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Apple's "iKey" Wants To Unlock All Doors
Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that Apple is developing technology, already being nicknamed the 'iKey,' which will allow users to gain access to their office and unlock their car or front door with a single electronic device like an iPhone. Users would simply have to enter a PIN and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to open it. 'The device can communicate with an external device to open a lock. By way of example, the electronic device may be a model of an iPhone,' says the newly released patent application. 'The external device may be any suitable electronic device such as a portable media player, personal data assistant or electronic lock that may be used to access a door, car, house, or other physical area.' The technology behind the invention is known as Near Field Communication; it allows electronic devices to transmit information when in proximity. 'If true, it's a very big deal. As well as opening doors and unlocking your car, it could also turn your iPhone into an electronic wallet and ID card,' says Leander Kahney, a consumer technology expert. 'The trouble is that the technology hasn't gone completely mainstream. If Apple were to adopt the technology, they would likely set the standard, and that would drive widespread adoption as everyone scrambles to make their systems iPhone-friendly.'"
The fourth generation of the iPhone is getting NFC/RFID capabilities, much like some other phones already have.
This isn't new. The only new thing they could possibly bring to the NFC table would be (gasp) actual security, given that RFID/NFC devices are notorious for being horribly insecure most of the time.
A universal key could never lead to bad things.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Is it wise to have a consumer Internet-enabled(which I presume it would be) device that can unlock physical security? "Keylogger" has a whole new meaning. :p
What happens when someone breaks the security on the device/ technology? A thief would be able to get into your house and rob everything, make an escape in your car, and then empty your bank account all for cracking just 4 numbers. I think I'll stick to the old manual lock and key thank you.
Flat battery
AT&ROFLMAO
An entire industry gears up to create technologies for short range wireless communications in order to replace keys. Several companies already have solutions in the market, but they haven't caught on yet because the technology isn't quite ready yet and not quite cheap enough.
If things continue along Apple's usual path then: (1) Apple starts patenting the obvious applications of those technologies, something other people weren't even considering because that's what those technologies were designed for, (2) Apple starts adding immature implementations of the feature to their products at a premium price that only Apple customers would be willing to pay and gets accolades for how "innovative" they are, and (3) a few years later when other people are starting to offer mass market products at mass market prices, Apple starts suing them for patent violations.
And of course, (just like the app-store) if you are wearing just a bikini, or have a 'hot babe' on your arm, the doors just won't open.
1. repulsive or distasteful.
2. excessively sweet or sentimental.
3. unsophisticated or old-fashioned.
4. sticky; viscid.
Origin:
1930–35, Americanism
(According to dictionary.com)
What's new here is that Apple is possibly thinking of making this a standard while owning critical patents on it, then after this is widespread (if it ever happens) crackdown on competition using its patents.
Apple is becoming more evil lately, see the recent attempt to shut down competition on smartphones from HTC using completely trivial software patents (the original article is from LWN, I highly suggest getting a subscription there).
Sounds familiar? Remember GIF? MP3? h.264? Yeah, I know, this last reference will get me modded as troll.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
I can currently do this with my Zipcar app http://www.zipcar.com/iphone/ . It allows you to unlock, lock and honk your cars horn. It does this using your EDGE/3G connection, so not near-field/RFID however, same kind of thing is currently being done.
You know, with Apple products experiencing something of a resurgence in the past 5-10 years and their popularity slowly increasing, they will eventually cross that invisible line where hackers decide that it becomes worth their time to attack Apple products the way they attack Windows. The fact that people are sold Apple products under the guise of security and not having to worry about compromised hardware/software means they won't see it coming and won't know how to deal with it, either.
Be careful with becoming too big, Apple Nation.
Living With a Nerd
This is a bad idea. Mainly because the iPhone doesn't have a very sophisticated security architecture, so any cryptographic keys and wallet information are fundamentally vulnerable to theft. This is best demonstrated by the recent attack where a handful of SMS messages was sufficient to give an attacker root on the device. If you're going to put something like this into widespread deployment you at very least want to include some sort of hardware security module to validate the software and store cryptographic secrets.
Right now I wouldn't want to use the iPhone (or any Android phone, for that matter) to store any kind of critical secrets.
I for one don't consider it "bad" if stupid people get punished for using "0000" as their PIN.
Hey... we are long overdue for some regular punishment of stupidity.
There are no longer wild bears roaming the streets at night, eating stupid people. Haven't been any for centuries.
