Is this the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner?
What looks like the iPhone 5S home button and fingerprint scanner have leaked, courtesy of an Australian teenager.
There have been a number of leaks concerning the iPhone 5S (and 5C), but we're yet to have a good look at the fingerprint scanner. Well here are what purport to be the first decent shots of it, as featured on Apple's next handset.
The pics come from an Australian teenager named Sonny Dickson, who has well-placed sources in China who buy Apple prototype parts from factory-line workers. So let's not take them as gospel just yet.
That round part is the Home button, and as you can see, it looks a little different to that seen on the current iPhone. This is most probably due to the new fingerprint scanning skills, Dickson reckons. "While the design differences have yet to be technically assessed, they could have a whole lot to do with the rumoured biometric scanner that numerous pundits and analysts have predicted," he wrote on his site. "In fact, we'd count on it."
He claims the parts are genuine. "I've been doing this for many years, so I know what looks fake and what's not," he told Reuters. "I trust what they [his sources] say to me -- but I also back up the story with other people to make sure what I'm posting is legit."
Dickson has leaked numerous details on upcoming Apple products before, including pictures of the iPhone 5S in its champagne gold and gunmetal grey colours. According to a recent interview in Fortune, Dickson pays about $250 for a leaked part, such as the plastic case for an iPhone 5C.
"Some people think I may be breaking the law, but they don't really know what I do," he told Fortune. "I'm not breaking any laws that other people don't do."
Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5S and 5C at an event on Tuesday. We'll bring you all the news as it happens, so keep it CNET UK.
What would you like to see from the next Apple handset? Is a built-in fingerprint scanner a good idea? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.