Apple may go beyond PIN codes to allow users to lock and unlock their iDevices. The company’s U.S. Patent No. 8,528,072 for a “Method, apparatus and system for access mode control of a device” describes a system that creates user access modes guarded by predetermined gesture inputs. In other words, we could see gesture-based unlocking in future versions of iOS.
Something like this could be useful for managing multiple accounts on one device. iPad users in particular would love this capability as it’s usually the case that a single iPad is used by a whole family. And by linking gestures to multiple user accounts, every individual user would have its very own iPad experience along with his/her email, contacts, bookmarks, calendar and apps.
Of course, a patent doesn’t guarantee Apple will indeed do something on this front. We can only hope that some future update to the platform will ship with this feature included, finally allowing families to have one device for all their needs…
[Via: TUAW, AppleInsider]