I find it interesting that both Apple[1] and Samsung[2] applied for patents early last year regarding pressure sensitive touch screens. Apple at the end of Jan

I find it interesting that both Apple[1] and Samsung[2] applied for patents early last year regarding pressure sensitive touch screens. Apple at the end of January, and Samsung at the end of February. I also noticed that the Android API has had a getPressure[3] call since really early API versions, so I assume they were aware this was an option a long time ago. Any ideas why this is suddenly being touted as "the Start of a New Interface"? Has the accuracy / latency / sensitivity finally become good enough to be useful? Or is this just the Apple PR juggernaut pushing an old idea as a new feature? [1]: http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140028575 http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140028575 [2]: http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140055407 http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140055407 [3]: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html#getPressure(int) http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEv...