“With the September 10th, 2013 announcement of the iPhone 5s and the Touch ID fingerprint technology, Apple has moved the world quite a leap forward with security and a magical way to gain instant access to our iPhones,” Brian Roemmele, President at Multiplex Media Corporation, Founder and CEO at 1st American Card Service, writes for Quora. “This was a rather long journey for Apple that I know will bear fruit for the next 10 years.”
“In the torrent of the billions of words already written about Touch ID very, very few people have really understood just how revolutionary this really is,” Roemmele writes. “Apple not only has developed one of the most accurate mass produced biometric security devices, they have also solved critical problems with how the data from this device will be encrypted, stored and secured. Apple Calls this the Secure Enclave and it is a relatively new concept.”
“Apple has taken a very slow and methodical approach with the release of Touch ID. We can see that there was a tremendous amount of amazing work that has gone into this project. All of this convergence took over seven years of very hard work. It includes many patent applications, the acquisition of AuthenTec, the selection of the A7 processor and the integration of the TrustZone suite all baked together into what we now know as Touch ID,” Roemmele writes. “This has been a long journey that has only just been made public and I am rather certain that Steve Jobs would be quite proud.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And, yet, some idiots would have you believe that nothing but differently colored iPhone 5 units with an “s” tacked on them were unveiled last week. The myopia in some quarters is appalling.
Related articles:
The wizard behind the curtain for the iPhone 5s: Apple’s M7 motion co-processor – September 16, 2013
Apple’s iPhone 5s with Touch ID seen as protection against U.S. NSA – September 16, 2013
Apple’s new iPhone 5s is the world’s first and only 64-bit smartphone – and it will be king of the hill for quite some time – September 13, 2013
Professional photographer on Apple iPhone 5s’ True Tone dual-LED flash: The sheer engineering prowess here is insane – September 13, 2013
Apple iPhone 5s camera leaps two years ahead of entire camera industry – all cameras, not just smartphone cameras – September 13, 2013
Apple changes the world again, propels biometrics into the mainstream with iPhone 5s’ Touch ID – September 12, 2013
iPhone 5s: Once again Apple leaps ahead with Touch ID fingerprint recognition; a big enterprise win for Apple – September 10, 2013
Apple reveals flagship iPhone 5s with Touch ID, the world’s first and only 64-bit smartphone – September 10, 2013
But… but… but what about the 2011 Motorola phone with fingerprint scanner that came first???
This is funny, Motorola is making fun of Apple’s new finger print scanner forgetting it came out with one first, heh heh. Idiots.
http://bgr.com/2013/09/12/iphone-5s-fingerprint-scanner-motorola-mocking/
That was useless old fingerprint scanner that worked half of the time, so it was never really used.
As to whether Jobs would be proud or not: of course, he would: first Apple patents on biometrics filed back in 2009.
Yes it was a useless. What really tick me off is the dismissal of Touch ID from these Trollers and so called journalist but using that very example, as if the exact same thing existed already. Shame on these Journalist for doing a disservice to readers. Readers who believe these so called journalist should be embarrassed for being that gullible.
Yeah that’s the point the Fandroid and Trolls always fail to realize is a feature or a concept can have already been tried before (for which you get zero brownie points) but it’s how that idea is used and how successful it is in the implementation that matters. Sometimes an idea or innovation is just too early because the back up tech isn’t there yet (Newton). When someone finally gets it right (like Apple) it when the tech has finally matured or is ready for prime time. A critical point the disingenuous dufuses fail to get. Just because it was tried once, doesn’t mean it should have been.
Precisely. Microsoft “invented” the consumer tablet computer, but it was such a cluster**** that no one wanted it. No one could make a tablet until Apple produced the iPad.
Once again, for all the tech journalists/bloggers/Android trolls/morons, Apple rarely completely invents a new category. It did not invent mp3 players; it did not invent smartphones; it did not invent tablets.
What Apple does is invent technologies to make products and categories actually work, and be a pleasure to use. That’s the step most companies (Sony, Microsoft, etc.) keep forgetting.
The Motorola part works very well for me.
The huge problem with the Mot roll out was they had no apps, just the ability to unlock the phone. Shame on them for not at least providing password replacement as I find myself entering passwords dozens of times each day. They could have been contenders, and a leader. The Japanese have been using Authentec sensors since 2004, with success for password replacement, mobile payment, phone security…..Apple is 9 years behind, but a leader in this country.
With the lone caveat that this tech needs to work 99+ percent of the time, this is a classic Apple strength. Using technology in a subtle yet paradigm shifting way that solves real problems – in this case – security, becoming one of the biggest issue of technology.
And Samsung has their Stylus levitating right-click action to solve —- What? And half-assed eyeball tracking to facilitate – what?
Interesting article on feature bloat for Samsung phones: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/15/for-samsung-more-is-more/
Lots of good quotes in there.
Tea party mentality is contageous.
I hope so.
Can’t wait until apple further developes touch id, that is when apple would have a reason to add NFC or payments. Apple wouldn’t add NFC for payments this year because people need time to acclimate to touch id before apple adds more to it
Not at all. All Apple needs is support on the developer side (which is happening very quickly) for iBeacons.
