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Ever wished your iPhone 6/Plus had a back button? With this $17 screen protector, you can have one …

haloback

Apple may have introduced Reachability to aid one-handed operation of its larger-screened iPhones, but if you’ve ever found yourself happily enjoying the full-screen experience only to need your second hand to reach the back button at the top of the screen, there’s a clever solution on Kickstarter.

Halo Back is what its creator terms a smart screen protector. Covering the entire front face of your iPhone just like a conventional screen protector, it adds an embedded capacitive circuit layer running from the area to the left of the home button to the top left of the iPhone. Touch the invisible button, and Halo Back transmits your touch to the usual position for a software back button.

I’m not personally a fan of screen protectors, preferring my iPhone screen naked and hoping not to drop it, but if I were going for a protector, I like the idea of the extra functionality.

The Halo Back is planned to retail for a rather pricey $49, but you can back it on Kickstarter for $17 (the early bird versions now gone), with delivery scheduled for August. It’s the same price for both iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The usual Kickstarter cautions apply – most deliver, but not all – and it only works with apps that have their back button in the standard place, but that’s most of them.

Via Gizmodo

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Comments

  1. Rudy (@RudyChidiac) - 9 years ago

    “only to need your second hand to reach the back button at the top of the screen”

    Or you could just swipe from the left edge to go back…

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Yeah, that’s pretty fiddly one-handed

      • freediverx - 9 years ago

        Swipe to go back is by far the best navigation. The only problem is when you run into a poorly designed app that repurposes this gesture for something else like opening a hamburger menu. I’m looking at you Beats Music.

    • mikemansor - 9 years ago

      It’s faster to swipe from the edge than to have to reposition your thumb to the bottom left of the screen to press the back button. Unfortunately, there are still apps that haven’t or that developer refuse to implement edge swipe (the finger points at you, Google),

  2. Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

    Screen protectors make the screen look blurred, and they’re not even necessary as long as you use some common sense. We don’t need a back button when we can just swipe from left to right. And I just did it with one hand. This thing is a total waste of money.

    • Michael Napier (@NapMan) - 9 years ago

      Well, I disagree with you on the screen protector comment. I had my iPhone 5 for about 3 months when I started having problems with the volume up button. I had put a screen protector on it from day one. I took it to the Apple Store and they gave me a new phone. I really loved the look and feel without a screen protector so I decided to not use one. After about a month I noticed a small scratch on the screen. I never put anything in the same pocket with the phone. I never dropped it. I have no idea how the scratch got there. I am careful with my devices.

      • Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

        All I can say is that I have had 6 iPhones since the first one shipped, and none of them have ever had a scratch on the screen. The likely reason is because I have treated them all very well, and I have my iPhone in my pocket, it’s the only thing in my pocket. I still say that screen protectors are a waste of money. I don’t want to detract from the beauty and usability of my iPhone when all that is needed is to take good care of it.

  3. Android/Samsung user complaining.
    pffttt, existing apple/iphone user never complain about this. Why need back button?DUH
    just swipe it across the screen.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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