Motorola releases fingerprint sensor-embedded Android phone (2011)
secureidnews.com
secureidnews.com
Atrix: Turn the phone over. Slide your finger vertically across the reader. Turn your phone back over and commence use of phone.
Apple: Place your finger on the most used button on the phone, any direction you would like.
Edit: Fair point that you don't have to turn the phone over. I think it is still quite a jump forward in usability to incorporate it up front, embedded into a button that people constantly use on the device, and usable in any position.
Source: I own Motorola Atrix phone. I used to be happy with it, but then the GPS broke, and camera became flaky, not to mention lack of Android updates.
Edit: As a side note, the lack of it on other Android phones is really making it hard for me to want to switch.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/At-least-one-upcoming-2013-An...
We don't know which phone, but my guess is the HTC One Max. It has had fingerprint rumors associated with it for a while and it is one of the few 2013 flagships we haven't seen yet.
It sucked that Motorola dumped it soon after 2.3.6 update esp since the hardware was more than capable of running even 4.1.
Am I the only one he gets thumb cramps from having to move my thumb all over?
Over the next few weeks, everyone emotionally invested in the cellphone for any of the terrible reasons that make it a "must have" will go through a process with the new iPhone that is almost exclusively afforded to Apple products. If the consumer doesn't like a feature, they'll wonder if instead of the tech being wrong, if it is really them that is wrong about the tech. "C'mon," they'll think "this is APPLE after all, I just must not get it." The people who wait longer to buy will have both that thought _and_ the fear of having an outsider opinion on the trendy new toy.
My best indication that this is true isn't related to the conversations I had with other iPhone owners after I switched. Those odd little ones that I mistook for chit-chat about the phone but after 2 or 3 eventually realized we were rationalizing back and forth that our less-than-prudent purchase decision was the right one. Nor was it the time that I had my jaw dropped after realizing how stupid I was for failing to realize how much the iPhone is a status symbol. I deluded myself into thinking it had anything to do with tech, but right after the release of the 4S I heard a criticism of the design "how is anyone supposed to know I have the new one"?
No, forget all that. The best indication that this is true, is the fact that the contents of this post could be seen as a slight against apple. Instead of just pointing out they have a strong market position and loyal customers which allows them to shape the future more than any other tech brand. Good on them for winning it! They've got highly polished products and wildly successful marketing. So they get a real opportunity to show everyone that they might actually like fingerprint scanning in a phone.
Then I switched to the Nexus 4, and I changed my mind slightly. On the one hand I love the thing. It can do lots of stuff that I like that I couldn't do on my iPhone, even after jailbreaking. But on the other hand, many of the common tasks leave me with irritations that I didn't have with the iPhone. UI inconsistencies, unintuitive interfaces, weird crashes, and generally stuff that made me miss my less-powerful iPhone.
Now, as a geek and a power user I am inclined to still prefer the Nexus, but only barely. But for my day to day stuff I'd switch back to an iPhone in a heartbeat.
So, I think saying it's all just fashion is not completely true. It is also about tech. And among most of my friends status has little to do with it (if anything, having an iPhone is boring over here in hipster land, and you're cooler with a fridge-sized Nokia that can only store 20 text messages).
Kind of amazing how that works, really, since it's completely irrational as I am literally a person who carries the same phone.
In the light of recent knowledge, it makes me wonder whether IBM had NSA backdoors, too.
My previous work computer was a Thinkpad (2011 model) with a fingerprint swipe-scanner, but it was flaky, wasn't baked into the OS, and didn't have any killer apps that supported it.
If, for example, Lenovo released something like 1Password but tied into the FP scanner for auth, that would've been really good… but that would require work to ensure it was secure and that particular sensor's flakiness would've killed the execution anyway.
I'm guessing it was there for military/secured installations where some bespoke software would interface with the scanner for a customer-specific purpose.
It's cool. Is it cool enough to risk having your fingerprints copied?
But if someone just wants a few thousand credit card numbers, and not yours specifically, that's when an ounce of caution can go a long way towards protecting yourself.
This is a very important enabling technology not because it's new, but because it'll gain widespread use in a short time.
In all seriousness though. Apple would never make claim to fingerprint technology on their phones. IBM Thinkpads past and present still have fingerprint readers you can use instead of a password. It's all about the execution and well, Apple executed way better than the Atrix.
I'd bet on it quickly gaining widespread usage.
This time next year we'll be watching an Apple commercial that states "More people unlocked their phone with their fingerprint on the Iphone than on any other phone".