Hands-On With 3D Touch on the New iPhone 6s Plus

Stan Bush predicted all this in 1986 on the Transformers soundtrack. I believe the same song referred to battery life as well!

Seriously, I think it's a nice feature that will end up being quite useful across a range of applications.
 
I think I will have to get used to it - I guess I normally press so that it activates when I don't want to - I will adjust settings or just use for a while. So far I don't see a lot of benefit but probably will over time.
 
naeS1Sean said:
I have to say my wife and I are loving our new phones...
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Sure rub it in to those still waiting, like me.....
Glad to see you and many others enjoying and sharing their thoughts and experience.

I am excited about getting mine but to be honest, I am enjoying reading about the phones and learning of their capabilities. Usually I get the phone, ignore the forums and just toy around.

Hopefully next week.
 
kagharaht said:
Someone really needs a way to explain pundits on how this is different from press and hold on a active link or data detectors actions. You can read how dismissive some of the comments online regarding 3D Touch.
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Well, simply put, press and hold is TIME based and 3D Touch is PRESSURE based so it's technically a much faster method of access. You really do have to use it to fully appreciate how nice it is.
 
kwokaaron said:
Tried it out in store. The problem right now is that a lot of the preinstalled first-party applications don't even support the basic home screen shortcuts, which basically means that I have to remember/try which apps have shortcuts and which don't. Something they should try to do is possibly add some sort of visual hints as to where there are force touch actions available.
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I was thinking this exactly. It's be nice if there were like a button on the screen somewhere, that when pushed, would illuminate the areas where #D touch has deeper options. I'd imagine that further research will reveal better methods that actually relate the physical technology. I'm also guessing that within a year, or even two, that it will be so ingrained, that everything will have the feature, and there will be no more second guessing if the feature is utilized, and you will just "know" what to expect, like pinch and zoom have become to my 2 year old son.
 
SlipperySlop said:
Huh? How can something that is hardware based be done in software. Haven't you spent any time reading about how 3D is implemented? It's entirely hardware dependent. Folks, if you want credibility, get your facts straight and separate from bad guesses.

And perhaps it was created because it's a good idea instead of simply something to generate income. The cynicism here can be over the top.
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You beat me to it...
 
asiga said:
Is 3DTouch the same as Force Touch? If affirmative, why use two names? Yet another example of how clueless is Apple on these itoy days.
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It is officially "3D Touch"; consumers have falsely referred to it "Force Touch". Not Apple's fault. Though, of course, it could be argued as Apple's fault, as they do also have a technology called "Force Touch", but it is in a different platform. Of course they named it differently in IOS; it is definitely a different physical technology.
 
kagharaht said:
Someone really needs a way to explain pundits on how this is different from press and hold on a active link or data detectors actions. You can read how dismissive some of the comments online regarding 3D Touch.
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It's not really a problem. These things are going to sell like....iPhones, and users will figure out for themselves what the various features are, how to use them, and how useful they are.

The pundits are just selling advertising.
 
I've been using 3D Touch for Just under 2 days and it's very fast and reliable. It's pressure sensitive and accurate. Couldn't imagine my phone without it
 
I wii
MacRumors said:



The standout new feature of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is 3D Touch, which Apple is billing as an evolution of Multi-Touch. The new feature allows the display to sense how much pressure is being applied, opening up new ways for users to interact with their phones. We went hands-on with the 6s Plus and explored what the feature is capable of.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​
3D Touch can be used both in and out of apps. Outside of apps, on the Home Screen, a user can press down on an app's icon to quickly interact with the app. This feature is called Quick Actions. For instance, pressing on the Phone app allows you to quickly call a recent contact. Or, pressing down on the Camera icon allows you to quickly take a selfie.

Inside of apps, 3D Touch allows users to "Peek" and "Pop" into their content. For instance, within the Messages app a user can press down on a contact's message thread to see their latest message and then press down harder to Pop into the thread to reply. Finally, 3D Touch can be used to turn the keyboard into a trackpad.

Apple notes that creating 3D Touch was "unbelievably hard", and that the company had to work with Corning to create a new pliable iPhone cover glass. When the glass is pressed, the 96 sensors embedded in the backlight display to measure microscopic changes between it and the glass. The measurements are combined with the touch sensor to sync finger motion with images on the screen.

