iPhone SE 4 Rumors

If it has no TouchID, no interest. FaceID is way, WAY less reliable on my current-gen iPad Pro than TouchID on my first gen SE.

Also, masking is still a thing for the immuno-suppressed, enabling reduced security with mask for FaceID is likely to cause your bank to refuse liability for fraud, & TouchID-based ApplePay is the single best tech Apple has ever made.

So I guess it's try to get a current SE before they're gone. *shrug*

I moved from an SE to an all-screen iPhone, and I absolutely hate it. The Home button is faster, more intuitive, more accurate, more intentional, and less intrusive than the multitude of hackjob software workarounds needed to replace its functionality (as a single example, would you be able to figure out how to force-restart a buttonless iPhone without looking it up? How about an older one with a Home button, do you think you could stumble upon that restart gesture on your own?). The Home button + TouchID was a sweet spot in user interaction that will be sorely missed.

Shoving TouchID into the iPad's sleep/wake button is no substitute. I had to disable raise-to-wake because too many times I would raise the iPad, the screen remained blank, and I would click the wake button only for the screen to wake up on a lag from the motion and then turn right back off from the click. I have to hunt around the edges for the button because there are no visible orientation cues on the iPad's face anymore. It's impossible to use with the iPad laying flat on a surface, and provides none of the other benefits of a Home button. It's a terrible kludge.

I like (real) Touch ID much better than Face ID, too, but I guess I like the extra screen space of the 12 mini more. Touch ID in my iPad’s sleep/wake button has been terrible—it rarely works.

Well iPhone SE just works. Fits in my pocket. A utility device. I have an iPad if I need larger screen. Not sure Apple understands that some of us just want the basics in a small form factor.

I have an SE. The only reason I got it was for TouchID.

I’m really not going to like being forced to give it up for FaceID which I consider to be inferior and I’ll probably disable it and go back to always having to enter a passcode….

I don’t care where they put the TouchID button it could be on the back of the phone but I’m not using my face to unlock my phone.

>or whether I should go through the hassle of getting a new battery for my current phone, which I still love.

I just replaced the battery in my SE2, and it was totally painless. I made sure that I'd backed up my phone (entirely, encrypted, to my Mac - despite the backup system trying to change those settings all the time!), but that was just a precaution. Then booked it in for a battery replacement, showed up at the Apple store, handed it over (I'm pretty sure you are supposed to turn off Find My when that happens, but they didn't get me to do it so I never did). They told me to come back about 75 minutes later, and I did. Cost me a bout over AU$100 (so roughly 1/7th of the cost of a new SE). Very easy and reasonably quick.

There's no doubt I prefer home-button Touch ID. I have an SE2 as a backup and de facto iPod Touch. If they still made iPod Touches it's debatable whether I would, but regardless, the SE in its current form is pretty special, and if it weren't for a stupid bug making it impossible to send texts or make calls with no SIM inserted and instead using Continuity, in the fashion of iPod/iPad, it'd basically be absolutely perfect. It's a shame, the way Apple cannibalises some of its best ideas and products merely for ruthless modern efficiency, but that's the Apple we all know.

Imagine if there was a way to have a fingerprint reader under the screen...

@Anonymous My understanding is that I’d have to provide my passcode for a battery replacement. Apple doesn’t offer a repair mode, so I’d wipe the phone beforehand. Restoring the phone does not preserve the Overcast cache (so I may lose episodes that are no longer available) or the Messages cache (breaking export and search) or which files are downloaded from iCloud Drive. There’s probably other stuff it messes up, too.

About swollen batteries: that is my experience as well. So many of the iPhones in my family has ended up that way and even more so the Macs. So said to see useful MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros ending upp with swollen batteries since it usually means it is end-of-life. For my MacBook Pro I actually went through the trouble of replacing the battery but it was not easy, since it was glues to the chassi and I hade to spend an hour with strong chemicals to get it out.

iPhone SE 4 in a body if iPhone 13 mini, with 1 48mp camera, USB-C and possibly touch ID in the power button - that would be awesome.

Touch ID is the key feature I want preserved. My wife is more than capable with her 13 Pro. I am faster because of Touch ID. Also good luck teaching elders how to interact without any hardware center key.

I very well might buy the current gen SE if it's about to disappear from the market. The last iPhone that has a physical home button is a big deal for me. I *do not* want a phone with no buttons. Buttons are better. I can feel buttons. It's unambiguous when they click. Every time I use a newer iPhone, I have trouble with the touch gestures and it just makes my life that much more frustrating. Sliding my finger up from the bottom frequently fails to trigger correctly. Trying to invoke control center frequently fails. I like buttons. But sadly nearly every Android phone mindlessly followed Apple's lead and no there are no phones, at all, that have any navigation buttons, except the SE.

@Bri My partner and myself are both in the same mindset. We bought 1st Gen SEs, still use them, and are about to buy current gen SEs.

I have used TouchID ApplePay for all but maybe 4 or 5 in-person purchases for the last 5+ years, and the idea of using FaceID for it just isn't going to fly.

TouchID:
- Phone in pocket, top pointing down.
- Reach into pocket, grasp phone, thumb falls on TouchID sensor.
- One fluid motion drawing phone from pocket and placing against the RFID reader.
- Beep & Vibrate.
- Phone back in Pocket.

FaceID:
- Phone in pocket, top pointing down.
- Reach into pocket, grasp phone.
- Withdraw phone from pocket, hold up to face.
- Remove sunglasses because wearing mask and FaceID doesn't work with sunglasses AND a mask.
- Hope that FaceID will authenticate from the strip of face between the brim of my hat, and the top of my mask, while squinting at the brightness.
- Phone unlocks (maybe).
- Put sunglasses back on making sure not to tangle in the straps of mask.
- Move phone to RFID reader.
- Beep & vibrate
- Phone back in pocket.

Someone tell me how this is a better outcome, taking into account FaceID also means losing the persistant VPN status indicator at the top of my screen?

My mom's MacBook Pro 2014 13" had it's battery start to swell up at about 6 years old. Had it been allowed to continue, the laptop would have been destroyed.

I called Apple and basically demanded that they replace the battery for free. My argument was that it was their decision to make the battery non-removable - not mine, I shouldn't have to just sit here and watch the laptop slowly destroy it's self, etc.

Not only did they replace the battery for free, they also replaced the crackling speakers (maybe the whole top case? I'm not sure).