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Don’t understand why this is taking Apple so long. The Mac is arguably the strongest use case for FaceID.

The cases that contain the screen on desktop and laptop Macs are thinner than an iPhone or iPad and this makes it difficult to fit the components for a current-generation 1080p webcam or FaceID as there is a minimum depth they need for the optics to work.

So we need thicker cases or thinner optics that can fit and work. And for a laptop, a thicker case adds weight and bulk and those are two things a significant percentage of laptop customers do not appreciate.
 
Interesting to see how Apple is desperately playing catch-up to Microsoft who has had Face ID for 2+ years.
I don't think Apple could stand themselves allowing the 2D implementation like Microsoft Hello, otherwise they could have done it as early as iPhone 4. Apple is still too slow to put Face ID on the Mac though, but they're not playing catch-up. It's a different tech altogether.
 
Meanwhile, the PC world that is so far behind Macs, has had this technology for years. Anyone can buy a Windows Hello compatible camera and have Face ID on any Windows 10 machine. My almost four year old Thinkpad laptop has this.

My grandparents are quicker to adopt technology compared to Apple.
 
Why? touch ID works good enough on my laptop
I find that touch ID is just faster than Face ID
Miss my iphone 8 lighting quick to unlock
on my iphone 12 I have face ID disable and just use my code every 5 min or so
An additional means of authentication will offer more security. We always have a password to fall back on.
 
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So we shouldn't expect more than 1080 mediocre front cams on Mac until they get this over with. great!
meanwhile they will put a circler light on the touchid on the coming MBP, Yay!
 
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Apple plans to bring Face ID to the Mac within the next "couple of years," respected Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman said today in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter.

FaceID-iMac-REREREREMIX.jpg

In the newsletter, Gurman says that he believes Apple's ultimate goal is to shift all of its products to Face ID, including the lower-end iPhones such as the iPhone SE and the iPad Air, which feature Touch ID. Gurman says Touch ID remains an important part of Apple's product lineup, especially for lower-end models, thanks to it being a "cheaper alternative" to Face ID while continuing to provide security to users.
Gurman had previously reported that as Apple was planning its recently launched redesigned 24-inch iMac, it had initially planned to include Face ID, but that Face ID implementation has been delayed to an upcoming iMac redesign instead. Unlike iPhones and iPads, Mac laptop screens are significantly thinner, making it harder to fit the necessary depth sensors for Face ID, Gurman notes.

Further down the line, Gurman says Apple will eventually embed Face ID into the screens themselves, abandoning the need for a notch on the iPhone. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes such an iPhone may debut as early as 2023. As for the Mac desktop, Apple is continuing to develop a replacement for the 27-inch iMac which may feature a larger screen and a more powerful "M2X" chip. Apple earlier this year paused work on the larger iMac to focus on the 24-inch iMac, which was released this past April.

Article Link: Gurman: Face ID on the Mac Coming Within a 'Couple of Years'
Will it work with the MacBook Pro?
 
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Don’t understand why this is taking Apple so long. The Mac is arguably the strongest use case for FaceID.

I thought about this as well, they obviously could have implemented this right around when the first iPad Pro featured face id/

It was either price point, or something else. Although I still don’t understand why they didn’t cram it in the highest models where price isn’t reslly an issue
 
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Couple of years can be anytime.. as of now Touch ID isn't always "the cheap alternative". The new iMac keyboard is a good example that Touch ID button is actually the highest end Apple keyboard you can use for M1 Macs.
 
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I'm feel like Gurman is more predicting than actually giving new information in these newsletters.
Those two aren't mutually exclusive. When Gurman "expects" something, you can bet that there's a high likelihood that Face ID is coming to the Mac. That's the new information.
 
I agree with a lot of people here. As well as a Mac, I also own a Windows PC that I do my main work on, and it has a Windows Hello webcam (a Lenovo 500) it logs me in whenever I sit in front of it, it can do 1080P and my Zoom calls. It's great. Apple should have implemented FaceID on the new M1 iMac and they are now starting to hurt the Mac by not having it.
 
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Meanwhile, the PC world that is so far behind Macs, has had this technology for years. Anyone can buy a Windows Hello compatible camera and have Face ID on any Windows 10 machine. My almost four year old Thinkpad laptop has this.

My grandparents are quicker to adopt technology compared to Apple.

Enjoy the Eastern European and Chinese spyware that comes free with your Windows device. It works so well you wont even know it’s there.
 
Why would I want facial recognition as an authorization reature on a device I *sit in front of and stare at all day*? Remember, touchID isnt just for logging in! Not to mention it means I can’t keep the camera covered when I’m not in a meeting….

Also they just made it easy to use touchid on devices that arent pointed at you (mac minis, laptops in clamshell mode while docked, eventually the mac pro, etc), why would they swap that for tech that requires a camera that may not be available?

I have my doubts on this
 
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