Touch ID Will Reportedly Be Embedded In The Power Button Of The 2016 MacBook Pro

Apple is widely expected to announce a new MacBook Pro range this year, with a new previously reliable source giving some additional insight into the potential hardware features of the revamped MacBook Pro.

We’ve already heard rumors suggesting that a new MacBook Pro range would include Touch ID and a touch-sensitive OLED bar that would essentially be introduced as a replacement for the existing function quick access keys.

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Those rumors don’t show any sign of disappearing any time soon, and according to 9to5Mac, they have now been joined by the suggestion that the Touch ID tech would be embedded into the machine’s power button, which would presumably only allow the laptop to be powered on or awoken from slumber with the use of a finger that has had its print registered and stored within macOS.

Resources recently spotted within macOS Sierra have already pointed to the existence of Touch ID in one form or another. That spot had suggested that Apple would be looking down the line at integration some kind of biometric fingerprint detection in its Mac hardware.

If this source turns out to be accurate, then it looks as though that integration could be brought to the power button of a future MacBook lineup, which, in all honesty, makes perfect sense from a usability perspective. A user generally interacts with that power button to gain access to the computer, so it would seem to be a perfectly valid and understandable integration.

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In addition to potentially shipping with the aforementioned OLED touch panel and the new Touch ID-powered power button, Apple’s new MacBooks are expected to include a USB-C port(s) with support for Thunderbolt 3. It also looks as though the existing MagSafe integration will disappear as Apple adopts the USB Type-C standard. Previous reports have suggested that the company could be looking to introduce the new MacBook range during the fourth quarter of 2016. It should be a great end to the year from an Apple hardware perspective.

[Top image via: MacBook Pro 2016 concept by Martin Hajek]

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