The iPhone has a dedicated fanbase, and with ?good reason. Though the company has a tendency to price their devices really high, it prides itself on expert engineering. However, their ethics are now being called into question thanks to a major feud.
Forbes?recently put a variety of smartphones to the test, to see if their facial recognition systems could ?be fooled by a 3D modelled and printed head. The writer's head was captured using a dome-like studio with 50 cameras. The images were compiled into one shot to model the head, which was then printed.
After a few days of printing for a little over Rs 27,000, the author tested it out against various Androids and an iPhone with face unlock. Unfortunately for Google, the results weren't great for them.
Four of the latest Androids were tested; LG G7 ThinQ, Samsung S9, Samsung Note 8 and OnePlus 6. Every single one of them was unlocked by the fake head. Apple's iPhone X however remained secured, as did another MIcrosoft device with Windows Hello.
Image courtesy: Forbes
Of course, the iPhone X has been fooled by other methods in the past, but it's clearly at least a cut above Android. Point to Apple.
Unfortunately, for all its security, it seems like Apple might be doing that more for its own reputation rather than its customers. The company was recently blocked from selling devices in China, when Qualcomm received an injunction from a local court. The chip company claims Apple is violating their patent with regards to image resizing and application management.
It's all part of a longstanding feud between the two companies. However, Apple claims it's not infringing the patent in its latest update. As such, it told Reuters it will be pushing iOS updates in the next few days in order to resolve the issue.
Again, the update is expected to change how iPhones resize images and manage applications. Apple hasn't specified how that will be, and all we know is that it can't be the way it is now thanks to the patent complaint. The company only says the changes will be "minor." However, it doesn't sound like that does it.
There's no way you can avoid the update either, if you want to update to iOS 12 or get further updates in future. And if this update ends up making things worse, well it just means Apple is willing to throw its users under the bus in order to win over courts. We've already seen their unwillingness to compromise. That's why the iPhone won't be getting 5G till at least 2020, despite Qualcomm already having a module.
Thankfully for you iPhone users here, Apple isn't going to push that update worldwide when the injunction is limited to China. Unfortunately, it does mean you could still be affected by future patent complaints from Qualcomm, who are determined to stick it to Apple on the global market.
So while your iPhone may one day not work the way you're used to, at least it'll still keep your data safer than competitors.