Apple has filed a patent application published on October 4th, which reveals that as far back as March 2006, they have been investigating the possibility of pressure sensitive touch screens.
Apple describes that historically, purely pressure-sensitive screens offer little advantage as an input device. The resultant "stiction" created between the finger and the touch surface makes it difficult to operate smoothly.
Instead, resistive (Newton, Palm) touch displays and more recently capacitive (iPhone) displays have dominated the market. Neither of these touch screen technologies, however, measure the degree of pressure the user applies to the screen. By incorporating this pressure information in a hybrid capacitive + pressure display, Apple believes useful information could be gleaned to provide a better user experience.
This is not the first time that Apple has described the use of "pressure" information to aid in gathering information from the user. A patent application published in March 2006 also describes the use of pressure and length of time pressed as variables that might change action. An example provided is when the user is given the option of a "Delete" button, the user would have to press harder for the delete button to be acknowledged.
Friday October 23, 2026 11:05 am PDT by Juli Clover
Some iPhone Duos are already experiencing hinge issues that cause display cracks, based on photos shared on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Almost all of the display faults are right along the hinge, and most result in a line of bright pixels across one side of the screen.
An iPhone Duo owner in Australia said his device cracked after being opened fewer than 20 times, and there was no...
Friday October 23, 2026 7:11 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple Music has a 404 page easter egg on the web: a functional iPod that appears when you load a page that does not exist, such as music.apple.com/macrumors.
"Page Not Found," says Apple. "Give this a spin instead."
Apple is clever with this. If you navigate to music.apple.com/ipod instead, the page says "Looking for something?" instead of "Page Not Found."
The easter egg is only...
Thursday October 22, 2026 11:01 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple has temporarily removed Keynote, Pages, and Numbers from the App Store, just after releasing an update that added iPhone Duo support and a new Intelligent Assistant.
It is not clear if the apps were removed intentionally, or if it is a bug. Apple has not said when the apps will be reinstated, but if it was in error, they should return soon.
Update: The Mac versions are back without...
