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Wall Street Journal Confirms Fingerprint Sensor in New iPhone Coming Tomorrow

Guess I'll have wait to see the fingerprint scanner in action, but personally I think it's kind of ringing like a "gimmick" to me. I really don't think entering a passcode or passwords are really that much of a pain in the butt and unless this thing is the most accurate scanner in the world and doesn't crap out on us (apple isn't the best with their home buttons) I'm sure I will still enter a simple 4 digit code to unlock my phone because it basically takes 3 seconds of my time. Which is pretty much muscle memory. Now if this thing scans fast, accurate and always works that would be cool but again not sure if it would get me off the iPhone 5.
 
Adam22 said:
now samasung will make 4.7 inch wide fingersprint scanners to scan all fingers at once and say its better because its more secure.
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My guess is they could make an iteration of the galaxy gear to scan for you and unlock your phone.



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Why do people keep posting that they "MIGHT" go to android cause they're underwhelmed. Does anyone here care what phone they get?
 
WhackyNinja said:
For me when it comes to my Mac i dont care what screen size I use. But when it comes to smartphones, I would like a phone that I can use with one hand and have it in my pocket with me hardly noticing its there. Samsung needs to know how big is too big.
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Test drive the new Moto X and HTC One Mini then get back to us. Beautiful 4.7 and 4.3 inch HD displays in form factors barely bigger than an iPhone.
 
Zerilos said:
I can't imagine a brute force attack being successful on a device with a limit on the number of failed attempts. Since a fingerprint would likely involve a string of several thousand 1's and 0's (while even an extremely long password would be 20 characters max), a successful attack would take a very long time if it's even possible.
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I sincerely hope you are right, otherwise this promising and very convenient new authentication protocol is going to be very short-lived.
 
I suspect this will require one to hold the iphone with two hands in order for the scanner to correctly read the fingerprint.

Bending your thumb to lay your thumb flat on the home button using one hand is a bit difficult.
 
I wonder if Apple will have to change the naming scheme if they run out of S features

3GS = Speed
4S = Siri
5S = Sensor
 
iSunrise said:
While I must admit that I really look forward to it, I am pretty disappointed if Apple doesn´t have any more surprises for us up their sleeves.
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That wooden spoon of yours is getting splintered after banging it on the high chair so much.
 
Slackula said:
I would beg to differ on that. If, for instance, certain activities with my wife lasted 10% longer, I would say that would be significant and to use your words---worth mentioning.
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let's say your wife give you a 10-minute **** ***, 10% would only be 1 more minute, nothing to get crazy about right? But yes I know, the longer the better :p
 
dampfnudel said:
And maybe a LED notification light ring.
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I used to lo ve the led notification on my old blackberry. But those were times when i would get some emails, some sms and little more. With so many push notification nowadays, I believe the ring would be always on now....

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carlos916 said:
im going to laugh if there is no sensor and its just a ring that lights when u receive a notification :p
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The Phone of the Ring. My preciousssssss
 
walmartmartyr said:
Yup, cases like the life proof or otter box won't allow the fingerprint sensor to work. Also, wearing gloves, say in the winter will prevent u from unlocking the phone. That'll b annoying!
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You say "Yup" as if you know what you're talking about here. This sensor does not read the way you think it does.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I saw Gruber (it makes me itch just writing that) say the 5C may start at $500. So can't imagine what this one with the fingerprint reader will be ($700 plus?). I can't see how you market something over $500 with the feature of a fingerprint reader. Not when the Nexus starts at $200. I'm thinking of getting my first smartphone but not at $500, unless my family goes back on contract with Verizon, which is fairly doubtful. I have been hoping that the "big" surprising feature of the iPhone 5C would be the price (as in $300 or less).
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I think he's wrong.
If you take the current iPhone 4 as the starting point in international market they sell outright and covert that back to a US price, taking away local taxes then the price point for that low end iPhone is more like US$389. Add to that They already sell the iPod Touch with the same screen, a metal case and reasonable cameras for $299 and should be able the drop the current model to $229.

Well i thought he was wrong, that was until I look at US Apple site and apparently the iPhone 4 is $450 unlocked. I wonder if it's Apple or the carriers pushing that up.
 
Perhaps...
6S= size
7S= slimmer
Although I hope we won't have to wait that long for a larger sized iphone.
:)

Amnak said:
I wonder if Apple
will have to change the naming scheme if they run out of S features

3GS = Speed
4S = Siri
5S = Sensor
Click to expand...
 
mrxak said:
As long as the fingerprint sensor can be turned off at the hardware level, much like location services, I don't really care that it's on the device, but I sure as heck won't be using it. It's not even paranoia about the NSA, it's that I know how easy fingerprint sensors are to fool. Your phone is much more secure using a password.

A password is digital, 1s and 0s, a pass-fail condition. Either you enter your password or you don't. A fingerprint is analog, and the sensor can only determine with a certain degree of certainty if it's your finger, somebody else's finger, a picture of your finger, or any number of things. So the software creates a probability, instead of pass-fail, and the software decides if the finger (or whatever) it's seeing is "close enough". It's only a matter of time before somebody figures out what Apple thinks is "close enough" and is able to bypass your lock screen without your finger. The more strict the software, the less usable the sensor and the more frustrating it is for the user, so to be sure, Apple's software won't be terribly strict.

Let's not forget, you're using your iPhone with your fingers all the time. It won't be difficult for somebody to get your print off of the iPhone, and use it with a fake finger of some kind to unlock your device. A fingerprint sensor makes your iPhone secure in the same way the password system makes your iPhone secure if you engrave your password on the back of your iPhone. I'll also point out, you can't give up your password when you're unconscious, but you can give up your fingerprint.

And sure, what the heck, if it's not the NSA grabbing your fingerprints right off the sensor, it's going to be somebody else. If Apple's software can get the fingerprint sensor to activate and take a reading, somebody else's software can to. Perhaps criminals, perhaps well-meaning but ignorant software developers who themselves may get hacked. Even if your fingerprint isn't terribly valuable today, plenty of people think it'll be valuable in a few years as biometrics of all kinds are used for financial transactions or whatever else.

A password is simply better. It's digital, so the software isn't making a probability-based decision to let somebody in, and it's hidden away in your head, instead of left behind on everything you touch hundreds of times a day.
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Yeah, do some research into this sensor and you'll see why it's a big deal and why none of the methods you mentioned will work.
 
snowcrash said:
Guess I'll have wait to see the fingerprint scanner in action, but personally I think it's kind of ringing like a "gimmick" to me. I really don't think entering a passcode or passwords are really that much of a pain in the butt and unless this thing is the most accurate scanner in the world and doesn't crap out on us (apple isn't the best with their home buttons) I'm sure I will still enter a simple 4 digit code to unlock my phone because it basically takes 3 seconds of my time. Which is pretty much muscle memory. Now if this thing scans fast, accurate and always works that would be cool but again not sure if it would get me off the iPhone 5.
Click to expand...

I'm sure apple is looking at the bigger picture, not just to unlock your device. C'mon think.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Cool new iPhone feature: upload your fingerprint to NSA direct from your iPhone. And it's so simple you don't even have to hit send. It just magically goes to its database. :D
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This is hilarious because I was jokingly speculating on the same thing on here a few weeks ago. While it is a joke at the moment, it is kind of crazy not to at least consider this as a possibility. :eek:

;)
 
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