3 ms·

>I believe that the 3D Touch tech that was once in the iPhone is the same tech that is in the track pad and the Apple Watch 3D touch was only in the iphones fo

by asdff 3y ago

>I believe that the 3D Touch tech that was once in the iPhone is the same tech that is in the track pad and the Apple Watch 3D touch was only in the iphones for a few years, it was too expensive so they cut it in favor of the haptic touch they have now. The macbook trackpad is nice but honestly I prefer the old 2012 one they had with the actual physical button you could tweak the pressure of with a screwdriver. It seems a lot more ergonomic to have some actual give in the device instead of just jamming your finger onto an unmoving slab of glass. You don't even realize how hard it is you are pressing onto these things until you try testing your muscle memory with the computer off; its sort of alarming.

nerdjon 3y ago
I thought 3D Touch was cut because no one seemed to know the functionality existed, it had a discoverability issue. It was kinda tacked onto iOS unlike WatchOS where it was part of how the entire OS was designed. Which I always found unfortunate, it had some really nice uses like not needing to wait when holding down for the OS to register and being able to pull up a context menu, slide up, and release to select the menu item all in one motion. I was sad when it was removed, but I also get it. I get the idea of a physical trackpad, and I do remember when that was the thing. I honestly don't even notice that the trackpad is not physically moving. It simulates the feel enough that if I didn't know it was not moving I would think it was. You are right it is shocking when you try to use it while it's off and it's like... oh right. But I just am not in that situation often. (However when Mac freezes and it "clicks" multiple times since it did not properly register ealrier, that's honestly kinda wild... but infrequent). But I also like not needing to think, I need to press on a specific part of the trackpad for it to properly register. I vividly remember only the bottom half really registering and the higher you went the shallower the press was.
iknowstuff 3y ago
I’m sorry what You can adjust the pressing force required in software, and the glass does in fact depress under your finger. It’s cushioned - that’s how they detect pressure.
- jxdxbx 3y ago
  My Apple trackpads don’t click when they are powered off. It just feels like pressing a piece of glass.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jandrese 3y ago
  You can also detect pressure by just measuring how much of your finger is touching the pad. A small spot means light pressure, a large spot where your skin is flatted out more against the glass is higher pressure. In practice these kinds of measurements are fairly tricky so they don't get used very much.
  - seltzered_ 3y ago
    This. If you ever look at apples raw input touch privateframework it provides enough data for the relative direction/size as well as has some encoded states to at least detect between a very faint touch and a finger on the trackpad. This I think goes back to the first unibody MacBooks from around 2008.
    - wtallis 3y ago
      The multitouch trackpads actually showed up in the early 2008 MacBook Pros that were the last ones before switching to the unibody enclosure (IIRC the keyboard/trackpad parts could be retrofitted into 2007 MacBook Pros). The early 2008 models still had a separate physical button at the bottom of the trackpad. The late 2008 models got rid of the button and made the whole trackpad hinged at the top to act as a button. Then in 2015 they introduced the Force Touch trackpad that fixed the awkwardness of needing more force to click the further up the trackpad you went.
      - seltzered_ 3y ago
        Yep. And this blog post from 2009 was a big inspiration for me in exploring touch on the mac: https://archive.org/details/2009-03-28-steike-code-macbook-multitouch https://archive.org/details/2009-03-28-steike-code-macbook-m... and a comment a few years ago by me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23274577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23274577

by asdff 3y ago

nerdjon 3y ago

I thought 3D Touch was cut because no one seemed to know the functionality existed, it had a discoverability issue. It was kinda tacked onto iOS unlike WatchOS where it was part of how the entire OS was designed. Which I always found unfortunate, it had some really nice uses like not needing to wait when holding down for the OS to register and being able to pull up a context menu, slide up, and release to select the menu item all in one motion. I was sad when it was removed, but I also get it. I get the idea of a physical trackpad, and I do remember when that was the thing. I honestly don't even notice that the trackpad is not physically moving. It simulates the feel enough that if I didn't know it was not moving I would think it was. You are right it is shocking when you try to use it while it's off and it's like... oh right. But I just am not in that situation often. (However when Mac freezes and it "clicks" multiple times since it did not properly register ealrier, that's honestly kinda wild... but infrequent). But I also like not needing to think, I need to press on a specific part of the trackpad for it to properly register. I vividly remember only the bottom half really registering and the higher you went the shallower the press was.

iknowstuff 3y ago

I’m sorry what You can adjust the pressing force required in software, and the glass does in fact depress under your finger. It’s cushioned - that’s how they detect pressure.

jxdxbx 3y ago
My Apple trackpads don’t click when they are powered off. It just feels like pressing a piece of glass.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jandrese 3y ago
You can also detect pressure by just measuring how much of your finger is touching the pad. A small spot means light pressure, a large spot where your skin is flatted out more against the glass is higher pressure. In practice these kinds of measurements are fairly tricky so they don't get used very much.
- seltzered_ 3y ago
  This. If you ever look at apples raw input touch privateframework it provides enough data for the relative direction/size as well as has some encoded states to at least detect between a very faint touch and a finger on the trackpad. This I think goes back to the first unibody MacBooks from around 2008.
  - wtallis 3y ago
    The multitouch trackpads actually showed up in the early 2008 MacBook Pros that were the last ones before switching to the unibody enclosure (IIRC the keyboard/trackpad parts could be retrofitted into 2007 MacBook Pros). The early 2008 models still had a separate physical button at the bottom of the trackpad. The late 2008 models got rid of the button and made the whole trackpad hinged at the top to act as a button. Then in 2015 they introduced the Force Touch trackpad that fixed the awkwardness of needing more force to click the further up the trackpad you went.
    - seltzered_ 3y ago
      Yep. And this blog post from 2009 was a big inspiration for me in exploring touch on the mac: https://archive.org/details/2009-03-28-steike-code-macbook-multitouch https://archive.org/details/2009-03-28-steike-code-macbook-m... and a comment a few years ago by me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23274577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23274577