It's easily one of the biggest new innovations on the iPhone 5S: the Touch ID sensor that allows users to authenticate with a simple fingerprint scan. But much like other innovations, it doesn't always work quite the way it was intended, and sometimes doesn't work at all. The big problem for the Touch ID sensor, however, is that some fingers simply won't work with the new scanner, and that's posing a problem for some potentially interested buyers.
One of the biggest problems is that, according to an Apple spokesperson talking to The Wall Street Journal about the results of company testing, the scanner simply doesn't respond to some fingers, like those that happen to be sweaty at the time of the scan. What's more, should the fingertips be coated in lotions or other liquids, there may be problems with the scan, and for those with scarred fingertips, there could also be some problems. However, the spokesperson in question noted that, for scarred fingertips, using a different finger can solve many of these problems.
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The technology behind the Touch ID scanner, for its faults, is offering up something new for smartphone users: a thin, capacitive system that can scan even when the finger—or thumb—in question isn't specifically oriented to the scanner. It can learn multiple fingers, and is a significant step up from the laptop versions that often require multiple swipes to be accepted. It's also representing something of a sea change in terms of security and online identity as a whole; using something like a thumbprint as the access point for e-mail or online banking or the like represents a kind of security that would be rather difficult to break.
Perhaps the biggest help to the fingerprint scanner is that the output of that scan will be stored locally, according to reports, and encrypted. With no backup to iCloud or the like, the chances of hackers getting access to that data and using it to reverse-engineer a fingerprint should be extraordinarily high, much more so than the process of breaking a password or a security question or the like.
There's always a shakedown period when it comes to new innovations. Innovations seldom spring forth, fully-formed and ready to go, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus in the classic mythology. There are usually some bumps along the way, commonly addressed with patches and the like to make a good system better and a better system the best it can be. This is still a pretty big leap forward for the iPhone 5S, and will likely be imitated by many more types of hardware—and probably even some software—before too much longer has passed.
So, while the Touch ID sensor may have a few issues to work out, these will likely be addressed quickly, and a good system will only get better.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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