Filed under: Hardware, Mods, Apple, Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro with biometrics
The first thing I do whenever I get new Apple gear is think to myself, 'How can I void the warranty?' Usually I just dunk the machine in a vat of butter milk, but edahc is a little more creative than I am (and handier with a dremmel it would seem). He installed a fingerprint scanner in his new MacBook Pro, and documented the whole process in case you're as paranoid and handy as he is.Let us know if you try this yourself.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthew Arevalo said 6:24PM on 7-05-2006
Pretty cool mod :)
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Greg said 7:03PM on 7-05-2006
You don't have to be paranoid to want something like that. I find it strange that Apple, one of the greatest innovators, has not done any fingerprint/biometrics product yet.
I personally hate passwords, not only because they're insecure but also because they're annoying and inconvenient.
I have many private documents and sometimes my visitors/guests use my computer - they could even accidentaly open unwanted stuff.
And then you also have the issue with losing your laptop (or it getting stolen). I do NOT feel safe with only password protection.
(The day all computers will have a fingerprint scanner we will face a bigger problem: passwords won't be "phished" anymore. Fingers will be chopped.)
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Anonymous Coward said 7:38PM on 7-05-2006
Well, I don't really like biometrics all that much. Sure, they are fast, but they put 3rd party muck into the auth system (which has potential for disaster), and a good password (mine tend to be excessive because I can memorize long strings of random stuff easily) seems like a far better encryption key than a fingerprint (can you even hash a fingerprint and use it as a key?). Even if you could encrypt via fingerprint (I dunno if you can or can't), it would be much harder to keep secret than a good password. Someone could pick it up off virtually any surface you touched! While a password, if you know how keep it secret, can be kept secret.
And for the extremely paranoid, if you have a really good password that you change often, you can always plausibly deny that you remember it incase your encrypted data gets in the wrong hands...
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Nebster said 9:57PM on 7-05-2006
What about those of us that for one reason or another either don't have fingerprints, have frequently unreadable fingerprints, or changing fingerprints?
Thats the main reason i've never wanted that type of security system.
PS. Yes i have fingerprints, they just change.
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Anonymous Coward said 10:13PM on 7-05-2006
O_o that's quite awesome!
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Aaron Yates said 12:32AM on 7-06-2006
Fingerprint scanners are practically useless. Oils, pressure, position, etc. are all variables which make the process inaccurate in terms of a reusable median. As a matter of fact there was a study less than a year ago that showed that playdoh can trick a large portion of such scanners.
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Callum said 7:23AM on 7-06-2006
that's the ugliest thing i've ever seen on a mac (including windows XP).
what's so bad with a usb fingerprint scanner... what's so bad with a password :
and 2. - sometimes i have visitors/guests using in my house from day to day, there I have private documents too... so accessable, just an open drawer away. :D
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Kristen said 11:54AM on 7-06-2006
Biometrics and fingerprints are not the same. Biometrics take measurements of your bone structure. They use this at Disney World now to make sure only one person is using your ticket.
My mom's fingerprints are almost unreadable thanks to many years of scrubbing up as a nurse. When she applied to the Air Force, she had to go through a whole proceedure of getting things signed and whatnot because her fingerprints weren't all that useful.
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Jase said 6:29AM on 7-07-2006
to hell with finger print scanners, what about a better isight camera to do retina scanning!
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