The new Halo Back iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screen protectors include a special feature not found on the iPhone. Halo Back contains a physical back button, which resembles those on Android devices.
Part of Apple's design philosophy has always been a simple, elegant aesthetic that many would call minimalistic. The absence of extra buttons and elements on its hardware underscores the intent to build the software itself. That's why the iPod replaced the once-necessary famous click-wheel for scrolling with a touchscreen with integrated software. The current iPhones have only one button on the face of the device, the home button.
Many Android fans feel that Apple has gone too far in its quest for minimalism and has eliminated elements that are useful, many of which appear on Android devices. The "back" button is one of the features missing on the iPhone as a physical button. Users instead need to awkwardly reach to the upper left corner of their iPhone screen to return to the previous page. This cumbersome task has gotten more difficult as the size of the iPhone has increased significantly with the latest generation, especially with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus phablet.
Now, a new combination case and screen protector called the Halo Back has brought the much-coveted back button to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The case introduces a physical hardware button exactly where it appears on many Android phones, the bottom left corner of the screen. According to its design team, the Halo Back works by adding "a circuit layer to a traditional glass screen protector. It helps to lead current when you press [the] lower left corner of the screen, so that the back button works."
The manufacturer started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $20,000 and has already received more than five times that amount in pledges. While only $17 now will reserve you a Halo Back when the device launches in August, you'll have to shell out $49 if you wait until then to commit. The manufacturer is also considering launching an iPhone 5s version of the item.
