slide-to-unlockOne of the more iconic features of the iPhone and the iOS software would be its ability to “slide to unlock”. Apparently this was a feature that was thought up in order to prevent the phone from accidentally unlocking itself while in bag or a pocket which can happen when you use physical buttons.

However it seems that the feature was only created as an after-thought because according to Apple’s head of human-interface, Greg Christie, the company had opted for an always-on screen which could be ready to go at the touch of the screen, but apparently due to the amount of power that would require, they weren’t able to include that feature.

Christie was testifying at the Apple-Samsung trial where he was quoted as saying. “We couldn’t meet our power requirements if we had that active a state. We had to resort to a power button.” This eventually led to Apple going with the “slide to unlock” feature, which at the same would also solve the problem of issues like pocket dialing.

His recount of the history and the feature was to stress the importance of some of Apple’s patents and that they are valuable and are worth the damages that Apple is asking from Samsung. Christie states that the “slide to unlock” feature is important because it would be the first thing that a customer would see, whether it be at the store or at home after purchasing an iPhone.

Like we said, the feature has become somewhat iconic and is usually linked to Apple’s iOS devices, much like how the pattern unlock feature is usually thought of to be an Android feature.

Filed in Apple >Cellphones. Read more about and .

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