Early Prototype of Apple's Touch ID Demoed by AuthenTec Co-Founder

[kappaknight]

"Pointless", that's your opinion. The Instagram purchase is yielding promising results for Facebook.

Interesting article but it doesn't really prove anything or make any points. In fact, it shares a similar view as mine as far as I can tell.

1. Instagram is not making money.
2. Zuck is not in a rush to capitalize on it, which means they don't know what it's for either.
3. Yes, the network is growing really fast, but so would any other property if it was suddenly tied directly to the largest pool of internet users in the world.

Meanwhile, this Touch ID thing has probably paid for itself and then some with this generation of 5s phones.

I'm not saying Facebook is dumb as I'm sure they'll figure out what to do with it eventually... I'm just saying it's a sad state of affairs when real technology is being valued less than a few lines of code that literally does nothing but share photos.

 

[notabadname]

Or just fortunate, there was lots of talk previously about removing the home buttton to have more screen.

Lots of talk where? Were you hanging with the Apple product development team when they were discussing this?

I love how MR banter becomes some sort of "evidence" for the goings-on inside Apple.

 

[Chrjy]

Or just fortunate, there was lots of talk previously about removing the home buttton to have more screen.

Unlikely fortunate. I'm confident Apple are way ahead when it comes to their strategic plans, they will be planning 10 years in advance not just a a few months or a year or two.

There was lots of 'TALK' about removing the home button but it was exactly that and it was talk on the rumor sites.

 

[tongxinshe]

Having never used a password for my iPhones I thought TouchID would be the thing that converted me over. Unfortunately, I decided to switch it off after a few days for the simple fact that TouchID requires "immediate" passcode instead of allowing me to choose 5 or 10 min intervals. Having to scan my finger every min sometimes got old fast.

Anyone else feel the same? This is such a silly software choice on Apple's part.

It does not mean the sensor scans your finger every minute, it only does that after you put the phone to sleep.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Am I the only one who has issues?
It just does not like my left thumb or my right forefinger.
Bot of which are the main digits Iuse for the home button, depending on whether it's being taken out of my jacket or pants pocket.
The commonality is that both of the "difficult fingers" have a scar. One from a fish hook, another from a sawzall.

 

[giantfan1224]

Am I the only one who has issues?
It just does not like my left thumb or my right forefinger.
Bot of which are the main digits Iuse for the home button, depending on whether it's being taken out of my jacket or pants pocket.
The commonality is that both of the "difficult fingers" have a scar. One from a fish hook, another from a sawzall.

Apple realizes that it won't work for everyone. That's why you can disable it and go back to a passcode, or disable a security to unlock feature altogether. Maybe future iterations of the hardware, or even software, will be able to work with scars or other abnormalities. The point is, it seems to work quite well as intended for a majority of users.

 

[KdParker]

Lots of talk where? Were you hanging with the Apple product development team when they were discussing this?

I love how MR banter becomes some sort of "evidence" for the goings-on inside Apple.

There was lots of talk about the touch id before it showed too....hmmmm.

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Unlikely fortunate. I'm confident Apple are way ahead when it comes to their strategic plans, they will be planning 10 years in advance not just a a few months or a year or two.

There was lots of 'TALK' about removing the home button but it was exactly that and it was talk on the rumor sites.

Like I said before there was lots of talk about touch id, retina display, etc...sometimes the talk shows up.

I can't wait to see what apple comes up with for the iPhone 6 ...

 

[Bensalama21]

I WAS THERE! Great speech. Amazing story

The guy was about to retire when the company lost 30% of its revenue (High end PC's not as popular) and had to think of something new fast. That's when they developed the new scanner and Apple became interested.

 

[Tech198]

Look at that box

I'd say twice the size of the Action Replay III cartridge by Datel Electronics used on my Amiga, back in the early 90's.

 

[kdarling]

It is interesting that it reads pores etc. That level detail is impressive, I was unaware of that.

I suspect he was talking about the original Harris version, not the Apple version.

The Apple sensor is supposedly only 256 DPI, which is nowhere near enough to resolve pores.

So it uses a technology never before used by other fingerprint scanner and apparently significantly more accurate. Apple effectively has a lock on the best fingerprint scanner in world.

This type of sensor has been around since before the turn of the century.

I think what's unusual about this one, is the low cost for a flat scanner (one you don't have to swipe).

 

[Bensalama21]

Look at that box

I'd say twice the size of the Action Replay III cartridge by Datel Electronics used on my Amiga, back in the early 90's.

He said by the time they demo'ed the device at companies like Motorola and other huge companies, they were able to get everything into that smaller device attached to the big box. (and just make it one device but a little bigger)

 

[lifeinhd]

PS, when will we see this on MacBooks?

You just gave me the best idea! Incorporate it into the power buttons of their computers. When people power them on, it'll read their fingerprint right then at startup, and it'll know who to log in as and automatically do it for them! That would be amazing.

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It does not mean the sensor scans your finger every minute, it only does that after you put the phone to sleep.

That's what he means. You can set a delay with a passcode, so if you turn your phone back on after a couple minutes you don't have to enter your passcode again, which can be cumbersome. He'd like to have that delay with touchID as well, but you have to scan your finger every time. And frankly, I agree with him. It can be cumbersome, especially when it doesn't read your finger the first time several times, and you know it wouldn't be an issue if you could have a delay but you can't because poor design.

