3D Touch

John Gruber: ‘The Whole Thing With 3D Touch and Haptic Touch Is Confusing’ →

April 29, 2020 · 10:21

John Gruber, on Daring Fireball:

But the whole thing with 3D Touch and Haptic Touch is so confusing, and has been handled so poorly by Apple in terms of how 3D Touch was used in iOS and which devices had it and which did not […] that you can’t possibly expect regular iPhone buyers to understand that the reason the new SE doesn’t support long-pressing notifications […]

The single thing I still miss most in my iPhone is 3D Touch. It’s been a few years now and Haptic Touch — long-pressing something — still feels so amazingly awkward, while slowing down the interaction at the same time. One of my favourite uses of the feature was to position my cursor precisely where I wanted to, when editing text. This is still possible by long-pressing the Spacebar and then moving the cursor to the desired location. The problem with the latter is that I often have to let go and restart this interaction, because I ran out of space on the screen to continue my drag. I really hope 3D Touch comes back one day, but I won’t be holding my breath.

3D Touch Is the Single Best Way to Manipulate the Cursor and Text on the iPhone →

April 28, 2018 · 08:27

John Gruber, on Daring Fireball:

3D Touch is the sort of feature that either needs to be on all iPhones or else should be dropped. If it’s not pervasive across the entire platform, developers can’t count on it. I think that’s why it’s underutilized today. But it’s one thing to wait for older iPhones from the pre-3D Touch era to drop out of usage. It’s another for Apple to sell a brand new phone in 2018 without it.

I would happily replace my iPhone X with this new rumoured cheaper 6.1” device, but it will supposedly lack two things: the aforementioned 3D Touch layer and a dual camera system.

Apple will be able to use the camera as a differentiator in the close future, but as more and more Android phones adopt this technology, it will become a standard and expected feature quickly. But I cannot imagine them shipping a new iPhone without 3D Touch. We’ve been using it for three generations now, so it’s high time for it to be more pervasive across all devices, including iPads. Even if developers don’t actively support it, this is the single best way to manipulate the cursor and text on the iPhone. The iPad gets away with two fingers for now, but it really could use this tech.

August 19, 2017 · 15:48

I wish the iPad had 3D Touch just to make positioning the cursor as easy as on the iPhone.

Rumour: iPad Air 3 to Be Released in 1st Half of 2016, ‘unlikely to Have 3D Touch Because of Production Issues’ →

December 15, 2015 · 20:56

Seth Weintraub:

KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a set of research notes today highlighted by ‘iPad Air 3’ forecasts. Notably, the newest 9.7-inch Apple tablet is expected to be released in the 1st half of 2016, perhaps at the March event we’ve pinned to include the Apple Watch 2 with a possible appearance of the 4-inch iPhone 6c. The bad news is that like the iPad Pro, the new iPad Air 3 isn’t likely to have 3D Touch, which is a big part of the new iPhone 6s/Plus experience, according to the analyst…