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Apple is apparently planning to equip the MacBook Pro’s built-in Touch Bar with new features. At least the technicians in the group are working on appropriate ideas for expanding the OLED function key bar. This emerges from a recently published patent application in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Patently Apple discovered.
Pressure resistance recognizable
The text, whose title is “Force Sensor and Coplanar Display”, deals with the integration of new sensors into the touch bar. Currently, this is “just” a narrow touchscreen display on which Apple places various system functions – for example, controlling media playback. Apps can also store important features here, such as a scrubber for video editing programs or even a scratch option in DJ apps. If the patent application is successful, force-touch recognition could be added in the future, i.e. the detection of the pressure with which the finger is on the touch bar.
iPhone and Apple Watch had it
Force Touch – also called 3D Touch on iPhone – is a feature that Apple once installed on the iPhone and Apple Watch, but has now removed. Then you can press firmly on the computer clock to bring up a submenu, something similar was possible on the iPhone. The necessary sensors are no longer included in the devices, only the length of the pressure is monitored. A Touch Bar with Force Touch could allow for various additional functions, from calling up a submenu to controlling program functions. The patent was applied for last year and has now been promoted by the USPTO.
Apple withdrew
From the user’s perspective, the Touch Bar is controversial. More recently, Apple has even retired and physically implemented the Esc key on Macs with a scissor mechanism, which is now re-installed as standard – it was previously part of the Touch Bar. Even the use of the OLED function key bar by of programs remains modest. Pros in particular tend to lock the Touch Bar to a setting so they can blindly tap it as well.
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