MacRumors

German hackers have successfully broken the iris recognition authentication in the Samsung Galaxy S8 using equipment that costs less than the price of the smartphone, according to Ars Technica.

Hackers with the Chaos Computer Club used a digital camera, a Samsung laser printer, and a contact lens to achieve the feat. The hack involved taking a picture of the phone owner's face, printing it out on paper, carefully placing the contact lens on the iris in the printout, and holding the image in front of the locked Galaxy S8.

The video shown above was posted by the hackers to demonstrate the process in action. The photo doesn't have to be a close-up shot, although using night-shot mode or removing the infrared filter helps, according to the hackers.

The hack comes despite the fact that both Samsung and Princeton Identity, the manufacturer of the authentication technology, say iris recognition provides "airtight security" that allows consumers to "finally trust that their phones are protected". Princeton Identity have also said the Samsung partnership "brings us one step closer to making iris recognition the standard for user authentication."

The Galaxy S8 is one of the first flagship phones to offer iris recognition as a convenient alternative to using a passcode or fingerprint, but the hackers said they suspect future mobile devices that offer iris recognition may be equally easy to hack. Apple is widely expected to include the feature alongside Touch ID and face recognition in this year's much-rumored OLED iPhone, although the possible origins of the technology remain unclear.

Apple has already trademarked "Iris Engine", presumably in relation to the upcoming feature, with its acquisition of companies such as Faceshift and PrimeSense lending credence to the suggestion that Apple is developing its own solution for the so-called "iPhone 8". One report has claimed that Taiwan-based supplier Xintec, an affiliate of Apple manufacturer TSMC, is mass-producing the iris recognition chips for Apple.

Samsung reportedly added a facial recognition capability to the Galaxy S8 because of doubts about the reliability of iris scanning on its own, but the security of the facial recognition itself came into question almost immediately, when a photo of a user's face was used to unlock a handset at the S8 launch event.

Apple is planning to test next-generation 5G wireless technologies, according to an application document filed with the FCC and discovered by Business Insider.

Apple applied for an experimental license to test wireless technology on millimeter wave spectrum bands. Millimeter wave bands provide higher bandwidth and throughput up to 10Gb/s, but are limited by line of sight issues that cause problems in dense urban areas.

"Apple Inc. seeks to assess cellular link performance in direct path and multipath environments between base station transmitters and receivers using this spectrum," Apple wrote in its application.

"These assessments will provide engineering data relevant to the operation of devices on wireless carriers’ future 5G networks," it continued.

Apple will test the technology in two locations in Milpitas and Cupertino over a period of time that is not expected to exceed 12 months, using equipment sourced from Rohde and Schwarz, A.H. Systems, and Analog Devices. Apple will use the 28 and 39 GHz bands, which were among those opened up by the FCC last year for the purpose of next-generation 5G broadband.

It’s not entirely clear why Apple is planning to test millimeter wave performance or the purpose behind the testing. Cellular carriers like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are currently testing 5G networks in preparation to deploy the next-generation technology in the coming years.

Apple could perhaps be preparing its future iPhones to take advantage of 5G technology, or the company may have some other purpose in mind. As Business Insider points out, the 28GHz band in particular could be of interest as it has been earmarked for earth-to-space transmissions, an area Apple has been exploring based on recent hires with satellite expertise.

Apple last night released its latest transparency report [PDF] outlining government data requests from July 1 to December 31, 2016. According to the data, which features several new request categories, Apple is making an effort to be as clear as possible about the types of information governments around the world have asked for. Apple's report is the most detailed report the company has produced yet.

Worldwide, Apple received 30,184 device requests, covering 151,105 devices. Apple provided data for 21,737 device requests, which equates to a 72 percent response rate. In the U.S. specifically, Apple responded to 3,335 requests out of 4,268 (78 percent). According to Apple, device-based requests cover fraud investigations as well as customers who have asked law enforcement to help locate lost or stolen devices.

Apple received 2,392 financial identifier requests worldwide, covering 21,249 devices. Apple provided information for 1,821 of the requests, which are related to cases where law enforcement officials are working on behalf of customers who have asked for help with fraudulent credit card activity.

When it comes to worldwide government account requests, Apple received 2,231, rejecting 175 of those, and providing no data for 471. Non-content data was provided for 1,350 requests, and content was offered up in 410 cases. A total of 8,880 accounts were affected.

