(Pocket-lint) – Apple’s more recent MacBooks have trackpads that detect the force of a tap, responding differently to variations in pressure.
The technology, which involves something called haptic feedback, is known as Force Touch. This is everything you need to know about Apple’s Force Touch haptic feedback technology.
What’s different about the Force Touch trackpad?
The function of a trackpad has not changed much over the years. It is typically a stationary touch-mouse with clickable buttons, though sometimes it looks and acts like one big button. The Force Touch trackpad is different, and not just because it has a capacitive glass surface.
Force Touch
Apple describes Force Touch as the “most significant new sensing capability” since it included Multi‑Touch in older MacBook laptops.
Apart from the usual gestures (like scrolling, swiping, and pinching), the Force Touch trackpad has a customisable feature aptly titled Force Touch. You can adjust the feature’s sensitivity, so that the pressure needed to register a click is determined by you.
Force Touch can even tell whether you’re clicking with your thumb or another finger and auto-adjusts to the sensitivity level.
Force sensors
The Force Touch trackpad doesn’t actually move when pressed. It has “force sensors” under its four corners, and they detect subtle differences in the amount of pressure you apply, making it possible to perform a variety of different functions in different apps.
Force sensors not only detect your click, but also move the trackpad laterally toward you, mimicking the downward motion of a trackpad.
Haptic feedback
The Force Touch trackpad responds to your taps and presses with haptic feedback technology that you can actually feel. Haptic feedback allows the trackpad to recreate the sense of touch by simulating vibrations and other motions, meaning it’ll let you feel a click on the trackpad, even though the trackpad isn’t actually moving downward when clicked.
Haptic feedback is made possible due to Taptic Engine.
Taptic Engine
Taptic Engine is a small device attached to the back of the trackpad. It mimics the downward motion (or physical depression) of a trackpad by tapping back in the opposite direction of your click, thus simulating the physical movement, and fooling you into thinking the trackpad is moving.
A traditional trackpad doesn’t do any this but instead has a diving board mechanism underneath, and that’s what moves downward and clicks.
How to use the Force Touch trackpad examples
Force click
The Force sensors detect more than one type of click (i.e., a light click can perform one action, while a harder click can perform another, and you’re able to adjust how hard of a press is needed for any type of action), but a hard press that you continue to press is something that Apple dubs Force click.
You can Force click on the trackpad to enable new capabilities, such as looking up the definition of a word or previewing a file.
Accelerators
Another type of new click or gesture is dubbed accelerators, and it works like this: gradually add pressure to the Force Touch trackpad to vary the speed with which you fast-forward through a movie.
You can also gradually add pressure to zoom in on a location in Maps.
Pressure-sensitive drawing
A third type of click/gesture is for pressure-sensitive drawing. In other words: you can press lightly on the Force Touch trackpad to create a thin stroke while drawing or harder for a thick one when, let’s say, creating a signature for forms in Preview.
The trackpad will of course also send a tangible response to your fingertip whenever you perform certain actions, including Force click, accelerators, and pressure-sensitive drawing, meaning you’ll be able to feel even mundane tasks like like aligning annotations on a PDF.
Force Touch on Apple Watch
In Apple Watch, Force Touch also senses force. It uses tiny electrodes around the flexible Retina display to distinguish between a light tap and a deep press, and that allows Apple Watch to trigger instant access to a range of contextually-specific controls.
You can press firmly to bring up additional controls in Messages, for instance, or you can select different watch faces, search for an address in Maps, etc.
Force Touch on iPhone
It’s not exactly the same technology, but it works in a similar way. The iPhone XR ditched 3D Touch for Haptic Touch in 2018 and the 2019 iPhones followed suit. You can read all about Haptic Touch in our separate feature.
Want to know more?
Check out Apple’s pages for the MacBook and Apple Watch, in which the company has fully detailed how Force Touch works.
Gallery: Which is the best Facebook Portal video calling device for you? (Pocket-lint)
Best Facebook Portal device
Facebook now has several different smart displays aimed at video calling and helping you connect with your loved ones. These range from a small screened device that looks like a digital photo frame to a camera that plugs into your television.
Each of these devices is intended to make video calling more convenient, interesting and accessible. But which of the Facebook Portal devices is right for you?
