Skip to main content

Taptic Engine

See All Stories

iPhone rumor roundup: Asian sources claim we’ll see thinner phones, more powerful chips & bigger cameras

Site default logo image

iphone-6-protruding-camera

A trio of new rumors from a handful of Asian sources have popped up over the holiday and today, each predicting a different facet of the upcoming ‘iPhone 6S‘. While these are still just very unverified whispers at the moment, odds are that at least one of these will end up coming at least partially true.

Here’s a roundup of the latest iPhone rumors, in no particular order:


Expand
Expanding
Close

Your friends still waiting for Apple Watches? You can play with Digital Touch anyway …

Site default logo image
Cautionary note: the digital touch drawing you receive may not be a flower ...

Cautionary note: the digital touch drawing you receive may not be a flower …

It’s the ultimate 1st world geek problem: you can’t explore all the capabilities of your shiny new Apple Watch because you’re such an early adopter none of your friends yet have one. Digital Touch – the ability to send taps, drawings or heartbeats to someone else – of course only works with other Apple Watches.

Fortunately, the ultimate geek solution exists: there’s a Reddit thread for that … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Site default logo image

No recall planned for Apple Watches over haptic motors and no defective units shipped

taptic

The WSJ has added a sentence to yesterday’s report that the rollout of the Apple Watch has been slowed by the discovery of faulty Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings. The new sentence, likely in response to a comment by Apple, suggests that none of the faulty units made it as far as shipping.

Apple doesn’t plan a recall, because there’s no indication that Apple shipped any watches with the defective part to customers.

Re/code makes a similar statement, that Apple identified the flaw before any faulty watches were shipped.

John Gruber notes on Daring Fireball that his own review unit had what appears to be the same fault, but this would have been supplied to him by Apple before customer watches started shipping, and it may well be that faults in review watches were how Apple picked up on the issue.

While there are isolated reports of customers receiving watches with faulty taptic engines, there will of course be a certain percentage of faulty models in any shipment, and these may be unrelated to the more systemic issue identified by Apple.

Apple Watch rollout slowed by faulty Taptic Engines, additional manufacturers considered

Site default logo image

5pkngxhkwxhec1dd-huge

The Wall Street Journal reports that the limited initial roll out of the Apple Watch was slowed by supply manufacturing issues concerning the Taptic Engine. The report claims that after mass production of the device began in February, reliability testing showed that some of the Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings began to break down after use.


Expand
Expanding
Close

New interview with Kevin Lynch reveals more Watch details, early prototypes used timeline UI

Site default logo image

Applewatch2-copy

WIRED has posted a new story on the Apple Watch, which revolves around interviews with Apple human interface designer Alan Dye and Apple’s VP Technology Kevin Lynch, who heads Apple Watch software. The piece shines new light on the foundation of the smartwatch project at Apple as well as some new details about the product — which ships later this month.

Amusingly, Lynch did not know what he would be working on when he accepted the Apple job. He walked into the role with the project already underway; early ‘experiments’ from the iPod team with click-wheels and such. Dye says that the idea for a watch blossomed during design meetings for iOS 7, Apple’s major software overhaul.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Claimed ‘iPhone 6C’ rear shell leaks, lends further credence to rumors of new 4-inch model

Site default logo image
iPhone-6C-Rear-Housing-1

Image via Future Supplier

Some new photos posted by Future Supplier claim to show the leaked rear casing to the rumored “iPhone 6C.” Recent reports have said that the device will sport a 4-inch screen like that of the iPhone 5, 5C, and 5S, allowing it to appeal to those who prefer smaller displays over the larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

While the veracity of these shots has not been confirmed, there are some interesting details to note that could give us some more clues about the design of the rumored device.

Keep reading for photos and analysis…