Welcome to Brown’s Bytes! Your weekly insight from Mobliciti’s CTO Andy Brown. Follow #brownsbytes
3rd September 2021
It’s that time of year where the rumour mill is gearing up for the launch of the new iPhone…
It does seem Apple has plugged the holes that were leaking a LOT of information last time around… usually, reliable sources are basically guessing this time – to the point where they can’t even agree on whether this is going to be an iPhone 12S or an iPhone 13.
This means my guessing is probably as good as anyone else’s this time!
This is, sadly, probably more of a wish though…
Face ID
When Face ID launched there was a lot of buzz around it vs Touch ID – in fact, there must be a (very) old Brown’s Byte about it!
Personally, I think Apple’s implementation of Touch ID was just about perfect, the sensor was in the right place, the system was reliable and for Apple Pay in particular it was just about perfect.
My test for this is usually how effective using my Phone is when I touch in and out of the London Underground during rush hour… you do not want to be the person holding up a queue of hacked off commuters at the barrier!!
And Face ID was never quite as good for this (in my opinion) as Touch ID was – it is a more premeditated effort to scan your face first than it is to just hold your phone up with your finger on the sensor.
Now Add Face Masks!!
And of course, all this was before the pandemic rendered Face ID almost useless with the need to wear a face-covering when out in public – which is usually precisely when you want to pay for something!
This is clearly a first-world problem! But, it’s actually made me increasingly go back to just using cards… I know you just need to enter a PIN, but that is a faff and also, it’s precisely the sort of thing that Security Professionals tell you not to do too often in public as well!
There are even people trying to hack the system – see here for an example of how to trick your iPhone into using Face ID with a mask on… to be clear, I don’t think this is a good idea. The whole point of Face ID is that it uses your whole Face to recognise you and I can’t help thinking Apple will patch this hack soon. In fact, Apple’s formal answer to this problem is to use an Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone…
Meanwhile, Touch ID users have carried on as normal!
Back to Rumours!
For years now there has been rumour of Apple re-implementing Touch ID by using a sensor built into the screen (so you can still have full height display). There have even been some Android devices based on this tech already on the market…
Fingers crossed (!) this one makes it to iPhone 13… not long to find out.
We’ll cover the new iPhone in more detail once it’s announced. Until then if you need help with your iPhone strategy (or even getting hold of stock), then please do get in touch.
