Apple is moving home. Sort of.
As the weeks tick down to Apple's reveal of the latest iPhone model (expected in early September) the steady drip of leaked details is turning into something of a torrent. The latest nugget: the home button isn't going to be a 'button' any more, but a pressure-sensitive sensor that will respond to different levels of touch with a small vibration.
Why change the home button?
Bloomberg has word from "people familiar" with Apple's new iPhone that the home button will now use haptic feedback (a fancy term for "vibrations") to let people know how hard they're pressing the button.
By scrapping a button that you have to physically depress, Apple might be able to save some room inside the new iPhone for some more... stuff. You know, fancy stuff.
(Image: mobipicker.com)
We've seen the technology before
It's thought that the new home button will employ the technology Apple currently builds into the Force Touch pad of the new MacBook.
In an iPhone, app developers could incorporate different levels of touch to access various functions and tools, allowing the 'button' to do more than just take you back to the homescreen.
We'll find out more come September - or when another new iPhone falls off the back of a lorry and into the hands of a blogger.
