With only a few weeks left before the iPhone X ships to the hands of their waiting owners, consumers eagerly anticipate when pre-orders will start. Market analysts predict that all incoming stocks of the smartphone are likely already reserved until the second quarter of next year. Apple has announced that the pre-order availability will officially begin on October 27, 2017, and will become available for those lucky enough to pre-purchase the device on November 3, 2017. Meanwhile, a recently discovered Face ID function is expected to support the company’s decision to drop Touch Id.
The knowledge that the new flagship model faces the threat of insufficient supply for the holiday season would most likely drive reseller prices up.
Face ID’s advantage over Touch ID
Last month, Apple invited the press and some important people over to their new Cupertino campus to unveil this year’s new models. The keynote was held in the Steve Jobs Theater, which seems appropriate given that it’s the iPhone’s tenth anniversary. After being prematurely revealed by several leaks the preceded the event, the world finally got the see the iPhone X in all its glory. During production, designers and engineers allegedly struggled to find a good placement for its fingerprint sensor. A few suggested workarounds involved putting the optical sensor underneath the display, integrating it with the power button, or relocating the Touch ID sensor on the back.
None of the above-mentioned options worked for the development team, which had them come up with the Face ID feature.
Advanced facial recognition technology
Apple’s engineers were able to design the iPhone X with an edge-to-edge display due to their final decision to remove the fingerprint sensor. In exchange, the smartphone’s security was delegated to their new facial recognition technology called Face ID.
Unlike its competitors, their system is obviously faster and cannot be exploited to unlock using a photo of the user.
The newly discovered function reportedly protects notifications that are received when the phone is locked. Their advanced technology allows the phone to quickly identify who picks up the phone. If it’s the registered owner, it will immediately display the contents of the notification.
However, if it’s somebody else, a generic notification icon will come up while the contents remain hidden.
Working as intended
Features like the one discussed above appear to be a great step for Apple’s biometric security on the iPhone X. During the keynote last month, everyone just got a glimpse of some of its basic features, like Apple Pay, Animoji, and more. App developers will surely dig deeper and come up with even more practical uses for its Face ID. Furthermore, the new security feature might replace Touch ID in all future iPhone models.
