Tag: APPLE

FACIAL RECOGNITION: ANDROID MANUFACTURERS ARE CHASING AFTER APPLE

The iPhone X has yet to hit the market, so nobody knows how well Face ID actually works. However, buzz around 3D facial recognition is making the vast majority of Android manufacturers nervous. This is only to be expected, given what we know about how the industry works.

As the experts at KGI have found out, face recognition using special 3D sensors is the current hot topic of the smartphone industry. According to the survey, since the presentation of the iPhone X, the search queries for the new 3D sensors used for face recognition have tripled. At the same time, interest in the “traditional” fingerprint sensor – which has only been used in smartphones for four years – is also declining rapidly.

It was obvious at the time of the presentation how this would go. It’s the same old story. The face recognition technology that – remember – has been available on smartphones for years, is presented by Apple and will then be adopted by the Android manufacturers. Like the fingerprint sensor, face recognition will be seen on an increasing number of Android smartphones in the coming months. That’s not very creative, but companies feel that their hands are forced by Apple’s market power and popularity.

Technology has got to be fun

By the way, Face ID is not just about facial recognition. The Animojis introduced by Apple with the new iPhones may seem silly at first, but they show that the technology can also be used for a lot of other things, even if it’s something silly-sounding like animated animal faces with their own facial expressions. Let’s face it: if a technology does not promise the masses a bit of fun, then it won’t make a splash in the market.

However, there is another side to this story: the unfulfilled hope of a breakthrough in some technologies, such as the “under-display” optical fingerprint sensor. The Galaxy S8 was already supposed have a sensor like this, but the engineers couldn’t implement it in time for release. As a result, Samsung users have to contort their fingers in search of the poorly placed sensor on the back – a lazy compromise. Similarly, Apple wanted to include a under-display fingerprint sensor in the iPhone X in order to offer an alternative to Face ID, but also ran out of time before their release deadline.

You won’t get anywhere without OLEDs

Such newfangled fingerprint sensors would probably not be available for the mass of consumers anyway, as the technology can only be used with OLED panels. This makes it difficult to provide mass-produced solutions outside of expensive, high-end smartphones, especially as Samsung enjoys a very dominant position in this area.

But fingerprint authentication, OLEDs displays, only serve to demonstrate once again what has always been reliable in the past: Apple doesn’t set any technical records on paper, but it sets the actual market trends. No matter what the Android competition does, if Apple starts off in one direction, then the others are compelled to follow.

Apple is technically ahead this time

This will not necessarily change if Samsung succeeds in actually getting the under-display fingerprint sensor to debut on Galaxy Note 9 for the first time, as a report by Business Insider suggests. It seems that facial recognition in the Samsung devices is much less advanced and less secure than in Apple. Business Insider states that Apple has an advantage of 18 to 30 months over Samsung when it comes to facial authentication. The new fingerprint sensor would thus only be a transitional solution until Samsung can catch up to Apple’s solution – which was also the case with the introduction of Touch ID.

It’s going to work like this: Samsung does it first, then Apple will make it better later, and only then does everyone else have to have it.

What do you think? Does the Android competition really have to follow every Apple trend? Or would a little more self-confidence do good here?

Apple is ‘looking into’ why some iPhone 8 batteries are swelling

Apple seems to have an iPhone 8 battery problem on its hands, and it’s not clear yet whether it’s occurring in just a handful of edge cases or in a larger batch of phones.

Over the past week, reports have been coming out about iPhone 8s that have split apart either on arrival or after several days of use. What appears to be happening is that the battery inside the phone is swelling, bending the front of the phone and separating it from the body of the device. So far, there haven’t been any fires — just ruined phones.

Apple has a short statement on the matter: “We are aware and looking into it.”

The first report came out of Taiwan, where a woman is said to have found her iPhone swollen apart after plugging it in to charge. Someone in Japan then posted photos of a split-apart phone on Twitter. And in the days since, there’ve been cases in China, Canada, and Greece.

There appear to be only six or so reports so far — certainly less than a dozen that have been publicly identified — so the issue seems to be quite small in comparison to the millions of phones that Apple has likely already sold. In any manufacturing run that big, there are going to be occasional issues, so on some level seeing a few broken iPhones is expected.

But after Samsung’s Note 7 fiasco, there’s reason to be concerned about what’s happening here — especially since it’s a battery issue. Batteries shouldn’t be swelling in any number, and it’s not clear what the half-dozen iPhones that are having this problem have in common. While it seems to be rare, there’s obviously good reason to want to know what’s going on.

