back to article Apple workforce touch up iPhones with Force Touch tech – report

Apple has reportedly started using its so-called Force Touch technology in new models of its iPhone handsets, which have apparently now hit the production line. According to Bloomberg, Cupertino's upcoming iPhones will be kitted out with touch-sensing haptic displays that push back on your fingertips if the pressure is too …

  1. Gary F

    Air touch is cooler

    Samsung introduced Air Touch in the S4 which meant you can get extra functionality out of the device without even having to touch the screen. This was impressive and useful but the fools removed it from the S6.

    I don't want to have to touch a screen any harder than I do (Apple), it's nice just to wave your finger around a few cm above the screen to reveal tooltips and longer email and calendar previews. Will Samsung revive Air Touch in response to Apple's "touch me harder" feature? Does anyone else get finger fatigue from using touch devices for a few hours every day for the last several years?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Air touch is cooler

      WIMP GUIs have long had [MouseOver] and [MouseClick] events. Capacitive 'multitouch' UIs haven't had this distinction (nor have they had the accuracy of a mouse ponter, but they in part make up for these disadvantages by employing multitouch 'gestures' for scrolling and zooming etc).

      The Samsung function you mention - not unique to Samsung, some vendors call it 'Glove Mode - can't really be used to act as [MouseOver] because it requires the user to keep their thumb a few mm over the screen but without touching it, because that would be [MouseClick] according to your proposed grammar.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Uh oh - Microsoft ahead..

    If there is one thing that Apple should avoid, it's making a UI more complex just because they can. That's not innovation or progress, that's death to the one thing they most certainly have over Microsoft: simplicity.

    Anything that isn't as intuitive as the original interface they came up detracts instead.

    1. ratfox

      Re: Uh oh - Microsoft ahead..

      Indeed. No matter how simple the current UI is, I have already had senior citizens complaining that their iPad was to complicated. For sure, people who had an iPhone from the beginning can cope; but it's a dangerous slope to assume that everybody understand the current UI, and so it's fine to make it more complicated.

      Not that Apple would be the only ones to fall in that way of thinking…

      1. Shell

        Re: Uh oh - Microsoft ahead..

        @ratfox I'd suggest that's more of an issue for App developers than Apple. I'm happy for Apple to add these new UI capabilities if they make for a better experience in those Apps, but it doesn't mean all Apps have to use it. There's clearly a market for more accessible Apps, but that doesn't mean the hardware should stand still too.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        iPad too complicated for seniors

        Adding this doesn't matter for that crowd because making something they already think is too complicated more complicated is a non-issue. What matters is if people who today don't think the iPad is too hard to use find this feature puts it into that category.

        Apple already has a ton of accessibility features so I'm sure there will be a force touch stand-in that can be set, like a 3 second normal press equals a force touch press. That will take care of people with arthritis or carpal tunnel who find it painful to press hard enough to activate the feature.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like