iOS Touch ID may be able to unlock Macs in OS X 10.12


Juli Clover for MacRumors:

There has been speculation Apple might introduce dedicated Touch ID fingerprint scanning hardware for the Mac, but as it turns out, Apple is working on a simpler way to allow a Touch ID to unlock a Mac, and it's a feature that could be included in OS X 10.12.

Apple engineers are designing an auto unlock function that would allow an iPhone to unlock a Mac when in close proximity, alleviating the need to enter a password on a password-protected Mac.

Both the benefits and method seems kind of an obvious feature. Touch ID allows for greater security by making it easier to not only have a password on your device, but a more secure password that instantly locks. That also translates to the desktop, even though keyboard entry makes complex passwords easier than on a more limited touch screen.

This seems a natural feature by the way iOS and OS X have been integrating with features such as Handoff. It seems a logical next step that if two devices are trusted via iCloud credentials one could unlock the other.

The alliterative is dedicated fingerprint readers on Macs. Offering it as an external keyboard and built-in laptops would be pretty slick. Perhaps that's coming too, although will be a much slower roll out.