The new iPhone is said to come with fingerprint scanner

Aug 7, 2013 14:26 GMT  ·  By

Apple this year is reportedly on track to launch a biometric iPhone 5S boasting a fingerprint scanner right underneath its physical Home button.

The rumors abound regarding this potential new feature of the 2013 iPhone, and even code inside Apple’s iOS 7 betas points to the existence of the hardware. Well, that’s partially incorrect.

I should have used the past tense, as iOS 7 Beta 5 no longer includes references to the biometric technology. Well, not at first glance anyway.

According to people who’ve sifted through the software, the more direct references to fingerprint scanning have been removed in the new iOS 7 Beta 5 SDK, “but smaller hints still remain in the system.”

Apple’s move certainly isn’t surprising. If anything, it adds even more weight to the rumors. Why would the company remove these code strings all of a sudden?