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Urgency in Apple's Talks with AuthenTec Hints at Rapid Adoption of Fingerprint Scanning Technology

APlotdevice said:
To be fair a four digit passcode is a little more secure than that. There are exactly 10,000 possible permutations, and iOS will lock you out for a period of time if you input the wrong code six times in a row.
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Maybe a few minutes...not seconds. I saw an article about a software company that figured it out and was selling the software to law enforcement. I'm not sure if this is the company but it gives an idea of what's possible:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57405580-93/iphone-passcode-cracking-is-easier-than-you-think/
 
Being part of the home button is lame, a comment on ars suggested that the 'new display tech' being used to make the device thinner could incorporate fingerprint detection, I suppose with the software from AuthenTec.

Could be game changing.
 
Nice idea, but how unique are fingerprints? See report on New Scientist article doubting their uniqueness and the authorities reluctance to conduct serious research on the matter here.
 
gazmac said:
Nice idea, but how unique are fingerprints? See report on New Scientist article doubting their uniqueness and the authorities reluctance to conduct serious research on the matter here.
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Seriously? Unique finger prints are an established fact. Check with the FBI...they might have a bit of information to share with you on the subject.
 
2005CTS said:
Seriously? Unique finger prints are an established fact. Check with the FBI...they might have a bit of information to share with you on the subject.
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The way the article reads is not that more than one person would have the same fingerprint, but that two fingerprints from the same person may not be matched conclusively.

Which isn't nearly the same thing, but it was an interesting read nonetheless :)
 
nepalisherpa said:
Imagine a homescreen button with a built-in finger print scanner! No more slide-to-unlock and wrong passcode. Others would not be able to use your phone either without you physically being there. :)
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Imagine no longer needing usernames and passwords on any sites. My God. It's really amazing the amount of crap I have to carry around in my head to get along in this crazy world nowadays . . .

"Your password isn't strong enough to complete registration. Try again. It must be at least 8 characters long, at lease one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number, one alphanumeric character, one Sumerian burial chamber sun goddess glyph, the last two digits of pi, and include that thing that Prince was when he wasn't Prince."
 
ThisIsNotMe said:
Even if it was transparently built into the LCD screen?
I mean you hit **** on your phone with your thumb. What if the screen can not only read your touch but also you fingerprint.

No passwords, no codes, no keys, nothing needed. Just your touching pay and the phone taking care of the rest.
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It would have to be incredibly seamless and quick, as in quicker than swipe to unlock for it to not feel like an inconvenience to me. Don't get me wrong, I get the point, and if there is a company that can achieve it, I believe it's Apple, but I don't think I've seen any mobile computing type device with fingerprint recognition done right.

Giving it a little more thought (and playing with my phone), I think it would feel more natural if the reader was built into the home button. Just hold your thumb over the home button (don't press) and the phone unlocks - but it wouldn't scan your whole thumb print that way, unfortunately.
 
Great.
Apple currently collects & sells our personal information & now wants our fingerprints for data mining.
Now they are moving toward collecting biological info/profiles.
I see a retina scanner coming soon.

Then when hackers break into apples data warehouse or their highest bidders(I mean clients ;)) storage, they can really steal a persons identity.
 
D.T. said:
It worked _OK_. I had plenty of misreads, to the point where I disabled it. Conceptually, very cool, but the Atrix implementation was just not as good as it needed to be for the rapid unlock I expect from a phone (that's also doubling up as a camera). Part of it was the kind of peculiar angle of the reader/power button, it was angled on the top, rear corner (this was without the case shown below FYI).

Here's a decent picture of the reader from my actual phone for the Juiceman:

Image

Image
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Much appreciated!
 
matrix07 said:
Multi-user iPad coming soon.
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You don't need fingerprints for that. I've always thought this could just as easily be achieved by having an account number that gets typed in with the 4 digit pin. So it's a 5 or 6 digit identification number.

So if I had the first account (1) and my 4 digit pin was 2345, I would just type in 12345 in one go to access the device. Simple. 5 digits would allow 10 user accounts, and 6 would allow 100 user accounts.
 
bawbac said:
Great.
Apple currently collects & sells our personal information & now wants our fingerprints for data mining.
Now they are moving toward collecting biological info/profiles.
I see a retina scanner coming soon.

Then when hackers break into apples data warehouse or their highest bidders(I mean clients ;)) storage, they can really steal a persons identity.
Click to expand...

I think you mixed Apple up with Google.
 
My very religious mother in law is going to flip when she sees this. She swears we're in the end times and things like this are proof of the one world government ruled by the devil. I wish i were making this up.

Funny, never expected Apple to be an instrument of Satan. But so be it.
 
You guys are going to get your hopes up. September is TOO SOON for this to be implemented into this iPhone.

Besides, when was the last time an Apple product got absolutely everything that was rumored? They always hold off on a little something for the next version. In this case, the timing makes sense it will be this that's held back.

It won't be in the iPhone 5, but rather the iPhone 5S - the S will stand for SECURITY!

/sarcasm ..sorta. Someone had to say it and I almost convinced myself for a second there.

:D
 
Using it for Passbook or mobile purchasing is great, but what I want to see is Fast User Switching on iOS. Would be great for everyone in the family to have their own private data and settings on iPad (the apps could still be shared, as on OS X).
 
I can definitely see this in iOS six and the new iPhone, where it could integrate with passbook and NFC, otherwise passbook is a pretty flimsy app for apple to build in. Back in April MacRumors reported that there was a slightly redisgned home button in the iPhone 5, could this be the evidence of fingerprint technology?

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mgiangra said:
Maybe this is the "doubling down on security" Cook was talking about.
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:)
 
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