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Future iPhones could ditch Touch ID for facial recognition, feature OLED screens

Today there’s even more evidence that Apple is working on a facial recognition system for unlocking an iPhone. This patent illustrates a system that allows the camera on a smartphone to operate in a low-power state and constantly scan for the phone’s user. This comes on the heels of Monday’s news that Apple is having problems integrating Touch ID into a full coverage front display and may ditch the fingerprint reader altogether. In other iPhone news, Apple is going to use OLED screens in all iPhones released starting later next year.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Apple will be sourcing most of these displays from Samsung, which has been including OLED displays in its high end smartphones since 2010.

Tesla’s claim that the Model S is the quote “Safest car in history” may be a bit of an exaggeration. Up until now the electric sedan had sailed through all safety and crash tests with high scores. But the latest round of tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety didn’t turn out so well for the Model S. In this frontal overlap crash test the Tesla only received an “acceptable” rating because the crash test dummies heads were hitting the steering wheel, even through the airbag. 3 other cars in the test, the Lincoln Continental, Toyota Avalon, and Mercedes-Benz E class, all scored higher than the Model S.
While the IIHS tests are the most stringent in use today, this blemish on an otherwise perfect safety record is a tough one for Tesla to take.

On this day last year, Pokemon Go launched on the app store and became the fastest growing app of all time. While it seemed to many like just another summer fad, Pokemon Go currently has 65 million active monthly users. It’s also been downloaded three quarters of a billion times and brought in over a billion dollars in revenue. Recent updates have improved the multiplayer experience and brought back some users who quit the game as the new game shine wore off.

What’s surprising is other game developers haven’t tried to mimic the success of Pokemon Go and launch copycat augmented reality games.

We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans)  on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.

Greg Nibler
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Greg has worked as a Host, Producer, and Writer in radio and television since the early 2000s, working for such companies as…
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