Apple has reportedly file a patent program to bring Force Touch to the MacBook ’s Touch Bar after ditching the pressure - feel technology on its smartphones and smartwatches . And candidly , given the bowed stringed instrument ofincreasingly nicherebootsin late years , I say why the hell not .
On Thursday , the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bring out a letters patent software that shows off an updated version of the MacBook ’s Touch Bar , as spotted by9to5 MacandPatently Apple . The new edition depend much very to the current one with the exception of extra circuitry that add Force Touch capabilities , indicating that we may see more of the lineament in next year’sredesigned MacBooks(outside of the trackpad , that is ) .
Force Touch is Apple ’s haptic feedback technical school that can detect pernicious variations in pressure and respond differently depending on how forcefully you beg your gimmick . The troupe commence baking it into the MacBook trackpad in 2015 to keep all the functionality of a traditional trackpad without the pauperism for mechanical buttons . Apple contribute the feature film to its iPhones that same year under the name 3-D Touch , but it was later discontinued and replaced with Haptic Touch , a less raw versionthat floor much of its predecessor ’s capability , begin with the iPhone 11 serial . Apple’sline of smartwatchesincluded Force Touch from the very first example until the companionship abruptlydropped supportwith watchOS 7 earlier this year .
Photo: Alex Cranz | Gizmodo
That ’s why it ’s raising a few eyebrows to see Apple then doubly - down on the feature with its laptop series after the company abandoned it elsewhere . The patent of invention , which Apple originally filed in May 2019 , does n’t go into item about how Force Touch would work on the MacBook ’s Touch Bar , though as 9to5 Mac points out , it could be used to nullify inadvertent water tap , an annoyance that MacBook substance abuser have sound off aboutfor yearsat this point .
As of now , Apple only includes the Touch Bar on its higher - end laptop model , the MacBook Pro . The tiny OLED touch showing replaces the strip of programmable function keys at the top of a traditional keyboard , with Apple ’s mind being that the Touch Bar allows users to configure more elaborate crosscut and functions than any single mechanically skillful key could handle .
That was the idea , at least . In praxis , users complain that they hardly ever use the thing , or if they doit ’s a frustrating fortuity . After introducing the Touch Bar in 2016 , Apple has n’t restate the Cartesian product in any meaningful way , and its prize real land on the keyboard makes unwittingly triggering it altogether too easy to do . Adding more sophisticated tactile feedback tech could certainly help on that front , so Apple might very well be banking on Force Touch to inject some renewed hype for the feature after letting it languish these past few years .
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