What is Digg?45 Comments
- flipmeat, on 10/15/2007, -2/+19Since I got an iPhone, I am frequently catching myself wanting to touch the screen, or trying to 'flick' a scrolling window using the trackpad. It is very, very easy to imagine Steve saying 'Our customers love multitouch, so we're making the all new smegmac pro touchable.' But that may be just me.
- jmkiii, on 10/15/2007, -3/+12I can press on the screen without breaking the hinge, but I don't want your pig!
- arcane14, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I have found that I am very sensitive to pressure sometimes.
- Ireland, on 10/15/2007, -0/+6"smegmac" ?
- Adamness, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I'd imagine Apple would make it more like the Wacom Cintiq than just a touchpad with a screen on top.
- Modestexcuse, on 10/15/2007, -2/+7Dugg because it's the 4th Apple patent I've read this week.
- enginbeering, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That was Jobs' first initiative when he retook the helm at apple: cut back the product line. Now he's building it back out, and I think at a slow enough pace that they're able to keep up with themselves.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+533% less 60 days later!
- KevenM, on 10/15/2007, -8/+11This smells like a bad idea. They want to build a device which encourages people to press HARD on a screen? 22 seconds after the first one goes on sale that you hear a report "I just put my finger through my screen"
- davidrools, on 10/15/2007, -2/+5BFD touchpads on laptops have been pressure sensitive for 5+ years. Synaptics touchpad drivers let you change the dragging/scrolling speed based on pressure and have at least since my first laptop in 2002. Am I missing something? Current touchpads do sense pressure more than just measuring the size of your fingerprint (and correlating an increased fingerprint size with increased pressure). As usual, apple gets credit for innovating when they're really just repackaging existing technology.
- ForbesBingley, on 10/15/2007, -7/+10The thing to consider here is that adding pressure-sensitivity for something like the iPod Touch, iPhone or the MacBook line doesn't make too much sense.
First of all, it's going to be hard to code Web2.0 applications for the iPhone to work with this kind of feature, and the iPhone and iPod Touch are the wrong type of devices for this stuff.
With regards to the MacBook line, I'll give anyone a gold pig if they can press on such a screen without breaking the hinge.
Now a Mac tablet is a prime candidate for pressure-sensitivity, but that's runmour unto itself... - unitethenations, on 10/15/2007, -0/+3red dwarf
- Dan2552, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Patenting pressured touchpads/touchscreens? They already exist in so many devices already, even the Nintendo DS has slight pressure detection.
This is why I don't like patents. - noahhoward, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3It doesn't encourage you to press hard on the screen.
- KevenM, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2That's the thing - as a programmer, you wouldn't want users to press on it too much, but it's like the expression: Build an idiot device, and someone will build a better idiot. Next time you pick up a console controller, or you're playing a game with keyboard and mouse, consider how often you instinctively press the button harder to make it do the action 'more forcefully' (like running in an FPS).
btw, I think that what you described is 'touch sensitive' which only measures touch as 'on/off' whereas 'pressure sensitive' would measure in multiple increment HOW HARD one is pressing on the screen or surface. - noahhoward, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Totally different animal.
- inactive, on 10/15/2007, -2/+4Actually, this isn't yet approaching the level in interactivity of surface computing. Remember the surface computer "sees" the surfeace, and you can place things on it and it can sense what they are.
- LeafsIn07, on 10/15/2007, -0/+2There has to be a third party pornography application for this technology.
- KevenM, on 10/15/2007, -0/+2Dude, I agree with you 100%. I was just making a forecast of Digg headlines that would come as a result.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Pressure-sensitive just means that, it's sensitive to pressure. Now, how much pressure you want to apply probably depends on you. If I was a programmer I wouldn't want users pressing on it too much, to the point people have to start putting their fingers through the screen....oh wait up...why the hell am I replying to this...anyway.
- delb, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Apple almost seems like it's getting it's hands into to many things. The biggest thing Apple does extremely well is make the products they do release great. With as many things as they seem to be working on I hope that doesn't cause reliability to suffer. Quantity is not always better then quality.
- KevenM, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2so what exactly does 'pressure-sensitive' refer to?
- mlerner, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1touch pads? Don't they already have those?
- KSUdesigner, on 10/15/2007, -1/+2As long as the things have RFID tags on them.
- logandurand, on 10/15/2007, -0/+1Yea, surface doesn't "see" *****, it just uses a bunch of RFID tags and bar codes. Not quite to the "recognition" stage yet.
- Ireland, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Pressure sensitive notebook computer touch pads? Not that I know of. It's a pressure sensitive multi-touch Mac tablet that really intrigues me though.
- KSUdesigner, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They usually have different teams of people working on each project. I'm sure they hire a new batch of people (in addition to pulling some internally) to work on new endeavors. There are many other companies that have much larger product lines than Apple, they seem to handle it just fine.
- Brad324, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Hey baby, I'd like to explore your pressure-sensitive touch pad.
- Ireland, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2It's not just about sensing pressure, we all know they have existed for years. It's about changing it's function due to different pressures applied. It's a combination of software and hardware. And it's about this applied with multi-touch capabilities too.
- nullcodes, on 10/15/2007, -1/+1Just because SOME people may break it doesnt mean it's a bad idea.
Some people break glasses, so are they a bad idea too?
You mouse works on pressing a clicker. So do you break your mice too?
No seriously .. how much force will most normal people apply to a $399 device ? Besides, do you know how sturdy it is? So maybe it's not for some people (you?) .. but I sure as hell would want it. So there is a market of at least one for it. - mynona, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Oooops, broke it... Damn! pressure sensitive screen...
- coolmos, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1These already exist, so Apple can patent all they want, but this pig won't fly.
Here (http://www.elotouch.com/products/Touchscreens/Inte ... is an example:
"Sensitive touch response—recognizes location and amount of pressure applied "
And even a standard 4 or 5 or 8-wire touchscreen has a certain pressure sensitivity. - davidrools, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Quality has been suffering a bit, did you notice?
- TheCheeks, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Uh, like a Wacom tablet using your finger instead of the pen?
- jftitan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Can I have the gold then?
- dejanslo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I imagine it as it will have a fixed number of levels of pressure.
- shpoffo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I don't look forward to people whining when Apple holds off on 3rd party development for some months post-initial-release of a Tablet Mac
- inactive, on 10/15/2007, -2/+1It wasn't RFID tags. They were little barcodes, even more impressive that it was able to 'see' those. Also I don't think the little glass squares for the movie squares games had any sort of id tag on them.
- z01inks, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Here comes my touch-screen iMac ! ! MUHAHAH, and you doubted me ... bwhahah
- noahhoward, on 10/15/2007, -4/+3I have a MacBook, I just pushed on the screen in three places and forced it backwards into another computer. I went above and beyond sensible pressure and really gave it all I had... the hinge is fine. I look forward to delivery of this golden pig.
My fellow Diggers, once Forbes comes through on his end of the deal I invite you all over for golden bacon sarneys. - iceschade, on 10/15/2007, -4/+3It was from the beginning. It was an interesting idea, but for the most part, worthless. Someday we might have a better use for it, but I'm willing to bet good money on the fact that Microsoft isn't going to be the company in the forefront. Chances are, the Open Source guys will far surpass anything MS will do. Kinda like how they beat vista's looks LONG before Vista was even released.
- vit4ek, on 10/15/2007, -5/+1Just wondering what would be the price of such a device :D
- ForbesBingley, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1@jmkiii: try writing on a sheet of paper hung on a washing line .. that's what you're up against...
- mediaspree, on 10/15/2007, -11/+1Looks like the Microsoft Surface is already obsolete
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