9. Tomorrow Never Dies: Q gets your prints
Image: TMDBThe same film deserves a second entry for another feature of Bond's remarkably overqualified phone: a fingerprint scanner.
In 1997, it belonged among the handset's specialist espionage tools. Years later, fingerprint recognition became a familiar way to access an ordinary smartphone. Apple's iPhone 5s, introduced in 2013, provided a prominent example with Touch ID.
The purposes differ. Bond's scanner serves his investigative and covert work; consumer versions usually verify the phone owner's identity. But the hardware combination—a mobile phone that can read a fingerprint—made the journey from spy gadget to everyday object. Of all Q's inventions, this is one you may already have carried in your pocket. The film's phone · The iPhone 5s announcement
