The iPhone that Apple finally unlocked with a fingerprint is gone!

Since Apple first used Face ID instead of fingerprint unlock on the iPhone X, we can only review the classic home button unlock on the iPhone SE series, but most people don't miss fingerprint unlocking, after all, the Face ID experience is really good, even in winter with gloves can quickly unlock the phone.

However, there are always people who like some nostalgic experiences, and there has been news that the iPhone SE series is about to release new products on the Internet, judging from the information exposed, the iPhone SE4 will use a notch screen design, completely abandoning the Home button.

Source: MacRumors

Then there is a lot of controversy about the unlocking method adopted by the iPhone SE4, which is divided into fingerprint unlocking and Face ID to be precise. The argument of netizens who think that the iPhone SE4 adopts Face ID is very simple: the notch is originally designed for Face ID, and there is no need for Apple to continue to retain the fingerprint unlock module after changing the notch screen.

The argument of the fingerprint unlocking faction is: the cost of Face ID is still not low, Apple is unlikely to reduce profit margins and give up fingerprint unlocking, and the notch screen design + under-screen fingerprint unlocking scheme is cheaper, and it is likely to be used on the iPhone SE4.

Coincidentally, some time ago, Apple did expose the patent for under-screen fingerprint and side fingerprint unlocking, and at that time, some people thought that it was prepared for iPhone SE4, just like sweet and salty tofu brains can make netizens noisy, and the debate between the fingerprint unlocking party and the Face ID party is equally lively.

However, the news revealed by a blogger recently seems to be about to put a final cut on this controversy, and judging from the information, Apple will no longer use fingerprint unlocking on mobile phones in the future, and we can officially say goodbye to the Home button.

The end of the era of fingerprint unlocking?

Fingerprint unlocking, although it is still in an absolute dominant position in the Android market, but on Apple's side, it is withdrawing from the iPhone ecosystem, except for the iPhone SE series, the existence of fingerprint unlocking can no longer be seen. However, fingerprint unlocking is still active on Apple's other products, such as the side fingerprint unlock of the iPad, the keyboard area fingerprint unlock of the MacBook series, etc.

The MacBook series is the most speechless,When the MacBook series was exposed earlier and will use a notch screen design,Some people speculated whether the fingerprint unlock was finally going to be replaced with Face ID,Just when everyone was running to tell each other,After the new product was announced"Touch ID"The function is still in the list,And Face ID is gone。

Source: STUFF

Yes, although Apple designed a notch screen for the MacBook, it only has a front-facing camera in the huge space, and Face ID does not exist. Such an abstract design also caused widespread and heated discussions at the time, and many voices believed that Apple originally planned to use Face ID on MacBook, but decided to cancel it at the last minute of mass production and continue to use the fingerprint unlock solution.

As for the reason for abandoning Face ID, some people say that it is to control costs, and some people say that there is a security vulnerability, but in my opinion, the speculation of security vulnerabilities is obviously untenable, after all, Face ID technology has been used on the iPhone series for many years, and the security has been good, and it is unlikely that it will suddenly explode on the MacBook.

Then the cost of control has become the most likely explanation, so it seems that if Apple thinks that the cost of Face ID cannot be reduced to the psychological range, then the iPhone SE4 is really likely to become a touch unlock iPhone with a notch, after all, it has been a precedent on the MacBook side.

In fact, when the iPhone SE4 was exposed, Apple's internal documents circulating on the Internet showed that Apple had prepared two sets of iPhone SE4 with different schemes, which may be the B plan that Apple said it was preparing, that is, the iPhone SE4 that uses the under-screen or side fingerprint unlock function.

Therefore, although some bloggers say that Apple's production line for the iPhone fingerprint unlock module has been sealed, but from the perspective of actual products, the sealed production line may be originally used for home button unlocking, and the under-screen fingerprint and side fingerprint unlocking are technologies that have not been used on the iPhone before, and it does not rule out the possibility of designing a new chip separately.

iPhone wants to say goodbye to fingerprint unlocking? I'm afraid it's hard to draw conclusions in a short period of time.

Fingerprint unlocking is just a compromise

Although there is still controversy about whether fingerprint unlocking will go or stay, Face ID is undoubtedly the best choice for iPhone SE4, after all, compared with fingerprint unlocking, Face ID has a lower theft rate. Fingerprint unlocking is actually not as secure as everyone expected, recently, the Windows system was exposed to a serious security vulnerability, which will lead to the fingerprint unlock module being illegally cracked.

Of course, we can't use the security vulnerabilities of the system itself to explain that fingerprint unlocking is not safe enough, but most of the current fingerprint unlocking modules use capacitive design, in fact, only some simple means can be deceived detection, and then get the key, the biggest difficulty is to obtain a clear and complete user fingerprint.

Information encryption has long been a headache for the digital industry, and companies with huge market shares, such as Microsoft and Apple, have spent a lot of money to upgrade their biometric identification and protection systems. From fingerprints to iris, from palm prints to voiceprints, from 2D faces to 3D faces, biometric technology has been upgrading, and in terms of fingerprint unlocking alone, security is actually the lowest among all kinds of technologies.

Source: VEER

Whether it is iris or palm print, the difficulty of counterfeiting is higher than that of fingerprints, and the 3D structured light face recognition used by Apple is more secure, in fact, without considering the cost and patent restrictions, 3D structured light face recognition is the best choice for all mobile phones, including iPhone SE4.

So the question is, why do Android phones now generally use fingerprint unlocking? In fact, the Android camp is not only fingerprint unlocking, in the early years, Samsung used the iris unlock function, but because the cost is too high, the unlocking speed is slow and not easy to operate, so it finally chose to turn to ultrasonic fingerprint unlocking.

Compared with traditional optical fingerprint unlocking, ultrasound has the advantage of fast unlocking speed and support for use in wet environments, but because the patent is in Samsung's hands, only a small number of manufacturers will use the same solution. In addition, Huawei's Mate series has always supported 3D face recognition, and it is also the only manufacturer other than Apple that uses 3D face recognition technology.

Source: Huawei

It can be seen that business people are more inclined to iPhone and Huawei, it is not unreasonable, for ordinary users, the security of fingerprint unlocking is enough to ensure the safety of daily use, and under the compromise of practicality, cost and other aspects, fingerprint unlocking has become the first choice for most Android mobile phones.

After years of optimization and development, today's optical fingerprint unlocking has tended to be perfect in terms of experience, and most users have become accustomed to this unlocking method. However, if there is a choice, I believe that Android manufacturers will also be willing to provide users with biometric functions other than fingerprint unlocking, such as 3D structured light or something.

In fact, in the patent information of Xiaomi, OPPO and other mobile phone manufacturers, we can also query some novel unlocking methods, such as vein recognition, the use of this unlocking method is similar to fingerprint unlocking, but it is through the collection of optical information of the vein to determine whether the user himself.

From a biological point of view, everyone's physique and development are different, even if they are twins, their vein optical information will be very different, and this information is difficult to forge and copy, so in terms of security, it will be much higher than fingerprint unlocking.

However, the technology of vein unlocking is not yet mature, and the related modules are difficult to miniaturize and miniaturize, and it is unlikely to appear on mobile devices such as mobile phones in a short period of time. If you had to choose, would you want Face ID, or would you want fingerprint unlocking, or would we have any other safer and more convenient way to unlock it?