back to article 'iPhone 6S' to push fanbois around with 'Force Touch display'

The latest crop of iPhones will reportedly come equipped with touch-sensing haptic displays that push back on your fingertips. A report from 9to5Mac cites sources familiar with the matter saying that the force-sensing technology featured in the screen of the Apple Watch or the trackpad of the MacBook Pro. will be crammed into …

  1. Haku

    An article about a rumour of an Apple product feature. Hmm, slow news day?

    As for "push back",isn't that just a fancy vibrate motion like when you type on a smartphone and the internal vibrator motor makes the device shake a little?

    I do wish more tablet makers put the little vibrator motor in theirs, it almost makes typing on a touchscreen keyboard bearable. I also wish said tablet makers put a big fat white LED next to the camera too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: An article about a rumour of an Apple product feature. Hmm, slow news day?

      Haptic feedback isn't simply vibrating the whole device, it is selectively vibrating small areas of the screen (i.e. under the finger you force touched with, rather than other fingers that may also be touching the screen)

      Apple filed patents a few years back showing this being done in a way that allows replicating the feel of various textures and raised/lowered surfaces under your fingers, so you feel like there's a button you actually depressed even though the screen does not physically change shape. Not saying they'll go that far as it may be too expensive or difficult to manufacture by the hundreds of millions, but given how Apple is always pushing to make the display thinner and thinner, a necessary precondition from their patents, who knows. They file a lot of patents they aren't able to follow through with, hopefully this will be one that makes it into products because it sounds like it could be useful if done right.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    The iPhone 6 Plus already has force touch.

    Following a 'weird old tip' I read on the Internet, I found the force touch command needed to get my iPhone 6 Plus to assume a curved ergonomic shape. Unfortunately I can't seem to master the necessary force touch commend to make it go straight again. Hopefully this will be resolved in iOS 9.

  3. Shane Sturrock

    Idiot Tax?

    So, I work as a sysadmin and have for a long time. Most of the people I know who also work in this field choose iPhones. We're not idiots, we buy them because they work well and they have a good life expectancy. My previous iPhone lasted about twice as long as the typical Android user is getting from theirs (four years versus two) and it still has some resale value as well since it is still in pristine condition and still works well.

    I know people like to rag on Apple for their expensive and shiny gear but seriously, many professionals choose their stuff because it is well made and lasts. It may cost more initially but it is worth it for a quality device. Getting the same quality from an Android phone puts you in the same ballpark cash wise anyway.

    There are people who must upgrade their stuff every year to stay on top but I see a lot of older iPhones still in use in the hands of professionals because they're still very good phones and the signs pointing to iOS9 supporting the A5 processor as seen the 4S indicates that there's still plenty of life in these old handsets.

    1. Nextweek

      Re: Idiot Tax?

      I think you are right, in the past you could get the same PC equivalent as a Mac for half the price, but these days the 'Idiot Tax' joke doesn't fit any more. Competition has created devices that cost about the same for the same build quality.

      Try looking up an equivalent laptop to a MacBook Pro from Dell and you'll see the price is practically the same.

      Its a bit like the BSOD joke for windows, back in 2000 it was a running joke, these days if you get a BSOD 99% of the time its an actual hardware problem that needs fixing.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Idiot Tax?

        Relax about the idiot tax thing, it's just banter.

        Do you care that other people feel a need to poke fun at your purchase choice?

        Really, if you think deeply about it, it's actually an unintended compliment.

        Think Aesop's fox here.

      2. dogged

        Re: Idiot Tax?

        > I think you are right, in the past you could get the same PC equivalent as a Mac for half the price, but these days the 'Idiot Tax' joke doesn't fit any more.

        I disagree This thing rubs the Macbook Air's face in the dirt and is literally half the price.

        iMacs are also stupidly expensive.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Idiot Tax?

          @dogged - really? How well does the Zenbook run OSX then?

          1. dogged

            Re: Idiot Tax?

            It can be hackintoshed if that's your preference.

            It will also run non-proprietary BSDs that don't phone home to Cupertino.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Idiot Tax?

              @dogged - personally I'd rather be an "idiot" and pay to have OSX running properly out of the box.

              (And also retain the ability to multi-boot any other OS I wish)

              1. dogged

                Re: Idiot Tax?

                well, you should have said you were a fanboi. That changes someone's priorities, much like being a Scientologist.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Idiot Tax?

                  @dogged Ah yes, being an idiot I forgot I was reading The Reg where favouring OSX makes you a fanboi!

                  So let me guess, you're the type favouring choice above everything else - as long as that choice isn't Apple, right?

                  1. dogged

                    Re: Idiot Tax?

                    If your priority is OSX, it makes sense to buy a Mac but let's not pretend you can't get something equally capable (in terms of functionality and even design) for a lot less money.

                    You might like OSX but it's only an operating system. There's nothing special about it. It can't do anything no other OS can do.

  4. Dave 126 Silver badge

    The Holy Grail...

    ...would be a touch screen that can assume the feel of any raised surface, such as a BlackBerry keyboard or even just an old Nokia keypad. I've never used a Blackberry, but there are some operations that are just quicker on an old Nokia (remember, all the menu and sub-menu options could be accessed by number) than on a touch-screen device.

    It goes without saying that the benefit to blind users could be huge; a screen that can morph to convey Braille.

    That said, sometimes the best solution takes work on the part of the user - a MicroWriter-style chorded keyboard is a more natural fit for a phone-sized device than a QWERTY, yet it is not commercially available. Similarly, I wonder of coded vibrations can convey words to blind users as quickly as raised dots. Any ideas?

    1. Steve Knox

      Re: The Holy Grail...

      That said, sometimes the best solution takes work on the part of the user - a MicroWriter-style chorded keyboard is a more natural fit for a phone-sized device than a QWERTY, yet it is not commercially available.

      Not the same shape, but...

      http://gkos.com/gkos/index-gkos-com.html

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Need a plumber?

    Drip drip drip drip...

    It's that time of year again, new iPhone on the way so the Cupertino leak machine starts up again.

    Surely those fanbois must be wise to it by now and not a little cynical?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This will end in tears..

    .. force feedback on a phone that bends.

    (mine doesn't, I tend to use cases for my phones)

  7. werdsmith Silver badge

    A user could, for example, tap lightly to perform one command, and tap and hold with more force to perform another gesture

    Or:

    A user could, for example, tap lightly to perform one command, and tap and hold with a longer press to perform another gesture.

    Imagine that!

  8. Nameless Faceless Computer User

    but...

    can I make phone calls with it?

  9. IR

    Pushes back?

    Glad to see that they will no longer violate Newton's third law of motion.

  10. Yugguy

    THE MACC LADS!!!!

    Slap that and ride the ripples.

    Sir, you are a man of taste.

  11. CAPS LOCK

    How disappointning...

    ... I was hoping for something constructed from mimetic polyalloy.

  12. The last doughnut

    I heard a rumour that Apple are going to skip the 6s and 7 and go straight for the iPhone 8. They plan to release about a dozen different versions that are all fundamentally incompatible with each other. Then withdraw support for all but a few within 18 months. Now that's what I call customer service!

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