My 8 yo 13” Apple MacBook Air was pretty long in the tooth, so I bought a new 13” MacBook Air a couple of days ago. Faster, more storage, and a better screen and touchpad. Lighter, and longer battery duration too.

But its neatest feature is a small key that logs me in with a brief touch of any finger that it’s been trained to recognize. Any finger orientation works, and it can be trained to recognize multiple fingers. Great feature! I can still log in with my password, if I choose.

I’m a technical guy, with an engineering education, but I have no idea what kind of sensor is in that little key. How in the world can it detect the fine details of a fingerprint so quickly? Yep, I’m curious, and impressed.

I only wish the rest of the keys were as good as the old ones. I've been pretty disappointed in the new keyboards. But I agree, touch ID is excellent, and I actually use the touch bar for brightness and volume control quite often. They may have improved the keyboards on the VERY newest ones due to the outcry.

I can’t solve the mystery either but I like the feature. Most of the time my Apple Watch unlocks my MacBook Pro.......and the keyboard sucks.

[/QUOTE] Originally posted by r0gue:
I only wish the rest of the keys were as good as the old ones. I've been pretty disappointed in the new keyboards. But I agree, touch ID is excellent, and I actually use the touch bar for brightness and volume control quite often. They may have improved the keyboards on the VERY newest ones due to the outcry.[/QUOTE]

There's a class action suit against Apple for those keyboards. If you sign up you you may get $10.92, while the Lawyers get millions!

My first MAC a MAC book pro. I agree the keyboard is a sad joke. I use a wireless keyboard, or I spend time deleting multiple "i's" and "O's".

The fingerprint access IS cool though. I like that a lot.

Is there truly a suit?

My Apple Watch logs me in to my MacBook...

Ain’t got time to touch the FP sensor...

I had an old Toshiba Laptop in 2006 that had a fingerprint sensor. Sure My MacBook Pro's sensor is quicker and more sensitive but hardly new technology after all these years. The whole trackpad should act like a fingerprint sensor or the camera should do facial recognition like my phone (Only better I would hope, as I miss my home button). That's my gripe with Apple, they don't innovate enough the last several years IMO.

Also the current keyboards really are crap, I've used canned air to free up stuck keys at least 6 times in the year I've owned it and it's not like I use the thing as a placemat. It takes very little to jam up a key.

BUT, I have a Dell XPS that I use solely for work and I miss the integration provided by the Mac OS platform when I'm using that one while traveling. Reminds me why I stick with Apple. Phone to iPad to Mac to watch, they all communicate well with each other and seamlessly.

Don’t all Apple phones have the same capability.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Don’t all Apple phones have the same capability.

Certainly not my iPhone X, which uses facial recognition.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
My Apple Watch logs me in to my MacBook...

Ain’t got time to touch the FP sensor...

. Lol. On days I’m not wearing my Apple Watch, it actually kinda feels like a pain in the butt. I look at my computer like, um, hello! HELLOOOOOOO! Then I realize I’m wearing a different watch and make the grueling stretch up to the finger print reader.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Don’t all Apple phones have the same capability.

The iPhone 7 I used to have did.

It uses a mini scanner to scan your finger print.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Don’t all Apple phones have the same capability.

The iPhone 7 I used to have did.

It uses a mini scanner to scan your finger print.

My new iPhone just looks at me and logs me in. Simple for me, simple for the feds.

Fingerprint recognition on my iphones has never been very reliable. I guess I have bad fingers.

My first finger print log in device was on my IBM (maybe Lenovo?) T-40 laptop. Many moons ago. When I was doing a contract gig with the Missile Defense Agency I was issued the same lap top. That feature was disabled. Too easy to hack. I have no idea how it works but fingerprints aren't all that intricate yet they are unique.

 
Both my Mac desktop and MBP are set for automatic login. Nothing easier. The desktop is obviously used only at home, where it's just me and the wife. The MBP rarely travels any further than the front porch. If I were to take it on a trip, I would change the login back to name and password.