How Do You Unlock Your Phone?

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The days of using a button or passcode to unlock your phone appear to be long gone. The simple “slide to unlock” feature that Apple released with the first iPhone in 2007 is already outdated. New Apple and Samsung phones are placing emphasis on new technology that allows you to use your fingerprint to securely unlock your phone. The folks at Motorola with their partners at VivaLnk agree that their unlock feature needed an overhaul, but it’s not exactly the same as what Apple and Samsung are doing.

Owners of the Moto X phone can now use temporary tattoos to unlock their phone. All you need to do is place the back of your phone over the tattoo to simply and quickly unlock your phone. Users no longer need to worry about password protecting their phone and taking the time to enter it. Is this more useful than a fingerprint scanner? Probably not, but it is a great attempt by Motorola to differentiate its offering from the competition. The tattoo is the size of a nickel, lasts for five days, and connects to your phone by using near field communication technology.

What Sparks our Fire: Seeing Motorola attempting to differentiate itself from the big guns of mobile technology.

Would you use a tattoo to unlock your phone?

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

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Samsung intended to release the Galaxy S5 on April 11th in South Korea. However, SK Telecom, the largest mobile carrier in the county, saw fit to release the handset today. And no one at Samsung seems to know why. The Associated Press reports they are “very puzzled”.

Several more Korean mobile carriers also plan on releasing the phone early, due to a 45-day ban on acquiring new users. This is a result of multiple illegal subsidies, which led the Korean Government regulator to impose the ban. “We decided to release the product for a wider consumer choice of handsets before our operation suspension begins on April 5,” according to Irene Kim, a spokeswoman for SK Telecom.

Samsung still insists the Galaxy 5 is going to be released on April 11th. We won’t tell anyone if you won’t.

What Sparks Our Fire: Very confusing Korean cell phone politics. But on the plus side we get a nice early viewing of the G5.

What do you think of this release snafu?