Though it may be seen as a bit of a relic of the past for iPhones, Apple has just filed a new patent that may make a Touch ID comeback a real force to be reckoned with.

The patent suggests Apple may be preparing to make some big improvements around ultrasonic touch sensing and fingerprint imaging soon. As patents are somewhat a declaration of intent, it's possible this is just the start in a chain of events that could bring Touch ID back to Apple's most popular mobile devices following the launch of the iPhone 15.

This could place us a few years out from implementation but may give some insight into the future plans of the company. 

The return of Touch ID on phones

According to a new patent filed by Apple, and subsequently spotted by Patently Apple, the company is working on improving the accuracy of ultrasonic touch sensing and fingerprint imaging. 

This is predominantly intended for use in the top button of iPads but Apple says that its technology could work in future laptops, desktops, phones, wearables and more. This could mean a return of the old Touch ID sensor that iPhone had before getting rid of the home button. 

It could be attached to the lock button and allow users an easy entry into the device, which would mean that accessories like iPhone cases for future handsets would need different cutouts for the power button to allow for users' fingers to touch the fingerprint scanner.

In the patent, Apple attributed touch inaccuracy to acoustic impedance between the device itself and the user. Acoustic Impedance, in this context, refers to the effect of ultrasonic waves on the surface of a device, causing interference and a less accurate reading. The new patent has found a very complicated workaround that essentially matches that impedance to counteract it. Presumably, Apple has not used the fingerprint imaging tech in all its devices as they spot issues that need to be addressed and doing so gives them incentive to design new models around it. 

If Apple’s fix works, as filing a patent implies, we could see future devices with the tech in it.

Unfortunately, now that the Apple Event has aired, we know that the iPhone 15 lineup won't be getting Touch ID. You can check out everything announced at the Apple Event here.

It's been a few years since FaceID debuted on the iPhone X, and while Apple's flagship phones since then have all used the face-scanning tech, there's always room for the TouchID sensor that’s still on the iPhone SE - possibly in the future. 

Though we now know the iPhone 15, 15 Pro, and Pro Max won't get it, there's a chance future phones will. 

With this in mind, here's everything you should know about Touch ID on iPhone 15 and why we thought it could have happened.

Is iPhone 15 getting TouchID?

No, the iPhone 15 is not getting Touch ID, and instead, we'll see Face ID stay for another year.

It may seem an obvious answer, but reports had suggested there was a chance of the sensor being reintegrated via an under-display scanner.

Those stemmed from Apple patents, which were backed up by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who had suggested Touch ID could be found under displays in iPhones in the second half of 2023.

That'd include the iPhone 15, but Kuo has backtracked on things somewhat, tweeting that, “the latest survey indicates new iPhones in 2023 & 2024 may not adopt under-display Touch ID.”

His tweet also seems to suggest that the iPhone's FaceID improvements for mask-wearers could have made Touch ID less of a priority.

Renowned leaker "yeux1122" popped up on Korean blog Naver has suggested that it's a matter of when, not if, Touch ID could return, backing up display analyst Ross Young's prediction of a 2026 release.

That’s a lot of names with a lot of reports, but in short, don't expect the iPhone 15 to have Touch ID back - but there's every chance an iPhone 18 could, and it'll likely be found under the screen.

Touch ID versus Face ID

As we've noted, Touch ID is particularly beneficial for mask-wearers because it can be triggered without removing the mask - although Face ID has got better at detecting when a user is wearing one.

Touch ID can also come unstuck if you have something on your hands, be that some sticky BBQ sauce, or a pair of woolly gloves.

Face ID is, in our opinion, quicker than its fingerprint-based sibling, but the two aren't mutually exclusive - many Android devices offer both facial recognition and fingerprint sensors, with each acting as a sort of failsafe for the other.

The future of Face ID & Touch ID

It's unlikely Apple would revert, though, especially given how Face ID is tied into Dynamic Island already - a feature expected to come to all models of iPhone 15 this year.

Still, given Always-On displays are expected to remain a Pro feature, could Apple do the same with Face ID? It feels like it could be a controversial move that would disappoint fans of the base iPhone.

Naturally, we’re not expecting the reemergence of the Home button, but Apple could put Touch ID functionality into the sleep/wake button just as it’s done with iPad models like the Air and mini, among others.

It wouldn’t be an unprecedented move, of course - the iPad Pro remains the only iPad model with Face ID unlocking and Apple Pay functionality, while its cheaper siblings are Touch ID only. 

Still, the eventual removal of Face ID feels like it would go hand-in-hand with sci-fi iPhone concepts with no buttons, ports, or visible cameras. In fact, there's always the chance Apple is working to get both a fingerprint scanner and camera underneath the display, leaving future iPhones with a clean, all-screen look.

That’s going to come much later than this year’s iPhone 15, though - so don’t expect  Touch ID just yet.

Apple is thought to be working on bringing Touch ID back to the iPhone and a new report suggests that might happen within the next three years. Possibly even just two.

Apple ditched Touch ID on its best iPhones when it launched the iPhone X in 2017, although it still remains on the current iPhone SE. Apple has also brought Touch ID back to some iPads by putting the fingerprint scanner in the power button, but it's thought that the flagship iPhones will feature an under-display solution instead.

While countless Android phones have similar under-display fingerprint scanners, Apple has so far refused to follow suit and instead relies on Face ID for biometric authentication. But Touch ID is a rumor that won't go away, and a new report has put it back into the spotlight.

Apple's fingerprints all over

Now a new report by the Korean blog Naver via the leaker "yeux1122" suggests that Apple might be just a couple of years away from Touch ID's return. According to the report first spotted by MacRumors, Face ID might have some competition within a couple of years or three at most, so don't expect to see any big changes to Face ID with iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro. 

Apple already has patents related to technology that could be used for measuring a fingerprint through a glass display, and Apple continues to work on bringing Touch ID to its flagship iPhones in the future.

While many Android phones already have fingerprint scanners under their displays, their accuracy and speed have been hit-and-miss. Apple's Touch ID was notoriously fast and accurate, characteristics Apple would likely want to retain when it brings the feature back.

Display analyst Ross Young had also previously pointed to a 2026 release window for an iPhone with under-display fingerprint-scanning technology. That same release is also expected to see Apple put the Face ID and selfie cameras under the display as well, ditching the Dynamic Island as we know it today.

Touch ID is Apple's fingerprint identity sensor. It allows you to unlock your device, log in to apps, use Apple Pay, and make purchases from the App Store by touching and briefly holding your finger against the sensor. When it works, it's magical and you want it everywhere — your car, your house, your yacht, your one-person rocket to Mars — but when it doesn't, you want to throw your iPhone (or Mac) across the room.

What can make Touch ID failures even more frustrating is figuring out why it's failing in the first place. From the outside, it seems like the stereotypical black box. A fingerprint goes in and then it either works or doesn't, and if it doesn't, there's no way for us to see what went wrong, why, or how to fix it. Maddening.

There are, however, some things you can do to make it work better and more often.

How does Touch ID work?

On a supported Apple mobile device such as the iPhone SE (2020), there's a capacitive ring around the Touch ID sensor; on select Macs, the entire Touch ID sensor is capacitive. When the sensor detects a finger, it triggers a high-resolution image capture. That image is converted into a mathematical representation, which is then sent through the hardware channel to a secure enclave.

If the representation matches what's stored in the enclave, a "yes" token is released, and the Touch ID action is authenticated. If not, a "no" token is released, and all you get is a digital head shake. Every time Touch ID scans a finger and recognizes it, more detail gets added to the representation, theoretically to make it register even faster and better in the future.

Troubleshooting trippy Touch ID authentication

Here are a few tips and tricks to try if you're experiencing Touch ID issues:

• During the registration process, make sure you move your finger around enough that the entire surface gets scanned during the first stage, and that every edge gets scanned during the second phase.
• Any sweat or liquid on your finger at all can interfere with the scan. Wipe both your finger and the Home button off and dry them completely before using Touch ID.
• The sequential improvement process can sometimes go off-track (i.e., instead of getting better, an error can occur, and it can get worse). When that starts to happen, delete the fingerprint and re-register.
• On a supported iPhone or iPad, make sure your finger touches the capacitive metal ring and the Home button.
• Touch ID is super fast these days, but you should still refrain from lifting your finger too quickly.
• Try to keep your finger in one place when you're authenticating — you don't want to move your finger around too much.
• If you're rockin' a screen protector or case, you don't want it to cover up the capacitive ring or the Home button — that could cause errors with Touch ID authentication.
• If all else fails, it's time to head to the Apple Store for one-on-one support.

How to delete and re-add your Touch ID fingerprints

Sometimes you have to burn it to the ground and start anew. Here's how to re-add your Touch ID fingerprints on your Mac and supported mobile devices.

Follow these steps to delete your Touch ID fingerprints on any of the best Macs that support it.

1. Click on the Apple menu icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose Touch ID.

4. Hover over the fingerprint icon you wish to delete until you see the X in the upper left corner, then click on it.
5. Enter your password.
6. Press Delete to confirm.

Follow these steps to add your Touch ID fingerprints on Mac:

1. Click on the Apple menu icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.
3. Select Touch ID.
4. Click on Add a fingerprint.
5. Enter your user password and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you're having trouble with Touch ID on an iPhone or iPad, here's how you wipe the slate clean and start again!

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Type in your Passcode when prompted.
4. Tap on any fingerprint.

5. Tap on Delete Fingerprint. Repeat this until all your fingerprints are removed.
6. Select Add a Fingerprint...
7. Follow the on-screen prompts to set up a new fingerprint.

Back in-touch

Touch ID remains an efficient authentication option on select mobile devices and Macs. But when you encounter some trouble with it, you can always delete and reactivate your Touch ID with ease. And if you'd like to upgrade to Face ID, try the latest iPhone. 

Updated December 2022: Updated for the latest version of macOS.

The Touch ID fingerprint biometric security may be long gone from the main lineup of iPhones, but there are many that prefer it over the replacement — Face ID. There have been rumors that Touch ID could make a comeback on the main series of iPhones for a while, but it looks like that won't happen, at least for a while.

In his latest Power On newsletter, reliable Apple journalist Mark Gurman shared that the iPhone 15 will not be getting Touch ID. He also said that it is unlikely that Touch ID will make a comeback in a flagship series iPhone, anytime soon.

Apple tested Touch ID for newer flagship iPhones, but decided against it

The decision to not bring Touch ID back to the regular iPhone series was not haphazard, according to information from Gurman. Apple apparently tested Touch ID for the newer models, but Gurman says it's unlikely that we'll see that happen anytime soon. Gurman said,

"Over the past few years, there have been discussions within Apple about bringing Touch ID back to high-end iPhones. The company has tested in-screen Touch ID and even contemplated putting it on the power button. At this point, I believe Face ID is here to stay and Touch ID won’t be returning to flagship iPhones—at least anytime in the foreseeable future."

Despite being phased out from the main lineup of iPhones, Touch ID has remained a staple thanks to iPhone SE and some iPad models. It's still limited to cheaper models. Rumors about Apple doing a combination of both Touch ID and Face ID have been going around for a while, but looks like we won't be getting that anytime soon.

Ming-Chi Kuo had previously said he expects Touch ID to return in 2025, after a delay against his previously expected timeline. Display analyst Ross Young had talked about the iPhone 16 getting the feature.

Gurman also reiterated that the October event which was set to reveal some more Apple products for 2022, will be a press release and website refresh instead. While Touch ID isn't coming back soon, we'll likely get an iPhone 15 Ultra joining the lineup of the best iPhones, next year, as also recently reported by Gurman.

Apple has been using biometrics for security on the iPhone and iPad for some time now. With Touch ID or Face ID, getting into your device is as easy as a touch or face scan, rather than having to input a long password or passcode each time. However, sometimes biometric security can be used against you, such as with law enforcement, criminals, or just nosy family members.

Thankfully, Apple also made it very easy to temporarily disable biometric authentication if the need ever arises. Here's how to quickly disable Face ID or Touch ID on your current iPhone or iPad.

Which devices support Face ID?

As of June 2022, there are five generations of iPhone and three generations of iPad Pro that support Face ID.

• iPhone X
• iPhone XR
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2018)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2018)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2020)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2020)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2021)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2021)

Which devices support Touch ID?

As of June 2022, these are the following Apple devices that support Touch ID (that are not yet obsolete or vintage status):

• iPhone 5S
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPhone 6S
• iPhone 6S Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone SE (2016)
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone SE (2020)
• iPhone SE (2022)
• iPad mini 3
• iPad mini 4
• iPad mini 5
• iPad mini 6
• iPad 5
• iPad 6
• iPad 7
• iPad 8
• iPad 9
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Air 3
• iPad Air 4
• iPad Air 5
• iPad Pro (2015)
• iPad Pro (2016)
• iPad Pro (2nd Gen)

How to temporarily disable Face ID or Touch ID

1. Press and hold the Wake button and either one of the volume buttons simultaneously. The Wake button on iPhone is on the landscape side and on the portrait side on iPad Pro.
2. Tap Cancel if you're looking to unlock your phone or just tap the Side button to turn off the display.
3. Enter your password or passcode the next time you want to unlock your iPhone or iPad Pro. Face ID should resume its normal function at that time.

Note: You can also rapidly press the Sleep/Wake button five times in succession, but this triggers automatically calling emergency services. You'll want to make sure you quickly tap the Cancel button within three seconds.

Keep your iPhone or iPad secure at all times

It shouldn't come up very often, but sometimes you simply need to disable biometric authentication to prevent others from getting into your device without permission. The process for doing this is very easy and quick, and once the situation passes, you can go about your day by inputting your password or passcode.

Updated June 2022: Updated device lists for Face ID and Touch ID. The steps to temporarily disable biometrics are still the same with current devices.

What you need to know

• Apple has been granted another patent for an under-display fingerprint scanner.
• It has been rumored for sometime that Apple will one day bring Touch ID back to the iPhone.
• The latest patent allows transmission of reflected light rays through the display to the sensor.

Apple has been granted another patent pertaining to an under-display fingerprint scanner that could one day debut in the iPhone.

The patent, published Tuesday by the USPTO and filed for by Apple in September 2019, is titled 'Under-display fingerprint sensing based on off-axis angular light' and its abstract states:

That's a very complicated way of confirming that Apple continues to explore the use of an under-display Touch ID sensor that could one day be featured on the iPhone. We were previously led to believe at one point that Apple's best iPhone, the iPhone 13, would include the feature, or that this year's iPhone 14 might be the first to get the tech. Ming-Chi Kuo reported in September the feature might not be coming until next year.

Apple's patent says that such a feature would be "particularly advantageous for verification and/or authentication in an electronic device." As with all patents, the usual caveat that the idea on paper does not guarantee this feature will ever see the light of day in an Apple product applies.

Apple has managed to bring back Touch ID to its best iPad, the iPad Air through an innovative fingerprint sensor on the top button that controls the Lock Screen and power for the device. The new device was announced at Apple's March event and is on sale now.

Many Apple devices now use Face ID for authentication purposes — but not all of them. There are still several of the best iPhones, iPads, and Macs that use Touch ID. Here's what you need to know about the authentication feature.

How to set up Touch ID on iPhone and iPad

You can register a fingerprint for Touch ID as part of the initial setup process on any new or restored iPhone or iPad. You can also set it up or add additional fingers at any time. The steps work on the best iPhone and best iPad models that support Touch ID.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Type in your passcode for authorization, if asked (Touch ID requires a passcode, so if you don't have one already, you'll be asked to create one).

