3D Touch

You wouldn’t know it based on the boiler plate release notes, but Facebook’s latest iPhone app update now includes a new 3D Touch feature on Apple’s latest iPhones. Pressing the Facebook app icon firmly from the Home screen on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus brings up a Quick Action menu to do three things: write a post, upload a photo/video, or take a photo/video…
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Fantastical 2.5 is out now with new multitasking features for iOS 9 on iPad, a 3D Touch app icon on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, a native Apple Watch app on watchOS 2 with its own watch face complication, and much more. Both the iPad and iPhone plus Apple Watch updates are available for free for current Fantastical 2 customers. The new versions come just two weeks after Split View in Fantastical hit the Mac with OS X El Capitan. See the new features in action below:
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From 9to5Google:

Synaptics has today announced the ClearPad 3700 force-sensing touchscreen controller, which the company hopes will be packed inside many a 2016 flagship Android smartphone. This comes just about a month after Apple’s September 9th event, at which the Cupertino company announced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, both packing “3D Touch” as a headline feature…
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Following last week’s release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple’s support community pages are lighting up with new reports of problems with the new iPhones for some customers. The issues range from overheating Touch ID buttons to random power-offs, significant audio distortion, and 3D Touch glitches.

Below, we look at some of the most interesting iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus problems users are reporting, as well as possible solutions…

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Apple’s iPhone 6s is finally here and it comes along with a new feature that you may not be familiar with. Today we’re checking out the best 3D Touch features. Some of you are probably thinking, how is this any different from a long press, right? Well its uses may not be very different at the moment, but the technology that makes this possible is a very different thing.

3D Touch will sense the amount of pressure your finger applies to the screen and trigger various actions. So instead of a short press or a long press, 3D Touch enables a soft press and a hard press. So you can “tap” on the display, but then you can go even further (quite literally) and press into the display at multiple levels. Once you’ve reached the amount of pressure to trigger an event, the iPhone will provide slight haptic feedback to let you know. So what can 3D Touch actually do?

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Ben’s six hours ahead of me in the UK and had fallen in love with his iPhone 6s before I rolled out of bed, but UPS held my iPhone 6s Plus as requested so I was able to pick it up and spend the morning trying it out before the usual evening delivery. 3D Touch, Live Photos, 4K video, 60 fps 1080p video, faster hardware… it’s all great, but moving from the 4.7-inch screen to the 5.5-inch screen is the real reason I upgraded.

I moved from 2-year commitments to AT&T Next last year so the upgrade process was mostly painless. I would have used Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Plan if it weren’t for the need to complete the process at the Apple Store; that’s a 90 minute drive compared to the UPS center 10 minutes away, but maybe next year they’ll support web orders.

That being said, the move from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone 6s Plus is a dramatic one even before you consider the new features and enhancements. I also opted for space gray after trying gold for a year; my wife naturally picked rose gold while making the same switch from iPhone 6 to iPhone 6s Plus. So what’s changed year over year for iPhone and how does that new finish look in the real world? Read on for answers…
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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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The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch today, with a pressure sensitive 3D Touch screen being touted as one of the phone’s flagship new features. Apps can take advantage of 3D Touch in many ways, such as using firm presses to reveal quick actions on the Home screen or use Peek and Pop metaphors to quickly preview content from within the UI.

Naturally, Apple has added 3D Touch features to its own apps. Try firmly pressing on a link from within Safari, or quickly call one of your Favorites by using the Phone app’s 3D Touch quick actions. You can even force press on the keyboard to enable trackpad cursor input. However, as is true in most cases, the most interesting innovations come from the third-party App Store community.

We’ve compiled a list of the best third-party apps that have updated to include 3D Touch features, so you can try them out on your brand new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus …

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The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are launching in just four days time and right on schedule the embargo on reviews have been lifted. Apple is touting the new phones as major updates over the 6 and 6 Plus, with 12-megapixel camera and 4K video recording, ‘3D Touch’ pressure-sensitive display to enable quick actions across the OS, Live Photos and more. We’ve already seen an early hands on with the iPhone 6s thanks to an early delivery but now the official tech reviews are live.

