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Cellphones Displays Input Devices Iphone Apple Hardware

iPhone 6S New Feature: Force Touch 191

New submitter WarJolt writes: Apple is adding Force Touch to their iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. I'm not sure if Force Touch enough to convince an Android user like myself to switch, but there are definitely some interesting possibilities for app developers. A challenge for App developers will be to make apps compatible with both Force Touch iPhones and non-force touch iPhones. (Here's the Bloomberg report Forbes draws from.)
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iPhone 6S New Feature: Force Touch

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  • Doesn't Apple even check for trademarks? "Force Touch" has, for decades, belonged to Bill Cosby.
  • What is it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday June 27, 2015 @10:05PM (#50004719)

    Hey janitors that run this site, don't link to Wikipedia or anything to tell us what "force touch" is.

    • by gnupun ( 752725 )

      When a user touches the screen, the x, y touch position is passed to the app. With force touch, the amount of pressure the finger exerts on the screen is also passed to the app allowing for all kinds of interesting behavior.

      • My watch has force touch, and I'm not a big fan. You have to push a little too much to make me comfortable, it's not a natural motion. It's also just a binary thing, you either tap or force touch. There's no gradient of pressure. We'll see what the implementation is on the watch

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          My watch has force touch, and I'm not a big fan. You have to push a little too much to make me comfortable, it's not a natural motion. It's also just a binary thing, you either tap or force touch. There's no gradient of pressure. We'll see what the implementation is on the watch

          You can really think of it as the touch equivalent of "right click". Something that touch screens do poorly is how to emulate a right-click or contextual action. Many do it as a touch-hold (press your finger to the screen for a secon

      • Like the Nintendo DS / DSi / 3DS? Or the other decades-old touch screen devices I already own?
        Why is this news? The resistive touch screen has been around for ages, and it's still superior to capacitive trash.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Hey janitors that run this site, don't link to Wikipedia or anything to tell us what "force touch" is.

      "Force Touch" is a slightly less invasive, but more perverse, adaptation of the Sith skill "Force Push".

      • "Force Touch" is a slightly less invasive, but more perverse, adaptation of the Sith skill "Force Push".

        Coming soon to a TSA checkpoint near you.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Wow the first in a series of Jedi powers! I want Force Push or Force Speed next!

  • Smash touch!

  • by mentil ( 1748130 ) on Saturday June 27, 2015 @11:05PM (#50004897)

    A key part of the usability of these glass-covered capacitive-touch devices is that you can very lightly touch the surface and it'll react. Once you get the idea into people's minds that if something isn't working, you should try pressing harder (Force Touching) then frustrated people will think "I'm not pressing hard enough" and press harder and harder until they crack their screen. I've seen people with styluses repeatedly stabbing touchscreens like a psycho killer, because the device wasn't responding the way they wanted (usually because they were missing the button).

    • Are you sure you can break the screen by just applying more force with a single finger?

    • I've seen people with styluses repeatedly stabbing touchscreens like a psycho killer, because the device wasn't responding the way they wanted (usually because they were missing the button).

      No, it's for one reason and one reason only, and that's a lack of feedback. Any control that doesn't respond instantly is a total fucking failure and the programmer should be taken out back and slapped with a wet trout. You shouldn't even draw controls until you're ready to respond to them. Wait, I lied, there's two reasons. You can't tell when a PDA or phone is grinding. That's a total idiot fail, because it leaves the user scratching their head wondering when their device will respond. Remember watching t

  • "This is a strength tester app. When I say 'go!', tap the screen as hard as you can!"

  • ... Is your app Jedi compatible?!?
  • Bloomberg printing an unsourced rumor does not magically turn it into news. Forbes citing Bloomberg printing an unsourced rumor also does not magically make it news.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • There are some features that could tempt someone to switch. Apple's fingerprint scanner wasn't the first, but it was the first one that was (almost) seamlessly integrated into the phone's usage pattern. Plenty of Android users told me they'd love to have that on their phones. But the thing is: they didn't have to switch, they only had to wait a while; today there are a few Android phones with non-sucky fingerprint scanners, and as far as I know the OS now supports it as well. If Apple turns force touch
  • Force Touch could yield to interesting app behaviour.
    But I am more interested ln the expected camera improvements. Apple bought a company specialising in a new kind of multi sensor camera thet promises much improved picture quality, more so in low light and it could be used for 3d pictures.
    i have the 6 plus which is already capable of surprisingly acceptable pictures, and if the low light quality still improves then the phone could convince me to leave my bigger gear more often at home.
    • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      I'm surprised nobody is making sensors more sensitive in the UV and IR ranges, and false-coloring them into the spectrum, IR red-brown, and UV with blue-brown. The low-light results would be better, and allow for more photographic tricks.