4. Tap on the Add a Fingerprint button.
5. Place the finger you want to register on the Home button and leave it there until you feel a buzz. If you're on the 2020 iPad Air, place your finger on the Power button.
6. Lift your finger and place it back down. Repeat each time you feel a buzz.
7. Tap continue when Touch ID alerts you that it has completed the first step and now requires peripheral data.
8. Place the edges of the finger you want to register on the Home button or the Power button and leave it there until you feel a buzz.
9. Lift your finger and place it back down. Repeat with a different edge until you've registered the entire surface of your finger.
10. Tap Continue to finish.

Repeat for every other finger you want to add, up to five total. You can register any combination of your and other people's fingerprints, including family or staff. You can even temporarily register a travel-mate just in case of emergencies, without having to give them your passcode or password.

How to identify a Touch ID fingerprint

If you registered a fingerprint with Touch ID but don't remember which one is which — i.e., is Fingerprint 1 your right thumb or left index finger? — you can check and find out. That's how you can make sure you rename and delete the right ones in the future.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Type in your passcode when asked.
4. Scroll down to the Fingerprints section.
5. Place your registered fingerprint on the Home button or the Power button.
6. Look for the label that changes color from white to gray.

How to label a Touch ID fingerprint

Rather than identifying your fingerprints each time you need them for something, you can label them to make it simpler and faster to find the one you're looking for (and remember which and whose fingerprints are registered).

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Type in your passcode when asked.

4. Tap on the Finger you want to rename.
5. Type in a new, more recognizable name for your fingerprint (i.e., right thumb).
6. Tap on the Touch ID & Passcode on the top right corner to go back.

Repeat steps 4-6 until all your fingerprints are labeled.

How to turn off Touch ID for the Lock screen, Apple Pay, or the iTunes and App Stores

Touch ID is meant as a convenience. If you prefer more security on your Lock screen, like a strong alphanumeric password, you can turn Touch ID off.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Enter your passcode when prompted.
4. Switch iPhone/iPad Unlock, iTunes and App Store, Apple Pay, or Password AutoFill to Off.

How to delete a Touch ID fingerprint

If you have given someone fingerprint access to your device for an emergency or another reason and you don't need that person to have access anymore, it's a good idea to delete their fingerprint. Also, if a fingerprint becomes glitchy, you can remove it and redo it. That's because deleting Touch ID fingerprints is even easier than adding them!

1. Launch the Settings app on your Touch ID-capable device.
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
3. Type in your passcode when prompted.
4. Tap on the fingerprint you want to delete.
5. Tap on Delete Fingerprint.
6. Tap on the Touch ID & Passcode on the top right corner to go back.

Repeat steps 4-6 for each fingerprint you want to delete.

Learn how to use Touch ID on Macbook

If you want to learn more about Touch ID on different devices, check out how to use Touch ID on your Macbook Air or Macbook Pro.

It's still here

Touch ID remains an authentication option for select iPhone and iPad users, such as those using the latest iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air and third-generation iPhone SE. Touch ID is also used on the latest Macbook Air, MacBook Pro, and 24-inch iMac. It's simple to use and secure. To get started, use the steps above.

Touch ID isn't working for you?

Our troubleshooting guide will help you if you're having any issues with Touch ID not working as expected. We've got the fix! 

What you need to know

• The iPhone 13 lineup will not feature in-screen Touch ID.
• This news comes from the latest Power On newsletter from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
• Apple will stick with Face ID for the next generation of the iPhone.

When the pandemic began, many hoped that Apple would bring Touch ID back to its latest iPhones as Face ID proved to be less effective in a mask-wearing world. When the iPhone 12 came, it became apparent that we may all have to wait until the iPhone 13 to get such a feature.

Well, another year has come and gone and, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, it does not appear that this year is the year either.

In the latest Power On newsletter, Gurman does acknowledge that the company has been testing displays that could bring Touch ID back to the higher-end iPhone models. However, the reporter casts doubt that they will ever come back to the latest and greatest from Cupertino.

Gurman goes even further to say that Touch ID might never come back to the flagship iPhone and that the company will continue to focus on improving its Face ID technology instead.

Gurman believes that the future of authentication on the iPhone will be one of two options:

1. Face ID on the company's lower-end phones as is (think of the iPhone SE)
2. Face ID built right into the display of the company's flagship phones (think the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro)

So, while some may have hoped for Touch ID to grace the display of the iPhone 13 lineup, it appears that we may have to wait...forever.

That said, Apple has made some notable improvements to using Face ID with a mask. In addition to more quickly prompting for a passcode when a mask is detected, the company has also added the ability to unlock the phone if you are wearing your Apple Watch.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 13 lineup at a virtual event in September. The company is also anticipated to release a new iPad, Apple Watch Series 7, and 3rd generation AirPods.

What you need to know

• Apple has been granted a patent that could lead to Touch ID and Face ID sensors being built into a screen.
• Apple has long been rumored to want to bring Touch ID back to iPhone and in-screen Face ID could be huge for Macs.

Apple could be about to change the way its iPhones and iPads look while also bringing Face ID to the Mac. That's because the company has won a patent that relates to putting Face ID and Touch ID sensors into displays, rather than beside them.

Apple's current Touch ID and Face ID implementations rely on the required sensors living beside the screen, either below or above. However, the new patent — spied by Patently Apple, points to the possibility of moving the sensors to within the display, saving space and making for a better overall aesthetic.

The same patent also suggests that it could work for any kind of biometric sensor, not just one designed to check a fingerprint like Touch ID. That means that Face ID could work in a similar way, allowing Apple to put its sensors within a screen on, say, a MacBook Pro. All of this will not only Apple to ditch iPhone's notch, but also bring Face ID to other devices while also reducing their bezel size.

While this patent will come too late for iPhone 13, Apple is already rumored to be considering bringing Touch ID to the iPhone 14 lineup. That would likely mean putting the sensor into the screen, as would similar rumors suggesting the notch isn't long for this world as well. Getting rid of the notch would surely be the best iPhone upgrade in a while!

A few weeks ago, Apple enabled the ability for your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone in situations where Face ID can't work — namely when you're wearing a mask. The feature is available in the newest versions of iOS 14 and watchOS 7 and was generally viewed as a positive thing; heck, I rejoiced pretty hard when the feature launched and starting using it right away. After all, when I'm out in a mask with my best iPhone, I want to be able to unlock it quickly.

After about a week or so of using the new feature, something happened that made me realize that using Unlock with Apple Watch can be a pretty big security risk — my partner unlocked my iPhone, and I didn't notice. I haven't used the feature since it dawned on me then that Unlock with Apple Watch is a workaround that undermines the security of Face ID.

The incident

Here's a quick breakdown of how it all happened.

I was in the store with my partner buying groceries, so I was wearing a face mask. I gave my partner my phone to hold as I was buying some items, and she proceeded to stick the phone in front of my face while making a joke about how I always make her hold things (sorry, babe). I didn't think anything of it; I had a mask on, so it's not like Face ID would work, right? Wrong. I had just unlocked my Apple Watch to check a text message, so Unlock with Apple Watch opened my iPhone right away when she stuck it in my face. She then proceeded to text my own number a silly message so I would get the notification on my wrist and see what she had done.

Before you point at the screen and state the obvious, I'll do it for you. Obviously, this incident was very specific, and it's not like I just give my iPhone to just anyone to hold; however, it still made me think about how serious that incident could have been if something nefarious was going on. When I'm out and about, I constantly am unlocking my Apple Watch via my passcode to check messages, check my Activity Rings, or for a plethora of other reasons. It wouldn't be hard for someone who is less than kind to notice that and use it against me.

Unlock with Apple Watch just isn't as secure

Although Apple did put security features into place with the Unlock with Apple Watch feature, it's still more of a security risk than just using Face ID. The whole point of biometric authentication is to authenticate that you are unlocking your iPhone. Unlock with Apple Watch never truly authenticates the user in a foolproof way. Yes, you need a passcode for your Apple Watch, but we all know that numeric passcodes aren't nearly as secure as Face ID, and the average person tends to have very weak passwords and passcodes. When you use Unlock with Apple Watch, Face ID doesn't get to scan your face, it just notices that it's blocked by something. It's entirely plausible that someone could steal your iPhone and Apple Watch, figure out your Apple Watch passcode, and boom, there into your entire phone. Is it highly likely? Perhaps not, but why put yourself at risk.

While I certainly don't blame Apple for making this workaround — people were clamoring for it — and I certainly don't blame people for using it, I just couldn't stomach the idea of my iPhone getting broken into. I want my iPhone to be as secure as it possibly can be, and Unlock with Apple Watch isn't the answer. Honestly, the issue I have with Unlock with Apple Watch is a testament to just how secure Face ID is and how much I have come to rely on it to keep my iPhone safe.

Luckily, there's a pretty easy solution to this mess.

Apple needs to bring back Touch ID

If you're going to use biometric authentication, you can't build in workarounds that almost negate any real authentication at all. Instead, the best way to solve this whole problem is to bring back Touch ID.

Before last year, I would have been shocked to see Touch ID ever make a comeback to the flagship iPhone models. When Apple first introduced Face ID, it was clear that Apple had made its choice and Face ID was the way of the future. In Apple's mind, Face ID was better, and bringing back Touch ID could have been seen as admitting it was not. But now, Apple doesn't have to worry about that. There is a legitimate need for Touch ID to come back to the next iPhone, and Apple wouldn't have to worry about public or investor perception that something is wrong with Face ID.

Of course, I don't think Apple has any plans to bring back the old Touch ID sensor to the flagship iPhones because going back to the design of the iPhone SE (2020) would be a huge step back. The good news is there are other options, and if the iPhone 13 rumors are true, we just might get one of them.

I would expect Apple to put Touch ID either on the side button — much like the power button on the iPad Air 4 — or for them to put it under the front glass. In either case, having Touch ID again would put an end to the need to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch and bring back the security we deserve to have on our iPhone.

What do you think?

Are you fine with unlocking your iPhone with your Apple Watch? Or, do you choose not to use the feature? Let us know in the comments down below.

Today saw a new Ming-Chi Kuo research note suggest that Apple plans to do away with the notch as soon as the 2022 iPhones. That's next year for those who are struggling to believe we aren't still in March 2020. Replacing the notch? A hole-punch. But that hole can't possibly be big enough for Face ID, can it?

The notch was first introduced in 2017 when Face ID and iPhone X made their debut and that bathtub-looking thing was very much needed. It was needed so Apple had somewhere to put the cameras, sensors, and pixie dust needed to make Face ID work so well and in a secure manner, and that's still the case four years later. Face ID has gotten better, but that notch remains. That makes me wonder what the plan is if Kuo is on the money with today's note.

Unless Apple has some more engineering wizardry hidden up Tim Cook's sleeve – entirely possible – then Face ID won't be part of the 2022 iPhones. Or, at least, not in the form to which we've become accustomed. Enter, Touch ID.

Rumors of Apple working on some sort of Touch ID return have come and gone. Others like Samsung have been putting fingerprint sensors under screens for a couple of years, so it isn't anything new. Apple will likely want to add its own spin on proceedings and I'd imagine Touch ID will be more secure and/or faster than the competition. But the underlying tech exists. And it'll be needed if Face ID is done for.

I for one would be sad to see Face ID go away and I'd rather a world where we have both it and Touch ID on the same iPhone. I'd also argue that Face ID is the better bet in a post-mask world – if and when we get there. Apple's Apple Watch unlocking feature is cool and works well, but it's only good for people with Apple Watches. Everyone else, masked up, needs Touch ID.

Maybe they're going to get it in 2022. It's just a shame it looks like it'll be the only biometric security option on offer.

There was big news yesterday when Apple released the first iOS 14.5 beta to developers and we discovered a new feature related to unlocking iPhones while wearing masks. As we now know, iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 will allow users to have their Apple Watch unlock their iPhone for them without having to enter a passcode or authenticate via Face ID. That's a huge deal at a time where we're all wearing face masks. But is it bad news for our hopes of the return of Touch ID?

We've heard plenty of reports recently that claim Apple is working on putting Touch ID back into the iPhone via an under-screen sensor. It's something the likes of Samsung have been doing for a couple of years now and Apple following suit was thought to be more likely than ever thanks to the mask situation. But if Apple thinks it's fixed the problem with iOS 14.5, does that mean it won't push to bring Touch ID back to iPhone?

Possibly. Maybe. But hopefully, no.

While it's true that the iOS 14.5 solution does work well in my testing, especially considering it's the first beta, it's less than ideal. For starters, it'll only work for those people who wear Apple Watches and while that number is growing, it isn't large enough to call iOS 14.5 a viable fix for the masses. To fix the mask problem properly, we need Touch ID to come back. Sure, Apple could make Face ID less sensitive to having the lower part of your face covered up – but the requirement to see your nose and mouth is what makes Touch ID so secure in the first place.

Ultimately, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the iOS 14.5 situation is just a stopgap and that Touch ID is more a matter of when than if. But I also hope that Face ID sticks around as well – why settle for one when we can have both?

You can have it for years, and it'll still work fine without any major issues. The downside is, when Apple releases a new Mac, you don't really need to get one since your current MacBook still works fine, and is still getting software updates, like Big Sur. If you're still rocking an older MacBook with no Touch ID, you don't know what you're missing. Being able to unlock your Mac with the tip of your finger is simple and more convenient than typing your password every time you use it.

Fortunately, you can still enjoy Touch ID, even if you're MacBook doesn't have the necessary hardware. And that's thanks to a little app called MacID. With this little app, you can unlock your Mac, control your music, and even send a copied text from your device to your Mac's clipboard. All that right from your iPhone or iPad. If you want to learn how to use Touch ID on older Macs, here's what you need to know.

How to get MacID

To use MacID, you'll need it on your iPhone or iPad and your Mac. You can purchase the iOS version in the App Store for $3.99. The Mac version is available for free directly from the developer's website. Make sure all of your devices are compatible before downloading the app.

• MacBook 2015 and newer
• MacBook Air 2011 and newer
• MacBook Pro 2012 and newer
• Mac Mini 2011 and newer
• Mac Pro 2013 and newer
• iMac 2012 and newer
• iPhone 4s and newer
• iPad 4th generation and newer
• iPad mini
• iPad Air
• iPod Touch 5th generation and newer
• Apple Watch

How to set up MacID on your iPhone and Mac

You'll have to set up MacID on both your iPhone (or iPad) and your Mac so the two devices can communicate with each other.

1. Launch MacID on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Launch MacID on your Mac.
3. Select your iOS device from the list in MacID on your Mac.
   • If no device appears, you can reset Bluetooth, which will restart your Mac. This will clear any miscommunications between your iOS device and your Mac.

4. Enter your Mac's login password.
5. Re-enter your Mac's login password to confirm.
6. Click Continue.
7. If applicable, make sure that MacID is set up to show on your Apple Watch.

When you look at MacID on your iPhone, you will see that your Mac is listed under Connected Devices.

How to use Touch ID on older Macs using MacID

Once the two apps are set up and synced to talk to each other, you will be able to set up MacID to automatically lock when you leave the room, wake up when you walk back into the room, and unlock using Touch ID on your iPhone or secure contact using Apple Watch.

1. With the screen locked, wake your Mac.
2. On your iPhone, hold your Touch ID registered finger on the Home button to unlock your Mac. On your Apple Watch, tap Unlock.

Your Mac will unlock and you can start working.

You can set up your Mac to automatically lock when you walk away from it (and have your iPhone and Apple Watch on you). I should note that, even if you have MacID on your Apple Watch, you will need to move your iPhone away from your Mac to trigger proximity auto-lock.

1. On your Mac, click on MacID in the Menu bar.
2. Click on Auto-lock when away from Mac from the drop down menu.
3. Click on the distance threshold to lock your Mac. You can choose from low, medium, high, or a customized distance.