So what’s the verdict? We’ve rounded up the highlights below from those lucky enough to get the phones early …

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Update: LiquidSkin are currently selling a great screen protector for only $0.50 for both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Add these to your cart and use the following promo codes:

• iPhone 6s LiquidSkin Screen Protector — use code YTETINAX at checkout
• iPhone 6s Plus LiquidSkin Screen Protector — use code TQLPTKZZ at checkout

The 3D-Touch pressure sensitive features in the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is invisible to the eye but  — at some level — its based off sensors in the screen that detect levels of pressure. This led some people to worry if plastic screen protectors and glass screen covers would impact the sensors, perhaps even prevent 3D Touch from working completely.

However, it turns out this is not the case. 3DTechtronics asked Apple SVP Phil Schiller about this issue in an email. Schiller responded and says it’s not a problem: “screen overlays that follow our guidelines will continue to work with 3D Touch”.

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After announcing new iPhones and iPads plus an updated Apple TV in San Francisco last week, Tim Cook is taking a slight victory lap in New York City with a media blitz that leads to an interview with Stephen Colbert tonight on CBS’s The Late Show. Before a surprise visit yesterday at NYC’s iconic Fifth Ave store with Eddy Cue, the Apple CEO gave a quick interview with Buzzfeed. In it he told John Paczkowski that his Apple Store visit really is a surprise to everyone.

“I almost always go in unannounced,” he says. “It’s rare that I tell anyone that I’m going. But I do try to go to stores every time I’m traveling to a new city. It’s important.”

Cook also discussed the privacy implications of an always-listening Siri, what he likes best about the iPhone 6s, and even the possibility of being able to delete system apps in the future…

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Apple did something very uncharacteristic with the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus – it made the devices both thicker and heavier than their predecessors. While many people attributed this weight gain to the new 7000 series aluminum the new iPhones use. It appears, however, that the weight gain is actually attributable to the new 3D Touch display.

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While the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s on some U.S. carriers is still available for delivery on the September 25th launch date, nearly all of the larger, 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus models are now scheduled to deliver in 3-4 weeks for new orders. According to KGI Securities, this is not entirely due to high demand for the largest iPhone model. According to a new note from the firm, the constraints are actually due to supply problems with the 6s Plus’s backlight hardware:

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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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One of the novel features Apple added to the iPhone 6s to distinguish it from its predecessor was Live Photos, where every photo you take is effectively a very brief video, capturing the movement and sound as the photo was taken. The feature is unique to the 6s as it’s activated by a 3D Touch. Today, we’ve learned a little more about the simple yet clever technology behind it.

As you may already know, existing iPhones start taking photos the moment you open the app. This is how Apple provides the camera with the ability to take photos instantly, with none of the delay (‘shutter lag’) you see with some digital cameras. The camera has already taken and temporarily stored a whole bunch of photos, and it simply keeps the last one taken as you press the button and discards the rest … 
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Earlier today, Apple took the wraps off the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and one of the flagship features the company focused on during the unveil was 3D Touch. 3D Touch is the highly anticipated force-sensing feature that adds new “peek” and “pop” gestures that bring up windows and interfacing hidden under panes. Bloomberg this evening has now published a fascinating piece in which it dissects the development of 3D Touch within Apple’s design team. The piece includes quotes from Apple executives such as Tim Cook, Alan Dye, Craig Federighi, and Phil Schiller…

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Apple has published some of the videos from today’s keynote event on YouTube for replay, including the first TV spot for the iPhone 6s and the introduction video presenting 3D Touch on the new phone. The keynote itself isn’t yet available, but should be soon.

You can watch the new videos below.

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One of the cornerstone features of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, to be announced next Wednesday, is a screen based on the Force Touch technology from the latest MacBook trackpads and the Apple Watch. However, as we noted in previous articles such as our event expectations roundup from yesterday, the Force Touch feature in the new iPhones will actually be a next-generation version of the technology. According to sources familiar with the new iPhones, the new pressure-sensitive screen will likely be called the “3D Touch Display”…

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