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BOTH APPLE AND Microsoft are working on a way to unlock your Macs or PC using your phone’s fingerprint scanner.
The idea would allow you to unlock a computer using that company’s mobile software instead of typing in a password.
So if you have a Mac, you would be able to unlock it using your iPhone while a Windows PC would unlock using an Android or Windows Phone device.
In the case of Apple, MacRumours reports that Apple is working on a feature that would let iPhone users unlock their Mac using Touch ID.
The feature would be similar to other iOS-exclusive apps like like Knock, Tether, and MacID, which offer similar functionality.
The new feature is expected to be announced next month at Apple’s developer conference WWDC. Usually, major updates to Macs officially arrive in September, the same time as the new iOS release.
Other features that will likely be announced include Siri appearing on Mac, currently a mobile-only feature, as well as upgrades to its music streaming service, Apple Music.
And Microsoft is doing the same thing with Windows 10 later this summer when its anniversary update arrives.
It will allow Windows Phone and Android phones to unlock your Windows 10 PC and any apps that support Windows Hello (logging in by using face, iris or fingerprint recognition) and Windows Passport (using two-factor authentication instead of passwords).
The feature will likely work with Windows Store, as a way to authorise purchases, and signing in to sites through Microsoft Edge.
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Would it not be quicker to just type in your password instead of rumbling through your pocket to find your phone, unlock the phone, open the new app press you finger onto the screen, pray to God it recognises your fingerprint on the first go and then log into the PC which was sitting in front of you the whole time.
Why not just implement a fingerprint reader on the MacBook? Case closed. I’ve heard rumours about this for a while but nothing has come to fruition.
I was thinking that myself, they should put it into the pressure sensitive trackpad because Apple with their aesthetics won’t put it anywhere else or maybe the screen
Take phone out of pocket. Unlock. Open app. Scan finger. Unlock PC. -or- type password. I think this might go the way of logging in with facial scanning on the ps4…
You can already do this on Mac/iOS with the app MacID
Tried to use the fingerprint scanner on the Samsung when I got it as it was new. Had to switch back to pincode almost straight away. It was very unreliable.
Fingerprint scanning. How the other half live.
ive had that on my HP laptop for the last couple of years, whats the big deal?
you are doing it wrong – i know on HPs, you can just move your finger where your hand is, but that is too subtle. you need to whip out you 7 inch iPhone and start swiping it in the air so that so everyone can see it.
lol, it would be like finding the remote only worse, get up , is it in my jacket? no , did I leave it in the kitchen? no , damn it I left my phone in work, back in 20
Can already do this on my Oneplus 2
For Android devices: you can use KeyLock (https://brabonet.com/?q=keylock) to do this.
Lose your phone or if it’s dead. No PC.
Fingerprint reader on phone isn’t the screen if you pass on this tip to apple and Microsoft then might develop app quicker instead of talking about it
have your say