When you walk away from your Mac, it will automatically lock.

You can set up MacID so that it wakes your screen when you walk into the room. You can also enable it to automatically unlock your Mac, instead of having to follow the two-step process of waking, and then unlocking your Mac. This method is slightly less secure, so I only recommend using it with Macs that are stationary in your home and won't ever leave your house.

I should note that, even if you have MacID on your Apple Watch, you will need to move your iPhone away from your Mac to trigger proximity wake.

1. On your Mac, click on MacID in the Menu bar.
2. Click on Proximity Wake from the drop down menu.

3. Click On.
4. Click Custom to adjust how close you must be to wake your screen.
5. Click on Unlock automatically to enable MacID to wake and unlock your Mac in one step.

How to lock or unlock your Mac with a tap pattern using MacID

You don't have to use biometrics to unlock your Mac. If you have a trackpad or Magic Mouse, you can actually set up a tapping pattern instead.

1. On your Mac, click on MacID in the Menu bar.
2. Click on Tap to Unlock.
3. Click on Set up.

4. Hover your mouse over the virtual trackpad on the screen and tap your physical trackpad or Magic Mouse in specific spots.
   • This takes a bit of practice to get used to, so you may have to re-setup your tap pattern a few times before you get it right.
5. Click Save.

6. Click on MacID in the Menu bar again.
7. Click on Tap to Unlock.
8. Click on Taps visible on Lock screen to see a visual notification that your taps are actually working when your Mac screen is locked.
9. Click on Only enter password if primary device is connected so that you can't use the trackpad or Magic Mouse to unlock your Mac if your iPhone or iPad is not connected.
10. Click on Tap pattern also locks Mac to enable the ability to lock your Mac using the same tapping pattern.

How to control audio playback on your Mac with your iPhone or iPad using MacID

You can do many other things using MacID, not only learning how to use Touch ID on older Macs. For instance, if you are playing music from your Mac, you can use MacID on your iPhone or Apple Watch to pause/play or skip ahead or back. On Apple Watch, you can also adjust the volume or mute the audio.

1. Play music on your Mac.
2. Launch MacID on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
3. On your iPhone, tap pause/play, skip ahead, or skip back on the connected device. On your Apple Watch, tap the musical note, then tap pause/play, skip ahead, or skip back.

4. On your Apple Watch, tap volume up, volume down, or mute to adjust the audio.

How to turn on your Mac's screensaver using MacID

With MacID, you can quickly trigger the screensaver on your Mac without having to wait for it to turn on automatically.

1. Launch MacID on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
2. On your iPhone, swipe to the left on your connected device.
3. On Apple Watch, tap the More button (...).

4. Tap Screensaver.

How to share clipboards between iOS and Mac using MacID

MacID makes it possible to copy text from your Mac and paste it on your iPhone or iPad. So, if your Mac doesn't support Universal Clipboard in macOS Sierra, you're in luck.

1. Copy text from a document, app, or web page on your Mac.
2. On your Mac, click on MacID in the Menu bar.
3. Click on Send clipboard text to all iOS devices.

4. On your iPhone, select a text field (like email, message, URL, etc.).
5. Press and hold the screen until the options menu appears.
6. Tap Paste.

The text you copied from your Mac will paste into the text field on your iPhone or iPad.

Any questions?

As you can see, MacID has a bunch of features you can use, but they may be hard to understand at first. Do you still have any questions about how to use Touch ID on older Macs? Let us know in the comments!

Updated December 2020: Updated for iPadOS 14.

Although the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro officially support Touch ID authorization of both App Store and iTunes purchases, setting it up can be a bit of a process. When you're having trouble, check out these troubleshooting ideas for macOS Big Sur.

Troubleshooting Mac: First — Check your software

To use Touch ID for iTunes and Mac App Store purchases on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you need the latest software. If you're having trouble getting Touch ID to work with iTunes or the App Store, make sure your Mac's operating system is up to date.

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac.
2. Select About this Mac. You should see macOS Big Sur with the version number under it. If you are running an older version of macOS, update it now.

To update macOS:

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac.
2. Click on **System Preferences.

3. Click on Software Updates.
4. Click on Update Now. Enter your password if prompted.
5. Click on Restart when prompted.

Troubleshooting Mac: Second — Re-trigger permission to use Touch ID for iTunes and Mac App Store purchases

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac.
2. Click on System Preferences.

3. Select the Touch ID preference pane.
4. Uncheck the iTunes & App Store checkbox under "Use Touch ID for".
5. Re-check the iTunes & App Store check box.
6. Enter your computer password (not the password for your Apple ID).

7. Visit iTunes or the Mac App Store apps and navigate to an item you'd like to download.
8. Press the Buy button on an app or song you'd like to download.
9. Enter your Apple ID password.
10. Press Yes when it prompts you to use Touch ID for future purchases.

The item you've chosen will begin to download; afterward, you'll be able to use Touch ID for all future purchases in that app.

The iTunes Store and Mac App Store have separate Touch ID authorizations, so you'll need to repeat steps 7 - 10 in the other app if you'd like to use Touch ID in both stores.

Troubleshooting Mac: Third — Give permission to use Touch ID to make purchases for iTunes and the Mac App Store

1. Visit iTunes or the Mac App Store apps and navigate to an item you'd like to download.
2. Press the Buy button on an app or song you'd like to download.
3. Scan your fingerprint on your Mac's Touch ID sensor when prompted.

Questions?

Let me know in the comments.

Updated December 2020: Updated for macOS Big Sur.

The Notes app has evolved so much over the years. With every new software update, Notes has become a useful and resourceful note-taking app. Even more so with the arrival of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, which introduced a bunch of new features to make it easier to use. However, one of its best features is the ability to lock notes on iPhone or your iPad. You don't need any extra app to secure your private notes and information. The best part: It's really easy to do. Here's how!

Looking to hide photos on iPhone in secure folders? We can help there too!

How to set your Notes password on iPhone and iPad

Setting up your password on Notes is like setting a HomeKit door lock for your home: It's straightforward and you only have to worry about it once. You'll automatically be asked to set a global password for securing the notes the first time you try to protect a note or the first time you visit the password section in the Notes settings. If you don't want to wait, you can set it immediately by doing either of those things now.

1. Launch Notes from your Home screen.
2. Tap on an existing note or type a new note.
3. Tap on the options menu on the top right corner.
4. Tap Lock Note.

5. Enter a Password — this will be for all your notes, including Notes on Mac, if you use it.
6. Enter the same password again to Verify.
7. Adding a hint is optional but it's highly recommended.
8. Switch Touch ID or Face ID to on, if you want to use a fingerprint or your face for faster and more convenient unlocking.
9. Tap Done to confirm that you want to lock the note.

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap on Notes.
3. Tap on Password.

4. Enter a Password — this will be for all your notes, including Notes on Mac, if you use it.
5. Enter the same password again to Verify.
6. Adding a hint is optional but it's highly recommended.
7. Switch Touch ID or Face ID to on (green), if you want to use a fingerprint or your face for faster and more convenient unlocking.
8. Tap Done to save.

Touch ID and Face ID make the process much faster and more convenient, but also means someone could try and get you to touch the sensor when you're sleeping or otherwise incapacitated. Most people will never have to worry about that, but if you're James Bond or Natasha Romanov, keep it in mind.

How to lock Notes on iPhone and iPad

Once you have a password set up you can lock a note at any time.

1. Launch Notes from your Home screen.
2. Tap on an existing note or type a new note.
3. Tap on the Options menu on the top right corner.

4. Tap Lock Note.
5. Use Touch ID or Face ID, if available, to lock your note. If you prefer not to use Touch ID or Face ID, tap Enter Password.

A lock animation will confirm the note has been secured.

It's important to remember that, while the body of the note will be hidden when locked, the title of the note will still be visible. (So you can find it later when you want to unlock it.) To make sure you don't leak any information unintentionally, never put anything in the title you wouldn't want anyone else to see.

How to unlock a note with your password, Face ID, or Touch ID

You can't see a locked note, other than the title, but you can unlock it to see, edit, or otherwise work on at any time.

1. Launch Notes from your Home screen.
2. Tap on the note you want to unlock.
3. Tap on View Note in the center or the Lock button at the top right.

4. Use Touch ID or Face ID to unlock, or if they aren't enabled or available, enter your Notes password. An unlock animation will confirm the note has been opened.

How to re-lock a note

Notes will lock automatically if you lock or reboot your iPhone or iPad, or if the Notes app quits and is restarted. You can also re-lock a note manually at any time.

1. Launch Notes from your Home screen.
2. Tap on the note you want to re-lock.
3. Tap on the Lock button at the top right.

The note will be secured immediately and you'll have to unlock it to access it again.

How to change your Notes password

Your Notes password unlocks any and all your notes. If you want to change it, it will also change it for all your notes.

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Tap on Notes.
3. Tap on Password.

4. Tap Change Password...
5. Enter your Old Password
6. Enter a New Password — this will be for all your notes, including Notes on Mac, going forward.
7. Enter the same password again to Verify.
8. Add a hint, if you really need one.
9. Tap Done.

How to reset your Notes password

If you ever forget your Notes password, you can use your iCloud password to reset it.

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Tap on Notes.
3. Tap on Password.

4. Tap Reset Password
5. Enter your Apple ID password — the password you use for iCloud.
6. Tap on Ok on the top right corner.
7. Tap Reset Password to confirm.

8. Enter a New Password — this will be for all notes going forward, including Notes on Mac.
9. Enter the same password again to Verify.
10. Adding a hint is optional but it's highly recommended.
11. Turn on the toggle if you want to use Face ID or Touch ID.
12. Tap Done.

Questions on how to lock Notes on iPhone or iPad?

That's all there is to it! When it comes to locking your notes, it adds another level of security and privacy, just in case you don't want anyone seeing any sensitive data. Do you still have questions about how to lock notes on iPhone or your iPad? Make sure to drop them in the comments and we'll help you out.

Updated November 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

Apple has made it easy to pay for things on the web securely. Whether you are browsing mobile or sitting at your desk, you can pay with Apple Pay at dozens of participating online retailers with a touch of your finger.

If you do a lot of online shopping on your Mac, Apple Pay lets you authorize payments made on your Mac via the Touch ID (or Face ID) sensor on your MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPhone, or via Apple Watch — as such, you can say sayonara to typing your credit card information into every site that needs it.

Note: Apple Pay on the web is only supported in Apple's Safari app.

How Apple Pay on the Mac works

When you're shopping online on your Mac with Safari, you may be able to use Apple Pay to purchase your items. Participating online stores will offer a Buy with Apple Pay button during checkout; when you click that button, your Mac will request authorization (either via Touch ID sensor on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro keyboard or via your iPhone or Apple Watch). From there, all you have to do is use your fingerprint (or skin contact, if using Apple Watch) to authorize the sale.

How to set up and manage Apple Pay on your Mac

The iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac support Apple Pay. Whether you have a new MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Touch ID or are still rocking an older Mac, here's how you can set up Apple Pay and manage your Wallet.

• How to set up and manage Apple Pay on your Mac

How to use Apple Pay on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Touch ID

1. Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Navigate to a participating retailer website that offers Apple Pay on the web.
3. Navigate through to the checkout process.
4. Tap Checkout with Apple Pay.
5. Tap Pay with Apple Pay.
6. Double-check your contact information to make sure your shipping and billing address is correct.
7. Rest your Touch ID-registered finger on the Touch ID button to confirm that you want to pay with Apple Pay.

How to use Apple Pay on Macs without Touch ID

Don't have a new MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? You can still use Apple Pay on an older Mac to buy from dozens of online retailers if you own an iPhone with Touch ID or Face ID or an Apple Watch. Here's how!

1. Open Safari on your desktop or laptop computer.
2. Navigate to a participating retailer website that offers Apple Pay on the web.
3. Navigate through to the checkout process.
4. Tap Checkout with Apple Pay.
5. Tap Pay with Apple Pay.
6. Double-check your contact information to make sure your shipping and billing address is correct.
7. Grab your iPhone or lift the wrist your Apple Watch is on.
8. Rest your Touch ID-registered finger on the Home button of your iPhone with Touch ID, double-press the Side button on devices with Face ID, or press the Side button on your Apple Watch to Pay with Apple Pay.

Upgrade time?

Are you in the market for a new Mac? Check out our list of the best MacBooks of the year. You'll be happy you did!

Questions?

Any other questions about using Apple Pay on your Mac? Let us know in the comments.

Updated November 2020: Updated for the new M1 MacBook Pro.

The days where only iPhones had Touch ID are long gone. For a few years now, all MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and even the iMac models come with Touch ID built in the keyboard. If you're new to Mac, setting up Touch ID will only take a moment, but it'll make a huge difference in your everyday life. 

How does Touch ID work?

Touch ID on MacBook is the name of Apple's fingerprint identity sensor. It's a form of biometric security that's meant to be more convenient than entering a passcode or password, especially on iPhones and iPads, which we use dozens of times a day. You can register up to five fingerprints on the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, with a maximum of three fingerprints per user account.

Once you add your fingerprint to your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you'll be able to do the following:

• Wake and log in to your user account from sleep (you'll have to sign in with your password on the first boot)
• Switch between users from sleep, if they each have separate fingerprints saved
• Use Apple Pay on the Mac
• Authorize purchases from the iOS App Store or Mac App Store

How to set up and manage Touch ID on your Mac

You'll be asked to register a fingerprint for Touch ID as part of the Mac setup process. You can register additional fingerprints at any time, though. You can have up to three fingerprints per user account on your Mac, with a total of five across accounts. Those fingerprints are then encrypted and stored offline in the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro's Secure Enclave.

How to add your fingerprint

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Settings/Preferences.
2. Select the Touch ID & Password preference pane.

3. Click on Add a fingerprint.
4. Enter your user password.

Follow the instructions to register your fingerprint by resting your finger on the Touch ID sensor repeatedly until the registration is complete.

How to name a fingerprint

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Settings/Preferences.
2. Select the Touch ID & Password preference pane.

3. Press the Tab key to cycle through each fingerprint option, or right click directly on the name of the fingerprint.
4. Rename your fingerprint (you may need to Cut existing text first).
5. Press the Return key.

How to delete a fingerprint

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Settings/Preferences.
2. Select the Touch ID & Password preference pane.

3. Hover over the fingerprint icon you wish to delete until you see the X on the upper left corner, then click on it.
4. Enter your password.
5. Press Delete to confirm.

How to change your Touch ID settings

After you've set up your fingerprints, you can choose what you'd like to use those fingerprints to authorize. By default, all three options are checked, but you can manually change this by unchecking the box next to each option.

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Settings/Preferences.
2. Select the Touch ID & Password preference pane.

3. Toggle the options you prefer on and off.

• Unlocking your Mac
• Apple Pay
• iTunes Store, Apple Books, and App Store purchases
• AutoFill passwords
• Fast user switching

How to use Touch ID on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac

As with Touch ID on the iPhone and iPad, when you first boot up your Mac, you have to use your password when you log in. After that first login, however, you're free to use Touch ID whenever waking your Mac from sleep, switching users, authorizing store purchases, or via Apple Pay.

1. Open your closed MacBook Air or MacBook Pro (or press the Touch ID button).
2. Rest your finger on the Touch ID sensor.

If you have multiple user accounts on your Mac, you can register different fingerprints with each. Once each account has been logged in once after initial boot, you can immediately return to that account by using the Touch ID sensor.

1. Open your closed MacBook Air or MacBook Pro (or press the Touch ID button).
2. Rest your finger on the Touch ID sensor.

