“The fingerprint reader on Apple Inc’s top-end iPhone 5S received an early thumbs up for ease of use from two influential reviewers, helping dispel concerns about the scanning technology which has been notoriously unreliable in other cellphones,” Edwin Chan and Sakthi Prasad report for Reuters.
“Apple’s scanner is seen as a first step toward realizing the full potential for biometrics in personal electronics, heightening security for applications like banking and shopping while doing away with multiple passwords,” Chan and Prasad report. “‘The best part is that it actually works – every single time, in my tests,’ wrote reviewer David Pogue of the New York Times. ‘It’s nothing like the balky, infuriating fingerprint-reader efforts of earlier cellphones. It’s genuinely awesome; the haters can go jump off a pier.'”
Chan and Prasad report, “The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg was also enthusiastic, calling it simple and reliable… Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and fellow South Korean electronics manufacturer LG Electronics Inc have had problems incorporating the technology into finished products.”
Read more in the full article here.
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A new standard in password/security technology and a nail in the coffin of identity theft.
ID Touch.
Wait, didn’t you hear the theives will be cutting your fingers off to steal your iPhone?
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. haha
Fear the FUD not the dud.
Won’t work. http://www.tuaw.com/2013/09/16/why-a-disembodied-finger-cant-be-used-to-unlock-the-touch-id-se/
What a surprise for thieves when they find that the chopped off finger wont crack the phone…
Of course Samsung had problems. They did not have Apple to copy from… (Ok, I have to admit this was way too easy…)
My greatest fear was that it wouldn’t work. But why would I expect anything less from Jony Ive? He’s been perfecting it for years.
And it’s not gimmicky in the slightest. I totally want it on all of my iOS devices, pronto.
I think you’ll find that Apple’s hardware team had far more to do with this than Jony. Praise where praise is due, please.
=:~)
Someone, without attribution, noted that the feature was in the works since about the beginning of the iPhone release.
Getting new techniques to work flawlessly often takes finding &/or developing the core concept technologies in house.
Give Samsung a break. Now that Apple has shown them how it’s done, they will have it reverse engineered in no time. Followed by a lawsuit accusing Apple of patent infringement of course.
Then judge Lucy can delay the crap out of the trial and cut the award for Apple winning.
And then Judge Denise Cote can rule that somehow Samsung actually invented the technology and force Apple to not use Touch ID in their products for 5 years along with government oversight.
My kids know all my passwords because they see me type them over my shoulder. Having a finger reader makes people knowing your passwords irrelevant. In a sense, the finger reader is both a whole new level of security, and a whole new level of simplicity. Awesome!
I can see it now. Samsung will copy it and claim that they have this patent for 8 years now and just decided to incorporate it….More Samsung POS Sales, back in court for 10 years while Samsung reaps billions in profits. Samsung loses court battle and pays a fraction of those earnings…. Samsung – SCUM!
It’ll be interesting to see how this technology, along with ‘Find My iPhone’ only accessible through Apple ID and password affects the rate of theft from owners. Probably not 100%, because there’s always the ignorant and stupid, who’ll steal anything, just because someone else has it, and those who’ll steal, thinking they can pass on a phone before the fact it’s locked becomes obvious.
Over time, hopefully, as it becomes obvious even to the totally clueless that ripping off an iPhone is completely pointless, the thefts will drop to near zero. It’ll suck to be an Android or WinPhone owner, though…😄
If the touch ID is the new bench mark, when is is coming to iPad, iPad mini, MacBook Pro, etc? What if it was embodied in an actual standard? Wouldn’t that be FRAND-tastic! Apple makes money off of every device sold by anyone in the world.
Trouble with forcing Apple to make the finger print scanner patents FRAND is that those patents are not essential to making phone calls.
Apple can lease these patents at big prices not just a few cents per handset.
Some governments actually take a role in protecting the security of their citizens personal information. If such a government were to say “To sell a device in our country, you must implement Apples Touch ID system on your device.” That would make it a standard and essential.
Would Apple agree to it? Who knows, but it would sure put them in the drivers seat.
Some governments will favor the rights of commerce over the protection of their citizens. We Americans know what that is like. But the internet lets us see what is possible. Perhaps there will be an American Spring regarding the privacy rights of citizens.