A recent Engadget post suggests that Apple may be licensing haptic (or force-feedback) technology for the iPhone; this would allow users to 'feel' button presses or other interactions with our favorite touchable UI. Immersion is the company speculated to be bringing this technology to the iPhone, as they've added this kind of feedback tech to the entire Nokia lineup. Immersion had some interesting news of their own this week, as one of Apple's former executives, Clent Richardson, was appointed as Immersion's president and CEO. Executive swapping doesn't always lead to close collaboration, but it can't hurt.
Original Post by Palluxo
[via Engadget]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-27-2008 @ 12:01AM
mark said...
And what is this going to do to my already poor battery life?
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4-27-2008 @ 3:14AM
ItsInTheCave said...
Kill it.
Just as 3G will kill battery life.
4-29-2008 @ 3:50AM
Chris Turpin said...
As ItsInTheCave said, I won't buy the iPhone if it goes 3G, unless Apple *really* knows what it's doing.
I have a Samsung SGH-A737 (on AT&T), it supports 3G, and gets maybe a fourth of what the iPhone gets on battery life. It's totally horrible. To keep it relevant, haptic feedback would only make it worse. That, coupled with 3G, is going to equal an iPhone with seriously diminished battery life.
I only hope Steve keeps good on his word and brings 3G to the iPhone when the time is right. (Certainly not now.)
4-27-2008 @ 7:19AM
EatingPie said...
Okay, I'll bite...
Why force feedback on a phone?
I guess I can see *knowing* you press a button. But there's this other thing called "beep" that seems to work quite well... and doesn't require licensing fees or suddenly battery death syndrome.
-Pie
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4-27-2008 @ 10:29AM
kevin said...
if i'm correct, the "haptic" version of force feedback is trickier than just "ok you pressed a button, i'm going to vibrate now." if it works the way it should work, it will vibrate the phone near the actual button itself, so you not only know that you pressed a button, you know where you pressed a button.
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4-27-2008 @ 3:24PM
YoJIMbo said...
"haptic FEEDBACK" Not "haptic" learn your words darling engadget.
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4-27-2008 @ 5:06PM
(01) said...
(looks around) Did I jump to Engadget while I wasn't paying attention? I didn't think so....
4-28-2008 @ 11:59AM
Samuel said...
I naively posted in the Apple forum about this ages ago, it was taken down almost immediately.
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