To Spoof A Capacitance Scanner

Say goodbye to "slide to unlock." At today's press conference, Apple introduced the new iPhone 5S with a biometric lock it claims will revolutionize mobile security. Here's how it works, and what it means for you. There are two major technological schools when it comes to fingerprint authentication—electro-optical and capacitance. They're called "trade secrets" for a reason. The new iPhone 5S uses the more sensitive capacitance method.

Instead of bouncing light off the print to generate a binary representation, this method relies on an array of minuscule capaciative cells, each less than a finger ridge wide. These cells consist of two conductor plates separated by an insulating layer. Put your finger on the capaciative scanner and the ridges will cause some plates to come into contact, thereby closing a circuit and generating current, while the cells under the ridges on your fingers remain separate.

The system then interprets the voltages generated by each cell to determine which one is under a ridge and which is under a valley. By combining this data the scanner can generate an overall image of the print, much as an EO scanner would, but with a much higher degree of fidelity.

Another advantage is that capacitance scanners require an actual fingerprint shape to work, not just a light-dark pattern, which makes them harder to spoof. Not only does that improve your video quality, it eliminates the chances of a thief guessing your code by the greasy blotches or watching you input it before taking the device.

To spoof a capacitance scanner, the thief would have to also get a print sample from you, jury-rig a fake fingerprint on a mold-able but non-deforming medium, and scan that instead. And since most stolen iPhones are destined for distant lands than decryption stations, it's easier to just steal that iPhone 4 from the guy next to you. Don't feel bad, the march of technology always treads upon the shoulders of late adopters.

There’s been a few hints that Apple may switch to their own data at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet. Being dependent on a competitor interested in keeping your device inferior isn’t a good position to be in, even if the reasoning has nothing to do with competition. Update: The next version of iOS 6 will switch the data source to Apple’s. The iPhone will still download map data, but instead of downloading just a picture it will now download richer data that will allow it to display rotated maps more cleanly.

And Apple is bringing turn-by-turn directions to the iPhone 4S. The iPhone will not get offline navigational data, however. The iPhone’s GPS us very good. Without extra software, however, iPhone navigation is entirely dependent on the Internet. But you can see maps as long as the iPhone can reach the cloud.

You can download software so you can see maps while away from the cloud. And any photo you take, even while away from the cloud, will still be tagged with the location of the iPhone. The iPhone makes its connection to the cloud a strength, whereas standalone GPS units have made the lack of a radio their strength. It’s a complicated tradeoff. Saying the iPhone does not have “real” GPS or that AGPS is not “real”, though, is inaccurate.

The 12W model delivers - when using both USB ports at the same time 2.4A on one of them and 1.0A at the other one. You can choose from the standard black and white and in addition order even a pink coloured version. These model spare you the LED and received a very good rating from a lot of reviewers on amazon.

The 20W model „improved“ by adding the so much by consumers hated LED. I am really wondering why they do this. This model is also ridiculous huge. Make sure you have enough space in the closer neighbourhood of your cigarette lighter! But there are also real advantages over the other model: a higher delivery on Ampere and an overcharging protection. Interestingly PowerGen points out, that only the first port is designed for Apple products.