14 DAY TRIAL // An iPhone 5 concept by Kris Groen shows what is possible with dual home buttons on each side of the phone’s steel frame, including fast app switching and clean navigation through your icon-filled springboard.
The next iPhone is expected to have a bigger display, which, according to many people in the Apple blogosphere, might just force the company to eliminate the traditional home button altogether.
Kris Groen, an AppAdvice reader, believes this theory holds water. He created this mockup (video embedded below) to show just how cool it would be to have two physical ‘home’ buttons on each side of the device.
He believes it would be completely normal to use the phone this way, as this is the natural holding position of any smartphone.
“‘Squeezing’ the two new buttons together activates the home function,” he explains. “Your fingers are instinctively in this position already.”
Basically, you wouldn’t even need your second hand to switch through your apps, whether in the Home screen, or in an app.
“This also allows for true stereo output since we now have two speakers on the bottom of the phone,” he adds.
And there’s a new (and potentially improved) microphone where the old home button used to be, according to the concept by Groen.
The two new home buttons can also be used to skip through songs, videos, emails, calendars, photos, and much more, according to the author of the concept.
However, a home button should not undergo this level of programmability, otherwise the user might get confused. In the end, you still need the home button to perform its basic function - that being always returning you to the home screen.
Groen concludes his demo with an Apple-inspired tagline:
iPhone 5
The phone is just the start With a 4 inch Retina Display, 10MP large sensor camera, desktop quality apps and games, push email and full featured web browser - it’s the ‘phone’ you’ve been waiting for.
