iOS 9 Could Have Laid The Foundation For Stylus Input

For years ever since Apple released their first touchscreen device, the company has shied away from creating an official stylus product, claiming that touch was more intuitive. While that might be true in some cases, a stylus would no doubt come in handy for writing and drawing, and iOS users have had to rely on third-party manufacturers for their stylus needs.

However things could change with iOS 9. According to a new WWDC session uploaded by Apple (via AppleInsider), it shows Apple senior iOS engineer manager Jason Beaven explain some of the new features from Cocoa Touch, which for those unfamiliar is iOS’ underlying UI framework. According to Beaver, iOS 9 will see improvements made to the framework.

This includes reducing touch response times, but will also rely on curves, velocity, and acceleration to predict where the touch input will be headed at. Why is this important? According to Cult Of Mac, “Predictive touch technology is the key technology behind all styluses — both computer and iPad. Touchscreens and drawing tablets generally aren’t accurate enough for precision work unless they have predictive touch technology. Predictive touch dramatically improves the speed and accuracy of a pen.”

This seems to hint at the possibility that Apple could introduce support for styluses in iOS 9. More importantly, it also seems to corroborate multiple rumors that the alleged 12.9-inch iPad Pro would come with its own stylus. Whether or not this turns out to be true remains to be seen, but in the meantime how does the idea of a iPad with its own stylus sound to you? Could it be good enough to give the Samsung Galaxy Note series a run for its money?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Tablets
Tags: ios 9, iPad