In the United States, Apple says it received between 5750 and 5999 National Security Requests under FISA and National Security Letters, which affected 4750 to 4999 accounts. Apple is not allowed to provide specific numbers, but offers up the narrowest range permissible by law.

U.S. National Security requests increased significantly in the second half of 2016 compared to the first half of the year. In its first 2016 transparency report, Apple said it received 2750 to 2999 National Security orders affecting 2000 to 2249 accounts.

According to the data, Apple also received one "declassified" National Security Letter from the FBI. National Security Letters are traditionally kept secret via a gag order that prevents companies from sharing information about them, but following the USA Freedom Act, the rules have been loosened and tech companies are now able to publish National Security Letters when declassified. Apple is able to publish the content of the letter, but has not done so.

Apple's data is broken down into multiple additional categories, covering government requests for emergencies such as missing children, account deletion/restriction requests, and account preservation requests, all of which can be viewed directly in the report. The company also provides more information on government account requests by legal process type, including search warrant, wiretap orders, subpoenas, pen register/trap and trace orders, and other types of court orders.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Denise Young Smith, who served as Apple's head of Worldwide Human Resources, has taken on a new role, according to her LinkedIn page. Going forward, Smith will tackle diversity issues at the company as Apple's Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity.

Denise Young Smith is Apple's vice president of Inclusion and Diversity at Apple. She reports to CEO Tim Cook.

Since joining Apple in 1997, Denise has served in several key HR roles. Most recently as Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources and Talent. For over 10 years, she sat on the leadership team that built Apple's retail organization, which now welcomes more than one million people every day. Apple stores have redefined the retail experience and their talented employees have become the face of Apple for customers around the world. Before retail, Denise ran HR for Apple's Worldwide Operations and Corporate Employee Relations teams.

According to an internal source that spoke to 9to5Mac, Smith has already taken on the new role at Apple, though her executive page on Apple's leadership site has yet to be updated. With Smith moving to her new role, Apple will have no head of HR, a role that Luca Maestri, Apple CFO, will temporarily fill.

Smith, who has been with Apple for more than 20 years, will report directly to Tim Cook. As HR head, Smith has already been involved in many diversity programs at Apple and her new role suggests Apple is taking diversity and inclusion more seriously.

Apple's previous head of diversity and inclusion, Jeffrey Siminoff, was in a director role that reported to Smith, but Smith's position is executive level, which TechCrunch says represents a "significant upscaling of responsibility" compared to the role Siminoff previously held.

According to Apple's latest worldwide diversity numbers, the company is 68 percent male and 32 percent female, while in the U.S., employees are 56 percent white, 19 percent Asian, 12 percent Hispanic, and nine percent black.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

As stories surrounding the 2017 launch of the "iPhone 8" continue to heat up, a report from The Bell this morning has already begun rumors for next year's so-called "iPhone 9." According to the report, which centers on Apple's and Samsung's supply chain deal for the 2018 iPhone, the iPhone 9 will launch in two OLED screen sizes: 5.28-inch and 6.46-inch (via The Investor).

Apple currently sells a 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch display in its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphone devices, respectively. Later this year, the company is expected to launch new iPhones in three sizes: two "iPhone 7s" models will keep the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch display sizes, while the major new "iPhone 8" will include a 5.8-inch OLED screen.

The report said the iPhone 9 is expected to come in two OLED models -- 5.28- and 6.46-inch display sizes. Samsung’s OLED shipment is also likely to be more than double at 180 million units.

“The two companies have recently signed a non-disclosure agreement on general conditions, including the screen size,” an industry sources was quoted as saying in the report.

The new rumor for the 2018 iPhone devices suggests a screen that would be slightly smaller than the current display of the iPhone Plus models, and then a larger option that would represent Apple's biggest smartphone display to date. Although the report doesn’t confirm the full sizes of the iPhone 9 models, the screen dimensions suggest Apple could return to a pair of device sizes similar to current generation iPhones but with full-front displays and greatly reduced bezels.

The Bell's report today doesn't mention any other rumors related to the iPhone 9, except that Samsung will be the supplier for the OLED displays and will manufacture more than 180 million units for Apple. The report did state that details such as "screen design and functions" might be adjusted down the line, considering how far away the iPhone 9 is from a launch date.

Microsoft today introduced the new Surface Pro, choosing that name over Surface Pro 5, at a media event in Shanghai, China.

Microsoft said the new Surface Pro delivers up to 13.5 hours of battery life on a single charge, a 50 percent increase over the Surface Pro 4 and 35 percent more battery life than the iPad Pro's advertised 10 hours.

