iOS 14.5: Apple Just Revealed Brilliant New Face ID Feature

[Dave]

There are lots of cool updates in this dev beta but one really jumps out: if you have an Apple Watch, you’ll be able to use Face ID to unlock your iPhone near-instantly, even if your face is covered by a mask.

Timely may have been an understatement.

Last year, Apple changed the way Face ID worked, updating it so that it recognizes if you’re wearing a mask way faster than before and presenting the keypad so you can enter your passcode.

However, this update changes things in a whole new way and is called iPhone unlock with Apple Watch.

The way it works is this: as you glance at your iPhone, it will unlock exactly as you would expect and about as quickly, even though you’re wearing a mask.

It does this because your Apple Watch, which for this to work must be on your wrist and authenticated (that is, it can’t be locked), is in close proximity to the iPhone.

The iPhone recognizes you’re wearing a mask and the two devices confer. When the Watch confirms it’s you, the iPhone unlocks, and the Watch gives you a little burst of haptic feedback to tell you the phone is unlocked.

Alongside the haptic feedback there’s a notification which includes the option to lock the iPhone.

Full details at https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidp...face-id-feature-security-unlock-with-mask-on/

 

[Dave]

@Spizz

likely of interest to you.

 

[Spizz]

Wow. That sounds pretty amazing.

 

[Dave]

Wow. That sounds pretty amazing.

The update to 14.5 is a 4.6GB download

 

[Dave]

Download complete, now we wait for “Preparing update” to move along a bit quicker.

 

[Johnatan56]

There are lots of cool updates in this dev beta but one really jumps out: if you have an Apple Watch, you’ll be able to use Face ID to unlock your iPhone near-instantly, even if your face is covered by a mask.

Timely may have been an understatement.

Last year, Apple changed the way Face ID worked, updating it so that it recognizes if you’re wearing a mask way faster than before and presenting the keypad so you can enter your passcode.

However, this update changes things in a whole new way and is called iPhone unlock with Apple Watch.

The way it works is this: as you glance at your iPhone, it will unlock exactly as you would expect and about as quickly, even though you’re wearing a mask.

It does this because your Apple Watch, which for this to work must be on your wrist and authenticated (that is, it can’t be locked), is in close proximity to the iPhone.

The iPhone recognizes you’re wearing a mask and the two devices confer. When the Watch confirms it’s you, the iPhone unlocks, and the Watch gives you a little burst of haptic feedback to tell you the phone is unlocked.

Alongside the haptic feedback there’s a notification which includes the option to lock the iPhone.

Full details at https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidp...face-id-feature-security-unlock-with-mask-on/

Bit strange they didn't already have it, thought they already have it as it works for the Macbook.

 

[Rudolph Hart]

I understand the extra convenience, but I’d hardly describe that as “brilliant”. Although if you didn’t throw down the extra R10k on the watch it’s completely meaningless.

 

[Dave]

I understand the extra convenience, but I’d hardly describe that as “brilliant”. Although if you didn’t throw down the extra R10k on the watch it’s completely meaningless.

I'm pretty sure you can buy an Apple Watch cheaper than that, @biometrics or @Spizz mentioned R3k-ish (?) iirc.

 

[biometrics]

I'm pretty sure you can buy an Apple Watch cheaper than that, @biometrics or @Spizz mentioned R3k-ish (?) iirc.

Paid R5,500 for a 42mm Watch 3 Cellular. The Cellular and GPS models were being sold at the same price.

Currently at istore.co.za the cheapest is a 38mm Watch 3 GPS for R3,999.

 

[biometrics]

If the Watch 7 does blood pressure I'd be tempted to upgrade, but all the features since the 3 is nice but not required. For me though I wanted cellular so I can cycle without a phone.

 

[Dave]

I’m quite happy with the S5, the only difference to the S6 is blood o2, and you can do that with a cheap gadget more accurately from what I have read.

The always on display is a nice change from the S4 though.

 

[Rudolph Hart]

I'm pretty sure you can buy an Apple Watch cheaper than that, @biometrics or @Spizz mentioned R3k-ish (?) iirc.

Sorry. I just googled it and saw a price of over R9 000 for a watch 6. I didn’t realise that you could still buy older ones. Either way, I don’t own one.

 

[Dave]

Sorry. I just googled it and saw a price of over R9 000 for a watch 6. I didn’t realise that you could still buy older ones. Either way, I don’t own one.

