Biometric authentication is a key piece of the tech industry's plans to make the world passwordless. But a new method for duping Microsoft's Windows Hello facial recognition system shows that a little hardware fiddling can trick the system into unlocking when it shouldn't. Services like Apple's FaceID have made facial recognition authentication more commonplace in recent years, with Windows Hello driving adoption even farther. Apple only lets you use FaceID with the cameras embedded in recent iPhones and iPads, and it's still not supported on Macs at all. But because Windows hardware is so diverse, Hello facial recognition works with an array of third-party webcams.

From the iPhone to the Mac, iPad, iPod and the Apple Watch, Apple excels, and continues to do so, in hardware innovation and software development. However, not much is known about Apple's plan with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it's used in Apple products, or apps in general. In its recent WWDC performance, Apple seems to have taken a quieter, yet smarter approach by adding several features and updates with machine learning at their core. The idea behind incorporating machine learning and AI into Apple products is to build amazing experiences for its consumers so they can do what they never imagined they could. Apple engineers and researchers are collaborating to integrate software and hardware across its devices and improve user experiences while protecting their data.

In the universe of disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence is one of the deepest, most durable themes, and that status is meaningful to strategies like the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (CBOE: ARKQ). ARKQ holdings "are focused on and are expected to substantially benefit from the development of new products or services, technological improvements and advancements in scientific research related to, among other things, energy, automation and manufacturing, materials, and transportation," according to ARK Invest. What makes AI an exciting investment prospect is its intersection with other disruptive growth themes. "We believe that since AI is embedded in many products and services, the cost and latency of running compute tasks on data center servers are more relevant and could become prohibitive," states ARK research. "Jem Davies, an ARM fellow, highlighted this point by explaining how a voice-enabled coffee maker could consume up to $15 a year in cloud computing costs. For applications like self-driving in which the decision time is critical, the latency and cost associated with servers hundreds of miles away could become life-threatening."

You're wearing a mask, as encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and possibly by your local government during this coronavirus outbreak, and you want to use FaceID to open your iPhone or Android phone. Yes, says a Chinese researcher from Tencent's Xuanwu lab. But according to Apple, this is frowned upon big time and could affect the integrity of your phone. There are several hacks available online, and most will send the user to reregister for FaceID on the iPhone by covering the left and right side of their face separately. After the researcher from Tencent originally demonstrated and popularized this setup, many others copied and tweaked with videos on YouTube.

When you hear news about artificial intelligence (AI), it might be easy to assume it has nothing to do with you. You might imagine that artificial intelligence is only something the big tech giants are focused on, and that AI doesn't impact your everyday life. In reality, artificial intelligence is encountered by most people from morning until night. Here are 10 of the best examples of how AI is already used in our everyday lives. One of the first things many people do each morning is to reach for their smartphones.

Google's Nest Hub Max has caused quite a stir. Google's latest smart display brings with it a controversial new feature that's always watching. Face Match, introduced on the Google Nest Hub Max, uses the smart display's front-facing camera as a security feature and a way to participate in video calls. It also shows you your photos, texts, calendar details and so on when it recognizes your face. This mode of facial recognition sounds simple enough at first. But the way companies like Google collect, store and process face data has become a top concern for privacy-minded consumers.

LG isn't ready to show off all of the details around its next flagship phone just yet, but tonight it has revealed the technology we'll see in the G8 ThinQ's front-facing camera. By including a "Time of Flight" image sensor made by Infineon, LG claims it can deliver features like facial recognition, augmented reality and better selfies in all kinds of lighting conditions while using less power than other solutions like Apple's FaceID. While Apple's TrueDepth technology for FaceID is similar to what we saw in the Xbox 360 Kinect where it projects thousands of laser dots then measures the distortion to figure out where things are, Time of Flight is the tech Microsoft hoped it would get better results from for the Xbox One Kinect device. By capturing IR light as it reflects off of a subject, the idea is that it will give more accurate results with less computing power. There have been rumors that Apple is considering implementing it in the iPhone's rear-facing camera, however well-sourced analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shot those down, saying the device's existing dual-camera setup would suffice.

Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week's Apple Loop includes FaceID for every new iPhone in 2018, the corners being cut for a cheaper iPhone X, secrets inside the new MacBook Pro, falling iPhone sales in India, the lack of fast chargers for the iPhone, Photoshop for the iPad, and iOS 12's updated USB security. Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes). Thanks to a regulatory listing made by Apple in the Eurasian database, we now know there are three new models of iPhone on the way, with a number of'sub models' in each range. Spotted by Consomac, Apple has chosen to publicly file identifiers for all its new iPhones in the Eurasian database, and it confirms three distinct designs will be coming to market. There are three clear runs here: A19, A20 and A21.

Last year's release of the iPhone X saw Tim Cook and his team upgrade the iPhone's hardware and software platform with FaceID. Supply chain sources are backing up information that suggests Apple will increase the availability of FaceID and upgrade the entire 2018 portfolio of devices. That's a decision that could have a massive impact when comparing the iPhone to the Android-powered competition. One of the key differentiators in Apple's implementation of facial recognition when compared to systems found on Android devices (such as Face Unlock on the OnePlus 6) is that iOS uses additional sensors alongside the forward facing camera, notably a a small infrared laser camera that creates a 3D depth map of the presented face. This allows for greater accuracy, and avoids the'tricked by a picture' loophole that can be exploited.

Unhappy Apple users have been sharing their woes online after discovering mysterious cracks in the camera lenses of their £999 ($999) iPhone X handsets. Customers have taken to social media and support forums claiming the breaks have appeared, despite having never dropped the gadgets. Some speculate that cold weather may be the cause for the bizarre behaviour, while others say that heat could be behind the cracks. Adding insult to injury, they say Apple refuse to cover replacement handsets under warranty, forcing those affected by the issue to pay for a brand new device. It comes just weeks after a flaw that prevents Face ID from working properly was admitted to by Apple.