      For that matter, make sensors that work to visible+100% on each side, and compress the entire visual spectrum to that 3x visual, so things would be a false-color outside human range. Use it as a type of tri-corder.
  • Now your iPhone can scream "Ouch!" when you hit it with a hammer out of frustration. :P

  • by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Sunday June 28, 2015 @02:24AM (#50005285) Homepage

    I assume Android users prefer Android because of the things it has, not those it lacks. How would something that is not on Android convince them to switch? I have several iPhones (up to the iPhone 6 plus) due to my job, but I have never actually used them as phones, they sit on my desk due to their limited OS. Thinking about it, the thing that annoys me most when I use them is probably the lack of a "back" button that works outside just the App level. The fact that I can't connect mass storage devices to them, or at least connect them as a mass storage device is also a serious drawback considering what I usually want to do with a phone. I am not in love with Android. In fact, my first Android phone was the first phone I ever had that I considered a regression from my previous (an N9), mainly due to the OS having a much worse UI than the swipe UI of Maemo/Meego (and of course other drawbacks - I only switched because Meego was abandoned and it lacked some essential apps). So for me it does not seem hard to make something more usable than Android, others have already done it. But force touch is not what is missing.

    • I use Android because because an iPhone 6+ costs $750, and the same-size Oneplus One costs $250.

      Also: the persistent back button... seems like Apple has kludged quite a bit to not just put a second button on their device.

      Oh, and the Shortyz crossword app.

  • ... it would be more useful if it could detect "Bad Touch" vs. "Good Touch".
    As far as "Force Touch" goes, remember: No means No.

  • I thought Force Touch was when you were made to close ads before using the app.
  • by Megol ( 3135005 )

    You have finally realized that your touchscreen controller actually provides a pressure strength and are able to hype it up like it's revolutionary.

    Not even if we realize the limitations of pressure sensing of a standard capacitive controller and add additional sensors to make the detection less granular is this something new. I don't know how long Synaptics (touchpad manufacturer) have had their capacitive+force sensor combination available but it is at least two years, but even ignoring that the idea and

    • by jo_ham ( 604554 ) <joham999@gmail.cTIGERom minus cat> on Sunday June 28, 2015 @05:56AM (#50005613)

      You have finally realized that your touchscreen controller actually provides a pressure strength and are able to hype it up like it's revolutionary.

      Not even if we realize the limitations of pressure sensing of a standard capacitive controller and add additional sensors to make the detection less granular is this something new. I don't know how long Synaptics (touchpad manufacturer) have had their capacitive+force sensor combination available but it is at least two years, but even ignoring that the idea and implementation isn't anything new.

      Bah.

      Err, no.

      Apple's implementation of force touch on the Macbook Pro trackpad (where it is current used, not counting this rumour that it will be on the iPhone) uses a set of strain gauges to measure the applied pressure. It doesn't use the touchscreen controller.

      You might want to actually look up how it works before trying to score a "sick burn" (is that what the kids call it these days?) from your armchair quarterback position.

      I also don't see where Apple are hyping it up to make it seem like a revolution. They are advertising that the MBPr and MB have it, but I fail to see how their advertising materials claim it's revolutionary. Unless you think the term "whole new way to experience a trackpad" means that, and not "this trackpad works differently than the old ones due to the numerous new ways you can use it due to the force sensors"

      Apple is frequently guilty of hyperbole when it comes to advertising, but on the force touch it's pretty understated. Did you just assume they would claim it was a revolution that had never been seen before? Given that you don't understand how Apple's implementation works I have to assume you've done zero research on it. Google (a popular search engine) can tell you quite a lot about it if you're interested.

    • by Bogtha ( 906264 )

      You have finally realized that your touchscreen controller actually provides a pressure strength and are able to hype it up like it's revolutionary.

      Right now, Apple haven't said a word on the matter, let alone "hyped it up like it's revolutionary". There is zero confirmation from Apple, this is just a blog article based on a rumour.

  • Great - no need to worry, any more, about butt-dialing your phone. Now, with butt-apping (TM-pending), who knows what we'll be able to achieve, or order!
  • I'm not sure if Force Touch enough to convince an Android user like myself to switch, but there are definitely some interesting possibilities for app developers.

    Why would it make you want to switch? Android apps [google.com] have been doing it since at least 2011 [github.com]. Android's touch API communicates sufficient information to implement this if you wish.

    But this being Apple, they will give it a fancy name, everyone will think they invented it, and they will pretend like they invented it. Just like Siri, which came ou

    • When you can't tell the difference between literal rul-of-thumb finger pattern on a capacitative screen and strain gauges, it just makes you look stupid.

      It says nothing about Apple.

  • Apple should have higher priorities than force touch.

    For instance, make a power-on button that works for more than a couple years.

    Last three iPhones my wife and I bought had the power switch become less responsive (requiring heavy pressure to register) after about three years.

    Or, of course, just expect everyone to throw away their phones in 2 years. That seems to be what everyone does, anyway.

  • If Force Touch was useful, we'd have it for mouse clicks. We don't.
  • ...I'm not a Jedi.

  • Will it suck like force touch on the Apple Watch, and the stupid microswitch on the Apple Magic Trackpads?

    I have both. The problem with the watch is that it makes both force touch and normal touch suck. You have to be dainty with a normal touch or it is not recognized. And force touch seems to require the some gorilla approach as the trackpad. Ow! It hurts my thumb!

    Fortunately, Apple long ago realized how awful that switch on the trackpads is (this started with the notebooks, and then they decided this dysf

  • There is a reason Sony dropped pressure sensitive buttons on the DualShock 4, no one used it.

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