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The Nexus 6 may have been destined to tout a fingerprint scanner, the Android source code has revealed.
ArsTechnica dig some digging through the Android Open Source Project code for the Nexus 6, and discovered a commit removing fingerprint support for the device.
It’s even tagged up as ‘Shamu: Remove fingerprint support’ – ‘Shamu’ being the codename given to the Nexus 6 during production.
There are also lines in the code that point to Validity Sensors Inc., a fingerprint company acquired by Synaptics that supplies fingerprint sensors to smartphone OEMs.
Buried inside Lollipop code were other such references, including fingerprint-swiping error codes, a commit to hide the fingerprint API until ready, and a comment revealing the sensor would be open to multiple apps.
It’s the latest in online chatter that suggests the Nexus 6 didn’t exactly go to plan. Earlier this month we heard that the Nexus 6 might not have even been intended to be built by Motorola in the first place.
Instead, the Nexus 6 was supposed to be built by LG, but the handset created was then repurposed for the purportedly scrapped Android Silver program, leaving Motorola’s mysterious ‘Moto S’ device to fill in the gap.
Whether the news of a dropped fingerprint sensor has any relation to this rumour is interesting, because it’s entirely possible the unseen LG handset may have touted the tech.
This theory is lent further credence by the fact that early rumours about the Nexus 6 Shamu mentioned the inclusion of a fingerprint sensor.
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