The notebook-tablet hybrid features Intel's latest Kaby Lake processors, including Core m3, i5, and i7 chips depending on the model. Microsoft says the high-end Surface Pro with a Core i7 processor is 2.5× faster than the Surface Pro 3 and 1.7× faster than the iPad Pro with Apple's own A9X chip.

Surface Pro m3 and i5 models feature a new fanless cooling system, while the i7 model still has a fan with "improved hybrid cooling."

The new Surface Pro has a refined design with cleaner lines and curved edges, a "visually softer" camera, and an improved hinge with a 165º range of motion allows it to be placed in Studio Mode like its Surface Studio desktop.

It's also the lightest Surface Pro ever, starting at 1.7 lbs. By comparison, the 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro weigh 0.96 lbs and 1.57 lbs respectively.

The new Surface Pro continues to have a 12.3-inch display with 267 pixels per inch, compared to 264 PPI for both the 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Microsoft says its custom PixelSense technology means that colors on the new Surface Pro will be "more vibrant, precise, and impactful than ever before."

Other tech specs include up to a 1TB SSD, up to 16GB RAM, up to Intel Iris Plus 640 graphics, a USB 3.0 port, a microSD card reader, Mini DisplayPort, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The device runs Windows 10 Pro.

The new Surface Pro is accompanied by a new Surface Pen with over 4096 pressure points, only 21 milliseconds of latency, and new tilt functionality. Microsoft says the new Surface Pen is over two times more accurate, with four times more pressure sensitivity, than the original Surface Pen.

There's also new Signature Type Covers, now designed with Alcantara fabric for a "soft, velvety" feel. Microsoft pitches typing on the keyboards as "easier, more, comfortable, more accurate, better sounding, and easier to do without looking" than the 12-inch MacBook and iPad Pro.

The new Surface Pro and Type Covers are available to pre-order today in the United States and select other markets at the Microsoft Store, Microsoft.com, BestBuy.com, and JD.com. The new Surface Pro will ship on June 15 in 25 countries. Surface Pro pricing starts at $799.99 in the United States.

Surface Pro models with LTE Advanced will be available later this year. The new Surface Pen will be available in the coming weeks.

After posting a few images yesterday that claimed to show cases for the upcoming 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Benjamin Geskin has now shared a few CAD images, dummy models, and renderings of the 10.5-inch iPad model. The first set of computer-aided design drawings are based on the model that case manufacturers have received from the factory, which Geskin said is "already in mass production."

The new iPad images align with all of the port cutouts seen in yesterday's wooden accessory case, including a device that has four speakers, a Lightning port, camera with vertically-aligned flash, side volume rockers, and a Smart Connector.

Yesterday's case images also revealed a new microphone slot located at the top rear of the case, similar to where it's located on the current 9.7-inch iPad. The new images confirm that microphone slot on the 10.5-inch iPad, along with two additional microphones sitting atop the device in between the speaker grilles, pointing towards three microphones total for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro.

Last year it was rumored that the new iPad model with smaller bezels -- which fluctuated between 10.1-inch, 10.5-inch, and 10.9-inch display sizes -- could get four microphones.

Geskin has also shared a case manufacturer's dummy mockup of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which continues showing the same ports for volume buttons, 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker grilles, Lightning port, SIM card tray, and Smart Connector. All of the images support the rumors that the new iPad will pack in a 10.5-inch display into the same form factor and nearly identical size of the 9.7-inch iPad.

In a series of images shared with iDropNews, Geskin designed a rendering based on the recent rumors to show how the bezels on the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro might look. Since the device will keep roughly the same footprint of the 9.7-inch iPad, the rendering boasts a device with small 7mm bezels on the left and right sides of the device and around 19mm bezels on the top and bottom.

This would make the display space big enough for the new 10.5-inch screen, while allocating enough room for the traditional Home Button, which Apple isn't expected to do away with yet on the upcoming iPad Pro. The 10.5-inch device is also expected to be slightly taller than the current 9.7-inch iPad, while potentially being slightly thicker than the 9.7-inch iPad's 6.1mm thickness.

In regards to a release date, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently said that there is a greater than 70 percent chance of Apple debuting the 10.5-inch iPad at WWDC in June. Although WWDC keynotes are traditionally the home of software announcements, even updates to the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air are rumored to be coming at the event this year.