Although the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Touch Bar support Touch ID authorization of Apple Books, App Store, and iTunes purchases, setting it up can be a bit of a process. Here's our guide on how to get Touch ID working with each app.

• How to use Touch ID to authorize App Store and iTunes purchases on the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro

If you do a lot of online shopping on your Mac, Apple Pay lets you authorize payments made on your Mac via the Touch ID sensor, or via Apple Watch — as such, you can say sayonara to typing your credit card information into every site that needs it. Check out our complete guide below.

• How to use Apple Pay on the Mac

How to reboot your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro

Touch ID replaces the old power button on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro but it can serve the same purpose at times. For example, to power on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, push the Touch ID button. Same when you want to reset your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. That can come in handy if the display won't show what's on screen or if the keyboard or cursor is frozen, or if the entire system becomes non-responsive.

1. Press and hold down the Touch ID button.
2. Keep holding it until you see the bootup screen.

What you need to know

• Touch ID is said to be coming back to iPhone.
• Leaker @L0vetodream shared the news via a cryptic tweet.
• They say it will be under the screen, rather than part of the power button.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on some sort of under-display fingerprint scanning technology that would bring Touch ID back to iPhone. The recent announcement of the newly updated iPad Air 4, with Touch ID built into the power button, suggested that Apple might go the same route with iPhone. However, one leaker says that isn't the case.

Or, at least, that's what I think they say. Take a look at anonymous Twitter leaker @L0vetodream's tweet and see what you think.

https://twitter.com/L0vetodream/status/1316988346950823937?

The account is known for its cryptic messages and this one is no different. However, MESA is the codename for Touch ID inside Apple and "uts" is likely supposed to be "under the screen" and the rest is pretty obvious.

@L0vetodream has a pretty solid track record with previous leaks but, as ever, it's important to remember that plans change. Especially inside Apple and especially in 2020.

There's nothing to say when or which models, but with iPhone 13 a whole year away we're going to have to wait a little while regardless. I'd have loved to see Touch ID return in 2020 but, for now, I'll make do with magnets and new chargers.

The reason people want Touch ID back is pretty obvious. Face ID is a better solution during any other year, but with 2020 being the never-ending nightmare that it is, we're all (hopefully) wearing masks all the time and Face ID doesn't work for obvious reasons. Touch ID, however, works just fine. So long as you're using an old iPhone or iPhone SE.

Would you like to see the return of Touch ID?

Touch ID lets your device identify who you are using your fingerprint as an ID. That way, your iPhone, iPad, or Mac knows to unlock your device, authorize purchases, provide access to your password and banking apps, and more. And it knows how to keep other people out.

Don't think of it as a security system — a strong alphanumeric password is still best for security — but as an additional layer of security and a convenience, to boot. With Touch ID, you can keep your devices locked down without the hassle and extra time required to enter passcode or passwords when you need to get into your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Note: Touch ID works on iPhone 5s through iPhone 8, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad mini 3 later, and all Touch ID supported Macs.

• What is Touch ID?
• How to use Touch ID on iPhone and iPad
• How to use Apple Pay on iPhone and iPad
• How to lock Notes with password or Touch ID on iPhone and iPad
• Best apps for Touch ID on iPhone and iPad
• How to use Touch ID on the MacBook Pro
• How to use Touch ID on an older Mac
• How to use Apple Pay on the Mac
• How to troubleshoot Touch ID

What is Touch ID?

Touch ID is the name of Apple's fingerprint identity sensor. It's a form of biometric security that's meant to be more convenient than entering a passcode or password, especially on iPhones, iPads, and Macs we use hundreds of times a day.

• Touch ID in iOS: Explained
• Curious where Touch ID came from? Early prototype demoed, history unlocked!
• Apple's Security Guide

Built right into the Home button on every recent iPhone and iPad, Touch ID uses a highly scratch-resistant sapphire glass lens that protects the assembly and focuses the sensor, and a color-matched steel ring that surrounds it, waiting to detect your finger. When the ring is triggered, the capacitive Touch ID sensor activates and takes what's effectively a high-resolution snapshot of your fingerprint. The fingerprint is compared against what's stored in the secure enclave on the Apple A-series chipset, and if the unique characteristics in the arches, loops, or whorls match, Touch ID releases a "yes" token and you're instantly authenticated and your iPhone or iPad will unlock, your purchase will be authorized, your app will open, etc. If they don't match, Touch ID releases a "no" token and you're kept out.

What's more, every time Touch ID scans your fingerprint, it uses the data to improve recognition, so it should work more consistently from more angles over time.

You can use Touch ID on your compatible iPhone, iPad, and Macs for the following:

• Unlocking your device (and additionally, on a Mac, switch between user accounts)
• Buying items with Apple Pay (in-store and online with iPhone; online-only for iPad and Mac)
• Authorizing iCloud purchases from iTunes and the App Stores

There are some cases when Touch ID is automatically turned off to protect your security:

1. If Touch ID hasn't been used in 48 hours, you'll need to enter your passcode or password to re-enable it.
2. If your iPhone, iPad, or Mac has been rebooted or reset, you'll need to enter your passcode or password to re-enable it.
3. If a fingerprint isn't recognized 5 times in a row, you'll need to enter your passcode or password to re-enable it.
4. If a remote lock has been sent via Find my iPhone or Find my Mac, you'll need to enter your passcode or password to re-enable it.
5. If your passcode hasn't been used to unlock in six days, and Touch ID hasn't been used to unlock in six hours, you'll need to enter your passcode or password to re-enable it.

Otherwise, it really is as simple as putting your finger on the Home button.

How to use Touch ID on your iPhone or iPad

Touch ID lets you have the security of a passcode or alphanumeric password while conveniently accessing your iPhone — all while using your fingerprint. You can register up to 5 fingerprints from your own fingers, that of your family or colleagues, or a fellow traveler in case of emergencies — without having to give them your passcode or password. Best of all, adding new fingerprints is easy. Here's how to set up Touch ID on your iPhone or iPad.

• How to use Touch ID on your iPhone or iPad

How to use Apple Pay on iPhone or iPad

Apple Pay lets you make in-store purchases with your iPhone, and online purchases with your iPhone or iPad, with just a scan of your fingerprint. It makes credit and debit card purchases easier and more secure. All you have to do is set it up and start using it!

• How to use Apple Pay on iPhone and iPad

How to lock Notes with password or Touch ID on iPhone and iPad

Notes are a handy way to collect and store any information you want to keep handy. If that information is medical, financial, or otherwise personal — like a hotel reservation or phone number, or a draft message — you may want to keep it extra safe. That's why Notes lets you set a password and use it or Touch ID on iPhone or iPad to secure any individual note. It's easy to do, once you know how!

• How to lock Notes with password or Touch ID on iPhone and iPad

Best Touch ID apps for iPhone

Touch ID isn't just for unlocking your iPhone: App Store apps can integrate Touch ID if they choose, too. Given that we store lots of personal and sensitive information on our iPhone, it's important to safeguard certain apps with passwords — or, in the case of Touch ID, fingerprint protection. Here are some of the best iPhone apps that do a great job of integrating Touch ID.

• Best Touch ID apps for iPhone

How to use Touch ID on your Mac

Apple's new Touch Bar MacBook Pro models offer support for Touch ID, the company's fingerprint-based authentication system. Here's how to set it up and use it on your Mac!

• How to use Touch ID on your MacBook Pro

How to use Touch ID on an older Mac

Even if you don't have a Mac with Touch Bar and Touch ID, you can still use Apple's biometric authentication system if you have an iPhone or Apple Watch. Here's how!

• How to use Touch ID on an older Mac

How to use Apple Pay on the Mac

If you do a lot of online shopping on your Mac, Apple Pay lets you authorize payments made on your Mac via the Touch ID sensor on your MacBook Pro or iPhone, or via Apple Watch — as such, you can say sayonara to typing your credit card information into every site that needs it.

• How to use Apple Pay on the Mac

Touch ID not working for you? Here's how to fix it!

How do I fix Touch ID? If you can't get access to your iOS device or Mac with Touch ID, try these troubleshooting tips!

• Touch ID not working for you? Here's how to fix it!

Any Touch ID questions?

If you have any trouble setting up or using Touch ID, or any additional questions, drop them in the comments below!

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

Yes, everyone's favorite supply chain exfiltrator has just released a new report, not about this year's iPhone. Not even about next year's iPhone. But about the year after that's iPhone. iPhone 2021. Or, the iPhone some of us will be taking to go watch Thor: Love and Thunder at the end of Marvel Phase 4.

Us: It is beyond absurdly ridiculous to be getting iPhone 12 rumors when Apple hadn't even announced iPhone 11 yet. 🤷‍♂️

Kuo Ming-Chi: Hold my iPhone 13. 🍺

Now, Kuo's reports are usually based on the actual production information he manages to broker out of the plants in China, which is why it's often uncannily accurate.

This iPhone 13 rumor, though, seems less like that and more like supposition based on patents and component road maps. Which is fine, just different, and it's important to recognize the distinction when weighing the rumors.

So, what Kuo is rumoring this time is what Barclay's rumored last time — that Touch ID will come back to the iPhone. Kuo just thinks it won't be in the iPhone 12 in 2020 but the iPhone 13 in 2021.

Namely, fingerprint on display, or FOD, which is the fancy term, and specifically, the Qualcomm type which uses ultrasonic technology rather than optical.

Touch ID as we know it today, as it still ships on a variety of Apple devices from the iPhone 8 to iPad Air to MacBook Pro, uses a capacitive ring to trigger and optical reader. And it's — what's more solid than rock? — iron ore solid.

The first few generations of under-display — sorry, on display! — fingerprint readers have been more like…. I don't know… sponge solid? Smoke solid?

But that's rapidly changing, according to Kuo, via MacRumors:

Now, as anyone who's been following my work for a while knows, we've been talking about this right here for years.

Long term, it's best not to think about things like Face ID or Touch ID. That is, they won't be discreet systems but part of a largely biometric system. A Me ID, so to speak.

Touch ID, Face ID, Voice ID, Motion ID, all of these systems will just work together so that every contact, every glimpse, every word, every step, is taken as part of a threshold of trust, and when your device is certain it's you, it's just unlocked. No overt action required. And when it's not, it prompts you, and you authenticate using whatever is most convenient at the moment.

So, to me, this is really less about Kuo making iPhone 13 predictions and more about him joining us on this ride to the future of biometrics.

But let me know what you think, and how much you want Touch ID back, in the comments below.

A European patent application that shows a possible future iPhone implementation with both facial and fingerprint biometric identity scanners is making the rounds, prompting a lot of goofy bad headlines but also giving us a glimpse into what I really do think is the inevitable future of digital security.

Rather watch than read? Hit play on the video above and subscribe for more.

Spoiler: It's not quote-unquote getting Touch ID back, at least not in the conventional sense. Touch ID is the past. Apple burned that boat behind them to make sure everyone on every team had no choice, and no fallback, but to make Face ID work. But Face ID isn't the future either. It's simply the present.

Touch ID was faster and more convenient than passcode. Face ID doesn't require contact and so feels almost transparent, like no authentication at all.

There are a few times, though, when your finger moisture has changed or you're wearing gloves, or the sun is behind your at just the wrong angle or you're wearing ski gear, where "it just works" just stops working. It's not often, but it's enough to shatter the illusion and make you want something even faster than Touch ID and even more transparent than Face ID.

To make you want the future of persistent, passive biometric authentication.

The future of authentication

Imagine a future iPhone where authentication doesn't require a specific fingerprint or facial geometry scan, or biometric challenge/response. But, instead, it was continuously grabbing snippets of biometric and other data. And imagine it would use that data to maintain a state of "trust" where your iPhone is simply unlocked for as long as it can be reasonably (or strictly, depending on settings) certain it's in your possession, challenging only when that state becomes uncertain.

Other vendors are already incorporating Touch ID-like sensors into the capacitive displays, rather than a discrete capacitive home button. There are also patents for microLCD technology that further enhances screen-as-fingerprint reading. In the future, certain areas — or even the entire iPhone display — could be able to pull at least partial fingerprint data every time you touched it.

Face ID is already doing full-face geometry scans with neural engine processing to unlock iPhone X. It seems almost trivial that the TrueDepth camera could grab at least partial facial geometry each and every time you looked at a screen.

Siri began doing the basics of Voice ID a couple years ago. Now, when you use setup buddy on a new device, it has you say a few simple phrases so it can distinguish your voice — and your voice queries and commands — from those of others. I don't believe it's robust enough for authentication yet, but companies like Nuance have been offering just those kinds of "my voice is my passport, authorize me" services for a while. It's not tough to see Apple using the multiple, beam-forming mics on iPhones and AirPods to constantly check for your voice either.

Apple's A-series processors also contain M-series sensor fusion hubs. Right now that's used for things like health and fitness apps and games. Taken further, though, gait-analysis could be used to record and check your walking and motion patterns, so as you move around your iPhone can know it's you that's doing the moving.

Beyond biometrics

Biometric data could also be supplemented by other factors, like trusted objects. Previously, trusted objects were dumb — grab someone's dongle and you got into their phone. With Apple Watch, though, trusted objects got smarter. Auto Unlock on macOS, which uses the proximity of your Apple Watch to authenticate you for your Mac, feels downright magical. You authenticate on the watch via passcode or Touch ID on iPhone, then that authentication is further projected from Watch to Mac.

So could environmental data. For example, if you're in a certain place at a certain time that fits your existing patterns, that could add to the trust weighting.

Taken separately, each of these authentication methods either requires user action or doesn't provide enough security to be useful. Taken together though, every touch of the display provides a partial print, every glance at the camera provides a partial face or iris scan, every word a partial voice print, every step a partial gait analysis, and if a paired Apple Watch is proximate and you're in a place, at a time, that fits your pattern, enough factors pass authentication and the moment your iPhone senses any engagement, it's already unlocked and ready to be of service.

Conversely, any time enough factors fail authentication, your phone goes into lockdown and challenges for a proper fingerprint, iris scan, or passcode/password to make sure you're really you. And it could escalate for situations that warrant it. That's what happens today, for example, after a reboot, timeouts, software updates, etc. For secure enterprise or government use, it could do so more often and require multiple factors to resume a trusted state.

Not if, when

We'll need considerable advances in battery chemistry and strict adherence to privacy policies to enable this kind of technology, but Apple is uniquely positioned to deliver both. Just like chipsets, they don't have to worry about acting like a battery vendor, and unlike data harvesting companies, they don't want or need any of the personal information this surfaces.

To me, arguing about whether or not Touch ID or Face ID are better or if Touch ID is coming back misses the point. Touch ID isn't there for Touch ID's sake. Face ID isn't there for Face ID's sake. Both are solutions to the same problem and, in the future, there will either be still better, faster, and easier ways to solve that problem. Or simply make it disappear so it no longer needs solving.

Historically, that seems like the approach Apple takes. And that's why I think it's not about whether we see passive, persistent authentication — but when.

Thanks to Touch ID on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, you can use your fingerprint to make Mac App Store purchases and access content requiring your Apple ID password. Not only does it make it easier to quickly download apps and games you want, but it also means you can create a long, complex Apple ID password without worrying about how often you'll have to enter it.

We, naturally, have an inclination to make life easier for ourselves. When it comes to passwords we know we'll be using regularly, it might be tempting to create something simple, easy to remember, and short. We know it's a bad idea, but sometimes, we do things we know are bad if it makes our lives a little easier.

Now that the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air have Touch ID, I've created an ultra complex, long, and strong password to keep my Apple ID safe. With Touch ID, you can use your fingerprint instead of typing in that strong, annoying password.

