Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 715 posts

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#331

Post by hershel »

swamp40 wrote: post #85
sdoowpilihp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope that they simply save a hash of the fingerprint with a reasonable level of collision built in to make it difficult to tie a hash to a single person's fingerprint (maybe ~10 people would have that hash?). I would imagine they could then use some sort of secret tied to the device id and hash pair to positively identify to the server. edit for clarity

So there are two things going on here. 1)They said the detection gets better every time you use it. So my guess would be that multiple versions of the raw fingerprint data are stored inside the A7 chip. (That information never leaves the chip.) 2) You can use your fingerprint to authenticate apps like iTunes, as well as third party apps. For this, yes I am sure they will use some hash that cannot rebuild the fingerpr…

For 2, the apps have no reason to see a fingerprint hash, only an authenticated identity.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#332

Post by devx »

kaolinite wrote: post #37
josteink wrote: post #16

I wonder how the people claiming plastic in those Android-phones feels "cheap" is going to react to this.

The plastic they're using (hard-coated polycarbonate) is, I believe, the same plastic used on many of the Nokia Lumia phones which a lot of people say feel much higher quality than other, regular plastic phones. That said, the 5C is the cheaper option and it isn't going to feel as good as the aluminium of the 5S. I don't however think it will be anywhere near as cheap-feeling as other phones (e.g. the Samsung Galaxy…

It's not much higher quality. The quality comes more from being machined instead of melted plastic, but it's still not much better.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#333

Post by Asterick6 »

Heliosmaster wrote: post #9

About the ID fingerprints? Am I the only one so in constant fear and doubt that thinks this would be a great way of bulk collecting the fingerprints of ANYONE?

Calm down and stop posting inane comments. It'd be much more healthy for this community.

If you have doubts about the scanner, then don't buy an iPhone 5S. There's nothing much more that can be done besides what's being done already. And for others who know and don't care, that's their decision.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#334

Post by holaby »

potatolicious wrote: post #153
pavlov wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Lumia 1020 will be hard to beat for the title of "best mobile phone camera ever created".

In terms of raw sensor performance, certainly. The new camera moves the software stack forward in a way that Nokia didn't though - extremely high frame rate to "catch" the best moment, programmatic selection of said moments, merging of exposure information across multiple consecutive frames, etc. As a photo enthusiast that part of the presentation was a lot more exciting than the (rather marginal) improvements to len…

You don't need to mess around with these software hacks when the hardware is as good as in the Lumia 1020. Besides these software features are already done in the HTC One (lookup 'Zoe'). Apple's playing catchup here.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#335

Post by mcintyre1994 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #219
pilif wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the country where I live (Switzerland), getting a drivers license thankfully does not involve somebody taking your fingerprint. Also, public transportation here rules to such an extent that not even having a drivers license is a perfectly valid option. I don't have one for example. My passport also is one of the last ones you could get without it containing any biometric data. As such, I'm reasonably sure that no…

Why do you care if anybody gets your fingerprint, if you have already decided nobody can be trusted with your fingerprint and thus will never trust fingerprint based authentication? Once you are at that point, it's like your eye color or something. I don't care if other people get my eye color, because I will never use it to authenticate.

I'd hypothesise it's more likely somebody will use your fingerprint to identify you than your eye colour. For example, at a crime scene if your fingerprints are found you can hardly say "oh, I don't trust my fingerprint so I won't authenticate with it, ignore that" - like it or not, it's seen as being at least something to investigate. On the flip side I imagine a witness who reports only "green eyes" won't have their case followed for very long.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#336

Post by res0nat0r »

jlgreco wrote: post #314
res0nat0r wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We take for gospel that the NSA is spying on everyone in the world via every hardware device that has been created in the USA because of a few powerpoint slides. Interesting.

You are still going with that "it's just a powerpoint, it means nothing" line? I thought we dispensed with that notion months ago.

Yes. There is zero evidence of any type of NSA backdooring your iPhone nonsense. It would be great to read HN (where I thought we were more technically inclined than the rest of the net) for a day without unfounded nonsensical claims.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#338

Post by jimwalsh »

pilif wrote: post #73

Now that we have to consider the iPhones to be backdoored by the NSA, I wonder whether I really want to give them my fingerprint together with the rest of my data. I'm also not so sure whether a fingerprint can't still be easily faked (like it was possible on that Mythbusters episode for example). Personally, I think I'd rather stay with my passcode. Did you btw know that you can turn off "simple passcode" and then u…

The US government has fingerprints of every person born in the US already.

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#339

Post by danabramov »

eric_cc wrote: post #256
danabramov wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really fail to see the difference between disclosing user info already on the servers to the NSA under legal orders and announcing a new product after the leaks, claiming it does not send any data, and doing the exact opposite without any additional benefit? Why would Apple do this? I don't recall reading NSA can now force companies to include finger sensors, and then force them to collect data they wouldn't b…

You are sound really really naive. You sound like the kind of person who is "shocked" by new scandals.

What is it that I said that sounds naïve to you?

That NSA can't force a company to include fingerprint sensors in their new phone?

Re: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

#340

Post by cheald »

stanleydrew wrote: post #308
cheald wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not snarking at all. I'm observing that comments about the NSA are entirely apropos given the current climate we live in. Yes, you're right, at this point, it would take something extremely radical to convince us that the NSA isn't spying on us anymore. Therefore, we should expect comments about the NSA and spying to become a part of the common dialog regarding technology and personal information. Asking them to…

Well now you are backtracking into a semi-legitimate interpretation of your comment as not snarky. If you didn't mean to snark you could have just originally said "We should expect comments about the NSA and spying to become a part of the common dialog regarding technology and personal information. Asking them to go away is just asking people to stick their head in the sand and ignore it." That is a useful comment th…

I chose brevity, and can see how it would be interpreted as snark. I wasn't aiming for that, but it was a simple question that deserved a simple answer, IMO.

> I don't mind useful or constructive comments about technology and the NSA, but most of the comments I see are very reactionary and misinformed and painfully naiive.

Perhaps our energy would be better spent pointing out why these comments are naiive and misinformed, rather than discussing whether they're worth saying at all, then?

Post reply on HN