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Last month the popular Waze navigation app on iPhone got a major update with a new design and improvements to reporting traffic issues and sharing arrival times with others. Now Waze is out with its next new version which brings 3D Touch shortcuts to the Home screen icon for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users. Firmly press on the updated icon to quickly look up an address, share your location with other users, or get directions to your work or home address from your current location. Waze also says the update includes the usual bug fixes and improvements.

Fantastical already features 3D Touch shortcuts from its Home screen icon, and today the calendar and reminders app is adding more 3D Touch features for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users…
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Put the iPhone 6s next to its predecessor, and I’d challenge anyone to tell them apart. You start to notice the difference as soon as you put your thumb on the Touch ID sensor. Apple says that the new sensor is faster, and I was surprised to find that the difference – while small – is definitely noticeable. I had to use both a number of times to persuade myself that it wasn’t just a placebo effect, but I did end up convinced.

I’m going to play with the camera this evening when I have something a bit more interesting to photograph than my office and a view through the window of a very ordinary street, so mostly what I’ve been playing with today is the new Peek and Pop features using 3D Touch.

I was impressed by the idea – it was really this that persuaded me to upgrade despite my earlier doubts – and now that I’ve used it, I would now say there is no doubt at all: 3D Touch fully justifies the upgrade from the iPhone 6 … 
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A few weeks prior to the launch of the iPhone 6s, I wondered whether an S model could really continue the blockbuster sales success Apple enjoyed with the iPhone 6. Based on what we knew then, it seemed like it might be a tough sell. And at the time, it seems many of you felt the same way: in our poll, only 29% of iPhone 6 owners said they would ‘definitely’ upgrade.

But my view now is that Apple may have pulled a rabbit out of the hat. The company has, I think, successfully dealt with three of my five reasons for being skeptical about the sales potential of the 6s:

• Force Touch is a techy feature, with limited mass-market appeal
• The camera improvements are nice, but the iPhone 6 camera is already great
• The iPhone 6 still feels like ‘the new iPhone’

So let’s look at each in turn, and see why I think Apple may have managed to prove me wrong … 
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