Taptic Engine

Apple is reportedly phasing out traditional buttons, starting with the iPhone 15 Pro models. The handsets will still seem to have them, but it’ll be a high-tech trick performed with haptic feedback.

The change should make the iOS devices more durable and waterproof.

Apple could switch to solid-state volume and power buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro series. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has made this claim based on his latest supply chain checks.

To replicate the feeling of pressing a physical button, Apple will add two Taptic Engines to 2023’s Pro iPhones.

Studies show that haptic feedback improves touchscreen typing speed and input accuracy, and at last Apple has added it to iOS 16.

Android phones years ago had haptic keyboards, but without a precision vibration motor, the haptic feedback was too slow to complete the illusion. With the Taptic Engine — hardware in every iPhone since the iPhone 6s that can simulate all kinds of haptic textures — Apple created a perfectly convincing effect to enable the haptic keyboard in iOS 16.

Leaving the keyboard click sounds on in public is a minor social faux pas, but you really do type better when you have some sort of feedback for hitting the keys. It feels incredible. I turned it on early this summer on the iOS 16 beta, and every time I held my wife’s phone on iOS 15, it felt broken. You can’t go back once you turn it on — it’s that great.

Read on to see where to enable it.

One of the defining characteristics of digital watches in the 1980s was the hourly chime. Every morning during school assembly, 9 o’clock would arrive, and with it a chorus of chimes, like electronic tweety birds at dawn. The double beeps filled the school hall. The teachers had long since given up trying to make us turn them off.

Now, you can experience the same thing with your Apple Watch. You can even make the chime sound like a real little birdie!

Apple found a way around China’s domination of the market for rare-earth elements: it’s getting these important materials recycled.

The reused rare earths go into an important component of iPhone displays.

In just a few weeks, Apple looks set to unveil the biggest upgrade yet to its popular wearable.
While the external appearance of Apple Watch has not changed much since its launch, recent leaks suggest we can expect a new form factor with a larger screen when Apple Watch Series 4 lands.

In the Photoshop mockup above, I’ve shown how Apple’s next watch might look if it slimmed down and added a larger screen (as the rumormongers predict). That would be pretty cool, but there are plenty of other potential upgrades I’m excited about.

Here’s my top 10 wish list for Apple Watch Series 4 new features.

Avi Cieplinski, the former Apple engineer who co-invented the 3D Touch and Taptic Engine iPhone features, has joined mapping startup Mapbox to create AR software tools.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus deliver an all-new Home button that uses the Taptic Engine inside your device to simulate clicks. It doesn’t actually move in and out like a traditional iPhone Home button, but that’s not a bad thing.

Not only does it make your iPhone more reliable (without a moving button there’s no need to worry about it failing), but it also makes it more water-resistant. It’s also customizable; you can adjust the strength of the haptic feedback to make your clicks more noticeable.

Here’s how.

The new Apple Watch Series 2 is more repairable than Apple’s original wearable, according to the first teardown to pry open the new device.

Apple Watch Series 2 looks exactly the same as its predecessor on the outside. On the inside it’s an entirely different story, as Apple’s engineers have refined the internals and made it a bit easier to work with.

Wireless iPhone charging is a feature Apple fans have dreamed of for years, and it could finally be on the way — with an interesting twist that takes advantage of Apple’s unique technology.

You know how McDonald’s (allegedly) has a secret menu? Plenty of people have heard about it, some use it frequently and bask in its glory, but most just stick to the regular menu.

That seems an awful lot like how 3D Touch could pan out.

Apple Watch apps have been ridiculously slow ever since Jony Ive’s timepiece started slapping itself onto wrists in April, but that could change by this fall thanks to the introduction of watchOS 2.0.

The next generation of Apple Watch’s software and apps was unveiled today at WWDC in San Francisco by Apple VP Kevin Lynch, who showed off a number of new features that probably should have been included on the device at launch. As we predicted, third-party apps will finally be able to run natively on the Apple Watch and there are a bunch of smaller improvements coming to the timepiece as well.

Here’s everything you need to know about watchOS 2.0.

Apple launched a number of new Macs through the Apple Online Store today, including a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro with Force Touch and a more-affordable 5K iMac. They all boast faster Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, as expected, and they’re shipping in just one business day.

The Apple Watch has been in short supply ever since its hype-filled launch, and a new report claims that it’s all the Taptic Engine’s fault.

Defects in the key Apple Watch component were found in the Apple’s supply chain, severely limiting early supplies of the wearable, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

We’re still waiting for the unbelievably gorgeous 12-inch MacBook to ship, but our friends at iFixit have already done a teardown on the updated MacBook Pro, revealing the secret sauce behind the new Force Touch Trackpad and Taptic Engine that both new Macs share.

The teardown shows that the Pro’s new trackpad is supported by four spring mounts and a panel that isn’t likely to be present on the 12-inch MacBook. It does have the same Force Touch engine, which is really just a bunch of wire coils wrapped around a ferromagnetic core to create the clicky vibrations.

Check out the full gory details below:

Today’s media presentation was billed as an Apple Watch event and even its name, “Spring Forward,” had the press preoccupied with time and wrist-based computing.

But journalists in attendance were just as excited to learn about a completely reinvented Retina MacBook. Reporters covering the Apple unveiling eagerly shared initial impressions once they got their hands on Apple’s thinnest, lightest computer yet.

The look impressed. The touch was another matter.