Making an iPhone is complex, for sure. Creating the hardware and software that rules our daily lives has been an ongoing, iterative process since 2007, when Steve Jobs revealed the first one.
Since then and on up to the newly announced iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the iPhone itself has improved bit by bit while still wowing consumers as better enough to upgrade to.
“You can’t just say, ‘Here it is. It does the same thing 5 percent better than last year,’ says senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller in an interview over at Bloomberg. “Nobody cares.”
In a device that’s the essence of complexity, refined, the new 3D Touch was super tricky to make, as the in-depth interview explains.
Figuring out 3D Touch, though, is more than about just figuring out how much force is being applied to an iPhone screen. Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, says that Apple ultimately is tryihng to sense user intent.
“You’re trying to read minds,” he says in the interview.” And yet you have a user who might be using his thumb, his finger, might be emotional at the moment, might be walking, might be laying on the couch. These things don’t affect intent, but they do affect what a sensor sees.”
Technically, to figure out the pressure on the screen, you need to cancel out gravity’s effects when the device is held one way, and subtract gravity when held another way. This is in concert with 96 sensors and Corning’s new pliable glass — not a simple interaction by any means.
“And if you don’t get it right,” says Federighi, “none of it works.”
If you fancy an in-depth look at just one small detail on making the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus as wow-worthy as possible, head on over to the full interview to read it all.
Source: Bloomberg
