Touchscreen

Apple spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

As first reviews of the new MacBook Pro hit the web this morning, Apple's marketing boss Phil Schiller took to Backchannel to dispel some of the myths saying his company has been stubbornly dismissive of the idea of a touchscreen Mac for no apparent reason. Schiller reveals that Apple has actually spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac before realizing that touching things on a 27-inch screen quickly becomes “absurd”.

Video: Apple’s Craig Federighi on the new MacBook Pro, Touch Bar and a touchscreen Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 7, 2016

The MacBook Pro controversy isn't dying down yet so Apple dispatched Craig Federighi, its Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, who discussed the new Pro and thinking behind the Touch Bar feature in a short video interview with CNET in which he also defends no-touchscreen Mac stance.

He goes on to reveal that Apple had in fact built several touchscreen prototypes that however didn't impress Apple executives enough to greenlight the project.

Jony Ive speaks on MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, touchscreen Macs & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 31, 2016

Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer, sat for a Q&A with CNET's News Editor in Chief Connie Guglielmo following last week's “Hello again” Mac event. Ive talked about various topics, including design considerations behind the creation of the Touch Bar, a marquee new feature of the new notebook, saying it's “just the beginning of a very interesting direction”. He explained why Apple'd rejected a touchscreen iMac “many, many years ago” and more.

iPhone 6 “Touch Disease” class action suit gets support from three additional law firms

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2016

Class action lawsuit pertaining to an iPhone 6 Plus hardware flaw, referred to as “Touch Disease,” has gained support from three additional law firms.

Motherboard reports that lawyers who filed the original class action complaint have now signed on three additional law firms to support their case.

An additional “Touch Disease” class action suit has been filed against Apple in Utah and there is also a similar class action suit in Canada.

New Surface ad wants you to think that your Mac “ain’t fast enough”

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 15, 2016

It's been only three days since Microsoft's advertising department unleashed a new ad salvo at Apple's direction in the form of a commercial for its Surface Pro 4 tablet/laptop hybrid and now it's posted yet another video to conveniently reiterate its message ahead of iPhone 7's launch tomorrow. Titled “Power of Touch”, the 30-second commercial doubles down on the ”the Mac lacks a touchscreen” theme.

Not only does Microsoft poke fun of the fact that Macs are long overdue for a refresh (yours supposedly “ain't fast enough” lately), but also disses the Mac for not shipping with a detachable keyboard or a stylus.

New Surface Pro 4 ad pokes fun of the Mac because it doesn’t have a touchscreen

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 12, 2016

Microsoft over the weekend fired another ad salvo at Apple's tablet/computer strategy with a new (somewhat) amusing commercial. Simple titled “Get the Surface Pro,” the 30-second ad highlights Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 hybrid device which includes a stylus and comes with a detachable keyboard and an Intel chip allowing it to be transformed into a computer that runs Windows, Office and other real desktop applications.

Using the same singer from the previous commercial, the new video informs us that “If you try to write on a plain old Mac, the difference can be seen. It doesn't work.”

Apple supplier to build nanowire-based flexible toucscreens, likely for future iOS devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2017

Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes is reporting that TPK Holding is gearing up to product nanowire-based flexible touchscreens. TPK is on Apple's supplier list so there's a high likelihood that future iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices could switch to these flexible screens based on nano silver ink. Originally developed by 3M, silver nanowire films are flexible and transparent to the eye, making them feasible for wearable devices particular.

iPhone 7 rumored to switch back to using glass-on-glass screen technology

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 2, 2015

Unhappy with the in-cell screen process used in production of iPhone displays which is plagued with lower touch sensitivity on screen edges, Apple is reportedly considering a return to glass-on-glass (G/G) touchscreen panels for an 'iPhone 7,' a technology it ditched with the release of the iPhone 5 in the fall of 2012.

According to a somewhat sketchy report published Wednesday by DigiTimes, Apple is currently sampling glass-on-glass touch samples for 2016 iPhones.

If true, the iPhone 7—or whatever a 2016 iPhone ends up being named—will feature better touch accuracy, improved Multi-Touch performance and better touch detection on screen edges. In addition, glass-on-glass technology would permit the company to develop a bezel-free iPhone and support 4K resolutions.

NoKeyPop: remove the keyboard pop-up animation when typing

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Since touch screen keyboards lack the movement of physical keyboards, software keyboards use other tricks to help you to see how your touches interact with the on screen keyboard. One of the tricks often employed is the simple keyboard animation. Animations, combined with haptic feedback and sound, can provide enough sense of touch that typing is made easier

But what if you removed the keyboard animations altogether? What would the typing experience be like then? NoKeyPop is a jailbreak tweak that lets you do just that...

iPad and iPad mini found to have most responsive tablet touchscreens

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple's iPad mini has the most responsive tablet touchscreen, according to some new tests by Agawi. The app-streaming company recently ran it and several other slates through its rigorous TouchMark benchmark to measure the field.

The mini registered a 75ms delay on the latency test, coming in just 6ms ahead of the iPad 4, which posted an 81ms lag. And the rest of the competition was pretty far behind, with the Surface RT at 95ms and the Kindle Fire HD at 114...

Supply of touch sensitive coating used on iPhones is dwindling

Cody Lee ∙ July 12, 2013

Bad news for smartphone and tablet makers. It seems that the coating used to make devices like the iPhone touch sensitive is beginning to run scarce, and could completely disappear from the planet within the next decade or so.

The transparent material is called indium tin oxide, and it's used to sense when a finger makes contact with a smartphone's display. And apparently the situation is so bad that industry experts are rushing to find an alternative...

iPad 5 to use same thin-film touchscreen tech as iPad mini

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Although reports regarding Apple's next-generation tablet can't seem to settle on a release date, they do seem to agree about most everything else. The iPad 5 is said to sport an all-new, mini-like design with smaller bezels and a much thinner profile.

Of course, this raises the question: how does Apple plan to make the tablet thinner while keeping its Retina display and 10-hour battery life? Well for starters, it's reportedly going to use the same thin-film touchscreen tech found in the iPad mini...