Despite the much-hyped usability of the iPhone, something people often covet from rival touchscreen handsets is the haptic feedback; that is, when the phone vibrates slightly to give a tactile indication that a button has been pressed.  Whether for reasons of battery, a shortage of pre-launch time or merely that they didn’t think it necessary, Apple left such a feature out of the iPhone’s keyboard; it’s up to Malcolm Hall and Eve Hoggan of the University of Glasgow to come up with a solution themselves.  

The software is in a very early stage right now: it basically exists as a proof of concept rather than something that can be used realistically, since it’ll only function in a text editor test program.  Apparently it’s also pretty buggy, too, crashing regularly and sometimes leaving the iPhone continuously vibrating like a cheap massager.  Nonetheless, it’s a great development and nicely implemented; the haptics buzz as you pass your finger across the keyboard in time with each key, and pressing then releasing one gives another, slightly different buzz to indicate it was successful.

Will Apple beat the students to the full release by adding haptics to the next iPhone firmware update?  Perhaps so, but whichever way it arrives it’s an addition that should please many.

[via TUAW]