iPhone 8 Gesture Interface Spotted in iOS 11 Beta, Ultra-Fast Facial Recognition Tipped: Reports

iPhone 8 leaks continue to pour in steadily, and the fresh batch brings in more information on how the new iOS 11 interface will work on the smartphone’s bezel-less display without Touch ID. Reports of facial recognition being the only form of biometric authentication have surfaced again, and one report suggests the speed at which it will work. KGI thinks Apple has a significant lead over Qualcomm when it comes to 3D sensing technology. Display components of the iPhone 8 have also been leaked in photos, and finally Rosenblatt analyst Jun Zhang predicts that about 35 million to 40 million iPhone 8 will be shipped in the second half of 2018.

Now that the iPhone 8 is almost confirmed to come with a large bezel-less display and no Touch ID, iOS 11 overhaul is inevitable. Apple will have to go back to the drawing boards and see how few features like the app switcher may work on the anniversary edition iPhone. Developer Guilherme Rambo has found two videos within the iOS 11 beta that may show the app switcher will work on the iPhone 8 without the standard home button. The first video indicates that tapping at the bottom and swiping up will open the app switcher, and you can remove or switch between apps from there. He has also shareda video showing how the lock screen appears by swiping from top to bottom, while the Control Centre now comes out with a swipe to the left. The right swipe still shows the widget window, and swiping smoothly from the bottom to top will open up Settings. Whether these gestures are customisable or not remains to be seen. Also, this has been in iOS 11 for a long time, and Apple could have fine-tuned it further, so don’t expect the exact same thing to show up during the launch in September.

Recent reports point towards 3D facial recognition being the only form of authentication on the iPhone 8, abandoning the famous Touch ID altogether. Facial recognition is expected to work seamlessly on the iPhone 8, with it even working when the phone is laid flat on the ground. Now, a Korea Herald report suggests that the new authentication form will be speedy as well. “The new facial recognition scanner with 3-D sensors can deeply sense a user’s face in the millionths of a second.” This is really fast to say the least, and if these reports are true, its seamless use could be the deal breaker for its acceptance.

While Qualcomm recently demoed its 3D sensing tech, KGI Securities’ Ming Chi Kuo feels it’s still behind Apple on many fronts. In a new report obtained by 9to5Mac, the Kuo claims that Apple has a significant lead over Qualcomm, as the company won’t be making proper bulk shipments till 2019. The report states that Qualcomm is still very immature in its software and hardware areas, and a delay till 2019 is inevitable. Kuo claims that Xiaomi would be very interested in the technology, but it will still want to see how the market welcomes Apple’s 3D tech before taking the plunge itself. The report claims that while Apple’s IR transmitter’s diffractive optical element and wafer-level optical will be manufactured by TSMC, Qualcomm will use HImax’s 2-in-1 system.

Separately, SlashLeaks has now leaked iPhone 8 components including flex cables for power transfer, internal components for the Lightning cable, 3D sensing module and the display assembly. The pictures can be seen below.

Photo Credit: SlashLeaks

Lastly, Rosenblatt analyst Jun Zhang predicts that Apple will ship 35 million to 40 million units of the iPhone 8 in the second half of this year. StreetInsider got hold of the analyst’s report, which also reiterates that Touch ID won’t arrive on the iPhone 8, and will have facial recognition instead. Zhang expects 5 million units to ship in the third quarter, 30 million to 35 million in the fourth quarter. Furthermore, the analyst estimates that 15 million of iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus will ship in Q3 with 35 million getting delivered in the fourth quarter.