How to use Touch ID to make Mac App Store purchases

With Touch ID on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, you can make purchases, check your account settings, and more with just the touch of your finger.

Make sure you've registered your fingerprint with Touch ID before trying to use the feature in the Mac App Store.

1. Launch the Mac App Store.
2. Select a Mac app that you haven't already previously downloaded.
3. Click Buy.
4. Enter your Apple ID password when prompted.
5. Click Yes when asked if you want to use Touch ID for future purchases.

From now on, you will be able to use Touch ID to make purchases in the Mac App Store instead of having to enter your Apple ID password every time.

Note: Just like using Touch ID on the iPhone, sometimes you'll have to manually enter your Apple ID password, so make sure you have a copy of it written down somewhere, or you have it stored in a password manager.

If, for some reason, Touch ID isn't working for you in the Mac App Store, check out our troubleshooting guide.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about using Touch ID in the Mac App Store? Put them in the comments and we'll help you out!

Updated November 2018: Updated for MacBook Air.

If you've got a modern iOS device, chances are you're familiar with either (or both) Touch ID and Face ID. The biometric authentication systems are included in many of Apple's products, including the iPhone, iPad, and even a Mac! Now, although the systems are used for the same purpose (giving you convenient, secure access to your Apple device), they're two entirely different technologies with their own sets of pros, cons, usage requirements, etc. It's hard to argue one is better than the other, but it's certainly worth taking a look at what makes each of these biometric authentication systems unique and what makes them the same.

• Touch ID
• Face ID

Touch ID

If you're reading this article, you probably have at least a passing understanding of Touch ID. Put simply, it's a fingerprint reader that Apple's built into the Home buttons of many of its iOS devices and the keyboard of its MacBook Pro.

My colleague Rene Ritchie has an excellent article on the ins and outs of Touch ID and I'd encourage you to give it a read. Here's his basic description of Apple's Touch ID technology:

You can (and should) check out the whole article:

Touch ID in iOS: Explained

The setup process for Touch ID involves repeatedly tapping your finger on the fingerprint sensor built into the Home button of iOS devices and the keyboard on the MacBook Pro. In my years of using Touch ID, I will say the setup process isn't as elegant as I've found Face ID to be (more on that in a little bit), but with the right tips and tricks you'll be able to get your fingerprint registered.

Here's our guide on getting Touch ID set up:

How to use Touch ID on your iPhone or iPad

As I'm sure you've learned yourself, Touch ID isn't perfect. There are some times when it simply fails to register your fingerprint, leaving you madly typing away your long password (you do have a long password, right?) to gain access to your phone.

• Winter: When the weather outside is frightful, you may choose to wear gloves to protect your hands from the bitter chill. Too bad that means your fingertips are locked away beneath leather, cloth, or some other fabric! Without fingerprints, you're not getting into that phone.
• Cooking: Get some sort of food goop on your fingertips? Erm, wipe it off before you go touching your phone!
• Swimming: Need to read that text while you're taking a break from that Olympic record you just set? Too bad! Find a towel first. This also applies to showering.
• Sweating: Palmoplantar hyperhidrosis — that's excessive sweating of the hands — might as well be the sworn enemy of Touch ID.

By the way, if you're running into issues with Touch ID, check out our troubleshooting guide:

Touch ID not working for you? Here's how to fix it!

Face ID

Face ID is a newer biometric authentication system from Apple and it's currently only available on iPhone X. You'd be forgiven for not being as familiar with Face ID! Put simply, Face ID uses a complex camera and sensor system to scan your face and then — like a fingerprint — lets you use your face to gain access to your iPhone X.

Once again, my colleague Rene Ritchie expertly breaks down everything you need to know about Face ID:

What's more, he describes how Face ID and Touch ID differ in terms of what biometric data gets stored on your device:

In other words, Face ID images hang around while Touch ID images are tossed. It's a way to make the system run smoother and doesn't affect the security of your personal data.

It was immediately clear to me how much I was going to like Face ID based on the setup process alone. It was so much faster, easier, and more delightful than setting up Touch ID. It's as simple as looking at your phone and then moving your head around in a circle. No tapping, adjusting, muss, or fuss!

Here's your guide on getting Face ID up and running:

How to set up Face ID on iPhone X

Despite all the things I've come to love about Face ID, it still has its limitations. It solves many of the problems Touch ID had (winter gloves? Not a problem!), but introduces some of its own.

• Landscape orientation: This one sort of makes sense, but it's still a little annoying. You can only use Face ID in portrait mode. The camera will not scan your face and let you in to your device if it's on its side or upside down.
• No ski masks: Face ID uses your eyes, nose, and mouth as markers of your identity. If those are covered, you're going to have trouble gaining access to your iPhone X. That said, glasses and some sunglasses are A-OK. Beards, too!
• Bright sunlight is a no-go: If the sun is blasting your face or the iPhone X camera and sensor unit, you're going to have trouble getting into your phone. It needs to be able to work with some face texture — a blown out image looks like a blown out image and nothing more.
• One face policy: Touch ID lets you enroll multiple fingers. Some folks will choose to enroll at least one finger from a partner, parent, etc. so that they can gain access to the device. With Face ID, you've got one face per device.
• Twinsies: We've seen it happen — Face ID can be fooled by identical twins. If you've got a nefarious twin, you might consider sticking with Touch ID.

What's the takeaway?

Ultimately, Face ID and Touch ID are two solutions to a problem: How does Apple give its users convenient access to their devices while still maintaining a certain level of security and privacy and allowing us to create new devices in new form factors? Touch ID answered that question when the technology first shipped and Face ID did it again when it was announced alongside iPhone X. One system uses your fingerprint, the other uses your face. They both have their pros and cons. Their differences are interesting, sure, but I'm just glad I can get into my phone without having to type D0gsAr3S0C00l! every single time.

P.S. Please don't hack me.

Whenever I visit my dad's home for an extended period of time, I often drop my iPhone 7 Plus on his kitchen counter and plug it into his charger, which he leaves plugged in. After following this routine on a few separate occasions, I noticed that my Touch ID frequently wouldn't unlock the device while it was connected to his charger. At first, I thought it was just some goofy glitch, and I simply tapped in my password instead of using Touch ID. That worked. No biggie.

Over time it occurred to me that if I unplugged my iPhone from the charger before trying to use Touch ID to unlock it, I never experienced the problem. However, if I left it plugged in and tried to use the fingerprint sensor, nothing happened. No Touch ID error, nothing. The sensor just froze up and didn't work.

I like to think I'm pretty smart (or as some of us Bostonians say, smaahht). So I put two and two together to come up with four: The problem had to do with my dad's charger. It clearly was not an official Apple charger, and it wasn't in great condition. When I asked where he got it, I received some noncommittal response like, "I don't know ... the airport?" And I never had, or have since, experienced the problem with my other charging cables.

After doing some digging on the good ol' Googles, I learned that my issue is by no means an isolated incident. Cheap third-party chargers like my dad's often result in quite a few different issues, including Touch ID errors or malfunctions. Here's a quick possible explanation of the issue.

Why your crappy iPhone charger borks Touch ID

From a Wired article on how Touch ID works:

The key word there is "electrical".

From an Apple Communities thread:

And from another related thread on Quora.com:

I'm not at all certain that the last two people cited above know what they're talking about, but my problem clearly had to do with the charger.

To be clear, other issues with charging and Touch ID can cause similar problems. For example, some folks in the same Apple support thread suggest that they resolved their issues by removing a problematic case or by "grounding" the phone. But my problem clearly had to do with that bum charger, and I've never experienced it when using Apple power cords.

How to fix the Touch ID charging problem

Thankfully, if you're experiencing the same issue I did, there's a very easy way to diagnose and resolve the problem:

1. Find yourself an authentic iPhone charging cable made by Apple, like the one that came with your phone (or should have) or that's Apple Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad (MFi)-approved.
2. Plug your phone into a power outlet using that Lightning cable, and see if you have the same problem. If not, your issue is related to your crappy third-party charger.
   • If you continue to have the same issue, try plugging your phone into a different power source and moving it as far away from that outlet as possible, and then remove any cases you may have on there. If that still doesn't work, you might have a hardware issue. Contact Apple support for further options.
3. Locate your nearest trash receptacle — or better yet, find a local electronics recycler.
4. With gusto, toss that suspect charger in there and never look back.
5. Only use your Apple-certified Lightning charger or buy a new one. (You know, you never can have too many charging cables.)

For more information on our favorite Lightning cables or to purchase one from Apple, hit these links:

• Best Lightning cables for charging your iPhone and iPad
• Visit Apple's site to purchase official Lightning cables

Here's a tip from Cabel Sasser of Panic for those of you out there with Touch Bar MacBook Pros who use Terminal and the "sudo" command frequently.

Here's the full step-by-step, for those who want to experiment. That said: sudo is an incredibly powerful command in the Terminal; we don't recommend messing around with this trick if you don't feel comfortable working in the Terminal app and changing system preference files.

Want to learn Terminal? Here are 15 commands we think every user should know.

Also worth noting, via Sasser:

How to enable Touch ID for sudo commands on your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

1. In Safari, paste the following into the search bar: file:///etc/pam.d/sudo.Alternatively, you can edit the file within the Terminal app itself using command-line text editors like emacs or nano; if you choose to do this, go to step 8, and skip steps 10-12.
2. Press Command-I with the sudo file highlighted to open up the information screen.

3. Click on the Lock icon in the bottom right corner.
4. Enter your authentication information (or use Touch ID).
5. Change the privileges of all users to Read & Write.

6. Download TextWrangler, a free plain text editor, or use the plain text editor of your choice.
7. Open the sudo file in TextWrangler (or equivalent).
8. Paste auth sufficient pam_tid.so on line 2 of the document (underneath the initial comment line)Note: If you get a note about the document being locked, go back to step 2-5 and make sure you've enabled Read & Write privileges on the document.
9. Save the sudo file and close it.

10. In Finder, press Command-I with the sudo file highlighted to open up the information screen.
11. Change the privileges on all users to Read only.
12. Click on the Lock icon in the bottom right corner.

Now, when you open Terminal and attempt a sudo command, you should be prompted with a Touch ID authentication in lieu of entering your administrator password.

Questions?

Let us know below.

After installing macOS High Sierra, Touch ID just didn't work for me. I was prompted to use Touch ID to unlock my Mac or with supported apps like 1Password and iTunes, but when I placed my finger on the Touch ID button on my MacBook Pro, nothing happened.

Turns out, simply restarting my Mac fixed the issue. Before you do anything, just power cycle your Mac.

How to restart your Mac

1. Click on the Apple menu logo in the upper left corner of your MacBook Pro screen.
2. Click Restart.
3. Click Restart to confirm that you want to restart your Mac.

Once you're logged back in, it should work fine. If not, you can try removing and readding your fingerprint, but don't try this until after you've tried restarting your mac first.

How to remove and readd your fingerprint to Touch ID on MacBook Pro

If simply restarting your Mac doesn't do the trick, you can try removing and readding your fingerprint to Touch ID. Remember: Try restarting your computer before removing and readding your fingerprint to Touch ID.

1. Click on the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of your MacBook Pro screen.
2. Click on System Preferences from the drop down menu.
3. Click on Touch ID.

4. Hover your cursor over the currently registered fingerprint until you see the X.
5. Click on the X.
6. Enter your user password and click OK.
7. Click on Delete to confirm you want to delete the fingerprint registration.

Repeat this process for all fingerprints that are currently registered to your MacBook Pro.

1. Click on the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of your MacBook Pro screen.
2. Click on System Preferences from the drop down menu.
3. Click on Touch ID.

4. Click on Add a Fingerprint.
5. Enter your user password.
6. Follow the prompts to register your fingerprint.

This should wipe your fingerprint registration and reset Touch ID on your MacBook Pro.

Still didn't work?

If you're still having trouble with Touch ID on your MacBook Pro after restarting and then resetting Touch ID, put them in the comments and we'll try to help troubleshoot with you.

Apple's Secure Enclave locks down user data on iPhone and iPad, including the data for Touch ID. Recently, a hacker known as xerub posted a "decryption key" for the Secure Enclave Processor (SEP) firmware:

That's led to a lot of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misreporting about what exactly it means in terms of iPhone and iPad security. Here's the deal:

Imagine the Secure Enclave as a vault. Apple hung a big, dark curtain over it to prevent anyone from even seeing the vault. Now, that curtain has been opened and people can see the vault. The vault, however, is still locked as securely as ever. No one has broken into it and no one has even gotten any closer to breaking into it.

Technically speaking, Apple encrypted the SEP firmware to obfuscate it so people couldn't easily poke around inside. That included security researchers, like those participating in Apple's bug bounty program. Now they can.

It was an additional but very superficial layer of protection. While many deride security-through-obscurity, "defensive in depth" — a multi-layered approach — is still a best-practice and making anything even a little bit harder to defeat makes it a little bit harder to defeat.

Philosophy aside, it's my understanding that the encryption key wasn't used to protect any user data or anything beyond obscuring the SEP. And absolutely no user data was or could be exposed through the leaked encryption key.

In other words, it's something to be informed about but not overly concerned with. SEP remains as secure as ever.

There's been an incredible amount of noise and speculation over Touch ID on iPhone 8. Apple no doubt knows exactly what it's doing, but the decision-making process of Apple's past is finally echoing into media's present. And that makes it worth thinking about.

Way back in January 2015, I wrote about Apple deleting the physical Home button so the company could minimize the bezels in iPhone 8:

We got the virtual Home button with iPhone 7, but, according to rumors, embedding Touch ID under the edge-to-edge display of iPhone 8 was more of a challenge.

Back to front

Previously, in the iPhone 8 rumor mill, we saw reports that Apple was considering going with Touch ID on the back of the device instead, similar to how many Android phones have done it. That's what Samsung, apparently, had to do with Galaxy S8.

Apple uses its own technology, built on what it acquired from Authentec just prior to the launch of iPhone 5s and Touch ID. That and an additional 6 months might let Apple succeed where Samsung did not.

Otherwise, well, Touch ID was only ever the best solution to a particular problem at a particular time — making authentication more convenient. That particular problem, though, now has other potential solutions.

Cutting knots

If Apple can't get Touch ID to work reliably enough beneath the screen and doesn't want to move it to the back, then the company has tied itself into a knot. But knots, as the cliché about lateral thinking goes, can also be cut.

Another way to solve authentication with convenience is facial scanning. Not the junky 2D scanning that's been bolted on to other phones to date but 3D scanning that can lock onto even more points of identification than fingerprints provide, within milliseconds, and do in a glance what Touch ID did on contact.

That's a hard thing to do, but then fingerprint scanners were junky before Touch ID as well. It often takes a company with the resources, vision, and integration of Apple to push exactly these kinds of solutions forward.

Samsung, for example, tried both face scanning and iris scanning in the Galaxy S8, but you had to choose one or the other. That was problematic because one worked better in bright light and the other low light. One was fooled by photos, the other not.

For face recognition to be a proper solution, it would have to work in bright light and lowlight and not be fooled by photos. (Just like Touch ID can be spoofed by CSI-grade fake fingerprints, it's possible even good face recognition could still be spoofed by CSI-grade facial constructions.)

If Apple could provide just that type of Face ID — one that scans "3D" for the deeper structure and not just the surface pixels and that works in a range of lighting conditions and not just one or the other and triggers in milliseconds so the moment you lift your iPhone, it's already unlocking — then we could have another winner on our hands.

Face ID could do for facial identity sensors what Touch ID did for fingerprint identity sensors.