Wee need something to eliminate those genes from the pool.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I often wonder why central locking hasn't caught on for houses yet. Especially if you could set it to beep at you when you've leaving but you've left a door/window open elsewhere.
Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
Considering the relative ease with which RFID has been hacked, and how long it took for Bluetooth to become only reasonably secure, and how far off good wireless security is . . .
And that's the discussion you go through before you get to "stupid people."
And let's not even have the "If software can't keep gas pedals from sticking, what will it do for door locks."
I'm an opponent of the excessive and unnecessary desire to expand technology into areas where an existing technology already does a better job.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
I'd be afraid someone would try to jailbreak my front door and end up bricking my house.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
1. You can tuck a key under the doormat if you lose the ones in your pocket. Not so electronic gadget. 2. As somebody else mentioned - flat battery? lose access to all your property. Flat battery in the lock or power cut in the house? lose access. 3. Replacing locks just got a whole lot more expensive and no doubt all lock makers would have to have some kind of license agreement with Apple. In short, LAME. This seems to be technology for technology's sake. I can see pretty much nothing but downsides to this.
I for one would think the "great steve" would actually innovate and implement iris scan into the device ;)
Isn't apple supposed to be the leader of innovation?..
Never mind that their department breaks down to something like 60% marketing, 30% design and 10% engineers (yes, I'm being generous)
I'm an opponent of the excessive and unnecessary desire to expand technology into areas where an existing technology already does a better job.
EVERYTHING is better with the "latest thing" tacked on! How do you not understand!?
Have you ever tasted ice-cream witn an iPhone or some other smart-phone? Way better than eating it with a spoon.
Even plain vanilla tastes like... so much better.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This concept including the name iKey and iLock and a description of this product were described a year and a half before Apple applied for the patent.
http://www.jenom.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&cid=17
"iKey and iLock, for lack of a more creative product name
Give me a tiny device the size of a flash drive that I can encode with some unique ID like a segment of my DNA. When I get within 2 feet of my office, my car, my house, or whatever locked item it is, it reads the code from the device in my pocket and unlocks the electronic lock. No more carrying 200 keys around like some medieval jailer. 2007 is half over and we're still securing our possessions with medieval technology.
"Apple credits Michael Rosenblatt, Gloria Lin, Sean Mayo and Taido Nakajima as the inventors of patent application 20100042954, originally filed in Q3 2008."
Apple lies.
Hope is the currency of fools
this is an RFID chip then. With the added inconvenience of having to also enter a PIN number anyway.
Of course if all they have is your key ring, they have to figure out where the things the keys go to are. If they steal your Iphone, much of that information is in there.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
"The remote-access computer transponder called the "joymaker" is your most valuable single possession in your new life. If you can imagine a combination of telephone, credit card, alarm clock, pocket bar, reference library, and full-time secretary, you will have sketched some of the functions provided by your joymaker. " From The Age of the Pussyfoot, published in 1966 by Frederic Pohl. (I read this as a scholastic bookclub selection if fifth grade, It's been obvious for a few years now that the iPhone is well on it's way to becoming a "joymaker", this patent brings it even closer.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
So instead of punching my PIN number directly into the lock on my car or house, which have had PIN based locks available for decades, I instead pull out my phone, load my iKey app, and punch my PIN in there? Is this really easier or more secure?
Basic house door lock and key from Home Depot - ~$20
Extra key cutting - ~$2
Watching your neighbour spending hundreds or more than a thousand to outfit their home with an iLock and having their iPhone run out of juice or fumbling and dropping/breaking it before they could unlock the front door.... Priceless.
What happens when Apple decides that I should be locked out of my car because I drove past the local porn shop and they consider that a TOS violation? And how do I know they arn't going to purposely brick my key if I make after-market changes to my car?
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
A time-variant RFID key would be significantly more secure.
I can see the next gone in 60 seconds. How they stick a second android phone in her purse (or something close to the Iphone) perp walks up to the persons car, house, etc. It sends the query over the celluar network from the first phone, to the second phone, to their Iphone, then sends the response back for yours to retransmit. Although to be movie worthy I guess it will need to be a stripper getting close...
They will ban you from their approved users list, leaving you with an email message on your iPhone standing right before a closed door :-D
Nice, you've discovered the best way to make a link unclickable in Slashdot. I can't even highlight and select "Go To URL", because it's already a link (to your comment, which doesn't have any content).
http://www.digikey.com/
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
my brother was able to use an app from my Palm Pilot using IR to unlock his Ford Taurus' doors back in 1998. Way to keep up with the times, Apple.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.