Last week’s invitation for Apple’s media event today included the curious wording “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” While those words have been over-analyzed in the seven days since being posted, a last-minute rumor is now speculating that the next iPad may gain the ability to feel the screen as well as touch it.
MacRumors has assembled a flurry of rumors leading up to the Apple media event today at 10am PST, all focused on the possible inclusion of Senseg haptic technology into the next-generation iPad. The Finnish company has been linked to Apple before, but it was only yesterday with a report from The Guardian that connected the dots.
“When the Guardian met Senseg's chiefs in their Helsinki offices in January, its directors declined to say whether they had spoken to Apple about the use of the technology in the iPad -- but said they were talking to tablet manufacturers,” the report reveals. “But asked this week whether Apple is a customer for the E-Sense technology, Petri Jehkonen, Senseg's technical marketing manager, declined to comment. Asked whether Apple is not a customer, he replied: ‘That would be for Apple to say. My comment is no comment.’”
While the tech press has mostly fixated on a high-resolution Retina Display for the next iPad, websites such as The Next Web have proposed “touch-feedback technology for the iPad’s display” as the most “tantalizing and attractive possibility” for this year’s upgrade. In June of last year, a report from Trusted Reviews also quoted a Senseg representative who claimed the company is working with “a certain tablet maker based in Cupertino.”
Pocket-lint may have the most convincing evidence of all, claiming that a Senseg company spokesman told them “We won’t be making any statements until after Apple’s announcement” -- a curiously worded response to a direct inquiry about whether or not the company will be involved in today’s event.
So what say you, MacLife.com readers? Ready to feel your apps and games with the next iPad?
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(Image courtesy of MacRumors)
gxavier6
March 07, 2012 at 7:18am
Is this technology something that may pave the way for future Apple products being used by the blind? or am i not understanding it???!!! If its what i think this will be probably one of the most amazing inventions in technology to date. And will be a huge score not only for Apple but for the developers. Am i confused about what this is?
LeCarcajou
June 19, 2012 at 6:06pm
It may be a bit early to tell what the possible applications of Senseg might be, but I would be surprised (and shocked) if they didn't include added functionality for users with impaired vision.
