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Force Touch trackpad analyzed, first hands-on experiences posted

forcetouch

The Force Touch trackpad is apparently the trackpad that clicks back at you.

That’s the way it’s being described, as the new trackpad isn’t the usual button that’s pressed during use, but a set of electromagnets that move enough to feel like there’s a click happening. The end result feels like a regular click, which Apple calls the “Taptic Engine”, the electromagnet essentially pushing back at you.




Apple has apparently added new ways to interact with OS X based on a super-hard press. The Taptic Engine gives you an extra click to let you know you’ve successfully pressed hard enough, and then the OS does extra, neat little things like popping up definitions, web page previews on links, maps, image previews, and more. It essentially replaces the old “three-finger tap” that you can do on other MacBooks, but there are more things that Yosemite can do with it now.

The software behind it now contains settings that allow you to adjust how strong the click feels as well as how hard you have to press to initiate a Force Click. There are places where the pressure sensitivity lets you do even more. You can annotate documents in Preview or Mail and pressing harder on the trackpad gives you a thicker line as you draw. You can press harder or softer to speed up or slow down the tracking speed in the Quicktime app.

Take a gander at the video and we’ll have additional information on the Force Touch trackpad as it becomes available.

Via The Verge