Worldwide iPhone sales were flat in the first quarter of 2017, according to Gartner, causing a year-on-year drop in Apple's share of a growing smartphone industry boosted by the rise of top Chinese mobile manufacturers breaking out into neighboring markets.

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 380 million units in the first quarter of 2017, a 9.1 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016, reported Gartner. Of that figure, Apple sold 51.9 million units, up from 51.6 million in Q1 2016, leading to a drop in market share year over year. Samsung retained top spot with 78.6 million units sold to end users, and held on to 20.7 per cent market share, but both figures were declines on a year ago.

"Sales of iPhones were flat, which led to a drop in market share year over year," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "Similar to Samsung, Apple is increasingly facing fierce competition from Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo, among others, and its performance in China is under attack."

Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo had a combined market share in the first quarter of 2017 that accounted for 24 percent, up 7 percent year on year. Huawei held third spot behind second-placed Apple, edging closer to the company with 34 million units in Q1 2017, while Oppo continued to catch up with Huawei, with a 94.7 percent increase in global sales, resulting in the best performance of the quarter and maintaining its number one position in China.

The top three Chinese smartphone manufacturers are driving sales with their competitively priced, high quality smartphones equipped with innovative features, according to Gartner, with aggressive marketing and sales promotion having further helped the brands to take share from others in markets such as India, Indonesia and Thailand. In India alone, for example, Vivo grew by 220 per cent.

In the operating system market, iOS saw continued growth, with a 0.9 percent uptick in market share year on year. But it was Android that fared best, growing its share by 2 percent, thanks to increasing acceptance of Chinese brands in global markets, led by high-quality smartphones.

Nokia and Apple announced today that they have settled all litigation related to their intellectual property dispute and agreed a multi-year patent license.

Under the collaborative agreement, Nokia said it will provide "certain network infrastructure products and services" to Apple. In turn, Apple agreed to return all health products owned by the Finnish company to Apple retail and online stores.

"This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple," said Maria Varsellona, Chief Legal Officer at Nokia, responsible for Nokia's patent licensing business. "It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers."

In December of last year, Nokia filed multiple complaints against Apple in several countries, accusing the Cupertino company of infringing several of its patents. In response, Apple sued Nokia in an antitrust lawsuit against several patent assertion entities which it claimed were trying to collect excessive fees for Nokia patents. Apple had established FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) deals with Nokia, but by transferring patents to patent holding companies, additional royalties can be demanded.

Just days after the legal dispute flared up, Apple pulled all Withings-branded, Nokia-owned accessories from its online and retail stores around the world. Nokia stood its ground, however, claiming that it had not been able to reach a licensing agreement with Apple and therefore had to defend its rights.

Following the latest development, Nokia will receive an up-front cash payment from Apple with additional revenues forthcoming. The figure remains undisclosed, but net sales in Nokia patent licensing will reflect the value of the agreement, while Nokia expects related revenues to be reflected in the second quarter of 2017. No other details of the terms of the agreement have been released.

"We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer.

Despite a shift towards smartphones with larger screens, the iPhone SE has topped all other smartphones in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Apple's four-inch smartphone received a customer satisfaction score of 87 out of 100 to finish just ahead of Samsung's 5.7-inch Galaxy S6 edge+ and the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.

20 other smartphones, mostly including other iPhone and Galaxy models, received customer satisfaction scores of between 70 and 85, according to the ACSI results published today.

“Over the past few years, the general trend for smartphones has been toward larger screens,” says ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg. “But apparently, consumers were craving a new iteration of a smaller, less expensive phone as the iPhone SE – Apple’s first update to a 4-inch phone since 2013 – comes in first in ACSI this year.”

ACSI said the results are based on interviews with 36,194 customers in the United States, chosen at random and contacted via email between May 2016 and April 2017. The survey data was inputted into ACSI's so-called "cause-and-effect econometric model," which in turn estimates customer satisfaction.

Apple introduced the iPhone SE in March 2016, acknowledging that some people simply love smaller phones, as evidenced by the 30 million 4-inch iPhones that it sold in 2015. The smartphone is essentially an iPhone 5s with newer tech specs, including a twice as fast A9 chip and a 12-megapixel rear camera.

Given its lower $399 starting price, the iPhone SE is also a popular smartphone in more price-sensitive markets such as India.

Apple has yet to release a second-generation iPhone SE, but it doubled the smartphone's previous 16GB and 64GB storage capacities to 32GB and 128GB a few months ago, without raising prices. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple is unlikely to refresh the iPhone SE in the first half of 2017.