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"Wet Finger Support" for iPhone 7?

Wet Finger Support
Apple launches have become unpredictable a year ago when it abandoned the usual one launch event in the tail-end of the year and replaced it with two by piling all of its phone and tablet launches into that one September slot.

Apple launched the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, a new iPad Mini and the iPad Pro (itself a deviation from Apple's typical approach - being the giant iPad it said it would never make).

In 2016, however, Apple will have an additional launch date, allegedly in March, which will reportedly see the iPhone 5se, a return of the 4-inch iPhone design, as well as a new iPad Air and possibly a second-gen Apple Watch. With the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus marked for a launch in the usual September slot, this means that this year is the first where anybody will see Apple launch three new phones.

This will make 2016 Apple’s busiest year for a very long time. Never before has the company launched so much hardware in such as short space of time. Even just a few years ago the idea of a dual-iPhone launch seemed bizarre — and now we’re looking at three (and one inside Q1, no less).

Is this a case of Apple striking while the iron’s hot? Most definitely. The iPhone has never been more popular, so what better time to expand its reach in the mobile space? Record sales figures for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s are impressive, but factor in the iPhone 7 this year alongside a new and slightly cheaper 4-inch iPhone 5se and it is easy to see Apple performing another record year for the next couple of months.

One report says that iPhone 7 will slimmer bezel and "wet finger support." For months the iPhone 7 has been rumored to be waterproof, so if the user drop in in the toilet they don’t need to spend another hundreds of dollars. But the really exciting news is now that the iPhone 7 won’t only be waterproof, but users will be able to interact with its touchscreen even when their fingers are wet.

Currently if users touch their iPhone’s screen with wet fingers it either won’t register their touch or the touch sensors will misinterpret the action, which will result in a wrong button being activated or odd scrolling on the screen. This is because water is capacitive and confuses the electric signal that the iPhone’s touchscreen needs to register from the finger when they touch it.

But now thanks to a new screen from Japan Display called "Pixel Eyes" wet fingers won't interfere with the iPhone’s touchscreen anymore. The company, who Apple already uses for some of its displays, has released a second generation "Pixel Eyes" display that can be operated with wet fingers, according to MacRumors.

"iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch, for example, don't respond well to touch with wet fingers or when placed in water, so technology like this could be essential if Apple wants to have a functional display in a device advertised as 'waterproof'," the site says.

Japan Display has already begun volume production of the displays, so they are indeed ready well ahead of time that iPhone 7 manufacturing would need them to be. The inclusion of the wet finger display technology isn't a sure thing, but with the other waterproof rumors of the iPhone 7 it makes a lot of sense.
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