Glossary

Apple's facial recognition system, introduced on the 2017 iPhone X. It projects approximately 30,000 invisible infrared dots onto the user's face and reads their deformation to reconstruct a 3D face mesh, against which it authenticates. Apple's stated false-accept rate is roughly one in a million (Touch ID's was one in fifty thousand).

See also: Touch ID

Apple's magnet-based connection standard. Originally the name (2006–2019) of a MacBook power connector designed to detach safely when pulled. Apple reused the name with iPhone 12 in 2020 for a new wireless-charging-and-accessory-attachment standard: magnets embedded in the phone's back snap onto cases, card holders, and chargers.

A technology that detects and treats multiple simultaneous points of contact on a screen as input. Researched by Bill Buxton and others in the 1980s, it was not adopted at mass-consumer scale until the iPhone in 2007. It enables pinch, zoom, rotation, and other gestures performed with multiple fingers.

Organic Light-Emitting Diode—a display technology in which organic compounds emit light directly when current is applied. Unlike LCD, OLED needs no backlight and can switch individual pixels on or off, yielding true blacks, effectively infinite contrast, and thinner or curved form factors. Adopted early in smartphones by Samsung; Apple introduced OLED on the iPhone X in 2017.

See also: Retina Display

Apple's marketing term for high-resolution displays whose pixels are claimed to be indistinguishable to the human retina at typical viewing distance. Introduced on the 2010 iPhone 4 (326 ppi) and later extended to the iPad, MacBook, and Mac mini lines.

See also: OLED (Organic LED)

Apple's fingerprint authentication system. Introduced on the iPhone 5s in 2013, it embedded a capacitive fingerprint sensor in the home button, replacing passcodes for unlock and authorising App Store and Apple Pay transactions with a single touch. Replaced on the iPhone X and later flagships by Face ID, but still in use on current iPads and other Apple devices.

See also: Face ID

A reversible USB connector standard published by the USB Implementers Forum in 2014. A single cable carries up to 100 W of power, up to 40 Gbps of data (USB4 / Thunderbolt), and video output via DisplayPort or HDMI Alternate Modes. Through the 2020s it became the de facto universal connector across smartphones, PCs, and accessories.