On first impression, users are enjoying 3D Touch. MacRumors forum member jsmith189 said he thinks it could become an integral part of navigating an iPhone.
Other users, like forum member Boardiesboi, note that the feature does take getting used to and that he adjusted the sensitivity on the feature so that it responds to lighter touches.

Users who prefer to use screen protectors on their devices shouldn't hesitate to purchase one for the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, as Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller confirmed in an email to 3D Techtronics that screen protectors would work with the new display technology as long as they comply with Apple's design guidelines.

While 3D Touch is mostly compatible with Apple apps so far, third party companies are likely to embrace the new functionality in their apps in the near future. Today, Twitter updated its app to take advantage of the feature, allowing users to quickly access search or compose new tweets from the home screen.

Article Link: Hands-On With 3D Touch on the New iPhone 6s Plus
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I wish there was haptic feedback as I pressed on the keyboard.
 
juanm said:
From the size of the contact area (of course, it'd involve many variables, so a lot of guessing and as a result, less precision).
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Sorry no. A flat area won't be able to discern pressure of a big dot vs a small dot. Can you imagine, your thumb would always be a harder press than your other fingers. In the end you can't use just one 2d measurement/plane to measure 3D objects. You could do it based on pressing time though, but then that already existed on the iPhone software since they came out w copy/paste.
 
Carlanga said:
Sorry no. A flat area won't be able to discern pressure of a big dot vs a small dot. Can you imagine, your thumb would always be a harder press than your other fingers. In the end you can't use just one 2d measurement/plane to measure 3D objects. You could do it based on pressing time though, but then that already existed on the iPhone software since they came out w copy/paste.
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Of course, it would be, at best, an estimation, hence my remark "with more variables, so less precision". You simply asked for a way to include pressure, I provided one (I never said it was the same as a true pressure measurement).
 
trifid said:
Anyone else notice or is annoyed by this or am I alone: going from lock screen or any app to home screen and trying to use 3d touch immediately won't work. It seems it takes a second or so for it to start receiving input.

This seems rather annoying and seems to defeat the purpose of 3D touch for shortcuts since I'd rather open the full app (phone or camera) than wait a second or so for 3d touch to work.
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Works instantaneously for me.
 
kirky29 said:
I really struggle to get it to work... Wish you could swipe from the bottom to go to the home screen though, and swipe from the right to switch back to the app you just switched from!
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It is a bit tricky. I find that often I'm not pressing close enough to the edge. I have the Apple leather case on and I have to press with my finger partially over the edge of the case.
 
ellsworth said:
Kinda bummed that this is hardware based and not software based. I guess something new needed to be added to the 6S in order to get people to buy it. Maybe next year will bring something new an exciting as well.
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A former Apple employee posted on Twitter that they were working on technology for what eventually became 3D Touch for around 5 years. It utilizes the new Taptic Engine and new display technology so I'm not sure how they could have made it purely software based. Plus iOS already utilizes long press so if it wasn't based on force I think it would be quite confusing.
 
None of the 3D Touch menus on apps (like Maps) seem to be working for me. It highlights the app like it recognizes I'm using 3D Touch, but no menus come up. Then it just transitions to wiggle mode. Wondering what I'm doing wrong.
 
ajm222 said:
None of the 3D Touch menus on apps (like Maps) seem to be working for me. It highlights the app like it recognizes I'm using 3D Touch, but no menus come up. Then it just transitions to wiggle mode. Wondering what I'm doing wrong.
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Figured it out. I wasn't activating the 'pop' in 'peek and pop'. Learning curve. Got it now. Neat.
 
I was excited about 3D touch and live photos, but both seem pretty meh after using the phone for a day. To me the only noticeable improvements are the added RAM and the touch ID speed. 3D touch just doesn't add enough efficiency over my previous workflow to be bothered to learn where to use it. Honestly I was disappointed I couldn't create an app folder and drop it into the dock and use 3D touch create a flyout menu to choose apps from it. That seemed to me to be the most logical place to have the functionality.
 
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