Developers might move but average consumers will be hesitant
It is Touch ID with the other sensor features which will provide tremendous value.
Not the least is a parent’s ability to use their ID to lock the phone from hand use &/or the texting from use when traveling at speed in a car, which the GPS can detect on a
“The myopia in some quarters is appalling.”
No, it’s deliberate, just part of the competition’s FUD campaign. Those who cannot innovate, dissimulate.
Apple just took some old Dells and ripped out their fingerprint scanners and rammed them inside the iPhone.
forgot /s ?
all my PC laptops had that sensor but none worked after a week or so… also you have to carefully swipe not touch
Good grief! Was it not obvious I was being facetious? I was mocking the shitwit comments people were making after last week’s presentation.
There is little that is obvious in a one-dimensional, anonymous, asynchronous forum, especially one that requires sarcasm tags for clarification after a commenter has been identified as a tea party sympathiser, since such types are considered by some as ardent libertarians with more enthusiasm than intelligence. Please don’t shoot the messenger.
“The expert makes the impossible look easy.” — Anonymous
What’s strange is that most of the articles out there are saying that a fingerprint sensor is pretty much useless and that nobody wants it. Everyone really wants an iPhone with a much larger display like the Galaxy S4. Besides, everyone knows the Motorola Atrix had a fingerprint scanner long before the iPhone and it sucked even when it worked properly. The articles went on to say if a fingerprint scanner didn’t work for Motorola it will be a bigger failure for Apple because the iPhone 5s costs way more than the Atrix. In other words, Apple is copying Motorola’s failed product and charging more for it which is just deceiving consumers as Apple usually does. Only when Samsung is able to come out with a fingerprint sensor with a large display and charges only half the price of an iPhone will the fingerprint sensor reach any sort of notable success. A fingerprint sensor at a lower price on Android OS = innovation.
/s
I read a good many of those depressing articles myself, and I felt stifled by the conformity of their approach and their profound misunderstanding of what constitutes industry leadership.
They fail even more profoundly at comprehending the human and social applications of new technology, and they further demonstrate their stupidity through wild sales forecasts based on conjured consumer sentiment for unreleased products.
They keep their jobs only because their blubbering generates ad revenue. Certainly their track record over the past few years can’t have excited their nest mothers.
This will pass, as excellence in design and manufacture captures the hearts and dollars of millions. What will linger, malignantly, is the credibility of the charlatans, who always seem to miraculously return for more attacks on the good, funded by the evil.
The hype machine is ridiculous. Oooohh a finger print scanner. Really, its no big deal.Wow it saves me the 1 second it takes to type my passcode.
If it takes you one second to input your pass code, there’s something wrong.
Very cool feature potential, but it’s not a game changer! A larger screen would have been a game changer! Time will tell!
!
Be prepared and amazed at the ‘stellar’ sales the 5S will generate world wide …
It’s all about combining technologies into stable, reliable and simple functions that actually require major feats of engineering. Apple does this better than anyone else, and hopefully we’ll see they did it again.
Guaranteed the scanner will be used as a source of FUD to crash the stock. I see future articles about how the scanner is “not working as advertised”, “defective on many new iPhones”, “causing poor manufacturing yields”, “risking individual rights to privacy” and the list will go on and on. The FUD makers have probably already written these, even before the 5S is released. Idiots.
If you haven’t read the full article, it’s worth the time. Mr. Roemmele does a masterful job of describing what Apple has done and possible directions they can take with this. Apple is dead serious about the future of its biometric technology and what it will mean in the future.
A larger screen would have been a
… clear abdication of their industry leadership, a capitulation to Samsung.
It does not matter if you, or a million consumers, want such a thing. Apple does not do focus groups. Apple does not do surveys. Apple does not anxiously eye the opposition and develop a competing product. It analyses the landscape and determines what is needed, before needs have been generally articulated. It then readies a response, and has the self-discipline to withhold that response until the conditions are right.
All this can be true only of an organisation guided by principles higher than short term money-grubbing.
OOh! hannahjs, I love it when you talk dirty:-)
On a more serious note, the fact that Apple inc took time out to design and fabricate the A7 chip to its current industry beating status is overlooked because of the short sightedness created by the need to negate Apple incs. achievements.
In order for all the chips to fall into place to leap from 32 bit to 64 bit and to mass produce a working fingerprint scanner that has onboard storage of the sensitive data thus solving the question of who is the gatekeeper of your biometric data and is the keeper dependable, Apple inc. has also written an entire OS for this product thus not only solving existing problems, but also hurdling over possible future ones by following a road map that is only beginning to become clear.
What had looked like fragmentation at the beginning of the iPhone and iPad era from Apple incs. desktop pc’s can now be seen for what it really is.
The appearance of an arrested development for Apple’s tower macs was a hiatus in preparing us for Apple’s future in which we are no longer limited to the desktop and tablet. We will be able to access all areas of our tech & social life via smartphone, tablets, cars, TV’s, desktops, airplanes, shoes, wristbands and any other products that we no doubt will be surprised by. 1984 ad all over again!!