Last week a series of images released by iPhoneros appeared to show an iPhone prototype with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner embedded in the back, but even though the site claimed its Chinese source “has never sent us false information,” well-sourced leaker Benjamin Geskin tweeted out a photo of both the front and back of the device in question and said it’s a clear fake. Geskin has since claimed that “some case manufacturers received the final information about the iPhone 8 and began mass production,” which, if correct, would mean that the prototyping stage is over and the company has moved into a new phase for production. Geskin has heard rumors that the iPhone 8’s backing will be a “special and unique alloy of glass and metal,” but provided no photos of how that would look.
Meanwhile in Reddit’s corner of the web, a purported ‘Foxconn insider’ answered questions on a range of Apple hardware in the pipeline, confirming that his team has seen “test units with fingerprint scanners mounted below the glass but performance and yield rates were not good,” leading them to believe Apple will stick with under-the-glass Touch ID fingerprint scanners on the front despite the complications. The source also confirmed facial recognition/retina scanner technology will be included in the front-facing camera modules of the new device, but threw some cold water on other devices users were hoping to see in the near future. The source said there a 65 percent chance that Apple’s augmented reality glasses project will be canceled despite the potential that “if it can be done properly it will be like what the iPhone 10 years ago.” The glasses are said to include several interesting features, including microphones for noise cancellation, light sensors, an accelerometer for step tracking and head movement app navigation, a magnetometer for navigation, a ceramic battery and an Apple chipset to run the whole package. He also claimed Apple’s rumored Siri home hub speaker will likely be delayed until later this year and that we’ll see a new Macbook in 2018 that features fully re-programmable keys to adapt to any language or special keyboard shortcut, with each key using the same E Ink to change its labeling at any time.