“Just hours before Apple is expected to unveil a next-generation iPhone at a special media event in California, an image has surfaced claiming to show an ‘iPhone 5S’ quick start guide that makes refers to the handset’s ‘Home Button/Touch ID sensor’ button,” AppleInsider reports.
“The photo, posted by Nowhereelse.fr, shows what appears to be a user’s guide or quick start card for an ‘iPhone 5S,’ with text pointing out important features including a ‘Home Button/Touch ID sensor’ button,” AppleInsider reports. “It is unclear if the purported image shows a quick start card, as seen in a previous iPhone 5C ‘leak,’ or a page from a full-color pamphlet. What is clear, however, is text describing a ‘Touch ID sensor,’ which presumably refers to a fingerprint sensor many believe will be built into the handset’s home button.”
“Rumors regarding an iPhone with fingerprint authentication capabilities have intensified in the past week, including recent rumblings of a ‘silver ring’ that encircles the home button. Guesses as to the purported ring’s function have ranged from mere aesthetics to a functional piece of Apple’s fingerprint sensing solution.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve heard some chatter that this “silver ring” could be made of Liquidmetal, but cannot confirm. Chatter about Apple using Liquidmetal for something other than iPhone SIM ejector tools usually increases prior to each new iPhone unveiling as Apple owns the exclusive right to use Liquidmetal in consumer electronics in perpetuity.
AppleInsider reports, “The technology Apple is thought to be using is more mature than conventional methods and comes from its 2012 acquisition of biometric security firm AuthenTec. Unlike older swipe-to-scan systems, Apple’s version is likely static, meaning a user would merely place their finger on the sensor/home button as they would when waking the phone from sleep. ”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple patent application reveals methods of forming 3D structures with Liquidmetal – July 25, 2013
‘iPhone 5S’ release date nears as Apple begins mass production of Liquidmetal case, report claims – July 22, 2013
Apple’s ‘iPhone 5S’ to feature indestructible Liquidmetal case, says BGR – July 17, 2013
Apple and Liquidmetal scientists granted new patent that could enable Liquidmetal production on a massive scale – July 16, 2013
Apple inks deal for exclusive rights to custom, super-durable metal alloy – August 9, 2010
Take my money….. Please
Samsung , can u please not to copy Apple this time ? Please !!!!
The labels seem poorly spaced.
I’m just wondering whether the silver ring is in any way related to user accounts on OS X having a silver border and being round now. Or it may just look similar.
The silver ring being made out of LiquidMetal is dubious at best IMO.
It’s possible but, as of right now, why would it matter? You’d think LiquidMetal would have more utility to it if it was front and center.
Proof of manufacturing. Apple could be using the ring as a test to see if they can make bulk use of Liquidmetal and eventually and reliably make larger components like the iPhone case (virtually indestructible, cannot be copied) out of Liquidmetal.
If the test fails, the ring can be made of aluminum as it probably doesn’t require Liquidmetal properties in that spot on the phone.
What did you say, “cannot be copied?” Samdung does what it wants and to whom it wants. Just ask Dyson, patents be damned, foll speed ahead.
Samsung won’t be able to make Liquidmetal in bulk. They won’t know how to copy it.
It’s taken Apple years, and they still haven’t done anything with it in shipping products except for a limited test run in some iPhone SIM ejector tools.
Not so much Red, they can hire spies in production and engineering and figure out the process “after the fact”. That is about 1/10000th as hard as actually coming up with new ideas in the first place. Once you figure out the process it’s just not that hard to reverse engineer and copy it.
(truly new ideas, not like the derivative (and virtually worthless) “features” samedung festoons their plastic turds with)
Companies (sadly) have to depend on the government(s) to defend their intellectual property according to the laws of the land.
Early in the liquid metal talk as a case material, it was said that it did not cause radio interference as regular metals do. So maybe it is a metal that is transparent to the technology that the sensor requires.
It’s all speculation however, it’s still Apple secrete until they announce…
I don’t think so, its “just” (and I say just, but that is a stunning achievement) an amorphous metal (i.e. like a supercooled liquid) that wouldn’t make it non conductive (conductivity is the primary property necessary for a material to make a good faraday cage) and I can’t imagine that it is (should exhibit the normal “electron cloud” that makes most metals good conductors.)
Maybe it’s not a fingerprint reader, as such but just a button that detects your finger so you don’t have to actually ‘press’ it.
I hope the ring illuminates and exhibits the same swirling circle effect that Siri does in iOS 7.
That Safari app icon is still sticking out like a sore thumb among the rest.
Any app icon with a borderless, flat, white edge is going to look cheap and inelegant. Look at the others (calendar, game center, etc.). I’m still on the fence about upgrading for the first time ever.
Separately, it is pretty clear that this year’s “S” designation for the iPhone 5 will stand for Sensor (previously Speed for the 3 GS and Siri for the 4S, if I recall correctly).
Fingerprint sensor=gimmick. New iPhone will clearly be incremental. I also find it hilarious that there are morons who have the iPhone 5 and plan on shelling out money to “upgrade” to the 5C – it’s the same phone with a cheaper case. Yeah….thats the ticket!!!!