Craig Federighi, Apple's best showman since Steve Jobs, took the demo screw-up in stride. But the stock fell and the internet went nuts.
A sampling of the coverage:
- Business Insider: Watch Apple's Face ID unlocking fail during its big demo
- The Telegraph: Apple suffers embarrassing demo Face ID fail at iPhone X launch
- Mashable: Apple tried to show off Face ID, and it was so embarrassing
- MacRumors: Doubts and Speculation Surround Apple's Onstage Face ID 'Fail' During iPhone X Keynote
- The Verge: Apple's first Face ID demo failed, but it wasn't Face ID's fault
- Vice: Apple’s stock suddenly dropped after that Face ID fail
Below: By Thursday morning, Unbox Therapy's over-the-top blow-by-blow had drawn 2.8 million views:
My take: I thought Apple would be crazy to kill Touch ID. But I'm pretty sure they'll get this right by the time I get my iPhone X.
UPDATE: Yahoo's David Pogue got through to Apple:
Tonight, I was able to contact Apple. After examining the logs of the demo iPhone X, they now know exactly what went down. Turns out my first theory in this story was wrong—but my first UPDATE theory above was correct: "People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time," says a rep, "and didn't realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. 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." In other words, "Face ID worked as it was designed to."
In other words, according to Apple, it was a Face ID demo fail, not a Face ID fail— the prevailing theory in the comment stream. Headline changed accordingly.
https://www.google.com/amp/bgr.com/2014/09/26/iphone-antennagate-mapsgate-bendgate/amp/
And I wish I could reclaim the little time I wasted on that annoying video.
What failed was whoever set that iPhone up for Craig (or Craig himself). They needed to log him in with a passcode after a restart. Then they could demo Face ID without hiccup.
As I said in my other comment this was a great presentation moment for Craig. He handled it perfectly and didn’t miss a beat. There was NO FACE ID FAIL and we should not be perpetuating that meme. There was a presentation prep fail but in fact, to me it turned into a feature.
If Apple already knows what happened—and I bet they do—sharing that information might drive a stake through the meme.
I don’t care what anybody says, I still think Craig had the best looking hair of the lot. Sorry, Angela. 🙂
But to the point of ‘password when you reboot,’ it’s really hard to believe Craig rebooted just before walking on the stage. If so, he really blew that, and the ghost of Steve Jobs is saying very bad things at him.
We DO NOT KNOW if this was a fail or not!
Perhaps I’m not doing everything right, but I find Touch ID on my SE phone works flawlessly about a third of the time. The other two thirds of the time I need to enter my passcode. Maybe this is the new normal or maybe I’m doing something wrong?
The simplest explanation and thus probably the correct explanation.
Hmm. Maybe there needs to be an “I’m passing my iPhone X around” mode….