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Coming soon: laptops with fingerprint sensors built into the touchpad
At some point -- probably when the iPhone 5s came out -- fingerprint sensors became cool. Yes, they've been used on business laptops for years, but it's only recently that we've started to see them in stuff consumers would buy -- things like smartphones and tablets. Now, it seems, we're coming full circle. Synaptics, the leading maker of laptop trackpads, just announced something called the SecurePad, a touchpad with a fingerprint sensor built into the upper-left corner. Unlike existing fingerprint scanners for laptops, which require users to swipe their fingers over the sensor, this one uses capacitive touch, similar to the fingerprint modules used in devices like the iPad mini 3 and Galaxy S5. The result should hopefully be a more reliable experience than you would have gotten on older-gen laptops, but as we've seen with newer products, even touch-based fingerprint scanners can be a mixed bag.