 

[kiantech]

Yet the fandroids in mass claim Apple can't innovate. The Touch ID is a perfect example of Apple innovating, even if fingerprint identification systems have existed before on electronic devices.

Exactly, I'm an Electrical Engineer with specialties in embedded systems. The A7 is porn to me! The amount of engineering that went into the chip is mind blowing, especially for a company whose business model is not making chips. It makes me cringe when I see fools calling the A7 just a dual-core, or worse, give samsung credit because they don't understand a manufacturer is different than design. It's a technological achievement! I'm glad blogs exist like anandtech, where the hard work can be appreciated.

 

[BvizioN]

i don't have a 5s but i thought it's every 48 hours that the phone needs your passcode?

I think you misunderstood the person you quoted. He/she is not happy to have the finger scanned every time he/she needs to wake the phone, and instead would prefer the need for touch ID to be used every 10 min (like you would with passcode) which it totally defy's the purpose of having in it on the first place.

I can understand being annoyed to have to use pass code/password every minute but touch ID? I been using it for a week and it feels so natural that you get the feeling that there is no pass-code/touch ID unlabeled at all!! It just lets you in almost instantly.

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But they didn't innovate. They bought the company that developed this technology.

How is that different from hiring people that work for Apple and push the innovation?

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Yes, but I don't want to have to scan my fingerprint everytime I unlock the phone, like when I'm having a text conversation and the screen turns off in between messages. I want to only need my passcode/fingerprint every 5 or 15 mins.

But doesn't that defy the purpose of having a secure phone to start with? On that 15 min interval you (or someone) could forget the phone in a bar and viola! Someone got the phone and all it's data.

 

[Wingsy]

some people are just too lazy to wait the one second to keep their finger on the home button

It's faster than that. 0.4 seconds from sleep, and 0.24 seconds from the lock screen. See it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW3OcxMnhwc

 

[Dontazemebro]

Is it wise to give out so much information on how the sensor works? I would think that's something you would like to keep in-house not only for security issues, but to keep your competitors guessing while you constantly look to improve on your formula.

I dunno, maybe they're just excited that they have a great product down but If it were me, I would be mute on all the inner workings.

 

[meesteridle]

android print sensor

I recall a guy last year bragging to me about how his Android phone had a fingerprint sensor on his phone. On the back. Really?

Kudos to Apple for building it into the Home button.

 

[chabig]

Yes, but I don't want to have to scan my fingerprint everytime I unlock the phone, like when I'm having a text conversation and the screen turns off in between messages.

Don't let the screen turn off. Set auto-lock to never.

 

[giantfan1224]

Is it wise to give out so much information on how the sensor works? I would think that's something you would like to keep in-house not only for security issues, but to keep your competitors guessing while you constantly look to improve on your formula.

I dunno, maybe they're just excited that they have a great product down but If it were me, I would be mute on all the inner workings.

All the competition has to do is buy a 5S. Then they can figure out exactly how the sensor works. Nothing really secret can be kept once the technology is out in the wild.

 

[tongxinshe]

I have to laugh at those people who think someone might steal fingerprints from the memory in the iPhone. They forget that they already have left their finger prints on ever object they have ever touched in their entire life. I bet none of them think much about the glasses and silverware when they go out to eat or the door handle at the front of their house or a pen they leave on the dest or cash use to pay at the store. Finger prints are on everything.

In fact even the guy who figured out how to defeat the finger print sensor needed a copy of the iPhone owner's fingerprint. What does he do? Uses fingerprint powder on the glass touch screen and photographs the screen. Why bother to hack the phone when 100 copies of the owners prints are all over the glass?

It's not about the hacker, it's about NSA.

Although Apple has no direct access to the fingerprint data (only on the A7), Apple is required to give direct access to NSA, and, with also direct access of the GPS data and all other real-time data on the iPhone, NSA gets much better real-time information about you, including some sort of your health status.

The real scary part of this "NSA access" is that an NSA official can VERY EASILY use it to go against you if you happen to have a personal conflict with him or you happen to have something he himself has strong personal interests in.

 

[PracticalMac]

No

No, what?

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You just gave me the best idea! Incorporate it into the power buttons of their computers. When people power them on, it'll read their fingerprint right then at startup, and it'll know who to log in as and automatically do it for them! That would be amazing.

I am sure it has already been thought of by Apple.

Its not IF, but, as I typed, when?
(and not just one MacBooks, but it is next logical step).

 

[Vanilla35]

No, what?

It's not the best fingerprint scanner in the world.

They will copy it, just like Apple copied the health aspect of the S4 with the M7 processor (to a certain extent). They both copy each other, all the time. Did you know Samsung came out with "Blocking mode" just before "Do not Disturb mode" came out for iOS6? Who cares, they both copy each other.

Who said it's going to come to macbooks? I don't think it'll come to that line at all. Maybe the Mac Pro but I doubt that too

 

[MikeyMike01]

You're probably not using it right.

It doesn't take much longer than clicking the home button to actually unlock the device. It's definitely faster than typing a passcode.

Do you click the home button then leave your finger there? The time it takes to unlock the device is very minimal.

Exactly. It's actually less time to unlock than with no security on. It's really a wonderful system.

All it needs is a way to remove Airplane mode from Control Center on the lock screen without having to nix the whole thing.