By: Nick Gambino
Much has been made about the cool new Face ID feature in the iPhone X. But unfortunately when it was demoed at an Apple event at the Steve Jobs theater there were some hiccups in getting it to work.
After excitedly announcing Face ID, Craig Federighi, Senior VP of Software Engineering, bounded over to the iPhone waiting for him on the side of the stage. Upon picking up the phone you can feel his nerves immediately sink to his feet as the phone failed to unlock with Face ID, reverting back to the passcode unlock screen.
Luckily Apple prepares for such scenarios and he quickly grabbed the backup. From there everything worked great. But this initial failed demo didn’t inspire much confidence that the feature would work without glitch if the one phone meant to announce it to the world s-ed the bed in front of millions.
The tech company has finally addressed the failed demo with a bit of an explanation to Yahoo that kind of makes sense. It seems the phone did exactly what it was supposed to do and didn’t fail at all. Bear with me because it actually does make sense.
“People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face,” an rep for Apple said. “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. Face ID worked as it was designed to.”
So there you have it. It’s not a matter of failed software but really just disorganization and unbridled access to a phone meant for a public demo to the world. Though it worries me that this could happen if too many people at a party or at home handle your phone. On second thought, it’s not a big deal. You simply enter your passcode and reset Face ID as needed. It’s still better than unauthorized access to your salacious photos, ya weirdo.
Apple claims that the chance that someone could access your phone with Touch ID is 1 in 50,000 while Face ID is 1 in 1,000,000. So let’s hope it works without a hitch!
Do you believe Apple’s explanation of the snafu? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Gambino is a regular scriptwriter and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.
