It seems pretty clear by this stage that Apple is working on a near-bezel-free design for the iPhone 8. Not only have we heard consistent reports supporting this idea – and Jony Ive’s ambitions of a ‘single slab of glass’ design – but it’s also a pretty obvious next step in the evolution of smartphones.
Apple has been headed in this direction since day one. One of the major points of differentiation of the very first iPhone over existing smartphones of the time was that it dispensed with a physical keyboard in order to maximize the screen space. In the latest iPhones, Apple has ditched a mechanical Home button in favor of a touch-sensitive one, and it holds patents for multiple approaches to embedding a fingerprint reader into a screen.
But the latest KGI report echoes an earlier one in suggesting that Apple may be planning to drop Touch ID and switch instead to ‘new biometric technologies’ …
Some have taken this to mean that Apple may be replacing fingerprint recognition with something else, but I think this isn’t the case.
Technically, Touch ID refers to the capacitive touch sensor Apple uses for fingerprint-recognition in its current devices, so a different type of fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen could easily count as ‘new biometric technologies.’
In other words, it would be business as usual: we continue to use fingerprints to unlock our iPhones, it’s just that Apple switches to a different method of reading them.
But there have also been multiple rumors of some kind of facial recognition system. Some of these reports suggest that we might see it used alongside fingerprint recognition as an alternative, which would be absolutely fine. If the phone recognizes our face, it unlocks immediately, if it doesn’t it asks for a fingerprint or passcode. Others are suggesting Apple will drop fingerprint recognition altogether, and it’s this I consider Read more...
| Apple face recognition lock. Might introduce facial-recognition in future iPhones |
Apple has been headed in this direction since day one. One of the major points of differentiation of the very first iPhone over existing smartphones of the time was that it dispensed with a physical keyboard in order to maximize the screen space. In the latest iPhones, Apple has ditched a mechanical Home button in favor of a touch-sensitive one, and it holds patents for multiple approaches to embedding a fingerprint reader into a screen.
But the latest KGI report echoes an earlier one in suggesting that Apple may be planning to drop Touch ID and switch instead to ‘new biometric technologies’ …
Some have taken this to mean that Apple may be replacing fingerprint recognition with something else, but I think this isn’t the case.
Technically, Touch ID refers to the capacitive touch sensor Apple uses for fingerprint-recognition in its current devices, so a different type of fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen could easily count as ‘new biometric technologies.’
In other words, it would be business as usual: we continue to use fingerprints to unlock our iPhones, it’s just that Apple switches to a different method of reading them.
But there have also been multiple rumors of some kind of facial recognition system. Some of these reports suggest that we might see it used alongside fingerprint recognition as an alternative, which would be absolutely fine. If the phone recognizes our face, it unlocks immediately, if it doesn’t it asks for a fingerprint or passcode. Others are suggesting Apple will drop fingerprint recognition altogether, and it’s this I consider Read more...
