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As iPhone moves to Face ID, Android still offers more variety with unlocking tech [Video]

Security used to be more or less the same on just about every phone. You could set up a PIN or pattern to keep nosy friends out, and there would almost always be a fingerprint sensor built into a home button underneath the display for faster access. These days, as bezels continue to shrink and phone makers simply don’t want anything but screen taking up space on the front of their phones, fingerprint sensors are starting to look a little different, and some are even going away entirely.


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Next year’s fingerprint sensors could fit into volume rocker buttons, guard against spoofing

fingerprint

Synaptics has provided fingerprint sensors for a number of different smartphones, the HTC One Max among them, but Engadget says that it has a much sleeker version in the works.

Synaptics’ latest fingerprint sensor for mobile devices measures only 3.5 mm wide. It’s so thin and tiny, it can fit inside a volume rocker switch on the side of your smartphone or tablet.

The company says it has also found a way to prevent the use of fake fingerprints by a new algorithm that can distinguish live fingers from printed replicas.

We probably won’t be seeing the new reader make it into phones until next year, though, as Synaptics says mass-production isn’t due to start until the third quarter of this year. There’s as yet no word of which phone brands might be looking to include it.

We’re also expecting to see the company’s pressure-sensitive screens coming to some Android devices later this year.

Image for illustration only: 91mobiles.com

Possible Sony Xperia Z5 and Compact leak shows larger power button with built-in fingerprint sensor

xperia z5

Having just launched its latest super mid-range smartphones, Sony will turn its attention to the next flagship launch which is surely just around the corner. If a recent leak holds any truth, the next Xperia could jump on the fingerprint sensor bandwagon and incorporate the feature in to its side-mounted power button.

An image tweeted by Vizileaks shows what it claims to be the next generation Xperia Z and Z Compact separated by an iPhone 5s. For the sake of saving confusion, we’ll call them the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact for now.

What’s really interesting about these images is that they clearly show fingerprint recognition setup screens on the display. The closest device (Z5) shows the progress icon, which isn’t too dissimilar to those we’ve seen on other phones. Look at the furthest phone and you can see a tutorial screen clearly showing the user how to register the fingerprint; by placing their thumb on the power button.

This power button seems vastly different in design to previous Xperia phones. It’s a large, pill-shaped button rather than a tiny, fiddly round button like the one featured on the Z3.

[tweet https://twitter.com/vizileaks/status/628208495758852096 align=’center’]

Like previous iterations of Xperia, it would appear that the next pair will feature very similar form factors to every other Android-based Sony smartphone in recent history. Although unsurprising, that is a little disappointing.

Sony announced a new Xperia Z at IFA last year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the company chose to refresh its lineup once again at the Berlin tech show. It would fit in with the manufacturer’s release schedule, although there’s no guarantee Sony will choose to do so this year.

Samsung Galaxy S5 vulnerable to same fingerprint hack as iPhone 5s

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfhLZZWBn5Q]

The same German security researchers who demonstrated a hack of the iPhone 5s Touch ID fingerprint sensor have released a video showing that the same hack also works with the Samsung Galaxy S5.

The hack relies on photographing a latent print from something like a glass in a bar, then using lab techniques to transfer the image of the print into wood glue, which is then applied to someone else’s finger to activate the sensor … 
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HTC One Max fingerprint sensor confirmed, launches on 15th October (oops …)

Photo: thedroidguy.com

Photo: thedroidguy.com

Rumors that the HTC One Max would have a fingerprint sensor (that we first reported back in August) are now all but confirmed by a launch invitation from HTC containing the phrase “One finger opens up a big view.” The two lines of text seemingly promote three aspects of the device:

One finger opens up a big view

You are invited to immerse in the sound with us

A fingerprint scanner, large display (of course) and BoomSound front speakers.

The WSJ also reports two different sources as confirming the fingerprint sensor.

HTC hasn’t been enjoying the best of luck recently.  Senior departures, including its COO; a halving of market share since 2011; former UK execs setting up a rival company; alleged theft of trade secrets by several lead designers; and the first ever loss in the company’s history. Its luck doesn’t seem to be improving. The 15th October date the company has chosen for the launch just may find it struggling to see much media coverage: it’s the rumored date of Apple’s launch of new iPads, Macs and more … Update: The Apple rumor was wrong, the iPad launch is on 22nd October.

Report claims new leaked photo shows ‘HTC One Max’ with fingerprint sensor

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eprice-HTC-One-Max

We’ve been hearing more and more rumors about the ‘HTC One Max’, a variant of the company’s flagship HTC One that will sit on the high end of the family with a 5.9-inch display and compete in the oversized smartphone market with Samsung’s Galaxy Mega and others. While it sports the same overall design of the HTC One, new images of the device’s backside show some unique hardware features. ePrice today posted the image above that shows the HTC One Max next to the HTC One and HTC Mini. Curiously, the HTC One Max appears to have an extra sensor underneath the rear camera. The report claims it’s a fingerprint sensor, but there’s always a possibility it could be an IR blaster or a different sensor. The image also appears to show what looks like a pin connector on the lower right corner that could allow for wireless dock charging.
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Smartphone fingerprint sensors are the new black as Pantech beats the big boys

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While it was rumored that LG would be the first to launch a current-generation smartphone with a fingerprint sensor, with the forthcoming iPhone 5S widely expected to be second in line, it appears Korean company Pantech has beaten both of them to it with the new Vega LTE-A.

As the name suggests, the handset also supports the new faster-than-4G LTE-Advanced standard, the second one to do so after Samsung’s S4 LTE-A …

There had been rumors that the LG G2, due for launch tomorrow, would have a fingerprint sensor based on photos of the rear shell … 
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