As theSeptember 10 iPhone eventdraws nearer, pundits have begun to cast their final predictions for what features Apple’s next smartphone will possess. A faster processor seems like a given, as do abetter cameraand newgold colorway, but what else?
A lot of folks also think thatthe iPhone 5Swill have a fingerprint scanner built into its Home button. It’s beenreported by analystson several occasions, and evidence of it surfacedin iOS 7, but we have yet to see any real concrete proof. Until now?
French blogNowhereelse.frpoints to a new Home button flex cable that has recently surfaced online that may finally offer tangible evidence of the long-rumored fingerprint scanner. It’s more complex than that of the iPhone 5, with many new components.
And it’s believed that these new components may be related to fingerprint sensor functionality. Add to this the fact that the part has an identifier (821-2092-01) in line with past Apple components, and appears to have been made in mid-July, and things get interesting.
So why would you want a fingerprint scanner in your Home button? Everythingwe’ve heard thus farmakes it sound like it will be used, at first at least, to unlock your device. But the possibilities are endless: password replacement, mobile payments—you name it.
Of course, we won’t really know for sure what Apple has in mind for the feature until it officially announces the iPhone 5S next week. The phone is expected to launch alongside a less expensive handset,the iPhone 5C, in several countries onSeptember 20.