Pay-ing debts

The only real complication to Face ID replacing Touch ID isn't technological — it's institutional. Touch ID launched with iPhone 5s, but Apple Pay was only added a year later with iPhone 6. Financial institutions had a year, more or less, to come to grips with the technology and its security.

If Apple replaced Touch ID authentication with Face ID on iPhone 8, how quickly could it get those same banks and credit unions on board? Would it be instantly accepted, because Apple, or would it require some time in the real world to be proven secure enough for Apple Pay adoption?

Given how poorly executed some competing fingerprint ID solutions have been — storing full resolution photographs in world-readable directories — it's easy to think no one really cares about this stuff. But everyone cares when it's Apple. And that's actually a good thing for Apple users. The highest scrutiny leads to the best solutions.

Face over finger

While Apple already knows what's coming, the rest of us have a few months of lag time to fill with more rumor, speculation, and imagination.

My beautiful dream is still ambient security, where myriad biometric sensors, including face, eye, fingerprint, voice, gait, and more constantly, passively determine authentication and, if it ever drops below a threshold, prompts for active re-authentication.

We're likely years away from that, but Face ID, in place of or in conjunction with Touch ID, brings us one sensor closer.

And, ultimately, it's not about the technology — it's about solving the problem.

Way back in January 2015 I wrote about Apple deleting the physical Home button so the company could minimize the bezels in iPhone 8:

In essence, give people bigger screens without having to give them bigger phones to go with them. Turns out, we got a version of that first with iPhone 7. A non-physical Home button that looked and felt, and forced bezel space, just like the previous one. Back then, though, it felt like the goal was to virtualize and embed the Home button — and the Touch ID sensor that had come to live within it — beneath the screen. That was the next step forward with iPhone 8. (Or whatever Apple calls the next iPhone redesign.)

Back sensor shenanigans

A alleged schematic, published on Weibo and picked up by 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo, however, shows the Touch ID sensor moved to the back of the iPhone.

Apple typically has more audacious and more pragmatic prototypes. Like James Cameron says, If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success. Audacity drives what's possible. Pragmatism ensures products ship.

So, everyone might well want a Touch ID sensor all but invisibly embedded in the display or as part of the touch bar, but the realities of the technology, including yield and reliability rates, could force concessions. In this case, it could well force the Touch ID sensor out from beneath the screen and around to the back of the phone.

(Not) only Apple

That's what happened with the Samsung Galaxy S8, according to The Korea Herald:

Apple uses its own technology, built on what it obtained when it acquired Authentec just prior to the launch of iPhone 5s and Touch ID. So, Apple may well have succeeded where Samsung and Synaptics did not.

The back is where a lot of Android devices with virtual home buttons have been putting the fingerprint sensor for a while now. It's not my favorite position, though it can be convenient if set high enough that your index finger naturally falls on top of it. If, for security reasons, you prefer to use less predictable fingers, then your convenience will vary. (Samsung actually put it to the right of the camera module, which I'm not sure I'm wild about.)

On iPhone, that should put the sensor right around where the Apple logo is. On iPhone Plus, right around the middle of the phone. Depending on the ultimate size and ergonomics of iPhone 8, perhaps somewhere in between.

Look, don't touch

iPhone 8 is expected to be announced during Apple's annual September product event in California, perhaps at the soon-to-be-completed Steve Jobs Theater. It could well show up with the Touch ID sensor beneath the screen, all right and proper. This schematic might end up being nothing more than some idle speculation about what a less audacious iPhone 8 would look like.

Likewise, the placement of the Touch ID sensor might not be a long-term concern at Apple any more. Touch ID was designed to make security more convenient. Other technologies, include face recognition and iris scanning can do that as well.

Eventually, we might well move towards more passive, ambient authentication. In that future, the answer to where Touch ID goes could simply be: nowhere.

I've been regularly using the 2016 MacBook Pro since it arrived on my doorstep nearly three months ago. I love many things about it, but I've been at odds with what I think about the Touch Bar since day one. I probably use it more often than most, but still don't use it often enough. One thing about the 2016 MacBook Pro I do use regularly, and consider it to be the most important new feature for Mac, is Touch ID.

Touch ID lets me create even more complex passwords

Thanks to Touch ID on the iPhone and iPad, I've been much better at creating long, complex passwords for my Apple ID. In the past, I still reigned it in because I knew I had to remember those passwords, or at least find them in my password manager app, while on my Mac. Now that I have Touch ID on my Mac, I use a nice string of complex numbers, letters, and symbols that I don't mind forgetting because I can simply use Touch ID to buy movies, music, apps, and more, even on my Mac. Sure, I have to manually enter my password once in a while, but I can look it up using my password manager, 1Password, which also supports Touch ID on the Mac!

I can also make sure my Mac is more secure by creating a complex password just to unlock the device at all. Touch ID makes it possible for me to log in with just a touch, even if my passcode is 25 characters long. Of course, just like on the iPhone, you still have to manually log in every time you restart your Mac or update your operating system, so I have my passcode written down, too.

More apps supporting Touch ID, please!

After experimenting with a couple of apps that support Touch ID (there are very few of them right now), I've discovered just how much I love having the ability to use my fingerprint to confirm my identity when logging in to something or making online purchases.

For example, I can, again, create a long, complex password for 1Password – more complex than I've ever made before – because most of the time, I'll be using my fingerprint to log in instead.

I love using Apple Pay on the web now. Sometimes, I even buy stuff from websites that support Apple Pay just because I can use Touch ID on my Mac to confirm. There is something special and elite about the process.

I really want to see more apps support Touch ID. Basically, any Mac app that requires a log in should also support Touch ID, like journaling apps, finance services, social networking accounts, and email clients. You can see just how many programs could benefit from being able to use biometrics to confirm your log in.

I wish I could use Touch ID for everything I log into. I wish I could use it with every website that allows online payments. I also wish every place I log in to or make purchases from would require two-factor authentication so I could doubly protect my information.

It's the convenience factor that wins every time

Touch ID on the Mac does not make it more secure, it simply makes it easier to create ultra strong passwords without worrying about having to type 25 or more characters each time. I never had a particularly long Apple ID password or Mac log in passcode before. Now, they are long and strong and much harder to hack.

I've been using a password manager for years, which allows me to create complex passwords for my many log in accounts, but that still requires multiple steps, whether I'm on my iPhone or my Mac. I absolutely love it when an app supports 1Password on my iPhone and really want to see more of this support on my Mac, but I'd be even happier if the app directly supported Touch ID logins.

I can say without question that I'd probably switch email or journaling Mac apps if there were any that supported Touch ID.

It's still smart to disable Touch ID sometimes

Just like it is a smart idea to disable Touch ID on your iPhone when going through Airport security, it is smart to disable it on your Mac sometimes. We live in a world of unknowns and vague regulations. Different countries have different laws about privacy. It is much easier to force you to place your finger on a key to unlock your Mac than it is to force you to give up your password.

To be clear, I'm not promoting the idea that Touch ID on the Mac somehow makes it more secure than a Mac that does not have it. I'm championing the fact that Touch ID makes it easier to use long, complex passwords for your logins, which in turn, makes your personal data more secure. It's important to continue to use the same security measures you've used with your iPhone.

Touch ID for everybody!

I love Touch ID on the MacBook Pro and hope that Apple really is working on a Magic Keyboard that will allow all Mac users the ability to strengthen their passwords and make their digital lives more secure. I'm also calling out to all Mac app developers to get your s#@t together and add Touch ID support if your app uses any sort of account log in!

I'm typically less interested in rumors about what Apple may or may not be doing than problems that need to be solved and how Apple could address them. OLED and Touch ID on iPhone 8 is one of those problems.

Financial Analyst and supply-chain spelunker, Ming Chi-Kuo, as quoted by MacRumors:

Here's the thing: 3D Touch, as currently implemented on iPhone, is dependent on the LCD screen's LED backlight. The LED is what measures the deformation of the glass under pressure and provides that data to iOS. Take away the LCD by switching to OLED technology, and you take away the LED. Take away the LED, and you take away the current implementation of 3D Touch.

So, if Apple is indeed switching to OLED for iPhone 8 they, by necessity, also have to change how 3D Touch works on iPhone 8. That's not a huge deal — Force Touch on Apple Watch uses a different implementation of pressure sensitivity, and Force Touch on the Mac Trackpad another implementation different than both. There are numerous ways to make pressure sensitivity work, Apple will simply use the one that best fits the requirements of the device.

Same with OLED. There are numerous screen technologies, including LCD, OLED, and Quantum Dot. They're also just implementation details. Apple, again, will use the one that best fits the device. Earlier on, that was LCD for quality. (PenTile sub-pixels were not a good thing.) Then it was LCD for 3D Touch. If Apple wants to do something LCD can't do, like gett thinner, more energy efficient, and curve the display, the OLED begins to win out. (Especially newer, better OLED.)

It's similar to NFC and why it's not opened up on iPhone. Apple considered NFC going back to the iPhone 4/s days but back then it was a chipset Apple doesn't do chipsets, they do feature sets. In other words, Apple doesn't do NFC, they do Apple Pay. That's why NFC was never added to iPhone — Apple Pay was. NFC was just an implementation detail. Maybe one day it'll be opened up or will enable additional features, but Apple Pay got it in there.

Apple patents everything, so it's tough to read too much into them. That said, biometrics aren't security — they're convenience. They aren't passwords — they're user IDs.

Also, two-steps don't enhance security, they enhance complexity. Two factors enhance security. Biometrics are both "something you are". For a second factor, you'd need to require the password as well for "something you know".

One of my biggest requests for iOS remains the ability to choose to require both a password and biometrics, be that Touch ID or any technology Apple may add in the future. That would enable true two-factor for device access.

You could also throw in a third factor — trusted device proximity with Apple Watch — for those who want full-on three factor. Then you'd have "something you are", "something you know", and "something you have". Best of all, with the way Touch ID and Auto Unlock are already implemented, they're virtually transparent.

Two-factor, even three-factor, would essentially be as easy as one — password.

A federal court has issued a search warrant compelling a Los Angeles resident to unlock her iPhone using Touch ID so that the FBI can gather evidence from it. While courts have issued similar orders before, this is the first time it has happened in a federal case, and a rare example of such a warrant being issued.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously held that a warrant may compel someone to unlock their phone with their fingerprint, as a fingerprint is thought to be physical evidence, which a person in custody may be required to provide. However, one case held that a password cannot be compelled because disclosing it could be tantamount to testifying against oneself, a possible violation of the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Some groups have also argued that compelling someone to unlock a phone with their fingerprint is also a 5th Amendment violation, but debate still continues on the merits of that particular argument.

With iOS 9.3 Apple will be giving us the ability to secure notes in the Notes app with TouchID or a password. It's a great way to keep personal information protected, but only if you keep it in Notes. Imagine if Apple took the feature and made it system-wide. That way, whether it's your photos or messages, your mail or health data, you'd be able to secure it with Touch ID or a password.

Touch ID everywhere

That's far, far easier to write than to engineer of course. Apps are interconnected. With Photos, there's the ImagePicker that lets you pull images and videos into other apps. With Messages, there's the Share Sheet extension that lets you send almost anything to almost any one. With Health, there's syncing data both into and out of other apps and even accessories.

Managing all of that at the app level — which is what the Touch ID API allows everything from password managers to bank apps to do already — is one thing. Managing all of that at the individual item level us quite another.

In other words, you don't get asked for Touch ID or a password simply to open the Notes app. You get asked for Touch ID or a password to open protected notes inside the app. That same kind of granularity could apply to other apps, depending on the type of data they contain.

For example, Messages could allow the protection of individual conversation threads. Health of entire categories. Photos could offer both protected Albums and protected pictures and videos.

Albums would require passcode or Touch ID to open, individual pictures and videos would be visible and accessible only when the protected album was unlocked. Neither would show up in Moments, Collections, Years, or ImagePickers outside the protected album.

Scaling security

Protecting the entire app, like a password manager or bank client, could make sense for Notes, Messages, Health, and other apps as well. It could be enabled on an app-by-app basis in Settings, the same way Notifications or Location are. Toggle on and you're asked for your passcode or Touch ID. (Whether or not per-app passcodes would be beneficial or burdensome is another question.)

App Store apps could even move their Touch ID options out of the per-app settings and into the unified Touch ID settings, making for a more consistent experience.

Protecting the individual items, like in Notes for iOS 9.3 might only make sense in some specific cases. Either way, just like Notes, it would let us keep any health, financial, picture, document, password, or other data safe and secure, regardless of what it is or where we keep it.

(If done right, it might even obviate the need for a Guest Mode and GuestBoard.)

Here's hoping Apple is already working on something like that for iOS 10... or beyond!

I've filed this as a feature request with Apple: rdar://24817355. If you have any ideas about securing iOS at the app or item level, let me know below!

A Seattle-based lawfirm, Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC (PCVA), has filed a class-action lawsuit with the Northern California U.S. District Court against Apple over the "Error 53" security issue. "Error 53" crops up when installing a software update on an iPhone which has had its Touch ID Home button repaired, which Apple says is the result of security checks in iOS 9. However, the attorneys at PCVA don't buy that explanation.

From PCVA:

As we've previously noted, "Error 53" seems to be a new issue that cropped up after iOS 9. Despite initial reports, the error can in fact affect both third-party and official Apple repairs. However, while Apple can swap out your current device for a new one, third-party repair shops cannot.

At this time, it's unclear how many people have been affected by "Error 53". Additionally, the lawsuit still needs to be granted class-action status.

Source: Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC

Apple has released an iOS update to address Error 53. Here's how to update your iPhone to fix Error 53.

There's been a ton of online speculation — and condemnation — today. When contacted for comment, Apple provided the following explanation to iMore:

Is this a new problem?

Some of this isn't new. Back when the iPhone 5s introduced Touch ID for the first time, former iMore editor Ally Kazmucha discovered there was hardware based security at the component level. That way, if someone took possession of your iPhone they couldn't bypass the encryption and get at your data. In other words, to protect us from both big and little brother.

What is new is the iOS 9 update causing "error 53" which, in defense of those who've received it, is completely opaque. As the old saying goes, security is at constant war with convenience, and it looks like some new check put in place as part of iOS 9 generates that error when it can't verify that hardware security is still intact.

Why is this only affecting third-party repairs?

It can actually affect any repair. If an error occurs following an Apple or Apple-certified repair, though, they can swap out the device for one that works, you can restore from backup, and everything is fine. With third-party repairs, not so much.

There are some complaints that about repairs not involving Touch ID that also cause the problem, though it's tough to rule out accidental damage. If true, though, it's possible Apple may need to fix the process so only the security system, and the security system alone, can trigger an error. And, of course, provide a more human-understandable error.

Why can't I override the security check? It's my phone!

Some have asked for an override that would let an owner opt-out of the security check. Unfortunately, once a "back door" exists, it exists for everyone. It's one of those things where security and usability clash, and why "fail safe" and "fail secure" are two very different things.

In other words, if you can override it, someone with bad intentions could override it as well.

Shouldn't Apple warn people about this?

In theory, absolutely. In practice, how and when Apple could provide such a warning is tougher to figure out. Putting in on-screen as part of the on-boarding process is unwieldy and doesn't scale. Putting it in fine print on the paper inside would likely be as good as no warning at all.

So what should I do?

If you live near an Apple Store or an Apple-certified store, go there. If you don't, and you can mail your device to Apple, consider that option. If you have the error 53 problem, contact Apple support.

If you've been affected by "error 53" let us know in the comments!

Touch ID 2 made unlocking the iPhones 6s incredibly fast. So fast, some have complained it's now too fast. Specifically, too fast to see lock screen notifications. So, is it? And if it is, what can be done about it?

