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Both is fine with me. FaceID is great for any time you've got gloves on. I wish they had an external version of it, e.g. an apple keyboard with touchID or supp

Both is fine with me. FaceID is great for any time you've got gloves on. I wish they had an external version of it, e.g. an apple keyboard with touchID or support for generic webcams for FaceID so it'd work when docked, etc.

crazygringo 6y ago
The new iMac has it on its external wireless keyboard. So it's coming, just slowly. FaceID surely won't ever work with webcams however -- it uses a custom-built depth sensor separate from the camera.
- masklinn 6y ago
  > FaceID surely won't ever work with webcams however -- it uses a custom-built depth sensor separate from the camera. iMacs could absolutely have the entire camera module, depth sensor included. Things would be rather more complicated for the laptops, the cover is thinner than an iPhone. Though obviously not as bad as the protruding back cameras, the front cameras module is still rather deep and would likely require increasing the depth of the cover to fit flush.
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    On the Windows side you can find Windows Hello certified third party cameras with the necessary IR and depth sensors. (I've seen Intel and Logitech options in stores.) Since the death of the Kinect the cost has generally gone way back up as it is a niche of a niche just to support easier logins and few applications anymore are using the IR/depth sensors as much (though even this far past the Kinect, Windows itself has additional eye tracking/attention tracking features these days than it ever had before for accessibility reasons). Surely Apple could release a FaceID-compatible USB webcam if they wished. It's probably less likely for them to FaceID certify third party hardware, though. (That said, I think Apple's other excuse for not supporting FaceID on more hardware is it uses the ML capabilities of some of their mobile A* chipsets. Maybe another thing they might claim can only be done with M1+ macOS.)
robertoandred 6y ago
Plain webcams don't have the 3d/infrared tech that FaceID uses.
csmiller 6y ago
The Apple Watch has a nice function where it can substitute for TouchID/password entry for things like unlocking your Mac, authorizing changes to settings, unlocking 1Password etc. Makes using my laptop docked way more enjoyable. https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-mac-with-apple-watch-apd4200675b8/watchos https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-mac-with-a...

crazygringo 6y ago

The new iMac has it on its external wireless keyboard. So it's coming, just slowly. FaceID surely won't ever work with webcams however -- it uses a custom-built depth sensor separate from the camera.

masklinn 6y ago
> FaceID surely won't ever work with webcams however -- it uses a custom-built depth sensor separate from the camera. iMacs could absolutely have the entire camera module, depth sensor included. Things would be rather more complicated for the laptops, the cover is thinner than an iPhone. Though obviously not as bad as the protruding back cameras, the front cameras module is still rather deep and would likely require increasing the depth of the cover to fit flush.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  On the Windows side you can find Windows Hello certified third party cameras with the necessary IR and depth sensors. (I've seen Intel and Logitech options in stores.) Since the death of the Kinect the cost has generally gone way back up as it is a niche of a niche just to support easier logins and few applications anymore are using the IR/depth sensors as much (though even this far past the Kinect, Windows itself has additional eye tracking/attention tracking features these days than it ever had before for accessibility reasons). Surely Apple could release a FaceID-compatible USB webcam if they wished. It's probably less likely for them to FaceID certify third party hardware, though. (That said, I think Apple's other excuse for not supporting FaceID on more hardware is it uses the ML capabilities of some of their mobile A* chipsets. Maybe another thing they might claim can only be done with M1+ macOS.)

robertoandred 6y ago

Plain webcams don't have the 3d/infrared tech that FaceID uses.

csmiller 6y ago

The Apple Watch has a nice function where it can substitute for TouchID/password entry for things like unlocking your Mac, authorizing changes to settings, unlocking 1Password etc. Makes using my laptop docked way more enjoyable. https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-mac-with-apple-watch-apd4200675b8/watchos https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/unlock-your-mac-with-a...