Apple Just Killed the Home Button With the iPhone X

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As predicted by numerous rumors and recent high-profile leaks, Apple officially announced that it's chopping off the top and bottom bezels -- the space that isn't the screen -- in favor of a stunning, nearly bezel-free display on the special edition iPhone X. That means the front of the new high-end phone doesn't include the circular Home button you've depended on since the very first iPhone 10 years ago. Instead, the tech giant has devised an entirely new way to use the phone.

Apple officially unveiled the "Super Retina Display" of the top-of-the-line phone during a special event at the new Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California on Tuesday. The giant screen takes up almost the entire face of the phone, except for a "notch" that houses the phone earpiece, cameras, and other sensors. The beloved Home button is nowhere to be found. So how do you get back to your home screen without it? Apple's Phil Schiller said all you have to do is swipe up from the bottom of the screen -- and boom -- you're there. A long swipe will trigger multitasking (shown in the video above). 

As for unlocking the iPhone X, Apple made the solution a marquee feature of the phone. It's called Face ID, and basically, it allows your phone to simply recognize your face and unlock itself right when you look at it. That's right: instead of using your fingerprint or a passcode, you unlock the iPhone X with your beautiful mug. Here's how Apple explains it:

"Face ID revolutionizes authentication on iPhone X, using a state-of-the-art TrueDepth camera system made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator, and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognize a face. These advanced depth-sensing technologies work together to securely unlock iPhone, enable Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more new features."

The game-changing system projects more than 30,000 invisible infrared dots onto your face and creates a a mathematical model of it that's saved in a "secure enclave" on the phone nobody else can access. For additional privacy protection, all of the saved facial data and all of the processing the phone does when it recognizes your face is done on the device, meaning none of that info is sent to the cloud or anywhere else on the internet. Apple said it also designed Face ID to reject attempts to fool it with masks or photos all while adapting to changes in your face's appearance over time. It even works in the dark.

In addition to unlocking your phone, the iPhone X also uses Face ID to authenticate your purchases made with Apple Pay as well as other functions requiring a password that would otherwise use Touch ID built into the Home button, like on the iPhone 8. Yes, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus still come with the Home button you know and love as well as the Touch ID capabilities built into it. 

All said, your face is about to be your new password.

Check back for more updates on everything you need to know about the big Apple announcements, including the differences between iPhone 8 and iPhone X, when you can pre-order them, the price tag, the new iPhone colors, the iPhone X camera, the new Apple TV 4K and more.

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Tony Merevick is Senior News Editor at Thrillist and thinks it may take him a little while to get used to this. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.