directly into an edge-to-edge display, but it's unclear if Apple intends to implement the same button-based recovery methods for instances in which devices freeze or stop responding completely.
The programming that controls the Taptic Engine-powered feedback is deeply integrated into iOS 10, so much so that it appears Apple's latest iPhone is able to automatically offer a temporary workaround when its diagnostic software senses that the technology is playing up.
MacRumors forum member 'iwayne' shared the above picture of his iPhone 7 display after the device unexpectedly turned itself off while charging and the haptic feedback began malfunctioning after a restart. A dialog prompt warns that the home button is in need of repair, but presents an alternative onscreen home button for temporary use until the phone has been turned in to Apple for servicing.
MacRumors has previously noted that the Taptic Engine can become unresponsive if the OS freezes, which forced Apple to change the reset process for the iPhone 7 series. Apple has also apparently safeguarded against instances when the button's haptic sensor system breaks completely, but whether or not its failure rate is any better than a physical button remains to be seen.
Rumors suggest Apple will ditch the iconic home button entirely for next year's "iPhone 8" in favor of one built directly into an edge-to-edge display, but it's unclear if Apple intends to implement the same button-based recovery methods for instances in which devices freeze or stop responding completely.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Taptic Engine
[ 269 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
32 months ago
Software is much more prone to bugs than hardware failure. Physical buttons are best in many instances!
The physical button of the iPhone has constantly been a point of failure, to the point that in Far Eastern countries often it isn't used at all to preserve the resale value (they use Accessibility features instead).
The car manufactures began using touch controls for volume, temperature, etc a few years back until, unsurprisingly, they started returning to physical buttons shortly thereafter
In the car, touch controls are bad for a completely different reason: because you can't find them without looking.
32 months ago
Plenty of issues here as well. Kinda happy mine hasn't arrived yet.
If it hasn't arrived yet, how can you have issues there?
32 months ago
Just one more point of possible failure that will end up frustrating customers. The car manufactures began using touch controls for volume, temperature, etc a few years back until, unsurprisingly, they started returning to physical buttons shortly thereafter. Software is much more prone to bugs than hardware failure. Physical buttons are best in many instances!
32 months ago
It's good to have a fallback, but the aim is to never need a fallback. Why is a device so new already popping up such errors? iPhone 7 is truly an experimental device release. Looking forward to 2017's all new device.
You know how many iPhone 7's have been sold, right? Millions. If only one of 1 million iPhones has this problem it means 0.0001 %. But yeah this iPhone is such an experimental device. Please stop posting this nonsense.[doublepost=1476529947][/doublepost]
Never heard that. Why would people in the Far East be more sensitive to preserving their home buttons than in the West?
That's one reason, certainly, but it's also because of higher failure rates & poor feedback.
32 months ago
This is properly clever. It also demonstrates just how much thought Apple put into designing the new home button. Not only how it functions when it goes right — but what happens when it goes wrong.
32 months ago
You people are ridiculous. All you do is whine.....what a worthless thread.
32 months ago
With the introduction of the iPhone 7, Apple did away with the classic click-mechanism home button in favor of a "solid-state" pressure sensitive one that uses haptic feedback to mimic traditional button presses.
... the haptic feedback began malfunctioning after a restart. A dialog prompt warns that the home button is in need of repair, but presents an alternative onscreen home button for temporary use until the phone has been turned in to Apple for servicing.
MacRumors has previously noted that the Taptic Engine can become unresponsive if the OS freezes,
Isn't that just trading one simple problem for a more complex one ?
Physical buttons can break, but so can the IMO more complex eccentric rotating mass vibration motor.
Electric motors, even miniature ones are surely more complex beasts than a simple trigger button, no ?
If previously the physical button was working independent of OS freeze ups and able to reset the phone in conjunction with the power button, then why remove the button and place a surely more costly device like this haptic engine in its place, including a pressure sensitive button to activate the motor via software and in addition remove the headphone jack because of it.
Seems a bit convoluted to me.
32 months ago
I firmly believed that the new Home button had no 'moving parts' and would therefore be less prone to failure.
I hope we get to hear back some details on the fix for this.
I hope we get to hear back some details on the fix for this.
32 months ago
Apple has been able to come up with a temporary workaround when the iPhone's diagnostic software senses that the technology is playing up.
Hah, love the wording. "Temporary workaround" "playing up". You can just say if it's broken. Apple won't punish you that much.[ Read All Comments ]
Apple at its March event introduced a new subscription service for Apple News, called Apple News+.
Apple News+ is a new subscription service in the Apple News app that lets you access magazines...
After upgrading to iOS 12.2, the newest version of iOS, AT&T users might see a "5GE" icon in place of "LTE" for their cellular connection.
This is AT&T's misleading...
Apple today unveiled its rumored premium Apple News subscription service, Apple News+. Apple News+ provides access to more than 300 magazines and a handful of paywalled news articles from sites like...
Alongside the iOS 12.2 update that was introduced following Apple's services-focused "It's Show Time" event, Apple has also debuted a new 12.2 software update designed for the...
Apple today held a services-focused event at its Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, where it unveiled several new services including Apple News+ for subscription news and magazines, Apple...
Apple today released tvOS 12.2, the fifth update to the tvOS 12 operating system designed for fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models. tvOS 12.2 comes more than two months after the launch of...
Apple's "It's Show Time" event will kick off shortly at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. The event will see the unveiling of Apple's long-rumored streaming TV...
Darkroom for iOS, a popular photo editing app, today received a major update that adds a lot of new functionality to improve the way it interacts with the iPhone and the iPad.
In the Photos app,...
