iPads don't just want to be touched, they want to be PLAYED!
Someone recently tipped me off about a property of UITouch called pathMajorRadius, which basically tells you how much surface of your finger is in contact with the glass. It measures in millimeters, and even works with multitouch, tracking each finger tip individually in realtime.
When I plugged it into tappr.tv, it made a HUGE difference in the expression of the wands. Without any marketing, people started discovering and exploring it very rapidly, and the content being published has been absolutely amazing. We now have hundreds of dances published using touch expression in beautiful and creative ways. For example, check out this dance:
Only a handful of apps have tapped into pathMajorRadius, and almost all have been fairly quiet about it.
Then an app called Orphion started heavily promoting its support for touch expression. Unfortunately, their overt marketing crossed Apple's radar, and is reportedly being pulled any day now.
I think I understand why Apple is doing this. Anecdotally, I can say that iDevices have a wide range of variances in their accuracy and responsiveness of this property (I may try to devise a more scientific measurement, but for now all I can offer is an observation).
But I can guess that these variances are well beyond Apple's high standards. Developers and users of pro paint programs, foe example, will expect it.
And yet, what's there now is more than good enough for tappr.tv!
Unfortunately, to be on the safe side, I've disabled this property for the time being. I've already got very unhappy users because of this, myself included!
I'd *love* to talk with someone at Apple to make the case to bless this property as is. If you know someone who might know someone, ping them and me!