Slashdot Mirror
LG Announces G8 ThinQ Smartphone That Uses 'Advanced Palm Vein Authentication' Tech To Unlock (techcrunch.com)
LG's flagship G8 smartphone has been officially launched today, bringing many expected features that were teased over the past few months and several not-so-expected features. One such unusual feature in the G8 is its palm vein recognition, dubbed Hand ID, which LG claims is the first to offer this capability. TechCrunch reports: From the company's press materials, "LG's Hand ID identifies owners by recognizing the shape, thickness and other individual characteristics of the veins in the palms of their hands." It turns out, like faces and fingerprints, everyone's got a unique set of hand veins, so once registered, you can just however your hot blue blood tubes over the handset to quickly unlock in a few seconds. The Z camera also does depth-sensing face unlock that's a lot harder to spoof than the kind found on other Android handsets. LG's also put the tech to use for a set of Air Motion gestures, which allow for hands-free interaction with various apps like the camera (selfies) and music (volume control). Other features of the G8 include a 6.1-inch QHD+ "Crystal Sound OLED" display that uses the screen as an audio amplifier. There's a Snapdragon 855 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage, three cameras on the rear including a 16-megapixel Super Wide (F1.9), 12-megapixel Standard (F1.5), and 12-megapixel Telephoto (F2.4), a 3,500mAh battery that charges via USB-C, a headphone jack, and 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC.
I believe you meant screen as audio transducer... At least it keeps the headphone jack!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I look forward to lifeline analytics, so that the phone can send out texts if it thinks you are in peril that day.
I wonder how unique palm prints are, never have seen studies on that...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I truly wish some OS would emerge that I could PAY FOR that would leave my privacy intact.
In what way does an iPhone not meet that criteria.
You can turn off location and know an app is not getting your location (from cell tower or otherwise, it can still do some determination based on IP address of the phone, but you can use a VPN to work around that).
You certainly will never be asked if you like a location looking it up in Apple Maps...
And of course since Apple makes money from the phones and not you, Apple is not getting any data you do not want them to have.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
BioMetrics is not a valid identity or security mechanism and will never be. Machines are not perfect, neither are you, and you could lose access to your devices if your bio-metrics change. Health problems, scraps, cuts, bruises, or even worse a lopped off limb could get you locked out of you device. Not only that but the technology to scan and learn you bio-metrics is the same technology to be used to store that data and use it in a replay. As seen in other cheap tricks like unlocking them with pictures. Yes, they will try to secure that further but at the end of the day, every part of your body can be replicated with impressive detail if someone wants to bad enough and the more and more this technology matures the more and more people will understand the feeling to being betrayed by their own security implementations.
I am sorry dave... but I can't let you ... o wait... Hello Master Key what do you want me to do?
Well it's good then the topic is privacy and not security... perhaps you should try at least a little to keep up with the discussion at hand before posting?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
BioMetrics is not a valid identity or security mechanism and will never be.
Literally hundreds of millions of people already use it every day.
you could lose access to your devices if your bio-metrics change.
All mobile devices that support biometrics allow for PIN entry if the biometric will not work.
even worse a lopped off limb could get you locked out of you device.
If you lopped off all my limbs I could still use my nose to enter a PIN.
Not only that but the technology to scan and learn you bio-metrics is the same technology to be used to store that data and use it in a replay.
You know nothing Jon Snow.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
the developed world is officially fiddling while Earth burns. Really, why do we need all this new gee-whiz shit, other than to one-up each other while we anesthetize ourselves against the failure of the old gee-whiz shit to give our lives meaning and purpose?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Did you know that when you set up a new Android phone, you can use your dick on the fingerprint reader and then you'll have to whip out your dick every time you want to use your phone?
Don't ask me how I know that, but let me just say that HR was not amused.
You are welcome on my lawn.
That might not be how veins work. Or masturbation.
Would you be willing to take a moment and explain, for the purpose of education and curiosity, how your species does it?
That does not make the tech valid.
Since it works, it does indeed make it valid. Perhaps you mean some other word.
even though a little thought tells you that it's a bad idea.
With even more thought you realize it's a very good idea indeed that most people have protection at all, which they generally did not before biometrics made it somewhat tolerable to have a passcode on your phone.
it just means lots of people are being stupid.
No, just a handful of biometric deniers...
Interesting variation on a rubber hose attack.
99.9999999999999% of people will have no security if it takes any work at all to bypass.
Even fewer have anything of true value stored on mobile devices that it really matters in the long run.
Your sense of what works and what is even needing protection is utterly whack.
I'll let you have the last word, because JFC.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not locking your phone is good and all until you have some drinks with some friends that decide to prank on you, using your phone to post bullshit on social media, or reading your conversations, or whatever.
Where as before, all I had to do was worry about the NSA chopping off a single finger. Now, I have to fear my entire hand being severed in order to unlock my phone and read all my secrets (which are already known by Facebook).
***
All that said, I absolutely love my LG V20. Best cell phone I have ever owned: USB Type-C, Removable Battery, Slick thin metal case, microSD card, and the least problems of ANY smartphone I've owned (much less problems than either my iPhone or Samsung Galaxy's).
I got used to see the Chaos Computer Club breaking biometric authentication; I wonder if they will break that one as well.
I am wandering... Do people buy LG Phones?