With rumours of a fingerprint sensor coming to the next iPhone, is there anything in the code to confirm this?
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Any devs looked at the code to confirm a finger print sensor?
- Thread starter Risco
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Do people really think Apple is gonna use a finger print sensor? Do you know how expensive that would be?
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While you might be right, I just don't think they would have included that code in the OS unless they were ready to show it.
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Precisely my point! Who knew about Siri on the first iOS 5 betas? I could be wrong but I don't think there was any signs of it till later, before the iPhone 4S announcment.
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People were not necessarily looking for it. I made this post in the hope that devs would start actively hunting.
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They're not adding a fingerprint sensor, that would drive up the costs of the iPhone and they're already expensive enough.
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iPhones have one of the highest profit margins of all smart phones. That along with the very low cost of a fingerprint sensor make for an easy addition to any iOS device, the the possible exception of the iPod Touch and Apple TV. Likely because the iPod Touch's profit margin is very small and the Apple TV has no use for one.
Quite a lot of people knew about Siri before the 4S launch. They had gotten the dictation button to show, knew it was code named "Assistant", and even had a rough idea about how the UI would look. They knew most of this by August.
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You realize that Apple bought fingerprint company, Authentec, for $356 million? There are several fingerprint sensor companies, but Authentec was unique because it had developed a fingerprint sensor which can be placed behind a screen. This new technology gives Apple much more flexibility in sensor placement, and reduces the amount of space required to add a fingerprint sensor.
As far as cost, my recollection is that Authentec charged other hardware companies around $20 for its traditional fingerprint sensors. Apple's cost should be a good deal less, now that they own the company.
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and what would it do, other than a gimmick feature that isn't very convenient?
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Wrong.. a fingerprint sensor would eliminate the use of passwords.
You wouldn't need to type in your code to wake up the phone or your pw to purchase something in the app store.
And I think Apple would go even further, no need for any pw on any website.
It would be a very, very nice and helpful and secure feature!
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at the same time, decreasing battery life and performance. Apple buys a lot of things and doesn't do anything with them.
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Fingerprint sensors, even when in use, use an extremely small amount of power. You'd use up more battery life taking a picture with the flash than you would swiping your finger 25 times. The performance loss is non-existent. iOS would see the device as a HID input device and treat it as such. No loss of speed or extra resources would be used.
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It would ideally:
- eliminate the long alphanumeric passwords currently required by government and corporate networks;
- provide secure authentication for mobile payments, including purchases from the Apple Store, as well as wireless payments made to vendors using near field communication or Bluetooth;
- simplify web login/password entry for the web, whereby a fingerprint scan would populate the user's information from a secure password application (IOS Keychain) in Safari;
- simplify (eliminate) login/password entry for third-party iOS7 applications (e.g., your bank's IOS app), by allowing third-party developers to substitute fingerprints for passwords;
- provide seamless multi-user support, which would benefit home users, as well as corporations and governments, that share one device (e.g., iPad, future Macbooks) among multiple users.
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I would be surprised if the next iphone didn't have a fingerprint sensor. Reason being, wouldn't it be perfect for apple's keychain? Besides, what else is apple going to do? I still doubt NFC.
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I think this may be why Apple added support for iCloud keychain in iOS 7. Store all your passwords and credit card information in the keychain and auto fill them after you scan your fingerprint. That would be an awesome feature.
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They make huge profit on the iPhone, if they are making two models the higher end one could be slightly more expensive than we see now too.
Even without, currently the galaxy s 4 costs more to manufacture than an iPhone 5, they can throw in a 5$ finger print reader (buying by the hundred million drives costs down a lot)
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Really? I'll bet the house that a fingerprint scanner will be coming either on the 5S or 6 at latest.
And FYI, fingerprint scanning tech is not that expensive at all.
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Android phones have had fingerprint sensors before, don't know why it would be too expensive for Apple but not for Motorola.
I also don't know why Apple bought the company supplying those sensors to the android phones if they were not planning on using it.
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How would adding a fingerprint sensor decrease performance? And how would it decrease battery life significantly if it is only powered on less than 1% of the time your phone is running?
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If there was no way for them to withhold it from all the developers betas yes.
If it is something they could add between the last beta and GM, nope. Not until the actual hardware event
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