Spoilers: The answer is: "it depends". If your goal is to access lock screen information or options, then yes—it's demonstrably too fast. If your goal is to unlock your phone, then no—it might still be too slow.

Before reading this, it's worth going back through the recent articles by Craig Mod, Dr. Drang, and Joe Cieplinski for context. It shows how challenging it is to meet every expectation and make everyone happy.

The legacy problems

The iPhone and iPad have very few hardware buttons: Home, Sleep/Wake (On/Off), and Volume up and down. That's it. Yet, for technical reasons, two of them have historically performed the same job on single click: Wake up the device and present the lock screen.

Presenting the lock screen is important because that's the interface that prevents accidental or unauthorized access to the device. Before Touch ID, whether you clicked Home or Sleep/Wake, you had to slide to unlock and, optionally, enter a code to get in. They were two distinct buttons whose behaviors were conflated.

Since the lock screen was effectively the primary landing point for the iOS interface, Apple began adding conveniences to it like notifications, notification center, control center, fast camera access, Siri, continuity and suggested apps, and more. At the same time, to prevent bypasses, Apple has hardened its security. So, the lock screen became both status board and gatekeeper.

Then came Touch ID. With it, the iPhone or iPad wouldn't simply wake on click but authenticate and open on contact. That meant the two distinct buttons started to have distinct behaviors. The difference remained fuzzy at first because of the time it took the original Touch ID to register. After the initial click, you could still glance at notifications and even remove your finger and access other options before it processed the unlock.

Then came Touch ID 2. With it, unlock was almost as fast as the initial click. That made the distinction clear. Glancing at notifications or pulling your finger away to prevent unlock was now difficult. Sure, you could use a nail, unregistered finger, knuckle, or some other physical workaround to still make Home work like Wake if you really wanted to, but otherwise you had to break old habits and build new ones. You had to use the Wake button.

The potential solutions

Back before iOS 4 if you left an app and then launched it again, it restarted from scratch. Some people loved that because it was an incredibly easy way to bail out a game, for example. Then, with background processes and saved states, it stopped working and we had to learn how to properly force quit apps. This is like that.

It took me only a couple hours to adjust to iOS 4 multitasking. It took me about a week to adjust to Touch ID 2 unlocking. Now, when I really want to see the lock screen and not unlock my iPhone 6s Plus, I use a different finger or just hit the Sleep/Wake button to do it.

It's not optimal, though. If all you want to do is get to your phone, it's apps, and everything they can do, then you still have to see the visual distraction of the lock screen. If all you want to do is see the lock screen, you have to restrict yourself to what's arguably a less conveniently placed button or some form of digital contortionism.

You can't do away with the lock screen because you still have to have an interface to handle unauthorized or failed access attempts. And if you suppress it—or make Touch ID 2 so fast it blows right through it—people may wonder if their device had ever been locked at all. Uncertainty also creates anxiety, after all.

Making the process as fast as possible, and making notification center as identical to the lock screen presentation as possible, would help. It's really close already, so if anyone accidentally unlocks when they meant to just glance, one swipe and they get what they wanted anyway.

Lighting up the lock screen to see notifications—and perhaps one day, complications—could also be evolved. Like the Apple Watch, the lock screen could light up when you raise the device, when you tap on the screen, or when you 3D Touch press. (The first behavior has already been implemented on the iPhone with the old Siri raise-to-speak and the current audio Messages raise-to-play/reply.)

Those options would also come in super handy if Apple ever virtualized the Home button.

There's a rumor that Apple slowed Touch ID 2 down a tad before release to help balance all the expectations—both software and human—and that it could be even faster. That highlights how challenging a problem it is to solve. There's no doubt they're still working on it, though, and it'll be interesting to see what the teams come up with for iPhone 7 and iOS 10 in 2016.

Nothing tests a new product like tens of millions of new customers getting their hands on it. So, just like every year, new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners are discovering new issues that need fixing. Apple typically swaps out any problem hardware and pushes updates to take care of any problem software. But in the meantime if you're experiencing unexpected power outages or your Home button and Touch ID sensor are getting really hot, here's what to do.

How to reset your iPhone

The reset is just what the name implies. It reboots your iPhone, hard. That should flush out any problems with the power or Home button, at least temporarily.

1. Press and hold down both the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time.
2. Keep them held down until you see an Apple logo.
3. Let go.
4. Wait for your iPhone to reboot.

How to contact Apple

If the problem persists, you'll need to contact Apple. If you have AppleCare+, don't walk, run to your local Apple Store to get it fixed.

If you don't live close to an Apple Store, you can call 1-800-MY-APPLE in order to set up a mail-in repair.

Some folks are still eagerly awaiting their iPhone 6s and 6s Plus deliveries, while others have yet to decide whether they want to pick up the phone. Regardless of your iPhone 6s-less state, one of the big questions we've heard lately is about Touch ID: Is it really twice as fast as the iPhone 6?

Answer: With few exceptions, yes!

The video above shows three different Touch ID tests I ran my iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 through.

The first test involves putting a fingerprint on the sensor after the screen is already on. The 6s did dramatically better than the 6 in all my tries, frequently arriving on the Home screen two and three times as fast as the iPhone 6.

For the second test, I turned on my iPhone 6s and 6 by pressing the Home button and keeping my finger on the button. The 6 actually comes remarkably close to the 6s in this test, lagging only a few milliseconds behind.

The final test, however, is the kicker: Again, I started with my device off and woke it with the Home button, but this time, I immediately lifted my thumb and then replaced it. On the third test, every single time I woke my 6s with the Home button—even if I barely put my thumbprint on it—the phone immediately went to the home screen. The 6 never triggered directly to the Home screen from a wake press; I had to rest my thumb several seconds more to get it to register.

Just early tests, and we'll do more thorough ones in the weeks to come. But in short: New Touch ID? Fast. Very fast.

We've not been able to duplicate the problem on any of our devices, but after helping several people, we have come across what looks to be a working Touch ID fix for those affected. Best of all, it's a simple one!

How to fix Touch ID not working in iOS 8.3

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
3. Enter your Passcode or Password
4. Toggle iTunes & App Store to OFF
5. Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.
6. Reboot your iPhone or iPad. (Here's how)
7. Enter your Passcode or Password at the Lock screen
8. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
9. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
10. Enter your Passcode or Password
11. Toggle iTunes & App Store to ON

That should fix any issues with using Touch ID to authorize App Store or iTunes Store purchases.

For in-app use, remember you may have to enter a password in the specific app before Touch ID will work again in an extension (because your iPhone or iPad rebooted during update). For example, you'll have to launch the 1Password app and enter your Master Password at least once before the 1Password action extension will work with Touch ID in other apps.

With any luck, that'll get Touch ID working again for you in iTunes and App Store, and you'll be happily authorizing away! If you're having the problem, let me know if this fixed you up!

That might sound like an edge-case for Siri, Apple's personal digital assistant, but here's something more common — a family charging station with several iPhones devices plugged in. How do you target yours and yours alone? How do you make sure only your voice can activate Siri on your iPhone or iPad? On your Apple Watch? In your car or around your house?

To prevent false activations, the Apple Watch needs you to bring your wrist up and towards you before "Hey, Siri!" will work. The iPhone and iPad not so much. One way it could work is through voice biometrics. Think of it as a vocal fingerprint. Instead of Touch ID, think of it as Voice ID.

As the name implies, Voice ID biometrics could also be used for security the same way Touch ID biometrics are. Both our fingerprint and our speech patterns are "something we are". They can be used instead of passwords or passcodes, which are "something we know", or they can be used in conjunction for multi-factor authentication.

If you're a fan of the movie Sneakers, think of it as your voice truly being your passport.

I have no idea whether or not Apple plans to implement anything like this in iOS 9, of course, but the technology exists. Companies like Nuance are using it for a variety of applications already, and I'd love it if found its way into Siri one day.

You could register your voice the same way you register your fingerprint for Touch ID — by giving repeated samples.

The first time you hold down the Home button to activate Siri, it asks you to repeat a phrase, or several key phrases, three times each. Then it learns your voiceprint and the more you speak with it, the better than voiceprint gets. Again, just like Touch ID, but for your voice instead of your finger.

Voice ID could ensure that when someone yells "Hey, Siri!" on a podcast, or in a room with multiple iOS devices, only their Siri answers. Not mine, and not yours.

Voice ID could make it so that only you can access your iPhone or iPad or Apple Watch or CarPlay system or HomeKit system.

Voice ID could even load individualized environments when it recognized your voice — your preferences, your data, your content.

Biometrics wont solve all problems, of course. What if an iPhone, iPad, and future devices like a Siri-enabled Apple TV, all in the same room, are all yours? How would you target a specific device? "Hey, Siri on Rene's iPhone!" is workable but cumbersome. "Hey, iPhone!" locked to our Voice ID?

Taking existing technology and packaging it for the mainstream: These are the types of problems Apple is historically good at solving. Siri brought natural language voice control out of obscurity and onto hundreds of millions of devices. Thanks to its Pixar-like personality, we've learned to talk not only to it, but with it. And there's still a lot more Siri can do for us.

Siri has already made the microphone smart, the same way Touch ID made the Home button smart. But Touch ID also made the Home button personal. Voice ID could do the same for Siri.

Back in September, before the original Apple Watch introduction, one of the potential features I was most interested in was the ability to project authentication. We got at least one aspect of it with the watch's implementation of Apple Pay. Hopefully that's only the beginning.

Trusted Bluetooth devices have been a thing for a while. They're "something you have." They can be used instead of "something you know" (password) or "something you are" (fingerprint) for authentication, or they can be used in conjunction with one or both of the others for multi-factor authentication.

To date, however, trusted Bluetooth devices have been too dumb to interest me. What I mean by dumb is that most current devices have no knowledge of their owner. If I take your dongle or smartwatch, I am you, and have access to everything you have access to. That's a deal-breaker. I'd never be willing to use them and, to be frank, I never thought Apple would be crass enough to offer it that way.

Neither the iPhone nor the Apple Watch are dumb, though. They're smart.

It's part of the contextual awakening:The iPhone has Touch ID, which means that it can require my fingerprint before authenticating anything from unlocking the phone to buying from iTunes to paying with Apple Pay. The Apple Watch has the ability to take Apple Pay authentication from the iPhone and maintain it for as long as skin contact is maintained.

That means both the iPhone and the Apple Watch don't just know that we have them, but who has them — no fingerprint, no skin contact, no authentication. And that makes them very, very interesting.

Soon, HomeKit will let us unlock our homes with our iPhones. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, has already said you might one day be able to unlock your car with your Apple Watch.

Why not your Mac? iPhone-based proximity unlocks have been explored by third-party apps for a while, but Apple could implement a Touch ID-based system that could allow for fingerprint authentication prior to an unlock built in at the system level. If an Apple Watch has been authenticated and has remained in skin contact, it could allow for an even more effortless unlock if and when you're in extreme proximity.

With an API, why not apps? I use 1Password for password management. Up until last year it was easier to use on my Mac than my iPhone, since typing master passwords was a pain and cutting and pasting them was arduous. Now, with iOS 8, the action extension, and the Touch ID API, it's nearly effortless. It's so good, it makes the Mac feel tedious.

With trust projection, however, Touch ID on the iPhone — or better yet, skin-contact with the watch — could make 1Password just as effortless. When I'm within a few feet, it's open. When I'm not, it's not.

Bank apps, communication apps, secure photo or document apps, the list goes on and on.

For those who want even more security, Apple or apps could require Touch ID or Apple Watch proximity and a password. Combine Touch ID and an Apple Watch and a password, and you have three-factor nirvana.

Security and convenience have been at war for much of the information age. Apple has done a lot, however, to make security more convenient. Based on where they're going, it seems like just the beginning.

Microsoft OneNote for iPhone has been updated with support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, along with enhancements to security. These include better password protection, and Touch ID.

Touch ID allows you to unlock items that are password protected with your fingerprint. You can now also create new password protected sections. You can even change or remove the passwords on existing protected sections.

OneNote will now let you insert files from the cloud. While you can choose OneDrive, naturally, you can also add files from your cloud service of choice, such as Dropbox, as long as you have the service's app installed on your device. It's now easier to organize pages, as OneNote now lets you move and reorder pages in a given section.

You can download OneNote for iPhone for free from the App Store right now.

• Free - Download Now

Microsoft has updated its OneDrive app with a couple of small, but important features. OneDrive now supports Touch ID on devices running iOS 8.

To set up Touch ID, you'll need to set up a passcode. Go into Settings in the app, the select Passcode. Switch on Require Passcode to set up a code. Then switch on Use Touch ID. The app will ask for your fingerprint or passcode whenever you open it.

You can also sort folders and files with this update. It also contains a number of fixes and small, behind-the-scenes improvements. The app also now ready for the new resolutions on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

This update for OneDrive is available on the App Store now.

• Free - Download Now

Touch ID is the name of Apple's personal fingerprint identity sensor. It's what currently lets you authenticate yourself to unlock your iPhone 5s and authorize iTunes and App Store purchases on your account. With iOS 8, Apple is making an application programming interface (API) available to developers as well so everything from your password manager to banking service to private photo vault can be both secure and convenient. But how's it going to work?

Token problems, KeyChain solutions

When you put your finger on a Touch ID-equipped Home button, the metal ring around it detects the capacitance and wakes up the sensor. A high resolution photo of your fingerprint is then taken, converted into a mathematical representation, and sent over a hard-wired connection to the secure enclave of the Apple A7 system-on-a-chip. If the data doesn't match, a "no" token is released and you need to try again, or enter a passcode or password. If the data does match, a "yes" token is released, you're iPhone 5s unlock is authorized, or your iTunes or App Store purchase gets authorized.

All of this launched back in 2013 as part iOS 7 on the iPhone 5s. What didn't launch with it at the time was a Touch ID API for developers. It's my understanding that, while Touch ID was secure against anything except physical spoofing when constrained to those two specific tasks, Apple hadn't had time to build out that security yet for developers. For example, what was to stop a malicious app from spoofing a Touch ID "yes" token?

Fast forward to 2014 and iOS 8 provides that security rather ingeniously — it hooks into Keychain and into a new framework called LocalAuthentication.

KeyChain is Apple's secure database for passwords. It started on the Mac but moved to iOS and then the iOS version moved back for iCloud KeyChain in iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks.

In iOS 8, it's KeyChain that receives the "yes" or "no" token from the secure enclave following a successful Touch ID authentication, and KeyChain that provides or withholds credentials to apps accordingly.

That means Touch ID, and your fingerprint data, can stay safely locked within the secure enclave, but it can still be used in place of a username/password combo to more conveniently fill in passwords and otherwise authorize any app on the App Store.

LocalAuthentication on the other hand provides a faster but more limited form of access. For example, with LocalAuthentication, Touch ID can be used to unlock certain features (imagine a secure photos app or a video player with parental controls).

Also, thankfully, while Touch ID can be used for fast and easy single-factor authenticate, it can also be used as a second factor to increase security. (i.e. Touch ID instead of passcode vs. Touch ID in addition to passcode.)

Touch ID for developers

With iOS 8, Apple is introducing item Access Control Lists (ACL) for accessibility and authentication. With those, developers can set when a KeyChain item is available, but also what happens when the item is accessed.

Accessibility is the same for Touch ID as it is for passcode — based on device state like "unlocked". Authentication is new and requires a policy to determine what conditions need to be satisfied for KeyChain provides information to the app.

User presence policies can include no passcode, in which case there's no access to KeyChain, passcode, in which case KeyChain will unlock once it's entered, and Touch ID, in which case KeyChain will unlock once it authenticates. (If Touch ID fails, or the person opts-out of using it, it can revert to passcode.)

