iKey Concept Revealed by New Apple iPhone Patent [Apple iPhone to Control All Aspects of Our Lives Including Doors and Wallets; Google Might Not Approve]

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Last time I checked, and I do that every once in a while, it was Google that wanted to control lots of aspects of our lives. Maybe control is not the appropriate word for now but the Mountain View based company does everything nowadays for us. Besides Internet-based apps, Google is toying with TV search ideas or launching handsets of its own and it’s even getting involved into the energy market.

But it’s Apple’s latest patent that will challenge Google, and not only, once again. It looks like Apple wants to turn our future smartphone into a device that would pretty much help us manage and/or control our life. The patent, and we all know how it works with patents, reveals a new concept called the iKey.

Thanks to the iKey, users will be able to use the phone to open house front doors, car doors, office doors or other locked places and even secure their digital wallets as all transactions could be done by simply using the iPhone.

The patent relies on a new technology called Near Field Communication which allows devices close to one another to transmit data between them. A pin number will secure the locks and, in theory, only the owner of the house, car and/or digital wallet will gain access to it. Everything will be safely encrypted or at least so does the patent say. But could we really trust the iKey-enabled iPhone to perform that good at all times?

Can we trust the battery of the iPhone to last longer than it currently does in order not to fail when we want to enter a certain door or pay for stuff straight from our phone?

Are we really ready to let hackers play with lost or stolen iPhones that contain all our private locking and unlocking data and codes? Because even if car manufacturers are already considering replacing regular keys with devices that would be able to communicate to the car when placed in its vicinity, thieves are also going to get better at stealing them.

For now it’s only a patent that we’re talking about here but I’d still feel strange about trusting any iKey device with all my precious information. Remember Terminator anyone? When machines take over strange things will happen!