A London programmer named Hamza Sood has
found evidence of support for fingerprint recognition through the home button
in the latest version (V4) of the iOS 7 beta released yesterday to developers.
Sood found a BiometricKitUI folder within the AccessibilityBundles in
the Library directory of the new OS that contains the code in the above image.
Sood told 9to5Mac that
the text in the <string> tags in the image “are what an iPhone with
VoiceOver on would read to a user.” 9to5Mac also reported
that another source told them that “the user-interface for the fingerprint
scanning system has been complete.” If this is to be believed, then these text
strings describe the images in an on-screen tutorial instructing users how to
touch the home button on an iPhone to scan their fingerprint to unlock the
phone. Apparently the image of a fingerprint (whether generic or particular)
appears on the screen and changes color during the recognition process (Sood,
being in London ostensibly has the UK version of iOS that spells this as
“colour.”) This second source also told 9to5Mac that “the technology is focused
around unlocking the phone, so it is unclear if it is built for a payment
system (as rumored) in the next iPhone.”
That next iPhone has been rumored to make use of
the fingerprint recognition technology that Applehas acquired from AuthenTec. If iOS 7 supports fingerprint recognition using
the home button, that would further suggest that this rumor is true.
But it’s potentially even more interesting than
that. As Bulgarian designer/developer Pavel Simeonovjust tweeted, “Fingerprint
sensor in iPhone 5S is much more than a gimmick. This + iCloud keychain = end
of passwords.” So this is not just about security, but also convenience. If
iCloud keychain converts and safeguards all of your passwords that you—and only
you—can access via your iPhone, then Apple will have scored a tremendous
usability coup that potentially makes its phone the key to your life—quite literally. These 14 lines of code
could indeed have big implications!
Source: http://www.forbes.com
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