Force Touch, Pink Color Rumored For The Next iPhones

Even though Apple's new pressure-sensitive technology has yet to be verified in real-world massive usage, sources familiar with the matter are claiming that Cupertino is so confident in Force Touch that it will actually be putting it inside the next iPhones to be announced later this year. This will bring a more subtle form of functionality that is already well known on smartphones and tablets, adding an element of pressure sensitivity to mobile screens that have previously been available only with active digitizer pens or Bluetooth styluses.

Apple debuted Force Touch on its new MacBooks, hiding the technology underneath the trackpad, as well on the Apple Watch screen. In the most basic terms, Force Touch detects how much pressure, in other words, force, a user applies when tapping on a surface and can bring up different functionality depending on whether the tap was light or heavy. At first thought, it might sound like a form of the old "tap and hold" gesture, but the difference in Force Touch is that it is more attuned not on the "hold" part of the gesture but on the strength of the tap itself.

While the jury is still out on how well Force Touch will perform on trackpads, considering how laptop users are probably used to expecting light and hard taps to do the same thing, the technology might find a more welcoming home in mobile devices. Pressure sensitivity on screens have long been the monopoly of certain types of digitizers and accessories. With Force Touch inside the next iPhone, those could pretty much become a thing of the past. And the utility extends beyond things like drawing or sketching. Playing a piano with a more realistic volume feedback, for example, might be possible with Force Touch.

Plus, pink! Love it or hate it, sources are saying that Apple is venturing into uncharted territory. At least as far as its flagship premium products go. Just after introducing its new trio of standard metallic colors, Apple is said to be mulling over offering pink as the next addition to its lineup. Considering the new MacBooks have followed in the iPhone 6's gold, silver, and space grey, does it mean that there will also be a pink MacBook in Apple's future?

Of course, not only is it too early in the game to believe such insider tips, things might also not pan out in the end. Some of the sources come from Apple's suppliers, who are testing some of the new things on behalf of Apple. That, however, isn't an assurance that the changes would be included in the end, as the whole story surrounding sapphire glass on the iPhone 6 proved.

VIA: Wall Street Journal