“[Swelling is] very unusual for a brand-new battery and leads toward the direction of there’s something fundamentally wrong with this battery,” says Sam Jaffe, managing director of Cairn Energy Research Advisors, in a phone call with The Verge. Jaffe, a battery industry analyst, says manufacturers have reached a limit with lithium-ion battery capacity and could end up producing designs with a bigger risk of short circuiting in an attempt to store more power.

For now, he says, it’s too early to know what’s happening with Apple’s phones. “It could be just a random distribution,” he says. “Just a random event, and it’s only a few.”

Jaffe suspects Apple’s executives are “in crisis mode” over the potential damage that battery issues could lead to. But while we’ve seen a few swollen batteries already, he says, it doesn’t mean the problem will necessarily elevate into a Note 7-style crisis with phones starting to produce smoke.

“Swelling is always a precursor when there is a battery fire, but the percentage of actual fires are pretty rare,” Jaffe says. “In the Galaxy Note case, there were probably a couple hundred battery failures of one sort or another, but there were only a handful of fires — so that gives you a sense of the proportion of actual fires.”

How to downgrade iOS 11

If you’ve upgraded to iOS 11 and got cold feet, it’s possible to downgrade, but only if you’re quick.

There are two main ways to do it, one of which requires you to have a backup and the other which – fortunately – doesn’t. Here we’ll explain how to downgrade iOS 11.

How to downgrade iOS: Method 1 – no backup needed*

* You may lose your text messages, but all other settings and apps will remain after the downgrade

  1. Download the appropriate IPSW file for your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Make sure iTunes on your computer is the latest version. If not, download and install it.
  3. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer and then click on your device when it appears.
  4. Under the Summary section, click the Check for Updates button while holding Shift (Windows) or Option (Mac).
  5. Now navigate to and choose the IPSW file you downloaded.
  6. Your device will be ‘updated’ to iOS 10.

As we said, the process will downgrade your phone or iPad without deleting all your stuff, but you will lose any text messages. So next time you upgrade, either make a full backup or don’t upgrade!

How to downgrade iOS: Method 2 – using a backup you already have

Not unreasonably, Apple doesn’t encourage downgrading to a previous version of iOS, but it is possible.

Currently Apple’s servers are still signing iOS 10.3.3. You can’t go back any further, unfortunately, which could be an issue if your most recent backup was made while running an older version of iOS (even version 10.3.2).

Let’s be clear: you can only restore a backup which was made while your phone or tablet was running iOS 10.3.3.

Our Macworld UK colleagues have a great guide to how to back up an iPhone, here. The key thing is to make sure you always have an up-to-date full backup, which is why it’s best to do a full password-protected backup via iTunes. You can also back up to iCloud to get a second chance of recovering your contacts, photos and other things.

Step 1.

To reinstall iOS 10 you need the relevant .ipsw file for your model of iPhone or iPad. Older versions won’t work as they’re not being ‘signed’ – or approved – by Apple’s servers.

(Mac users, if the ipsw file is stored on your Mac hard drive you can find it by following the path youruserfolder/Library/iTunes/ and then within a folder called iPad Software Updates, iPhone Software Updates or iPad Software Updates.)

If you can’t find the latest one on your Mac, or your a PC user, simply run a search for ‘download ipsw’ and select and download the appropriate file for your device. There are plenty of sites to choose from, including https://ipsw.me/ which helpfully tells you which versions are currently being signed.

Step 2.

Note: If you’re reading this after the final version of iOS 11 is release to the public you will have only a short time to downgrade (in past years as little as one week after the initial release date – not the date on which you upgraded) before it becomes impossible without a jailbroken phone.

Disable the Find My iPhone/iPad feature on the device if you’ve enabled it. You’ll find it in Settings > iCloud.

Plug in to your PC or Mac your iPhone or iPad. Launch iTunes. Click on your device in the iTunes interface and select Summary. Now hold down the Alt/Option key (Shift on a PC), and click the Restore iPhone button.

Now navigate to the IPSW file on your desktop and click Open. Your PC will now reinstall iOS 10.3.3 on your iPad or iPhone. Or it should…

Go into Recovery mode

If iTunes says you’re already running the latest version of iOS on your device, you may need to use Recovery mode. Completely power off the device, plug one end of the syncing cable into your computer and hold down the Home button on the iPhone/iPad while you connect the cable to it. When the ‘Connect to iTunes’ screen appears, release the Home button.

Restore your backup

If you have managed to go back, you’ll have a near-blank iPhone with none of your stuff on it. That’s where the backup you made comes in.

In iTunes click the Restore iPhone… button and choose the appropriate backup. It may take an hour or so, but your phone will be back to the way it was when you made the backup.

If you have no backup, you’ll have to sync music, videos and other content from iTunes or iCloud. You can then go to the App Store and download anything you’ve previously purchased after logging in with your Apple ID.