What you need to know
- Force Touch might be coming to the Touch Bar for the MacBook Pro.
- Apple has filed a new patent showing off the potential feature.
Reported by Patently Apple, Force Touch could be coming to a future version of the Touch Bar. The United States Patent & Trademark Office has published a patent application from Apple that shows off the potential feature.
Apple's patent application relates to Apple's Touch Bar gaining Force Touch. Apple states that the invention "generally relates to electronic devices, and particularly electronic devices having a display with a force sensor positioned at least partially around, and coplanar with, the display." The "display" referred to is the "second" display.
According to the patent, users could experience little to no flex when using the feature, meaning that the Touch Bar would remain rigid.
The cover typically flexes or otherwise deforms when an input force is exerted on it, although the amount the cover flexes maybe visually and/or tactilely imperceptible to a user. By flexing, the cover may transmit some or all of the input force through the display, thereby permitting the force-sensing circuitry #260 to operate (shown in FIG. 3).
Apple originally created Force Touch for the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but removed the feature from both devices in favor of Haptic Touch for the iPhone and, so far, no replacement for the Apple Watch.
The Touch Bar has received mixed reviews so far from MacBook Pro users, with some really getting into customizing the bar for their workflows and others forgetting to use it altogether. Apple has also not brought the feature to the MacBook Air or any of its desktop keyboards, so some wondered if Apple might abandon it completely. This latest patent, however, seems to breathe some life into the future of it.
