The new soft keyboard improvement, called TouchSense, is designed to mimic both the feel and sound of a real, mechanical keyboard, to enable easier transitioning between keys. Immersive Messaging, on the other hand, is a cornball idea that's essentially text messaging gussied up with haptic feedback: You can send a heart design to your significant other, and he or she can feel it "beating," which kind of sounds more scary than romantic to me. They dub such icons "Hapticons." Even further, they announced "Twiddling," which is essentially a separate app in which two people can "feel" each other through haptic feedback on their iPhones. Now you see what I mean about that corny romantic nonsense.

Both TouchSense and Immersive Messaging were demonstrated on the iPhone, and the Immersion rep dodged questions about possible other platforms (*cough* WebOS *cough*) and even Immersion's immediate plans for their creations. We could see Immersive Messaging showing up as an irritating app, a theory the Immersion rep wouldn't deny. [All Things D]

Immersion forked over $20.75 million to Microsoft to settle the suit and become part of the Microsoft Certified Partner Program. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed, but there's a good chance that money is flowing in both directions.

So not that it matters to your next Halo 3 deathmatch, but Immesion and Microsoft have...once again...settled their legal battle. Hooray! [Kotaku]

Sure, Immersion uses an alter ego, "Internet Services, LLC," as an alias for when it licenses the rights to its "teledildonic gaming devices" patent to pleasure seekers of the flesh variety, but it's still the same tech at heart. Next up: A DIY project that turns the Wii Fit balance board into a customized Tantric sit-and-spin BMI calculator. Who's with me? [Boing Boing Gadgets]

According to Palluxo.com, the two companies have already met, with a follow up meeting planned for next week to discuss licensing terms of Immersion's haptic technology. The iPhone would likely receive force feedback via inbuilt sensors, meaning a vibration of sorts would be output at the touch of on screen buttons, which would make the absence of a physical QWERTY that much more bearable. We'd probably give our right bionic arm (if we had one) for such haptic feedback on the iPhone, so we're hoping these rumorings are as solid as well formed stool. Until we hear something concrete, we'll keep you entertained with poo jokes. (See above.) [Palluxo]

In the media player, you get FF/RW and play/pause controls; in the calculator, you get plus, minus, subtract and divide buttons. The soul patch (my name) even vibrates when you click it, thanks to the same Immersion tech found in Playstation and Wii rumble controllers. Congrats to Samsung in making a touch UI that overcomes some of the shortcomings of touchscreen controls in a nice looking package.

This is undoubtedly because Sony didn't want to license anything more than they had to from Immersion, who caused this whole rumble/no rumble mess in the first place with the lawsuit. After paying up to Immersion, Sony could put rumble back in to their DualShock 3s—which works just fine with the SIXAXIS sensing technology at the same time. As if anyone believed that rumble and motion sensing couldn't work together in the first place, which was Sony's first excuse. [GameDaily]

The reasons Immersion gives for suing Nintendo are getting profit stream of somewhere near $100 million over five years from them and building "recognition". The reasons against? Them having no guarantee of winning, no opportunity of working with Nintendo (MS and Sony haaaaaate them), and the fact that they'd be "effectively out of the game business". If you sue the three biggest players in an industry, yeah, you're pretty much fucked.

Despite all this, we think Immersion is going to go ahead and sue anyway. After all, what the hell else do they do as a business? [Rumor Reporter]

Other applications include user interface enhancements and multimedia applications like mobile games and downloadable goodies. No official word yet from Nokia on when they will start rolling out new phones equipped with this feature, but expect them sooner rather than later as Nokia continues to quietly compete with the likes of Apple, LG and Samsung.
[via Extreme Tech]

God of War 3 Confirmed, With Vibration! [gwn]

Immersion originally sued Sony for $97.2 million for patent infringement, which Sony quickly appealed. To continue selling PS2 accessories, Sony paid Immersion $30.6 million, but left the vibrating feature out of the PS3 controller claiming that the rumble feature would not work with a motion sensing controller, which may or may not be true (but sounds like a lot of BS to me). So what happens if they do re-release the Sixaxis? Will the people who already purchased controllers be SOL? –Travis Hudson

Sony, vibration tech maker end patent dispute [News.com]

Immersion has been working on other tactile touchscreen technologies, likeTouchSense, that allows you to actually feel the buttons, scrollbars, etc. The VibeTonz "tapping back" technology sounds a little more useful for the mobile platform and maybe cheaper and easier to pull off on their part. VibeTonz can currently be found on the Samsung SCH-a930 from Verizon with more cellphones to come in the future. – Travis Hudson

Cell Phones to Get Tactile Touch Screens [Mobiledia]

Sony, however, still blames the non-vibrating design on the gesture-based hardware inside the controller which allows you to move the controller around a bit in three dimensions. Sure, Sony. Sure.

Ready to Rumble? Immersion's Victor Viegas on PlayStation 3's Lack of Vibration [GamaSutra via TheInquirer]

Touchscreens That Touch Back [Mavromatic]