The nine-dot pattern lock option is one of those uniquely Android things -- it's been there ever since the G1, and even if you don't personally use it, odds are good that you recognize it. So when we see it on an iPhone -- apparently on an app used by Apple internally -- you can appreciate why we're going to do a double take. What you're looking at here is one of several screens obtained by 9 to 5 Mac, allegedly showing a version of Apple's employee-only AppleConnect app with support for pattern locking to keep prying eyes out. It seems that the app enforces some minimum gesture length to constitute a secure lock -- and considering some of the forensic science going on there, we bet it's gotta be pretty long. Of course, none of these means we'll see the feature show up in an actual iOS build, but the site says that the company's testing the mechanism in other internal tools... and if nothing else, Apple seems to be acknowledging that lock patterns aren't a terrible idea.
[Thanks, Jacob]
