iPhone 5 to feature added fingerprint security?

The Apple announcement event is almost here and the world is looking to really make these rumors count. The latest might be something of a winner for the security nut at heart. Fingerprint technology? Passwords and pins be damned! This latest speculation found itself in the lime light after apple spent a good $365 million for a small company that produces this exact sort of thing.

The board of AuthenTec is expected to agree to a $365m (£228m) acquisition by Apple – one of the largest sums paid in a takeover by the California technology giant – when it votes on 4 October.

The company specializes in mobile phone security and is developing 2D fingerprint sensors for Apple, according to the merger documents. The two companies have been talking since late last year and there have been suggestions the hi-tech sensors could appear as an eye catching feature of the iPhone 5 when it is unwrapped on Wednesday.

“Will we see fingerprint technology in the new iPhone (or iPad)? It seems almost certain,” wrote Matt Brian of technology blog My Next Web. “Details are scarce but [Apple’s] desire to use the technology and see it developed quickly leads us to speculate that we could see it in just a matter of weeks.”

If fingerprint scanning is not among this year’s new features, it looks likely to appear in the next handset update.

AuthenTec signed a development contract with Apple in July which runs until September 2013, just in time for next year’s iPhone launch.

The scanning could be used to unlock company handsets which carry sensitive information, or to authenticate payments. Apple is introducing a service called Passbook this autumn when it releases its iOS 6 phone software.

Truth or not, we’ll have to wait a few more days to see what apple really had up their sleeves. More on the article at the guardian.