We’re here to help you work out the differences and decided which version to purchase.
Facebook Portal Mini
The Facebook Portal Mini is the smallest of the range. Like the others, it’s a capable video calling device and with a cleverly thought out speaker design it also packs a surprising amount of audio punch.
As the smallest smart display, it probably most closely resembles the digital photo frames it was inspired by, though with far more features.
The Portal Mini also has a 13MP camera with a 114-degree field of view that’s capable of picking up most of the room. There’s the built-in privacy shutter in the top left that you can easily slide to block off the lens and turn off the microphones too. You get visual alerts to show when this has happened via lights on the device and notifications on the screen.
Portal Mini can be used in portrait or landscape orientation and sports an intelligent adaptive display that adjust brightness and colour to account for your surroundings. This makes your favourite photos look great, but ensures calls look good too.
Thanks to its small frame, the Portal Mini can be placed anywhere in the home and will perform its duties from whatever spot you choose. Whether you decide to set it up in the living room for comfortable calls with the family or in the kitchen where it can also be used for recipe hunting with Alexa, the Portal Mini is flexible and useful.
Portal Mini is also the most affordable of these devices with regular discounts available.
Facebook Portal
The Facebook Portal is the larger brother of the Mini with a similar photo frame-like design, but with a larger 10-inch screen. It too can be used in either landscape or portrait modes and looks great for displaying photos or placing calls.
Like the Mini, the larger Portal has all the smarts we’ve already covered including AR effects, Alexa integration, the ability to display your photos and watch videos too. It packs some capable speakers and delivers an interesting experience at a reasonable price.
The 10-inch screen and subtle frame means Facebook Portal can sit nicely almost anywhere around your home without much fuss.
Facebook Portal+
Facebook Portal+ is the largest and the most premium device in the line-up. It has a large stylish looking design that stands out in the home and is far less subtle than the smaller photo frame styled devices. We can’t help but think this one looks more like a Mac than a standard smart display.
It boasts a large 15.6-inch screen with a 1080p resolution that’s the best of the bunch in terms of visuals. Oddly, it has a slightly lower count camera at 12MP compared to 13MP on the smaller devices, but it does have a wider field of view. It also has better speakers and a more impressive presence in the room.
Of course, if you invest in Portal+ you’re more than likely going all-in with Portal and will have to explain to guests what the large screen is sitting in the corner of the room.
Portal+ works in both landscape and portrait mode too though, so you can turn it to fit your space or personal preference.
We’re of the opinion that Portal+ offers the most premium video-calling experience of any device or service out there, but that does come at a price.
Portal TV
Facebook Portal TV is the standout in the Portal range. This device doesn’t have a screen, but instead uses your TV to display video calls. It is essentially an intelligent webcam that plugs into your TV via an HDMI cable, then uses that as a large screen for video calls.
Portal TV is useful because it is designed to sit near to your TV or on top of it and allow for a hassle-free, hands-free video call with ease.
It comes with a built-in speaker to let you know when a call is coming in and a remote control or voice controls that allow you to answer the calls with ease. Thanks to a 120-degree wide field of view camera and the smart camera tech, it can essentially see your entire living room and track people in the room as they move about too.
Portal TV also packs more microphones than the other devices, with eight far-field mics built-in to allow it to capture the voices of people in the room while eliminating unnecessary background noise. This is likely the least invasive device in the line-up as the subtle camera could easily be overlooked by guests and yet you have an easy way to make video calls when you need to.
Like the other Portal devices, Portal TV has a privacy shutter and mic mute button when you don’t want to use it and want to double down on privacy, but otherwise, it’s ready for action at a moments notice. Facebook says Portal TV is designed to not interrupt your TV viewing either. It won’t automatically switch to video calls when you’re in the middle of a film or binge-watching your favourite Netflix show, you have to accept the call first.
With Portal TV you get the added bonus of access to Facebook’s “Watch Together” functionality. If you’re placing calls with other Facebook TV users you can watch videos together while also on the call.
Portal TV also has the same functionality as the other Portal devices, except it uses your TV as the display. It works with Alexa, functions as a “superframe” display for your photos and works with AR effects and Story Time too.
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