Do you prefer the singular, solid piece of glass that is currently the iPhone screen, the big honking button/piezo electric multi-clicker that powers the BlackBerry Storm and its upcoming second edition, or do you yearn for the ability to customize haptics on your touch screen?
That’s the question our sibling site, CrackBerry.com asked yesterday and the one we’re repeating today. Since you’re reading TiPb, we expect you’re already super-elite when it comes to using the iPhone multitouch screen, so no explanation needed here.
For the first edition BlackBerry Storm, RIM floated a similar screen over a giant button that you had to press down every time you wanted to do something. It allowed separate navigation and execution, but arguably each at the expense of the other. With Storm 2 — well, nobody knows what they’re doing for sure (you can read CrackBerry Kevin’s guesses) but it appears you can click on multiple locations simultaneously, mitigating the linear process of the older model.
Since the BlackBerry Storm 2 has no “clickability” when off, Kevin wonders if users will be able to control how much “clickability” it has when on as well, potentially allowing it to be turn on, turned down, or turned up.
Given each of these options, are you happy with the iPhone screen input method as-is, or does the Storm’s way interest you?
A slew of new Apple patent applications have come to light covering a rather odd range of functionality that may — or may not — make it into future iPhone software and hardware models.
First up is haptic feedback via a “grid of piezoelectronic actuators”, which would provide a varied tactile response when touching the iPhone screen to better orient users (and let them type without locking their eyes on the keyboard, ideally).
Second is a technology that seeks to identify fingerprints — i.e. not only that a user has touched the screen, but which specific finger touched the screen. So, for example, touching with the index finger would produce a different reaction than touching with the middle finger.
Third is for placing a RFID (radio frequency identification) reader in the screen so that, in addition to finger touches (and multi-touches), it could identify the unique tag given to objects as well.
Lastly is a method for letting users sing to the iPhone, and having the iPhone provide feedback on tone, pitch, etc. Basically, rating the quality of your karaoke — or of the latest pre-packaged Hollywood auto-tune single, we imagine.
Again, there’s no telling when, or if at all, Apple will release real-world products based on these patents, but they do give some hint as to which direction(s) Apple’s thinking.
Take this with a grain of salt roughly the size of a tanker truck, but Palluxo is claiming that Apple is in talks to license Immersion’s haptic feedback technology for the iPhone:
A source (Apple Inc employee), who chose to remain anonymous, told us that senior executives of the two companies have already met once on Tuesday and the next meeting has been scheduled for Friday morning. The source confirmed that the executives will continue discussions over licencing and implementation issues of iPhone haptics.
Haptic technology involves using vibrations and similar feedback to give the impression of tactile feedback (i.e., it makes pushing a button drawn with pixels feel more like pushing a real, hardware button).
While competitors have been vocal about adopting haptics, Apple has been characteristically mute on the issue, though Steve Jobs famed dislike for buttons (witness the turtleneck) may no doubt be a factor
