Update 12/10: Steady Square has now released an update that removes the “Training Mode” in the app that allowed the scale functionality.
[tweet https://twitter.com/walderston/status/675095598874365953 align=’center’]
When Apple released the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with 3D Touch, developers quickly started to realize that 3D Touch could be used for much more than what Apple had originally revealed. It was revealed that the 3D Touch display technology can be used to create a real digital scale app, allowing users to place items on the screen of their iPhone and discover how much they weighed.
The first attempt at releasing a digital scale app onto the App Store, however, failed thanks to Apple rejecting it due to it not being “appropriate” for the App Store. There are several reasons one can speculate as to why Apple feels a digital scale app is not appropriate, but now one developer has gotten around Apple’s ban on the scale apps.
Developer Asaf Avidan Antonir has announced a new app called Steady Square for iPhone. On the surface, Steady Scale is a neat Flappy Bird-like game, but instead of tapping to advance forward and navigate the interface, you change how hard you’re pressing on the screen using 3D Touch.
But that’s just the surface of the app. If you go into the “Training” mode in Steady Square, you can do exactly what Apple doesn’t want you to do with your 3D Touch-capable iPhone: weigh things. Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as you may think, but it does in fact work.
In an effort to get around Apple’s blocking of scale apps, Antonir has employed a 0-1,000 force number system as opposed to displaying actual grams. If you’re weighing very light things, you’ll need to place a spoon on the display first to see how much it weighs. After placing the spoon on the display, remember its force number. Now place whatever you actually want to weigh on the spoon. You should see a number between 0 and 1,000 appear. Subtract the spoon’s force number from the force number displayed with your goods placed on the spoon, then divide that number by 1,000 to get the force ratio. Then, multiply it by 385, which is the maximum number of grams that can be recorded by 3D Touch.
It’s not an entirely straightforward process and easier solutions do exist, but not on the App Store. For instance, there’s this Java script-based solution that simply tells you the weight in grams. No math required.
Nevertheless, Steady Square is available now on the App Store for free. You can view a video demonstrating the app here. It remains to be seen how long Apple allows the app to remain on the App Store, so if you’re interested, download it sooner rather than later.
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The reason why they do not want people using their phones as scales so we all know someone in our lives who will think of weighing everything and at some point will weigh something extremely heavy on the phone and break the glass of the screen.
Then of course after they break the screen, guess what’s next for them? You guessed it complain and blam Apple for it.
Blame, sorry.
And then after they break the glass, they’re going to go into a deep depression because of it, and when you inevitably run into a heroin addiction, your glass will be broken, so you won’t be able to weigh your product to see how much you’re actually getting.
Well, it WAS secret. Now the App will be pulled. Get it while you can!
Yeah, 9to5, thanks for narcing.
Updated today to remove the Training section. Thanks a lot.
Gotta be fast w these types of things! Don’t update!