Now that the Apple Watch event is over, it’s time for rumors about Apple’s next major announcements to come to the fore. A report from the Wall Street Journal said that the next version of the iPhone is slated to feature sensors that can determine how forcefully someone is touching their device’s screen.
The force-sensitive screen would be a boon to gaming and art applications that could take advantage of information about how hard someone is pressing down on their screen to vary brush size or perform different gameplay functions.
According to people familiar with the matter, Apple won’t be changing the form factor for the next release of its popular smartphone (hardly a surprise), but the company is testing a pink-colored case for the device to go along with the existing gold, silver and space gray options.
It would be another application for Apple’s “Force Touch” technology, which is already making an appearance in the Apple Watch and the trackpad of the MacBook and 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Translating that to the iPhone makes sense, especially with the larger screens on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. They’re getting large enough to provide an effective canvas for drawing on the go, and adding pressure-sensitivity would make them even better in that regard.