I bought a stainless steel S5 GPS+Cellular last month, in GBP it was £319, so around R6,500. Plenty of decent deals around it seems.

 

[Johnatan56]

I’m quite happy with the S5, the only difference to the S6 is blood o2, and you can do that with a cheap gadget more accurately from what I have read.

The always on display is a nice change from the S4 though.

Yep, same with measuring blood pressure, stick with a device that is actually made for it. O2 measurement at fingertip, blood pressure via bp monitor for <R500.

 

[biometrics]

Yep, same with measuring blood pressure, stick with a device that is actually made for it. O2 measurement at fingertip, blood pressure via bp monitor for <R500.

Blood pressure monitor is a mission though. Need to fit the cuff around your upper arm. The thing blows up to the point of hurting you. You then need to repeat it three times to get an average. Due to the effort I hardly ever do it unless I go see the doctor and want to be prepared. A continuous monitor would work much better for me.

 

[dabean]

Blood pressure monitor is a mission though. Need to fit the cuff around your upper arm. The thing blows up to the point of hurting you. You then need to repeat it three times to get an average. Due to the effort I hardly ever do it unless I go see the doctor and want to be prepared. A continuous monitor would work much better for me.

The wrist based ones are similar and less accurate (last time I looked).

No idea how they could measure pressure without adding resistance.

 

[biometrics]

The wrist based ones are similar and less accurate (last time I looked).

No idea how they could measure pressure without adding resistance.

No idea. I just mentioned earlier if they can do that in the Watch 7 then I'd upgrade. The features since the 3 doesn't sway me to spend extra.

 

[Johnatan56]

No idea. I just mentioned earlier if they can do that in the Watch 7 then I'd upgrade. The features since the 3 doesn't sway me to spend extra.

Blood pressure you need to align with your brachial artery, if not done correctly it's not very accurate/misleading, now think of how accurate the watch one is going to be with people having thinner/thicker wrists, different position on the arm where you wear it, tightness, etc.

Measuring blood pressure with a watch is going to be very iffy in accuracy, similar to O2 measurement, probably worse.

They work on pulse time, here's a paper on it, do note that cuff-less can be accurate to a degree depending on placement etc.

Objectives: Handheld medical devices and smartwatches that measure BP without a cuff have recently become available. Since these measurements are relatively more user-friendly than conventional cuff-based measurements they may aid in more frequent BP monitoring. We investigated the accuracy and precision of two popular cuff-less devices: the Everlast smartwatch and the BodiMetrics Performance Monitor. Methods: We enrolled 127 patients from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Preadmission Testing Center. Research staff were trained to measure BP according to manufacturer guidelines for the investigational devices. The Everlast smartwatch provides measurements of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) BP, whereas the Bodimetrics only provides SBP. Reference BP measurements were obtained using a hospital-grade automated sphygmomanometer. After 5 minutes of quiet sitting, four standard and three investigational BP measurements were taken with sixty seconds in between each measurement. The reference BP value was calculated by determining the average of the 2 standard BP measurements that bounded the investigational measurements. We thus determined 3 comparison pairs for each investigational device in each subject. We calculated the mean (SD) of the absolute difference between the respective investigational devices and the reference for SBP and DBP. Results: Data from 42 individuals was excluded because of variation in standard BP measurements per prespecified rules. Of 85 participants used for analysis, 36 (42%) were women, the mean (SD) age was 53 (21) years, 32 (38%) self-reported hypertension, and 97% of these (n=31) reported taking antihypertensive medications. The average differences between the Everlast watch and reference were 16.9 (13.5) mm Hg for SBP and 8.3 (6.1) mm Hg for DBP. The average difference between the Bodimetrics performance monitor and the reference was 5.3 (4.7) mm Hg for SBP. Conclusions: The Everlast smartwatch and the BodiMetrics Performance Monitor we tested are not accurate enough to be used as BP measurement devices.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335242331_The_accuracy_of_blood_pressure_measurement_by_a_smartwatch_and_a_portable_health_device

So you can get ballpark, but not really there yet.

Apple is definitely not going to roll it out before the feature is properly ready, would be bad on them and there are definitely enough people that would get it based on that (I know I would as chronic high blood pressure runs in the family).

(And again, not saying it is not possible, saying it isn't feasible currently, we might see it in the next 5 years).