Apple’s 10th Anniversary iPhone Rumoured to Have Iris Scanner

Following up on earlier rumours of Apple adding iris scanning capability to the iPhone, Digitimes (via MacRumors), citing a report published by MoneyDJ, now reports that this may become a reality sooner than expected. The report says next year’s iPhone could be equipped with iris-recognition sensors.

Iris scanner unlock

Samsung has already embraced the technology with the new Galaxy Note 7 unveiled earlier in August, so this wouldn’t be a groundbreaking feature Apple was adding to the iPhone, but it would nicely complement Touch ID in an effort to make user authentication smoother. The iris authentication technology implemented in the iPhone could be used in various user scenarios, including payment authorization and more, although it would be funny to authorize an Apple Pay transaction while holding the iPhone close to your face in McDonald’s, for example.

Digitimes, which previously predicted the iris-scanner feature for the 2018 iPhone, now reports that Xintec, an affiliate of Apple chip manufacturer TSMC, will begin mass production of iris-recognition chips next year in an effort to grab orders from Apple and other smartphone makers:

Xintec is expected to enter mass production for iris-recognition chips in 2017, which will boost the backend house’s revenues for the year, the report cited market watchers as saying. New orders for iris-recognition sensors include those for the chips that will be embedded in the 2017 series of iPhone, the watchers were also quoted in the report.

While the rumour mill has been busy spilling rumours about the possible features of the 2017 iPhone, we are still waiting for Apple to unveil the iPhone 7 on September 7.

Image credit: PC-Tablet.co.in

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