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iPhone 7 Specs, Features & Release Date: New Apple Phone To Have 'Force Touch' Gesture? [Rumors]

While fans of Cupertino-based firm, Apple, are still on an Apple Watch high following the opening of its online preordering, another gadget from the company is set to make the rounds soon. Word is out that the company is coming out with the iPhone 7 that would feature a never-before-seen technology in any iPhone.

MacRumors first reported of the possibility that a new touch feature would arrive with the highly anticipated smartphone. An analyst from KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, revealed that the Tim Cook-led tech firm has plans to put the technology, called the "Force Touch," feature into the new phone.

The "Force Touch" technology is a modified way of clicking the trackpad to do the necessary commands without having to move your fingers.

According to PC Mag, the new feature would allow users to press the pad and "a sensor built into the pad senses if you're pressing it, and moves a weight, which fools your fingertip into sensing that there is vertical movement."

It is also designed to "detect pressure," so that when someone presses the pad harder, "the trackpad will click a second time, and activate the Force Click function."

While the technology was already introduced into the MacBook Air and Apple Watch, no other iPhone has this. The addition of such feature is rumored to bring a new design to the phone's hardware.

The analyst surmised that the new "Touch Force" feature would work differently than the one incorporated into the laptop and watch.

"We believe that iPhone's 'Force Touch' sensor doesn't directly detect the pressure applied by fingers. Instead, it monitors the contact area on which the finger touches the screen to decide how big the pressure is," said Kuo.

The analyst mentioned that with this technology, there are two options Apple developers could do to integrate it in the hardware. One is to place it "under the In-cell touch panel's backlight" while the second possibility is to put it "between the cover lens and the In-cell touch panel."

With such a significant change, it is rumored that Apple would instead debut the feature into the iPhone 7 and nix the iPhone 6s altogether, reported Air Herald. Its uniqueness would reportedly bring in a new breed of smartphones for the company.

No other new feature has been rumored for the iPhone 7 and it remains to be seen if Kuo's notes are correct. No date has been announced for the arrival of the next generation phone.


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