UPS tracking shows the iPhone X is in Brookfield, Connecticut after arriving from Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Before that the iPhone was in Louisville, KY. Before that the iphone was in Anchorage, Alaska, where it arrived from Shanghai, China having come from ZhengZhou, China, two cities with a combined population of 35 million. I marvel at how Apple is able to produce more than a half-million iPhones every single day, and pump them through a well-oiled logistics system to arrive exactly as planned.
The other thing which went as planned was the setup of the new X. The process approaches magic. I placed the iPhone 7+ (left) and the iPhone X (right) side by side. The 7+ recognized the X and asked if I wanted to transfer the settings from old to new. Yes. Then the X asked if I wanted to activate the phone with AT&T. Yes. Then it asked if I wanted all my songs, pictures, apps, and data to be transferred from the iCloud backup to the new phone. Yes. It also asked if I wanted my Apple Watch to be synced with the phone. Yes. Next, the X asked me to look at the front-facing camera and move my head in circles while the X captured and analyzed more than 30,000 invisible dots projected onto my face. It also captured an infrared image of my face. After doing this twice, I was enrolled in Face ID.
Whenever I look at the iPhone X, it captures data and compares what it sees to the data from when I enrolled. I don’t know the number of calculations it requires but it happens instantly, no delay. Face ID works in the dark and can adapt to shaving a beard, and wearing a hat, scarf, or sunglasses. While the odds of someone stealing your iPhone and having a fingerprint just like yours is 1 in 50,000, with Face ID, the odds of the thief having a face the same as yours is 1 in a million.
With a simple glance, Face ID securely unlocks your iPhone X, and you can make purchases from Apple or make payments to an online or brick-and-mortar retailer. Apps which support Touch ID now automatically support Face ID, and many more will surely follow. There are many other amazing features of the iPhone X. I’ll write more about them in upcoming e-briefs.
