Hazma Sood, known as an iOS developer and hacker, has created an iOS 9 jailbreak that brings 3D Touch capabilities to Apple's iPad Pro and customized faces for the Apple Watch.
Through the jailbreak, Sood tweaked certain portions of the system code of the iOS 9 to turn the pressure data from the Apple Pencil into pressure data as recognized for 3D Touch functions.
The hack is a cool one due to two reasons, as reported by Apple news website 9to5Mac. First, the iPad Pro does not currently support the 3D Touch feature, as it is currently only found in the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus. Second, it represents an unusual use for the sensors of the Apple Pencil, which is mostly used for sketching and drawing.
Useless project of the day: using Apple Pencil pressure data to drive the 3D Touch engine https://t.co/y3GNEZ8sfh pic.twitter.com/OwYpI9kIqD
— Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) November 23, 2015
The Apple Pencil's pressure data adds extra information for drawing or painting, with bolder lines created by more pressure, for example. The sensors that enable this function for the Apple Pencil are contained within it, with no such sensors on the display of the iPad Pro, so the hack will not work if users only use their fingers. The jailbreak created by Sood transforms the pressure data of the Apple Pencil into information that can be processed by the Peek and Pop system for the 3D Touch. Apple has not yet officially announced any other usage for the pressure sensors within the Apple Pencil aside from drawing and sketching, but as Sood demonstrated, it could function as a generic pointer to be used with iOS devices.
Another hack that Sood has created allows users to install custom watch faces into the Apple Watch's watchOS 2. While Apple will surely soon allow it for the development and installation of downloadable watch faces to the wearable device, the hack that Sood created would allow impatient users to tweak how their Apple Watches look. In a video posted by Sood on his Twitter account, he could be seen launching a customized watch face for the Apple Watch.
After some haxx... Custom watch faces on Apple Watch! Watch face source code is on GitHub: https://t.co/7ZvOz8nK34 pic.twitter.com/nQGJKlp6kt — Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) August 18, 2015
