Okay, the iPhone X is a seriously expensive device. And for all its good looks and hardware, you can be sure that some of that price hike over last year is thanks to the big new features; FaceID and augmented reality.
Unfortunately, neither of those key features are completely there just yet.
FaceID’s face-mapping technology replaces the iPhone’s old TouchID fingerprint scanner. Where TouchID had a false acceptance rate (someone else being able to unlock your phone instead of you) of one in 50,000, FaceID has a one in a million chance. But there’s one situation where someone can consistently unlock your iPhone instead of you, and that’s with twins.
It’s something Apple warned of when it announced the technology, saying someone with very similar DNA to you would be able to cheat the device. Of course, there aren’t enough twins in the world to justify Apple attempting to develop a workaround for that, so instead we’re left with a funny quirk in the system to occasionally mess around with.
Sure, at least the technology is advanced enough to not be fooled by a photograph or video of the owner held up in front of the camera. However, it’s interesting to remember that Microsoft says its own Windows Hello facial recognition wasn’t fooled by even similar real faces. Maybe FaceID will eventually progress to the point where even nosy twins can’t sneak into their sibling’s device. But until then, we’re thinking they’ll probably use passcodes instead.