Skip to main content

See how gestures would have controlled Microsoft’s cancelled McLaren phone

Lumia McLaren 3D Touch
About a year ago, news broke that Microsoft was working on a phone codenamed McLaren that could understand Kinect-like 3D touch gestures. If that wasn’t enough, at some point along the way it was believed to be the sequel to the Lumia 1020. Unfortunately, the McLaren was never meant to be the Lumia 1030, and to add insult to injury, the McLaren was cancelled altogether.

Some even wondered if the McLaren ever existed, but we have proof for you. A two-minute video of the device was posted recently, and it does shed a little light about the mysterious phone and its gesture controls.

Recommended Videos

The video shows how one finger hovering close to the display can scroll and make selections without actually touching the screen. Interestingly enough, the main home screen of Microsoft’s famous Windows tiles was never shown in the video. It would have been neat to see the tiles because our understanding is that hovering over a Live Tile would transform it into smaller tiles of information. Instead, the user in the video manipulates the Settings screen.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The device in the video was obviously an early prototype, but many will wonder why Microsoft scrapped the project. It might be possible that the company wasn’t able to develop the technology enough or didn’t feel that consumers would embrace it.

It’s also unknown what type of technology Microsoft was using for its gesture controls. One company that developed something similar is Elliptic Labs. That company uses an ultrasound speaker, 3 mems microphones, and the company’s custom software to enable gesture controls. Elliptic Labs did show its tech to various smartphone manufacturing companies, but it has yet to appear in a final product. We saw the technology at CES and MWC, and were quite impressed with its capabilities. Gestures worked from up to seven feet away from the phone.

The following video is Elliptic Labs version of what the McLaren was attempting to do. We’re not saying that the McClaren was using the same technology, but it gives you an even better idea of what Microsoft (or other phone manufacturers) could do with gesture controls.

Elliptic Labs Ultra-Fast Ultra-Far

The McClaren could have been ahead of it’s time, but it’s likely that more 3D touch gestures will appear on smartphones soon enough.

Robert Nazarian
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…
Apple seeds critical update to guard iPhones from USB hacking tools
Installing iOS 18.3 update on an iPhone 16 Pro.

Apple has released a fresh software update for iPhones and iPads to plug a critical flaw that could allow bad actors to extract data even from a locked device. The company says if granted physical access, an attacker could break past the safety of USB Restricted Mode on the target iPhone or iPad.

The aforementioned guardrail prevents USB accessories from pulling data from an iPhone that has been sitting in a locked state for over an hour. It seems there was an authorization flaw within Apple’s Accessibility framework that could allow an attacker to disable the USB Restricted Mode safety net.

Read more
The Motorola Razr Plus (2025) just leaked, and it’s far from exciting
The back of the Motorola Razr Plus 2024.

Motorola is launching a new flagship flip phone soon. It is slated to get an overdue processor upgrade, though the other specifications could fail to ignite the same excitement. A new leak reveals design changes -- or their lack -- that the Motorola Razr Plus (2025) comes with.

Based on the images by Android Headlines, the design of the Motorola Razr Plus (2025) has barely changed over the last generation. It retains the same physique as last year, without changes to the sizes of the dual displays -- inside and outside the flip phone.
Minimal changes to the leather finish
The bottom half of the back is still wrapped in faux leather, but with subtle differences from the previous generation. This year, we could see a stitch pattern beyond the curved part of the edges. The leak also reveals a new color option, noticeably darker than the green we saw last year.

Read more
This is why I love Circle to Search on the Galaxy S25 series
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera.

Since the Galaxy S24 series was launched last year, phone makers have focused heavily on adding AI to every facet of their smartphones. Apple launched Apple Intelligence last year — which brought a different, more personal, approach to AI with the iPhone 16 — a few months after Google unveiled Gemini for Android.

Despite Google waiting to launch the full suite of Gemini features for a few months, one of the key features had already launched on the Galaxy S24. Circle to Search allows you to search for anything displayed on your screen using AI, and as I discovered when selling my mother’s home last year, it makes it super easy to understand the value of items without needing to search for them by name.

Read more