Yesterday I was but a man. Today I am a man who owns an iPhone 6s and all that has come before today seems meaningless.
The touted features of this release include increased specs (a long awaited bump to 2gb ram has finally come to pass), a new camera, and a pressure sensitive display referred to as 3D Touch (formerly Force Touch on the Macbook and Apple Watch).
It’s that last feature, 3D Touch, that is the most interesting yet currently underutilized tech I have ever seen in a mobile device. The display recognizes two different levels of pressure and in supported apps it can open context sensitive menus, preview content (maps, links, photos or videos) and with an even firmer press you can launch into the full app that you previewed.
This feature is awesome. The haptic feedback the phone gives to confirm the press feels more like a direct tap than a vibrate. I find myself using 3D Touch to enter emails and texts when I could easily just tap the standard way. And that is this features greatest failing. It’s fun and it’s cool but in its current form it’s usefulness is lost on me.
I can’t 3D Touch an address because I don’t use Apple’s maps application. My Twitter app of choice doesn’t yet support it, and neither do a majority of apps. But the tech itself is impressive and I know given time and developer creativity, this will become a fun AND useful feature.
Currently 3D Touch is supported in the native iOS apps and only a few handful of third-party apps, yet even as I write this I see app updates coming through offering support for the new feature.
Some implementations are cool (Twitter lets me jump right into a new tweet or a search) while some are less useful (looking at you Open Table). And those are just the apps that support the home screen quick menus, so far only Evernote seems to offer the 3D Touch to preview a link option as seen in the native apps.
Yes the phone is lightning fast (even faster than last years model), yes the pictures look better than ever and 100% yes it looks exactly like last years model but 3D Touch keeps floating to the front of my mind when I use this thing.
Seeing (and feeling) this tech in action has made the price of admission worth it for me. I want to see where it goes, and I won’t stop refreshing the app store in hopes of getting to play with the next app that implements 3D Touch.
