[TheAnimus]

I had this feature on my 950 (Windows Phone). It was poor.

Slower and more error prone. Environmental changes such as extreme lighting (being outside) or wearing sunglasses stopped it from working.

Windows Hello and compatible webcams work really well in a stable desktop environment mind. I've just rolled them out across my firm.

[mrtksn]

No, you didn't have Face ID on your 950, you had whatever you had.

It's Apple's speciality to take good ideas that were never implemented properly and do it properly.

[andrepd]

Oh, you didn't have this Apple (TM) brand name feature, you just had the feature. I guess that makes it... better?

[philjohn]

It's the Apple modus-operandi of late, take an existing technology and improve it to the point where the friction is non existent.

Sure, many devices had fingerprint scanners before Touch ID, but the Apple implementation was pretty damn impressive compared to what came before.

Still, I can't help but feel that Face ID is a fudge they resorted to because they couldn't get Touch ID working through the screen reliably.

[soperj]

Like Apple Maps?

[MBCook]

Would you say that Google never implemented maps correctly?

If not then what the GP said doesn't apply.

Of course we could talk about the fact that Google was demanding all sorts of user data from Apple and wanted the ability to display ads on top of the maps… But people never talk about that. And Apple replace the head of the division that messed it up.

Just Apple is mean.

[wutwutwutwut]

Is Apple maps better now? Friends of mine using iphone seems to use Google maps.

[MBCook]

I've never really had an issue with it. The data is much better than a few years ago. I don't use Google maps (I'm happy with Apple and its integration).

I've heard (anecdotally on podcasts) they're roughly even.

The one thing I've heard in the past is it really depends on where you live. Google had better data in rural areas or other countries (they've been at it for what, almost 15 years?) so Apple Maps may not be an option for some.

In the US? I'm not sure there is a big difference for streets.

(Pretty sure Apple has slightly fewer points of interest like businesses, but it's rare I run into that).

[TurkTurkleton]

The corollary to "tak[ing] good ideas that were never implemented properly and do it properly", clearly, is taking good ideas that were implemented properly and completely fucking them up.

[threeseed]

Well Scott Forstall was fired for among other things Apple Maps.

And that said they have made decent improvements over the years.

[hota_mazi]

And also to take good ideas and never implement them because somebody already did it before them.

Even if that idea was good.

[zherbert]

Come on, your 950 didn't make a 3d dot-map of your face. This is very different.

[TheAnimus]

Yes it did an infra-red dot map of the face.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-iris-scanner-lumia-950-an...

Amazing, -4 for mentioning this isn't a new feature. This is exactly how the kinect works, how windows hello enabled webcams work.

[jads]

It didn't have face detection at all, it had an iris scanner. Where in that article does it say infra-red dot map of a face?

From https://www.petri.com/windows-10-tip-using-the-lumia-950-wit...:

>Let’s be clear about how Windows Hello works on the Lumia 950. It doesn’t use facial recognition, but instead relies on the front camera and a nearfield IR diode so that the camera can clearly see your iris. When you enable Windows Hello for the first time, your iris is scanned and a cryptographic hash is generated and stored securely on the phone. When you attempt to unlock the device using Windows Hello, a new hash is generated and compared with the original, and if the two match, access is granted.

>Facial recognition on the other hand, as used in some new notebooks designed for Windows 10 and Intel’s RealSense F200 camera, uses three different methods to recognize your face: infrared, a standard camera, and a 3D camera. This technology requires more space inside the device and as such isn’t suitable for use in phones, but unlike iris scanning works at a distance.

You didn't get downvoted for mentioning a feature already implemented elsewhere, you were downvoted by trying to claim a device did something it clearly didn't.

[zimpenfish]

That article doesn't say anything about an infrared dot map of the face - just that "the infrared camera is first used to light up your eyes".

Additionally, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition says "Iris recognition uses video camera technology with subtle near infrared illumination to acquire images of the detail-rich, intricate structures of the iris which are visible externally" which doesn't involve any kind of infrared dot map.

[pertymcpert]

Do you not read your own sources?

[rmrfrmrf]

I'm simply shocked that Microsoft would go first-to-market with an inferior product.

[wlesieutre]

Samsung also has facial recognition on the S8. You can bypass it by printing out a photo of the owner's face. But I would expect Apple's implementation to be more secure and more reliable than previous poor implementations, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

[zeusk]

What a load of bull. A simple photo doesn't work, there was a lot more work involved in subduing the facial recognition on S8.

[wlesieutre]

Well, it happened:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/03/video-shows-galaxy-s...

Here's what Samsung has to say about the feature

>The Galaxy S8 provides various levels of biometric authentication, with the highest level of authentication from the iris scanner and fingerprint reader. In addition, the Galaxy S8 provides users with multiple options to unlock their phones through both biometric security options, and convenient options such as swipe and facial recognition. It is important to reiterate that facial recognition, while convenient, can only be used for opening your Galaxy S8 and currently cannot be used to authenticate access to Samsung Pay or Secure Folder.

Not exactly a vote of confidence from the manufacturer, is it?

[2muchcoffeeman]

This is not the first time Android has had face recognition to unlock phones. I remember the first time they tried, it was trivially easy to snap a picture of your colleague and open his phone.

[wlesieutre]

Yes indeed. Face Unlock was apparently from Ice Cream Sandwich and fell for this back in 2011:

https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/11/android-facial-unlock-phot...

That's a beta version and I can't guarantee it was true of the release version, but since all they were working with was the normal front facing camera I doubt they were able to make this secure.

[Joeri]

I alo had a lumia 950. It does not have face recognition, it has an iris scanner. An infrared light lights up your eyes and then the camera makes an IR picture where it analyzes your iris pattern. The reason it didn't work well is that your eyes had to be open (no squinting, like in bright light), close enough to capture a precise image and in exactly the right spot for the zoomed in camera. I eventually learned a gesture that unlocked it semi-reliably, but it was basically holding the phone right up to my face in the exact right spot.

Now that I see how apple is doing face id I think it will work more reliably ... eventually. I doubt they'll get it right on the first try because this is the kind of feature that has to bake in the real world (like apple maps). Still, they may surprise us like they did with the equally hard touch id feature.