September will be with us before we know it, and for Apple fans this means iPhone season is almost here. Along with the sound of heavy breathing, you can also hear the rumour mill spinning of its axis as we speak. The latest in the long line of speculations surrounding the iPhone 7 could further confirm the idea of there being a Force Touch button in place of a physical home button.
News source Business Insider is reporting the rumour again with the news allegedly sourced from expert analysts. This isn’t the first time the word Force Touch have been use in the same sentence as Apple iPhone 7 and the more you hear something the more believable it becomes.
The Force Touch component is something that was introduced to the Apple MacBook in the last year and uses force sensors and a Taptic engine to the measure pressure applied by a finger touch so that various gestures can create different responses from the device. Adapting and introducing the idea to the iPhone as a new home button would offer a great deal of versatility to its range functions and an interesting gimmick to hold over rival brands the likes of Samsung. It’ll also write off one of the iPhone’s most notoriously fallible features – the home button.
It’s also a pretty cool idea and a number of concept images have appeared recently which all seem to agree on a similar design: The home button replaced by a circular touch panel at the bottom of the front surface of the handset offering maximum usable work area. Some of these lavish designs also feature a curved screen. Something else Apple has been rumoured to be working on for a future model iPhone and which was confirmed in a recent patent filed.
Other commonly shared rumours about the iPhone 7 suggest that it’ll be waterproof and also feature no 3.5mm headphone port which will allow the handset to be thinner and lighter than ever before. It’ll also come with iOS 10 which is said to be geared towards touch 3D functions which would go hand-in-hand with the addition of Force Touch.
Also see: iPhone 7 Rumours Rundown – What’s Set to Change?
An Apple ‘Special Event’ is slated for some point in September (around the 13th) and if history repeats this should mark the official arrival of the next full iPhone launch.