Tuesday 9 April 2013
Now it looks like Apple is working on some interesting fingerprint sensor-related hardware off the coast of Florida.
A recent job listing posted on Apple’s website seeks a software engineer to work at the Melbourne Design Center. Melbourne, Florida also happens to be the home of AuthenTec, a company Apple recently bought for $356 million that specializes in fingerprint sensors. This job listing is the only one currently available for Apple’s Melbourne division. Among other skills, ”the individual must be capable of writing low-level code to configure and control hardware,” according to Apple.
Several analysts have predicted that the iPhone 5S will have a fingerprint sensor below the Home button. One would theoretically be able to unlock the iPhone without entering a passcode and possibly use fingerprint verification to process mobile payments.
Apple hasn’t owned AuthenTec for very long, so it’s hard to believe that this kind of hardware would be coming this year—but hey, who knows. Rumors are pointing to a late summer iPhone 5S announcement. And what’s to keep fingerprint sensors from coming to the Mac?
