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Microsoft Reveals Wireless 'Modern Keyboard' With Hidden Fingerprint ID Sensor
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Can't tell you why it doesn't have Touch ID, but the Magic Bar or whatever it is Apple calls it would significantly reduce the battery life. Right now, wireless keyboards last around 2 months and can be charged in under 2 hours. The magic bar would probably reduce the life down to a couple of days.
Of course, the iPhone's battery doesn't last anywhere near as long as the batteries of dumb phones and the Apple Watch battery doesn't last anywhere near as long as dumb watches, but that didn't stop Apple from releasing those products.
It may be the fact that nobody seems to care about the magic touch bar.
This is a very valid question. I would only be guessing, but Touch ID might have a security issue when sending the signal via BT or else it would require a dedicated chip that would increase the keyboard cost. The visual touchbar on the other hand is a key observation. To me the touchbar is a gimmick until every mac has it. Why design a program that uses the touchbar if only a fraction of your customers can access the feature? I imagine that Apple wants to use the touchbar to differentiate the pro line, but I feel like it fractures their ecosystem. I would like to see them add the ability to get the touchbar in all their devices to encourage software development. Since it's a Mac exclusive feature getting people dependent upon it would likely reduce churn.
Valid for those uses. Try blender with your Magic Mouse. Lack of a middle mouse button in the scroll wheel isn't resolved well enough by remapping commands.
Nope; ergonomic & tactile. Something Apple users haven't a clue of.
There's no doubt that Microsoft has excelled at keyboard and mouse design for many years, but I find this choice of a dedicated key only for a fingerprint sensor to be a step in the wrong direction.
And how secure is the fingerprint information transmitted back to the host device? Can it be intercepted wirelessly?
And how secure is the fingerprint information transmitted back to the host device? Can it be intercepted wirelessly?
boy that keyboard looks familiar. Just can't seem to place it...
Are there security concerns with having a fingerprint sensor on a wireless keyboard?
Would love it if Apple made a magic keyboard with Touch ID + Touchbar.
Would love it if Apple made a magic keyboard with Touch ID + Touchbar.
People greatly underestimate just how secure Bluetooth can be. The initial pairing is a concern. If an attacker observes that, the actual keys used to secure the communications can be uncovered. Apple's pairing method (connecting the keyboard via Lightning once) gets around that.
Once the pairing is established, the endpoints use astonishingly strong encryption. If you took an ideal conventional computer (the kind you're using to read these comments) and funneled all of the energy the sun will ever emit through it, you might be able to crack it, after several million years.
TouchID's implementation is solid. The fingerprint fragment identifies the user, then the sensor attempts to authenticate the fingerprint fragment. If it believes it was presented an authentic (from a real finger, attached to a real, living human, &c.) fragment of a fingerprint on the list, it attests that the identity provided by the print is authentic. The actual print data never needs to leave the sensor. The attestation is extremely hard to falsify (again, gigantic computer, all the energy of the sun, and millions of years *after* burning all that to crack the Bluetooth key).
Adding TouchID would increase the costs slightly. I'd expect maybe +$20 retail. They could have done this with the MacBook Pro long ago, though, and they chose to wait and introduce it alongside the Touch Bar. I don't think they will introduce it on a separate keyboard until they can include the Touch Bar too.
AAA batteries!
you think that is interesting....the Surface Pen uses AAAA batteries try to find them!
Dafaq? I've never even heard of that size before. But I don't go buying batteries all that often, either.
Until a GaryMumford Dictionary is the defacto standard, your translation will not be recognized.Translation: ergonomic & tactile = slow & clunky. I prefer performance over aesthetics
Not only that, I hear the mouse is also incompatible with toasters and vending machines.
I love it when outdated people speak out of turn and get burned. It is like those Android users that still tell people you have to use iTunes to have an iPhone...lol. Nice job calling this one out.
First thing I thought, hell even if they hid it in the F or the J key would make more sense than wasting a key on the keyboard and then it would be truly hidden, but most people don't start using a computer from the keyboard so if they hid it in the mouse button that would be perfect, put your hand on the mouse and go.
It's hidden in the sense that just looking casually at the keyboard wouldn't indicate that there is some fingerprint sensor, because it looks like any other key. The goal isn't to hide it from the user, but hide it in the design (Vs Touch ID on the touchbar which is quite obviously a different texture from the rest of the touchbar.)
Unlikely. It’s probably a signed statement saying “this is valid” or...not. Fingerprint information itself probably isn’t transmitted, much like on iOS.
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I can hear you in your inside voice, too.
The iMac Pro is an impressive feat for cramming a lot of power into a form factor that’s less than convenient for such a powerful machine.