The iPhone 12 should have Touch ID like the iPad Air, but it probably won’t

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One of Apple’s best new features introduced during our unusual times may not appear in the iPhone 12. It may not get to any iPhones until next year, if it does. Apple is new Ipad airIntroduced in mid-September and hitting the market later this month, it relocates Touch ID to a button on the edge of the device. The company’s upcoming iPhone 12 lineup should do something similar, giving users a choice between unlocking their iPhone using their face or unlocking it with their fingerprint as the world battles it. coronavirus pandemic.

Apple upgraded $ 599 (£ 579, AU $ 899) iPad Air integrates Touch ID on the power button on the top of the tablet. This makes it easier for you to unlock the device while wearing a skin and allows Apple to include a larger screen on its tablet without relying on Face ID to unlock the device. To get Apple’s face unlock technology on an iPad, users have to go for one of the company’s more expensive Pro models.

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Why iPhone 12 should have Touch ID

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When it comes to iPhone 12 next line, Apple would be smart if it did something similar. But with your popular smartphone, you have to include Touch ID and Face ID to make it much faster to enter the device when wearing a mask. The new coronavirus pandemic, which has been ravaging the world for months, will likely not go away anytime soon. And that means we will all wear masks when we leave the house for the foreseeable future.

“The focus on the new integrated fingerprint reader likely heralds that it will appear on the next iPhone as a hedge against Face ID,” said Ross Rubin, an analyst at Reticle Research.

However, if Apple hasn’t designed the feature on the Phone 12 yet, it’s unlikely that it will be added shortly before launch. It takes Apple between a year and 18 months to develop each new iPhone, which means that this year’s models were designed long before the pandemic spread around the world.

The new Apple devices, your second virtual presentation during the pandemic, come in a difficult time. The coronavirus has infected more than 32 million people worldwide and has killed nearly a million. Millions of people are out of work amid a recession that is hitting the US hard, and COVID-19 shows no signs of abating in many parts of the world. People have been buying electronic products that allow them to work or take classes at home, such as webcams and laptops, but they have avoided purchases such as 5G smartphones. This year, the telephony industry will see its biggest drop in sales in a decade, according to CCS Insight.

Apple typically holds a flashy product launch in September to showcase its newest iPhones. On those occasions, the Apple Watch, iPad, and other devices take a backseat to Apple’s key smartphone, and the company sometimes hosts another event in October for its iPads and Macs. This time, the focus was on its other products, notably the Apple Watch and the iPad. Earlier this year, Apple warned that its iPhone production would be impacted by COVID-19 and, in late July, said that its newer iPhones, which will feature super-fast 5G connectivity, would be delayed “a few weeks” due to to the pandemic.

As phones get slimmer and sleeker, companies have been looking for ways to cram a bigger screen into a smaller package without leaving room for a fingerprint sensor. Apple has relied on its Face ID to unlock its latest devices rather than a physical fingerprint reader, while other companies have commonly used techniques such as embedding fingerprint sensors on the back or side of devices or integrating the technology underneath. of the front display.

The COVID-19 pandemic makes the shift to physical buttons, like the iPad Air’s built-in Touch ID, attractive to potential buyers who get frustrated typing in a passcode every time they want to access their devices.

Face ID weaknesses

Starting with the iPhone 5S in 2013, Apple incorporated its fingerprint sensor into a round button on the front of its devices, taking up screen space. In 2017, it abandoned the Touch ID-enabled home button in favor of Face ID technology for the iPhone X. Over the next few years, Apple included Face ID on its high-end phones and tablets, a move that allowed it to include more displays. big. on devices, but keep a safe and fast way to unlock devices.

As the coronavirus ravages the world and people seek protection by wearing masks, more consumers are looking for devices with physical unlock buttons. Apple’s Face ID is more secure than Touch ID, but it doesn’t work when someone wears a mask. In May, Apple made your devices unlock faster while wearing a mask, but it still requires someone to remove their mask for Face ID to work or to type a passcode.

Apple got Touch ID back with March’s iPhone SE. In that case, the technology was built into the round home button, with many applauding the ease of unlocking the device with a face mask. But the inclusion of Touch ID in the home button limited the size of the phone’s screen. With the iPad Air, Apple has increased the size of the screen.

Android device makers, such as Samsung, have included fingerprint unlock technology in the buttons on the sides of their phones for years, and they have also integrated the technology under the display, something Apple hasn’t done.

While in-display fingerprint technology is attractive to both users and device manufacturers, it has not worked as well in practice as expected. Early versions, on devices like Samsung’s Galaxy S10, were slow, buggy, and easy to hack. Qualcomm, the leading technology provider, has made constant improvements to in-display fingerprint technologyBut it is not widely used in the telephone industry yet.

So far, there have been no rumors of Apple incorporating Touch ID into the iPhone 12. But we are hopeful that it will move into the iPhone 13.