Touch ID is given preference over passcode when available because a finger press is faster and easier than entering a string of numbers or alphanumeric characters.

Policies and enforced by the secure enclave of the Apple A7 processor, so they're protected against anything up to and including kernel compromise.

Because of that, developers and their apps also get the same fail-secure system as device unlock and store purchases — if Touch ID doesn't authenticate after four tries, if the device is rebooted, or if Touch ID isn't used in 48 hours, the secure enclave will disable it and the passcode will need to be re-entred to re-enable it.

To go along with the new API, Apple is also providing a new interface to handle Touch ID transactions in App Store apps. Similar to the look and feel of the existing iTunes and App Store Touch ID interface, it pops up and gives you the option of scanning a fingerprint or entering the passcode.

Apple presents the name of the app in the interface dialog, so you always know who's asking for your authentication. Developers can also — and are encouraged to — add an additional text string explaining why they're asking for authentication.

(If Touch ID is disabled, if it's been opted-out of, or if the device being used doesn't have Touch ID, the same framework will present a passcode entry interface instead.)

Obviously, since it has to present the interface, only an app in the foreground can request authorization. Apple cautions developers to remember, however, that any query could return secure items that require authentication. So, developers are encouraged not to query too broadly, and Apple is also providing a "no authentication mode" so that developers can suppress the interface and simply report back that, if those items are really wanted, authentication will be required.

Touch ID and action extensions

In addition to apps, Touch ID can also be integrated into action extensions. So, for example, a password manager app could use Touch ID to authenticate you before showing you your passwords inside its own app. A password manager action extension, however, could be called from within Safari and allow Touch ID to authenticate you so the extension can auto-fill your password fields.

If developers make their own frameworks, other developers can also integrate it into their own apps so, for example, a social network app could let you use the password managers extension to authenticate and auto-fill your passwords right inside the social networking app.

Touch ID API security

The Touch ID interface is owned and controlled by iOS, not by the App Store app that controls it. Only upon successful determination of authentication status, opt-out to password, or canceling out altogether can an app regain control.

Also, for security reasons, Apple and iCloud do not back up ACL protected items, and don't sync them between devices. In other words, your data is never put up on the internet or onto anyone's servers, including Apple's. Not ever.

Developers also never gain access to your fingerprint data in their apps. It all stays tucked away safely in the secure enclave.

Bottom line

Entering passwords on mobile devices, especially the kind of unique, long, strong pseudorandom passwords we're supposed to be using, is so onerous many of us simply stop using them at all. Touch ID helps by making a biometric authentication system available that's both easier and faster to use. However, it was only available on the iPhone 5s, and only for device unlock or iTunes purchase.

The Touch ID API removes the latter part of the limitation. With it, Touch ID authentication can be made available in any App Store app. As to the former part, it's hard not to imagine Apple won't fix that later this fall, and bring Touch ID to the iPhone 6 and iPad lineups both.

That should happen within days and weeks, respectively, of iOS 8 being released this fall. Are you looking forward to it, and which of your apps would you like to see implement the Touch ID API?

More of iOS 8: Explained

• Handoff in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Sending and receiving SMS/MMS on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• AirDrop and Instant Hotspot in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• QuickType keyboard in iOS 8: Explained
• Interactive notifications in iOS 8: Explained
• SceneKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Metal in iOS 8: Explained
• Widgets in iOS 8: Explained
• Share extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Action extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Inter-app photo and video editing in iOS 8: Explained
• Custom keyboards in iOS 8: Explained
• Family Sharing on iOS 8: Explained
• iCloud Drive and Document Picker for iOS 8: Explained
• Document provider extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• TestFlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Apple Maps in iOS 8: Explained
• iMessage in iOS 8: Explained
• Photos in iOS 8: Explained
• Spotlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Health in iOS 8: Explained
• Touch ID in iOS 8: Explained
• HomeKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Adaptive UI in iOS 8: Explained
• Manual camera controls in iOS 8: Explained

As part of its raft of new APIs for developers, Apple today introduced new APIs for its fingerprint-based Touch ID system at WWDC. And the big news is that third-party apps will finally be able to use Touch ID authentication in iOS 8.

According to today's presentation, the system protects logins and user data, and works with iOS's existing keychain setup. And as ever, biometric data from your fingerprints is kept securely silo'd away on the device.

As expected, the fingerprint swiper in the new Samsung Galaxy S5 is just as susceptible to spoofing by a fake fingerprint, just like Apple's Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, and pretty much every similar fingerprint sensor on the market. But it also looks like there are few things Apple did right that Samsung might want to look into incorporating in the future.

Biometrics are part of the same classic trade-off of convenience for security. They're not as good as a long, strong pseudo-random password but they're much quicker and easier to enter. (And in a perfect world we'd have the option for passcode/word + fingerprint to get some even more secure multifactor authentication going...) Here's what I wrote about Touch ID last year following similar spoofing attacks, and the poor reporting that followed them:

• Is Touch ID secure enough to keep your iPhone 5s safe?
• Terrible reporting about iPhone security leads to people being less secure. Great job, media!

And the Galaxy S5 after announcement:

• Why Samsung's fingerprint sensor needs to face the same scrutiny as Apple's Touch ID

It looks like Touch ID has educated the market at least enough to take the brunt — and the letters from Al Franken — off Samsung's back. However, according to the SRLabs video above, however, there are some risks involved with Samsung's technology that Apple has chosen to minimize or avoid.

Firstly, Samsung apparently allows unlimited attacks on their fingerprint sensor. You can try fingerprint after fingerprint and it will happily let you. Apple's Touch ID limits you to 5 unsuccessful attempts, then demands a passcode or password. If someone makes a perfect spoof immediately, that won't matter. If not, or if it doesn't register properly the first few times, it could help.

Secondly, Samsung allows fingerprint authentication even after the Galaxy S5 has been rebooted or simply powered back on or re-charged. Apple's Touch ID requires passcode or password re-entry under those conditions.

Thirdly, Samsung allows third parties to hook into their fingerprint authenticator. So, as shown in the video, they can get to Paypal and your money. Apple currently restricts Touch ID to only your Apple account. So, worst case, if Touch ID is spoofed, all an attacker can really do is buy stuff off iTunes or the App Store, much of which would be locked to your account. That's much less of an incentive to spoof prints.

There's as much tension between functionality and security as there is convenience and security. Everyone wants to do more. Hey, I want Touch ID to unlock my house. But I understand securing the process was incredible important and time-consuming for Apple. For example, they made it so that if you open up an iPhone and remove or otherwise try to tamper with the sensor it will never work again, ever. They also prevented third party access, at least for now.

Hopefully fingerprint sensors and biometrics in general can be hardened even further so that we can get both more functionality and security in the future.

For more on the Samsung Galaxy S5 and fingerprint spoofing, see:

• The Galaxy S5 Finger Scanner 'hack' reminds us of the value of strong passwords

I'm still using Touch ID all the time, because I understand the risks, the limitations, and the benefits. How about you? And if you're using a Samsung Galaxy S5, do the differences in implementation cause you to think differently about using fingerprint authentication?

A bug has been found in iOS 7 that allows a an attacker with physical control over a lost or stolen iPhone to get around Activation Lock and gain access to the device. Unfortunately, the method for circumventing Activation Lock has been made public. However, the bypass process requires the attacker have access to an unlocked device, and be able to access the device after a reboot, so it can be thwarted by simply having a Passcode enabled (either by itself or as part of Touch ID).

Hopefully Apple is already working on a fix and iOS 7.1.1 or a similar update will patch it.

Nick Arnott contributed to this story.

Last week the new Galaxy S5 was introduced and, along with it, Samsung's take on the fingerprint identity sensor. Apple, of course, introduced the Touch ID fingerprint identity scanner alongside the iPhone 5s back in September of 2013. From launch, Touch ID received considerable scrutiny over not only its implications but its implementation as well, and not only by the media, but by security researchers and the U.S. government. So, roughly 3 nano-seconds after the Galaxy S5 was swiped on stage, Apple enthusiasts began wondering out loud just when exactly that same scrutiny and attention would hit Samsung. Some felt it wouldn't and that that was unfair. Others felt it wouldn't and that that's perfectly reasonable. My take is that it has to, and not just for the sake of Apple/Samsung fairness, but for consumer confidence and the technology moving forward.

Apple didn't get a letter from a U.S. Senator the moment they announced Touch ID. It took until launch day a week and a half later. Nor did articles showing supposed hacks or spoofs proliferate through the media the same day as the keynote. It took until the iPhone 5s got into people's hands again a week and a half or more later. Samsung has only just announced the Galaxy S5. They haven't shipped it. They haven't even announced a price or put it up for order. People who just want to get on the attention train will wait for launch to make the biggest splash possible. People who just want to audit the security will have to wait to get their own units before they can even start. Unless and until that happens, it's impossible to say what the scrutiny level will be.

Now the HTC One Max shipped with a fingerprint scanner back in October of 2013 and it didn't get anywhere near the scrutiny of Apple's Touch ID. Likewise, Motorola shipped the Atrix back in 2011 and never saw anything like it. But here's the thing: Apple enjoys far greater popularity and attention than any of those companies and the iPhone than any of those products. They weren't front page fodder the way Apple is. And maybe the way Samsung is now as well, or should be.

Part of the narrative for Samsung's fingerprint sensor includes the idea of it "doing more" than Apple's Touch ID. For example, it works in partnership with PayPal and offers developers a way to interface with it. Touch ID does not. That's often how Apple works. Introduce something. Use it internally. Work out any kinks. Then — Siri not withstanding — push it out to developers. Apple wants its APIs to be as solid as possible and you better believe they want the process of handing off Touch ID tokens to be nigh-invulnerable before they let them get anywhere out of Apple's chain.

It's a security-first approach and it makes sense when you're attempting to mainstream a technology like biometrics. When Touch ID launched, Apple not only described how it worked on stage but put up several articles on the web detailing the authentication and authorization process as well. (Following Samsung's announcement, Apple has released even more detailed information about Touch ID's implementation).

I've not been able to find anything similar about the Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner on Samsung's website. I have no idea what their security chain is or how their sensor works. Is there a secure enclave on their chipset? It seems unlikely since they'll be using two different chipsets, one of which is generic and made by Qualcomm. Will every Samsung sensor be uniquely paired with its chipset and cease functioning if the hardware is swapped? Again, given the manufacturing choices, it seems unlikely. How is the fingerprint data captured? How is it stored? How is it released to Samsung's own apps? To Paypal? To third parties?

I know the time and consideration Apple put into Touch ID, the details they sweated to not only keep the process offline but physically inaccessible to the software in any way beyond the yes/no token. I'd very much like to know the same thing about Samsung's sensor.

Right now the Galaxy S5 gets a free ride on Touch ID's wave. Mainstream media and customers alike will simply think it's the same thing, assume it works just as well, and Samsung will benefit from Apple's priming of the market. But only if it really does work just as well.

That's why I'd like to see a letter from a U.S. senator on Galaxy S5 launch day. I'd like to see security experts and CSI's try to crack, hack, and spoof the hell out of it the way they did Touch ID. I'd like to know if it's vulnerable to software attacks or if someone with a Batcave worth of gear could trick it with a fake fingerprint. I'd like to see all of that reported on with every bit the ferocity Touch ID experienced.

Because the Galaxy S5, like the iPhone 5s will sell in the hundreds of millions. I have friends who are going to buy it and be every bit as excited about their fingerprint sensor as I am about Touch ID. If it's just too fussy to work reliably and they abandon it, that's fine and that's one thing. If it turns out to be insecure, that's something else entirely.

That's something that'll get headlines. Apple and Touch ID will get lumped into those headlines. I'll get panicked calls. And rightly so.

We're at an incredibly exciting point in mobile — the contextual awakening is coming. Ubiquitous mobile payments are coming. Technology is going to change quickly and that's it's going to require a lot of faith and lot of confidence from consumers. If an antenna misfiring is annoying, your wallet getting dropped will be cataclysmic.

It not only serves Samsung's best interests, it not only serves Apple's best interests, it not only serves ever geek futurist's best interests, but it serves the mainstream consumer electronic customer's best interests for the Galaxy S5's fingerprint identity scanner to either be terrific, or be kicked so hard, so fast, that Samsung has no choice but to make it terrific or risk ceding the market to those who can.

For a different, smart take on Galaxy S5 fingerprint sensor scrutiny check out Guy English's piece on Kickingbear.

We already know Touch ID secures your digital fingerprint by storing it in a secure enclave on the Apple A7, only accessible to the sensor itself. It allows the iPhone 5s to better allow for both convenience and security. But what if that wasn't the only safeguard Apple took in order to protect your prints? We've taken a closer look at Touch ID and, through collaboration with repair company mendmyi, found that Apple has taken extra precautions beyond the secure enclave, on a hardware level that we've never seen implemented before.

Apple has touted Touch ID as a secure hardware path from the beginning. Here's the explanation straight from Apple:

Apple doesn't make specific mention of any other additional safeguards. However, as we discovered through some research and testing of our own, it seems as though Apple went through the trouble of pairing every individual Touch ID sensor cable to each individual phone as well. That's an incredible feat, and it immediately raises the question - why?

Our investigation into the Touch ID assembly started when mendmyi contacted me about an issue with Touch ID on a customer's phone. It had come in for their Colour Lab service. The video below demonstrates the issue:

In order to try and rectify the problem, many steps were attempted. These included swapping out the Touch ID sensor for one verified to work, replacing the dock connector the Touch ID makes contact with, and even replacing the logic board itself. When each different hardware fix was attempted, a DFU restore was performed as well. Nothing worked. It was baffling.

It was then discovered that the Touch ID sensor currently in the device was not the original one that came in the device. Once the original was returned, Touch ID started working again.

At this point, we knew there had to be some additional, previously undisclosed, hardware lockdown going on. To test this theory, we took two iPhone 5s handsets that had never been opened before, and verified Touch ID was working on both. The front assemblies, which contain the Touch ID assembly itself, were then removed and swapped. After re-assembly, both Touch ID setups failed. When returned to the original device, Touch ID once again operated correctly.

This confirmed for us that the Touch ID component cable assembly itself is tied to each individual A7 chip.

I asked our resident security expert, Nick Arnott, if he had any thoughts on why Apple would find this necessary. While none of this can be confirmed, these are his thoughts on why Apple may have taken the extra precaution:

I think all Nick's points are valid and could certainly explain what Apple was getting at in their own description of Touch ID when they say it isn't possible for your fingerprint to be reverse-engineered. One thing is for sure, I'd be very curious to see if these kinds of security precautions are taken in other fingerprint readers such as the one found in the HTC One Max.

Update: Interesting take from natevancouver on Twitter as well:

So what does all this mean for general consumers, hackers, DIY repairs, and future security standards? For general consumers, this is good news. It means you've got an extra layer of protection that's specifically unique to your device. A universal hack won't work. For hackers, it means they've got their work cut out for them and if they want to attack Touch ID. It looks like it can't be done by modifying the sensor cable itself.

When it comes to DIY repairers, it means your job just got a little more precarious. Since you need to remove the Touch ID cable and transfer it in order to perform to most common repair, including replacing a cracked screen, you'd better make damn sure you don't break it. If you do, you'll lose Touch ID functionality and won't be able to get it back.

I've not yet been able to find a reference to another company locking down specific hardware components the way Apple has with Touch ID. It theoretically means they could lock down any component in an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac if they really wanted to. Will they? Probably not. But the option is there.

It's obvious tremendous safeguards have gone into building Touch ID, likely to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable using it now and into the future.