Stand back, folks, this take is comin’ in hot. The Dynamic Island introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro is really clever. Apple turned boring sensors into an interactive element that’s very marketable and potentially useful. 3D Touch, on the other hand, was a flagship feature on iPhone 6s, but the very useful feature was hardly marketable and even less discoverable.
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Except for the trackpad on MacBooks, Apple has all but discontinued Force Touch (also known as 3D Touch) technology from its products. However, it seems that the company still has plans to somehow bring Force Touch back, as new patents reveal next-generation force sensors for Apple Watch, MacBook, and even iPhone.
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Some people may not think of the iPhone 6s as a device that changed everything, but it did bring some important improvements such as the first 4K camera on an iPhone, Live Photos, and 3D Touch. While today’s iPhones still record 4K video and capture Live Photos, none of them have 3D Touch anymore – which is unfortunate since this was one of the best technologies ever created by Apple.
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User experience engineer Eliz Kılıç took to Medium this week to criticize Apple’s implementation of 3D Touch. Despite 3D Touch having been available for almost four years, Kılıç says many people don’t know about it, or they don’t know how to use…
Just a few days following the debut of Chrome 56 on the desktop, Google has started pushing the same new version to iOS users. While not a major update, this new version does bring along a couple of useful features, including a handy QR code scanner.
3D Touch is a feature that Apple released with iPhone 6s/6s Plus that enhances the touchscreen’s capabilities. Whether you have just gotten a new iPhone with 3D Touch or just haven’t made it a habit to use the feature, we’ll show you some of the best ways to use it and how it can save you time and improve your iPhone experience. We’ll also cover how to adjust 3D Touch settings and how to turn it off (although we suggest giving it the old college try first).
Facebook Messenger has had 3D Touch support for Quick Actions from the app icon since December, and today the app has updated to expand 3D Touch features inside the app. Using the latest flagship iPhones (iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus currently), Facebook users can Peek and Pop inside Messenger to quickly preview and access information using the pressure-sensitive display feature.
Apple subsidiary FileMaker is today releasing FileMaker 15, introducing a number of notable additions for mobile device users as well as a host of other new features and enhancements for the platform.
Netflix is today introducing a new way for users of its mobile apps to adjust the quality of video streams based on data usage. The new “cellular data controls” in the mobile apps include Low, Medium, or High settings.
Apple today has pushed an update to the official Apple Store app for iOS that includes a couple of notable enhancements and bumps the app to version 3.7. Most notably, the latest update expands the capabilities of 3D Touch within the app.
When Apple launched the iPhone 6s/Plus, 3D Touch was one of the headline features. Apple devoted a full four-minute video to showing what it does and how it works. Even today, visit the Apple website and click on the iPhone 6s, and it’s the first thing you see. Apple’s summary of the phone is ‘3D Touch, 12MP photos, 4K video.’
The first tab at the top of the screen is 3D Touch. The first video linked is the one for 3D Touch. Scroll down the page for the detail of the phone, and 3D Touch – ‘the next generation of multi-touch’ – is again the first feature to be shown. Clearly Apple thinks it’s a big deal.
And yet, the company just this week unveiled not just one but two new iOS devices, neither of which offers the feature. This is perhaps understandable in the case of the iPhone SE – Apple needed some tech distinctions between its flagship phone and its new budget model. But it’s an odd omission from a brand new iPad …
Wikipedia today has released an update to its iOS app that adds a host of new features and capabilities. The latest version of the app offers a redesigned interface that places a focus on “exploration” as opposed to the normal quick fact-checking that we’ve come to use Wikipedia for. The update also adds features like 3D Touch support, Handoff support, and more.
Earlier this week we shared drawings of Apple’s upcoming 4-inch device and reported that Apple plans to call the device the iPhone SE. Now, French site NowhereElse has shared images that claim to show the front display portion of the upcoming device. We’ve long reported that the iPhone SE won’t feature support for 3D Touch, and these images corroborate that.
Netflix today has updated its iOS app with a handful of new features and enhancements. The update bumps the app to version 8.0 and includes auto-play support for iPhone users, 3D Touch support, and iPad Pro display optimization.
Popular productivity app Todoist is giving its six million users a huge update today with a completely rewritten app for iOS alongside a new Safari plug-in and notable updates for Apple Watch and Mac.
Apple today has debuted a pair of new ads for its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The two ads, one simply titled “Live Photos” and the other titled “Less Time,” are fast-paced 30 second spots that quickly jump between using a pair of features that differentiate the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus from their predecessors…
Twitter-owned Vine for iOS, which lets you create and share short video loops, received a new update today that adds new shortcuts from the Home screen on the latest iPhones. Users can press the updated Vine icon firmly on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to jump directly into making a short Vine clip or viewing the explore section of the app.
Apple today has released the third iOS 9.3 beta to registered developers for testing. The first iOS 9.3 beta introduced at the start of the year introduced new 3D Touch shortcuts on new iPhones, Touch ID-secured Notes, a new Night Shift mode for blue light reduction, and much more. iOS 9.3 beta 2 added a Night Shift toggle in Control Center and other tweaks. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.
An intriguing Apple patent application published today describes how the Touch ID home button could gain additional functionality, allowing it to perform different actions in response to different fingerprints, as well as adding pressure sensors to provide it with 3D Touch type functionality.
The patent goes into a great deal of detail about the technology, with little information as to what it might be used for, but Apple does give a couple of clues. One use of different fingerprints described is to allow someone else to use your iPhone or iPad, but restrict their access to particular apps and for a limited time. The obvious application here would be allowing a child to use only specific apps and/or limit the time they are allowed to use a device …
Apple was today granted a patent for detecting touch-free gestures at close range, the patent language suggesting that the approach could build on the capabilities of multi-touch and 3D touch to respond to fingers hovering close to an iPhone or iPad display, as well as use on keyboards and trackpads.
The patent describes using sensors similar to the proximity detectors used to disable accidental touch input on the iPhone screen when you’re holding the phone to your face during a call. Unlike longer-range gesture technologies like Kinect, the system would detect ‘hover events’ just above the surface of the screen …
Apple has released the second iOS 9.3 preview beta for testers ahead of the big feature update’s general release. The release follows the first preview release of iOS 9.3 for developers, public beta testers, and a 1.1 update for developers that included an installation fix. iOS 9.3 includes plenty of changes including a new feature called Night Shift, Touch ID and secure passwords for Notes, new 3D Touch Quick Actions and peek and pop gestures for iPhone 6s users, and much more. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.
Facebook today is rolling out a new update to its iOS app that brings a handful of new features to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users. As usual, the actual changelog provided in the App Store by Facebook doesn’t detail any of the changes, but rather states that Facebook periodically updates its app to add new features and performance and reliability improvements. Today’s new features come in the form of new 3D Touch capabilities for the app on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices.
Microsoft is out with a nice update to its Office for iOS suite today, adding 3D Touch quick actions to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users as well as promised Apple Pencil integration on the iPad Pro. The latest versions of the Office suite also changes how fonts are handled and improves document search on iOS.
This week’s iOS 9.3 beta software update for iPhone and iPad is a pretty major release for a mid-cycle version. New features including the F.lux-like Night Shift which lets you change the color temperature of your display and Touch ID plus secure passwords for Notes feel more major version features. Other parts like new 3D Touch quick actions for many of Apple’s stock apps feel more like playing catch up, but overall iOS 9.3 is shaping up to be an impressive release. Check out the details below:
