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Am I the only one who thinks tap and hold could easily be 3D touch?

Serelus

Serelus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
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So I was thinking... instead of "3D touching" pressing on your screen a little harder, how about just hold?
On the home screen this obviously enable's app deletion. But this could easily be removed all together and be added as one of the options when you tap and hold an app.

Also with regards to photo's and previews in applications, just tap and hold to preview then tap and hold again to go in? Did you really need to rebuilt display technology for something that could be built into the software itself... Am I missing something here?
 
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Hold and Force / 3D Touch are two different input methods which trigger two different actions.
 
Pretty sure if what they wanted to achieve could have been accomplished through software, then they would have went that route.
 
Serelus said:
So I was thinking... instead of "3D touching" pressing on your screen a little harder, how about just hold?
On the home screen this obviously enable's app deletion. But this could easily be removed all together and be added as one of the options when you tap and hold an app.

Also with regards to photo's and previews in applications, just tap and hold to preview then tap and hold again to go in? Did you really need to rebuilt display technology for something that could be built into the software itself... Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
I doubt Apple wants to change the app deletion after all these years.
 
Cryates said:
Pretty sure if what they wanted to achieve could have been accomplished through software, then they would have went that route.
Click to expand...

But then they couldn't sell it as being 'revolutionary' and 'magical'. Also, they couldn't claim that 'anything less than the newest generation couldn't possibly support this, due to hardware limitations'. Siri and apple pay come to mind.
 
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Serelus said:
So I was thinking... instead of "3D touching" pressing on your screen a little harder, how about just hold?
On the home screen this obviously enable's app deletion. But this could easily be removed all together and be added as one of the options when you tap and hold an app.

Also with regards to photo's and previews in applications, just tap and hold to preview then tap and hold again to go in? Did you really need to rebuilt display technology for something that could be built into the software itself... Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
nah, long presses is dull.
 
Those press and hold gestures can add time, pressing is quicker. Think about the discussion if we said multi touch could be done with zoom buttons. I doubt we'll have these arguments when using it.
 
Exactly, long pressing would take more time that it would save. Also, if you watched the demo of the game, he used 3D touch while long pressing, you couldn't make up for that with software. Seems to me that people are just angry they didn't get it on their older phone.
 
Changing a core interaction is a pretty big no-no. People hate change, especially those who fall into the older age brackets who just want their things to work and not re-learn things.

That said, things could've turned out different. The use of long-touch does bring up right-click-esqe options. Apple and other developers could've run down this road but as we know, long-touch does not reveal a bevvy contextual menu options in every app and UI element.

Given the example of photo previews - long-touch to preview and long-touch to full view. How do you cancel the preview? Tap?

The introduction of 3D Touch doesn't make the impossible possible - it simply makes the interaction more fluid. Imagine on your computer, right-clicking was replaced with a long-left-click. I think I'd go insane: for an interaction as fundamental as right-click, I'd want it to be immediate.

Serelus said:
what? those are accessed by just tapping...
Click to expand...

How do you select read-only text, then...such as my post here?
 
Serelus said:
Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

You're missing that 3D Touch provides pressure-sensitive response rather than just a single, solid hold. It is I admit a nuanced distinction but, I feel, an important one. The current 'tap and hold' method provides only a single point of interaction, 3D Touch provides for more varied interaction based on pressure.

I think they could probably give Sub-6S owners a dumbed down version of that UI feature with tap to hold, but it would be (as others have said) at the sacrifice of an existing and well-known OS interaction.

What I'm terribly confused about is why they insist on calling this 3D Touch. It's just Force Touch but enhanced for a larger screen. Giving it another name just seems like a weakened branding. Call it "Force Touch for the iPhone, all the functionality from the Apple Watch, improved and enhanced for a larger screen experience"
 
OP, 3D Touch and Long Touch are two completely different sets of inputs that are completely independent of each other. Now, there are more input choices for developers to use.
 
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