The next generation of MacBook laptops and iPad tablets could be opened with a scan of a fingerprint (or nipple-print, or toe-print , or sausage-print), as Apple’s TouchID patent looks ready to cover a wider range of the Cupertino firm’s products.
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Long before the new phablet was officially announced, the internet was abuzz with rumors that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will come with a fingerprint scanner. When the phablet was unveiled last month, it become clear that all those rumors weren’t true. Samsung didn’t even mention a fingerprint scanner or hint at the possibility of upcoming devices having it. A new report from Korea’s ETNews claims that Samsung did have plans to put a fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy Note 3, but that particular feature didn’t make the cut because apparently it didn’t pass the quality assurance tests.
The primary function of the sensor would obviously have been easy locking and unlocking of the device, Apple allows users to also make payments on iTunes through Touch ID, the fingerprint scanner it has put into the iPhone 5s. It isn’t exactly clear why the Galaxy Note 3 with fingerprint reading ability didn’t pass quality assurance tests, the report suggests that Samsung had some trouble getting the size of the scanner right. It also suggests that Samsung hasn’t given up on this technology and that we actually might see a Galaxy Note 3 variant which brings the feature. No word as yet on when such a variant will be released though. The next highly anticipated device with a rumored fingerprint sensor is the HTC One Max, which is likely to be unveiled next week.
Apparently Galaxy Note 3 With Fingerprint Scanner Didn’t Pass Samsung Quality Control original content from Ubergizmo. 
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A much rumored feature of the iPhone 5s was its fingerprint sensor, which was made official when the smartphone was announced on September 10th. Since then, people have been wondering if Apple has any intentions of bringing the sensor over to other devices, and since iPads are next in line to be refreshed, the focus has been on the upcoming tablets. Apple is expected to unveil both new iPads later this month and the iPad 5 is expected to have Touch ID, the aforementioned fingerprint scanner. A purported home button connector cable of the next generation iPad has leaked online, it hints at the possibility of the tablet having the ability to read your fingerprint.
The report accompanying this leaked image suggests that the component has been completely redesigned and that it is quite similar to its counterpart in the flagship iPhone. It is on this similarity that the possibility of iPad 5 having Touch ID is based. As always, Apple is quiet about its future plans and has made no indication if its next tablet will bring a fingerprint scanner. The iPad 5 is expected to be a major update, it is likely to come with a new design after using the same one for nearly three years now. Would Apple go the extra mile and incorporate Touch ID in it as well? Time will tell. [Image via CTechCn]
Purported iPad 5 Home Button Connector Cable Hints At Touch ID original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The passcode can’t die yet. The iPhone 5s’s Touch ID fingerprint security system can be unlocked with your finger even if you’re asleep. That means a jealous lover could hold your phone to your thumb while you slumber and read all your texts, call logs, emails, and more.
Apple confirms that a dead thumb won’t work. Chloroforming the victim might, but international spies will have no luck cutting off a Prime Minister’s thumb to access their secure files / selfies. Apple also doesn’t send a copy of fingerprints back to its servers, and instead stores them in a “secure enclave” in its A7 processor designed to be inaccessible by hackers or other apps.
Apple worked hard to make the the Touch ID security system easy to use. So easy a 5s can be unlocked by a cat, your toe, or even your…member, if it’s registered with your phone. The real issue, though, is that Touch ID has no way of telling if someone is passed out.
Frat dudes, heads up. You could wake up from a night of drinking to find your bros messaged all your exes and creatively rewrote your Facebook profile. Yet the biggest threat is likely that of misuse by significant others.
It’s common to hear the story of a suspicious girlfriend or boyfriend who went through their guy/girl’s unlocked phone while he was asleep, found them flirting with someone else, and dumped them. Numeric passcodes would prevent this.
But Touch ID is vulnerable to “sleephacking.”
As long as someone knows what finger[s] you’ve registered with Touch ID, they can pick your phone up off the nightstand, press it against your sleeping finger, and voilà, the phone unlocks.
If you have shady personal stuff in your phone, you should…not have shady personal stuff in your phone. And if your significant other will rifle through your phone while you sleep, you’ve got bigger problems. But if you’re stuck sleeping by someone unscrupulous, you might want to go into your settings, enable passcode lock, and delete the fingerprints you have on file.
