12 ms·

3D Touch should've replaced long press. I hate that I have to wait, I don't care that it's 0.4 of a second. A long press is a concession to the fact that there'

• digi_owl 10y ago
  What surprises me is that they didn't try to use it to make the keyboard more "physical". If the OSK can distinguish a finger resting from a finger pressing, then you get closer to that of a physical keyboard. Especially if the resting part can be tied in with the vibration engine to give a slight nudge to indicate edges of keys, or some such.
  • galistoca 10y ago
    That sounds like emulating for the sake of emulating. I'm sure even you would hate it if you actually saw it in production. Typing on keyboard is shitty as it is. By making it force touch, it will be much slower to finish a sentence. When people use physical keyboards their fingers are by default resting on the keys. When most users type on mobile, they're not. It's easier to NOT rest fingers on the keys than resting for so many reasons, such as you not being able to see the keys if your finger is covering them.
    • digi_owl 10y ago
      And that is where the vibrate comes in. the keyboard is of a known layout, and by marking by feel when you move from one key to the next you know where you are. This allows the keyboard to be operated without looking, much like how most people use a ordinary keyboard today once they are past the hunt-and-peck stage. A big reason for touch screens being a problem in many situations is that you have to actually look at it to operate it. Physical buttons, switches and knobs can be operated by touch alone. Frankly way too much of modern computing relies on sight and sight alone. Also, allowing someone to rest on the keyboard is why long typing sessions are not such a strain on the hands. Without it, the writs has to carry the weight of the fingers continually.
      • galistoca 10y ago
        I'm guessing you downvoted me because you disagree with my point of view. I'll just tell you this: I have been thinking a lot about the stuff you talk about here and even prototyped a hardware device to try out the idea. I had the same point of view (It would be nice to have an input device I can use without even looking) but after experimenting I realized this isn't the case. Also this "vibration" thing you're talking about--it's obvious you haven't thought deeply about this because if you took at least a couple of hours thinking more about how this would work you would realize vibration itself has nothing to do with this". I have had a phone that gave you nice tactile feedback using vibration (Prada phone), and while it does feel nice, it doesn't do anything in terms of letting me know my input was correct. Anyway this all doesn't mean anything if you don't really believe me. So let me ask you a rhetorical question: Do you think you will be able to type into a blackberry absolutely without looking at the keyboard? Also, when exactly would you be typing while NOT looking at a mobile screen? Even on a blackberry people have to look at the screen to make sure they didn't mistype something (Even with all that tactile feedback). On a desktop computer typing without looking makes sense because that's the mode in which people use the device (whereas on a mobile phone the screen and the keyboard are attached so looking at the screen means also looking at the keyboard) Anyway if you really believe in these ideas, you should at least try an MVP or any simple experiment (or maybe even some thought experiment) before being so sure about it.
        • Natanael_L 10y ago
          The Steam gamepad and the Macbook's new touchpads can simulate tactile borders and shapes on the surface with controlled vibration. Combine with pressure detection and you can make Swype / SwiftKey provide a sense of where you're dragging your finger when swipe typing, plus that you can put emphasis on the right letters easily when swiping across groups of letters that would make for different words, making for better precision in the word suggestions. It would also be much easier to implement gesture support by having areas much easier to target that you start gestures from or end them in. You'd also instantly get tactile feedback telling you if you made the gesture right or not, like for switching character sets or for moving the cursor. Lots of gestures could be supported, where you'd essentially be "asked" with tactile feedback to push harder after making the gesture to activate the particular action. Suddenly you solved both accessibility, discoverability and precision, while reducing the error rate.
  • klagermkii 10y ago
    I wonder if the pressure detection is localised enough to allow that to work without being annoying? If I'm resting my right thumb on a letter, but pressing with my left thumb on another letter, I don't think the tech is necessarily there to accurately detect which letter got pressed. And I think that's needed to make typing feel good, since in using my regular keyboard while one finger is pressing a key the next finger is on or hovering over the next key.
  • jonathankoren 10y ago
    The problem with converting the keyboard to 3d presses, is that goes against almost 10 years of user expectations. If I had to press harder to type a letter, I'd think something was wrong.
• Camillo 10y ago
  But you still have to wait with 3D touch. If I press hard on an icon on my home screen, it still takes 0.4s or so before the popup appears.
• overcast 10y ago
  Agreed 100% on the replacement of long press. I know what I'm doing and I'm still popping up menus I don't want.