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That looks like an unfinished part. The square to the left of the home button is empty with gold contacts where something should be attached.
 
It's Apple, and they've dropped the ball repeatedly regarding giving developer API access to key features in iOS. See: 3rd party Notification Center Widgets, 3rd party SIRI integration and now 3rd party Control Center access. The last time they DID give API access to devs, the result was, IMO, a flop (Passbook).

I just don't see this happening.

How can they drop the ball when they make no effort to catch it?

Notification center widgets and access to siri were never on the cards. When Apple designs an API they do it with the thinking that there'll be thousands of developers all wanting access to them and users that won't forgive them when they don't work some of the time or they drain the battery cos the user doesn't understand the cost of running them.

CC is another, they aren't gonna let a thousand plus developers write a button/widget for Control centre, otherwise you'll be able to end up with a vast list of buttons that take longer to navigate than the old settings - section - button.

Asking users to choose which buttons to show is a non starter either because these are standard controls (eg. bluetooth, wifi, airplane mode) that should be in the same place on every device.

Passbook was a slow starter because developers needed to provide their own webservice to generate and deliver them. 14 months from early reveal, 12 months from IOS 6 final is not a lot of time to build out a passbook mobile app and webservice that needs Designing, Building, QAing, stress testing, pentesting, beta testing and finally launching. Peeps on the interwebz need to relax a bit. :rolleyes:
 
It depends on how accurate and how easy it is to use it, but if it works flawlessly it would be a huge deal for me. Besides the usefulness in payments, it could also have huge implications to other connected devices and services, like opening your car or home door, online banking, it could make almost anything more secure. It could be huge for law enforcement and business customers.

"works flawlessly" is key. If it works as well as the initial release of Maps, it will take forever for Apple to recover. It's better to have no feature than a flawed feature.
 
That looks like an unfinished part. The square to the left of the home button is empty with gold contacts where something should be attached.

Not necessarily, it could be the back of it (I think the home button might end up being folded under it). The gold spots might be spots where it gets grounded to the case for EMI reasons.

At least I assume the fingerprint sensor will be on top of the switch, as it won't be able to sense the finger underneath it.
 
It's not just for the lock screen

I'm not really sure why people are so excited about a Fingerprint Sensor anyway, whoop de do, really faster or more reliable than a pin code for those that care about such things?

I have seen this criticism many times before, but the fingerprint sensor is not used just for unlocking the screen. Granted, I can't speak for how Apple will implement this in iOS, but I've had a fingerprint sensor in a laptop before and it is a big time saver.

Combined with an API and password management, the fingerprint sensor can be used as authentication for anything. Unlock the screen. Log into websites. Banking applications. Secure notes. Downloading new apps.

One of the new features of iOS is password management, so it seems likely to be integrated with the fingerprint reader.

You can use very long, secure, random passwords that are different for every site and every application, and not have to remember them because you can just present your fingertip.

Looking into the future, you could also have address and payment information management, so that you can approve and send payment for online shopping with just a fingerprint instead of manually typing all your information into a tiny screen for the 6000th time.

The second criticism I've seen a lot is that if you lose your finger, you're screwed. This is not true. Again, I don't know how Apple will implement this, but in existing fingerprint reader use, the software requires you register at least two prints, and suggests you use your other hand for the backup print. If your prints are completely unavailable for any reason, you can always use the pin.
 
"works flawlessly" is key. If it works as well as the initial release of Maps, it will take forever for Apple to recover. It's better to have no feature than a flawed feature.

Which is what Apple's default position seems to be on features. Maps was an oversight, not because of the feature, maps works very well but because of an incomplete/inaccurate POI database provided by a 3rd party and tested by a very small set of users in Apple's usual close knit in-crowd.

Their flaw was not realising webservices work best and are better recieved with a 'beta' tag and widespread testing in multiple scenarios. They've demonstrated this with the iwork for icloud beta program that was developer only at first and is now widespread for any iCloud user.

Fingerprint reading is a fairly narrow problem domain. That's not to say there's not a few out there with freakish thumbs that'll result in negative articles for Apple. But it's generally a problem of reading swirls in skin with usual coverings/detritus on the sensor lens. You can bet they've covered the majority of variables (skintones, pocket lint & grease) and if it works for someone in California, it'll probably work for me in the UK.

There's also the suggestion that it'll be limited to certain functionality at first ie. unlocking your phone. This makes total sense in the context of not revealing too early and needing a widespread beta for 3rd party payments or other challenging problem domain.

Looking forward to it. :cool:
 
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Without NFC, a fingerprint sensor is pointless to me. I know others here don't care for it.

Most of my local retailers support it already but we would see a flood of retailers supporting NFC if Apple included it in an iPhone.

I agree! NFC is at a stage where the majority of large retailers have NFC capabilities. Apple implementing/advancing the tech would greatly expand the uses. I would like to be able to use my iPhone as my debit/credit card and my Oyster card to use with TFL.
 
I'm not really sure why people are so excited about a Fingerprint Sensor anyway, whoop de do, really faster or more reliable than a pin code for those that care about such things? I've seen people say "No Fingerprint Sensor, no sale!" - they should probably get out more.

some people are just lazy and dont want to type those 4 pin digits and are screaming how this is THE NEXT BIG THING, when in reality its only their laziness.
 
Without NFC, a fingerprint sensor is pointless to me. I know others here don't care for it.

Most of my local retailers support it already but we would see a flood of retailers supporting NFC if Apple included it in an iPhone.

Who says the new iPhone doesn't have NFC, it may be no one, has identified it yet. It may be embedded to the point it's not easily spot-able. I noticed on these pics there's a black square to the right of the supposed new home button, is this an embedded chip on the wiring cable? Is it an embedded chip that does fingerprint recognition, is it an NFC chip with coil aerial or is it a combination of the above?

I say cut it open, if there's a coil of wiring, it'll be pretty obvious that it's for NFC.

Recognition of the user goes well beyond local payments. The fact that ios 7 will remember online password, credit cards and allow quick online payments alludes to a need for something a bit better than the 4 digit pin, particularly if you let your kid play on your phone. Most people will appreciate being able to hand their phone to their kid and not find an itunes bill for $1000 for candy crush in app payments. :cool:

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some people are just lazy and dont want to type those 4 pin digits and are screaming how this is THE NEXT BIG THING, when in reality its only their laziness.

Anyone who thinks a 4 pin digit is easy and an adequate protection is seriously deluded.

If an action should be signed by the user whether that is a payment or access to restricted documents/email, then biometrics that work is 'THE NEXT BIG THING'.

I say 'that work', cos no one really knows, but i am wishful.:D
 
Without NFC, a fingerprint sensor is pointless to me. I know others here don't care for it.

Most of my local retailers support it already but we would see a flood of retailers supporting NFC if Apple included it in an iPhone.

What country do you live in?

I've posted here before: I have had an RFID credit card for years. I can count four separate major retailers that have RFID readers on their credit card terminals. None of the readers work! It's not a problem with my card, because I've successfully used it with RFID before.

If the credit card companies can't get contactless payments to work with their own kit, I'm not sure what Apple is going to do to improve the situation.


I think you will see Apple focus instead on low-power Bluetooth for this set of hardware upgrades.
 
Jail breaking the 5S on iOS 7 should be very interesting w/ this FP sensor. Excited to see what the developers will come up with.
 
Anyone who thinks a 4 pin digit is easy and an adequate protection is seriously deluded.

If an action should be signed by the user whether that is a payment or access to restricted documents/email, then biometrics that work is 'THE NEXT BIG THING'.

I say 'that work', cos no one really knows, but i am wishful.:D

Which means that as well as stealing your phone the thieves will now also take your thumbs, probably easier than breaking a pin code after all... I look forward to these good times! :D
 
Looks to me like the fingerprint reader will be to the right of the home button rather than integral to it. Perhaps under the glass.

Either way, just this and a better camera is not going to wow the media. I think at this point only a larger iPhone would do that.

Also, it'll be quite a short keynote if all that's happening is a reiteration of iOS7 and a couple of new near-identical iPhones. Something else is surely in the works. Apple TV perhaps...
 
Fingerprint reading is a fairly narrow problem domain. That's not to say there's not a few out there with freakish thumbs that'll result in negative articles for Apple. But it's generally a problem of reading swirls in skin with usual coverings/detritus on the sensor lens. You can bet they've covered the majority of variables (skintones, pocket lint & grease) and if it works for someone in California, it'll probably work for me in the UK.

While I agree with this for the most part, I've never used a fingerprint scan that could manage grease or other spreadable material on the finger. In fact, simple things like cold hands can change the way your print reads and cause the scan to fail. The company I used to work for required fingerprint scans to access the building, and some folks had to rescan their hands seasonally because a summer scan would fail to match a winter print. Speed is also a factor - scan too fast or too slow leads to a fail - and how the person moves their hand - some folks swivel their fingers and this makes it hard to match.

So while I think Apple can deliver an issue-free sensor that accounts for all the usual variables, I think we'll still see quite a few complaints from people who don't understand the limitations of the tech.

Despite all this, I'm definitely looking forward to having the tech in a phone.
 
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