Likelihood of new models that don’t need passwords?

[basehead617]

I feel like i’ve read the roundups pretty thoroughly but I don’t see anything about developing tech to not require a password on the watch when putting it on.

Can’t they do something with reading skin patterns under the watch back or vein patterns or something?

It’s one of the more annoying things to me.

 

[JBaby]

Use your phone to unlock your watch. It’s passcodes aren’t going away. You have to secure the watch and Pay somehow.

 

[Howard2k]

Use your phone to unlock your watch. It’s passcodes aren’t going away. You have to secure the watch and Pay somehow.

Seconded.

I feel like i’ve read the roundups pretty thoroughly but I don’t see anything about developing tech to not require a password on the watch when putting it on.

Can’t they do something with reading skin patterns under the watch back or vein patterns or something?

It’s one of the more annoying things to me.

Yeah you'd think that some combination of health data would be usable to identify a person. Heartbeats must be unique, surely, but they're also variable of course, and I don't know how long you'd need to listen to a heartbeat for positive identification. You could add other data too, like you said there might be some sort of skin pattern or other data.

It seems like the thing that would clearly be possible at some point but I think the fact that we haven't heard about significant improvements coming in this area is probably indicative of the fact that the industry as a whole isn't there yet. All the same - I'm sure there are some tech companies doing interesting work on exactly this. It will be interesting to see how it's done.


Here's one:

Your Heartbeat May Soon Be Your Only Password

As part of BeyondCurious‘ ongoing interest in what wearable technology will mean for enterprise, I attended the Glazed Conference in San Francisco this week. Glazed, a conference on the business of wearable technology organized by Wearable World, attracts pioneers and luminaries in the wearable...

www.wired.com

Looks like it's from 2014. I guess it's a little harder than anticipated, although their implementation looked a little clumsy.

 

[andrewstirling]

Yeah. Seems much less hassle to type in a 4 digit password!

 

[Itinj24]

Yeah. Seems much less hassle to type in a 4 digit password!

That one second out of your life everyday adds up. I could be doing other more productive things in that one second like, blink.

Seriously though, why the need for a potential price increase for a technology that saves you one second out of your day? Even still, there’s software implementation that will unlock the Watch with your iPhone as previously mentioned.

I’ll put the likelihood of that happening anywhere from 0 to negative slim.

TouchID of some sort, that I could see happening before a skin or arterial/venous sensor.

 

[BigBlur]

Would be cool, but I don't see Apple investing the time and money into developing some new technology to make this happen for something that only needs to be done once a day for most people.

For me, I enter in my passcode maybe once a week. For all the other times, I just let my phone unlock it for me. Either way, the passcode is a lot easier to enter in with the larger display on the S7. I'm no longer hitting the wrong numbers on my 41mm S7 like I occasionally did on my 42mm S2.

 

[NoBoMac]

Yeah. Seems much less hassle to type in a 4 digit password!

I have nine digits, so it does add up over the course of the day/month/year.

As for reading skin patterns, really doubt it. For example, what if the watch is not seated just right on the wrist to recognize the pattern. Eg. similar to TouchID and if the slightest bit of schmutz is present, or touching just a little off, get an unrecognized. Probably would need some kind of calibration process like TouchID for the Watch.

Heart rate is an interesting option, but as pointed out, varies. Watches with ECG might be a better option as that might be a more unique signature, but again, if having some health issue at the time (even if minor, not cardio related), could throw things off.

No, what is really needed here is a mini-notch.

 

[canyonblue737]

I feel like i’ve read the roundups pretty thoroughly but I don’t see anything about developing tech to not require a password on the watch when putting it on.

Can’t they do something with reading skin patterns under the watch back or vein patterns or something?

It’s one of the more annoying things to me.

I mean that sounds neat and all but the tech required for that would be an expensive part of the watch... for what, to save the 4 seconds that it takes to enter your PIN just a single time a day? Apple would be far better off investing their R&D on things that have a more practical advantage for any additional hardware expense.

 

[basehead617]

I mean that sounds neat and all but the tech required for that would be an expensive part of the watch... for what, to save the 4 seconds that it takes to enter your PIN just a single time a day? Apple would be far better off investing their R&D on things that have a more practical advantage for any additional hardware expense.

I mean, you could have used that argument against Touch ID/Face ID.. it's just putting in the password on your phone instead of that too..

 

[iStorm]

I mean, you could have used that argument against Touch ID/Face ID.. it's just putting in the password on your phone instead of that too..

True, but people are unlocking their phone tens if not hundreds times a day. Touch ID/Face ID is also used to authorize Apple Pay and auto-fill passwords & credit cards. It’s definitely more useful on the iPhone. Apple is also able to re-use this tech for iPads and Macs.

With the watch, you only need the passcode when you put it on, which is once a day for most people (if you don’t let your iPhone auto-unlock it for you). Also, the passcode is not needed when using Apple Pay. So in a way, the watch is already authorizing you by knowing it never left your wrist/skin.

I get it though…it would be neat, but I’m curious why this is one of the more annoying things to you. Are you needing to enter your passcode in multiple times a day when it hasn’t left your wrist? Is your iPhone not able to auto-unlock it for you? If so, maybe that’s something we can help you with.

 

[Night Spring]

I get it though…it would be neat, but I’m curious why this is one of the more annoying things to you. Are you needing to enter your passcode in multiple times a day when it hasn’t left your wrist? Is your iPhone not able to auto-unlock it for you? If so, maybe that’s something we can help you with.

I'm not the OP, but thought I'd chime in because I do take the watch on and off multiple times a day. Namely whenever I wash my hands or do the dishes, my watch gets wet, and I hate the feel of wet metal on my wrist, so I take off the watch to dry it. I don't know if other people manage to wash their hands without getting their watch wet, or aren't bothered by a wet watch. After a while, I turned the passcode off on the watch, because I found I don't use the watch much for Apple Pay, because especially during cold months, it takes a lot longer to dig out my watch from under layers of sleeves than it takes to pull out my phone from my coat pocket, and I got tired of looking for my phone or entering the passcode every time I took the watch off.

That said, I don't know if OP's idea of a skin sensor being able to read skin patterns or use heart beat pattern to identify you is feasible. Fingerprint swirls are pretty distinctive, and I don't see any such distinctive patterns on people's wrists, and it seems like heart beats would vary too much to reliably identify individuals every time.

 

[canyonblue737]

I mean, you could have used that argument against Touch ID/Face ID.. it's just putting in the password on your phone instead of that too..

absolutely not. touch ID / faceID is used by some HUNDREDS of times a day so having a fast efficient way of securely entering your phone without a password each of those times is worth the tech and expense. before touch ID people often didn't even put a PIN on their phone because it was too annoying to enter so many times daily! with the watch you enter the password ONCE when you put the watch on at the beginning of the day and so long as you physically don't remove the watch from your wrist you never have to do it again the rest of the day... it's for that reason it isn't worth apple creating some fancy tech for the watch to prevent having to enter the password. very, very different usage patterns.

 

[boss.king]

I don't remember the last time I used the pin on my watch. Maybe after the last update? My phone unlocks my watch. I believe you could also just turn off the pin lock on your watch, but that would make it a much worse gadget.