Following its 2012 acquisition of mobile security firm AuthenTec, which specialized in fingerprint sensors, Apple has been rumored to be looking to incorporate its technology into its future products. Rumors have indicated that such a sensor could be a differentiating feature for Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S, although there has so far been little in the way of solid evidence that such a feature is in the works.
But as noted by Hamza Sood, Apple's developer release of iOS 7 beta 4 today has brought a significant clue that Apple is indeed planning to bring the technology to the iPhone later this year.
The evidence arrives in the form of a new code bundle in the Accessibility portion of iOS 7. The bundle, named BiometricKitUI, contains text strings related to a tutorial on how to use a fingerprint sensor on an iPhone. The relevant strings include:
- Photo of a person holding an iPhone with their left hand while touching the Home button with their thumb
- Photo of a person holding an iPhone with their right hand while touching the Home button with their thumb
- A fingerprint that changes colour during the setup process.
- Recognition is %@ complete
Several reports have indicated that incorporating a fingerprint sensor into the iPhone 5S has proven difficult for Apple, potentially limiting launch supplies of the device as production bottlenecks are worked out.