Really this all boils down to the idea that no password that humans have developed yet is both convenient and 100 percent secure. Not long strings of characters, not facial recognition, and not fingerprints. The lack of perfect digital security has become part of our culture — a risk and inconvenience no one is above for now. On that note, I’ll leave you with this touching painting/poem by graffiti artist Banksy:
U.S. Senator Al Franken has written a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the letter he asks some tough questions about Touch ID, the 170 microns thin fingerprint sensor that resides underneath the home button of the iPhone 5S. Franken says that which the sensor might improve certain aspects of mobile security, it raises important privacy questions for the company. He cites an Apple promotional video in which the company says that a fingerprint is “one of the best passwords in the world,” and disagrees. A conventional password can easily be changed if an unwanted person finds it out, passwords are secret, they are dynamic. Fingerprints are not. A person can’t change their fingerprints, and since they leave them on every surface they touch, “they are definitely not a secret,” writes Franken. He says that hackers were to get access to a fingerprint, they’ll be able to identify and impersonate a person for the rest of their lives.
U.S. Senator Writes To Tim Cook, Asks Tough Questions About Touch ID original content from Ubergizmo. 
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One of the most exciting new features on the iPhone 5s is the fingerprint sensor embedded in the device’s home button. Apple calls it Touch ID, and as it gains more uses in the OS, it could have a huge …
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As you can see in the video above, Apple’s new fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s isn’t restricted to human users. After commandeering a cat, I tested a colleague’s hypothesis that you could register the identifying skin segments of your favorite furry friends for Touch ID, too.
The cat’s paw worked, and while it encountered more frequent failures than did a fingerprint, it was able to unlock the phone again repeatedly when positioned correctly on the sensor. Note that no other paw pads would unlock the device, and that cats essentially have unique “fingerprints” just like people, so this doesn’t make the Touch ID sensor any less secure.
For the curious, I also tested the 5s fingerprint sensor on the heel of my palm, as well as on the inside of my forearm up around the wrist, and found that I could register and successfully unlock with both skin regions. Again, it was trickier to get the unlock to work consistently, and trying to fool the sensor by using the same part of the body on the opposing limb never worked.
To clarify, this isn’t a ‘hack’ of Apple Touch ID tech, like the kind a group of individuals is trying to crowdfund via the istouchidhackedyet.com covered earlier this morning by ZDNet. But it is a broadening of the definition of what counts as a “fingerprint” by the iPhone 5s scanner’s standards, so if you think your pet needs access to your accounts, feel free to register them as one of your five stored Touch ID profiles.
TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas contributed to this article.
Earlier today, we brought you a story that clarified on the Touch ID fingerprint storage details, and here we are with additional light shed on the situation by the folks over at Cupertino. So far, Apple did not reveal much about the new Touch ID fingerprint reader on the recently unveiled iPhone 5S, although we do know that third party developers will not be able to gain access to it, but some of Apple’s statements to the Wall Street Journal have revealed more about the Touch ID.
Touch ID works this way – whenever an iPhone 5S owner wants to unlock their device, all they need to do is swipe their finger over (it would be the thumb normally), whereas previous iPhone models required a passcode for the unlock to happen. It is also said that iPhone 5S owners are able to unlock with a passcode should they reboot or have not unlocked the device within 48 hours, and this particular safeguard will help prevent hackers from biding their time as they wait for a workaround. Not only that, it has been revealed that Touch ID does not like sweaty fingers – at all, so you might not want to try unlocking your iPhone 5S while you are pounding the treadmill. We do wonder whether in time, more real-world limitations concerning Touch ID will be revealed or discovered.
Apple’s Touch ID Does Not Like Sweaty Fingers original content from Ubergizmo. 
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So, you know fancy new fingerprint reading home button Apple showed off for the iPhone 5s at today’s event? The company demonstrated functionality for unlocking and buying stuff through iTunes. Cool, but what about third-party apps? We can imagine all sorts of neat uses not limited to buying stuff. For the time being, however, the authentication functionality is off-limits. Apple exec Phil Schiller told All Things D that the hardware won’t be opened to developers initially. As to whether that functionality will be arriving in the future, Apple’s not ready to say just yet.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Source: All Things
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