“Apple has made many things over the years, but its process has remained essentially the same: Find something ugly and complicated and make it prettier and easier,” Josh Tyrangiel reports for Bloomberg. “Prettiness, in brushed aluminum, is more or less a permanent state. Ease, however, is constantly evolving, which is why a few days before the geek hootenanny known as Apple’s September Event, Jony Ive’s focus isn’t on a new version of Apple TV or an iPad the size of a doggy door, but on a feature. It’s called 3D Touch, and it makes using an iPhone even easier. ‘Ultimately, this is our focus,’ says Ive, squeezing a new iPhone 6S. ‘This is what galvanizes our efforts right across the company.’ And 3D Touch, he adds with emphasis, ‘is something we’ve been working on for a long time—multi, multi, multi years.'”
“Several years ago the designers and engineers realized that phones contained so many functions—messaging, maps, apps, links, photos, songs—that people were wasting a lot of time retreating to the home button to bounce between them,” Tyrangiel reports. “What if, instead of swiping through apps or routing all of your browsing through the Grand Central station of the home screen, you could press the glass in one function and reveal a shortcut to another? And what if the phone understood this desire based entirely on changes in the pressure you applied?”
“Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, says that at most software companies the designers decide what they want and the engineers respond with what’s easy to build. “Every single feature becomes this unholy compromise,” says Federighi, who began his career at Apple and spent a decade at Ariba, a maker of financial management software, before returning in 2009. ‘With [3D Touch] it was only at the moment where we finally got a design experience that’s like, ‘Yes! This is what we want!’ that we [asked] how hard it’s going to be to make,'” Tyrangiel reports. “The answer: really hard. But not as hard as it would be for a competitor.”
“Some of this technology was first revealed in the Apple Watch, which has a feature called Force Touch,” Tyrangiel reports. “But 3D Touch is to Force Touch as ocean swimming is to a foot bath. Screen size makes a difference, but the software on the iPhone 6S has a liquid ease… For the years of effort, 3D Touch will be judged a success only when its existence fades completely into a user’s subconscious. It takes about four minutes.”
Much, much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: A peek behind the curtain that gives an fuller appreciation of what went into the 3D Touch effort and why. Only Apple.
Again, like Apple Watch, 3D Touch will save users bits of time throughout each day that really add up vs. those with inferior smartphones (yes, that now includes iPhone 6/Plus and older). Those with 3D Touch iPhones will be like those wearing Apple Watches: Faster and more productive than those without.
SEE ALSO:
Apple iPhone 6s/Plus’ revolutionary 3D Touch primes suppliers for success – September 10, 2015
3D Touch iPhone 6s/Plus: Apple’s pressure-based screens deliver a world beyond cold glass – September 10, 2015
Engadget hands-on with iPhone 6s/Plus: Using 3D Touch feels completely natural – September 9, 2015
Apple unveils the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with 3D Touch, Apple A9, 12MP iSight camera, 4K video and more – September 9, 2015
Apple’s new Force Touch patent application reveals stylus, virtual paint brush, 3D buttons interactions – May 28, 2015
