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October 30, 2006

speculation

New patent: hello Video iPod, goodbye click wheel?

Posted Oct. 30, ’06, 2:07 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Apple » Speculation

AppletouchscreenpatentAn article that ran in Silicon Valley’s premiere newspaper The Mercury News highlights a new Apple patent which would do away with the click wheel. According to the article, Apple had:

…previously explored replacing the click wheel with a virtual one as part of a touch-sensitive display. But now Apple appears to be looking at a third option: a touch-sensitive frame surrounding the display. Rather than click a physical button or press a virtual one on the screen, users would touch an area on the frame to operate their iPod.

After a good amount of searching I actually managed to find the patent Apple filed on the US Patent & Trademark Office’s website. It reveals several things, along with some diagrams (see above). I found this to be of interest from the patent itself:

The device can have a sensor for determining the orientation of the device. Based on the orientation, the device can alter the areas designated on the bezel for the controls and can alter the location of the visual guides for the display so that they match the altered areas on the bezel.

While similar technology has been in digital cameras for years, it’s nice to see Apple is making use of it too. This patent seems to support the true Video iPod everyone’s been waiting for. Will it really happen? How far along is Apple on the design? Will we know at Macworld 2007? Only time will tell—until then there’s speculation to fill the gaps.


1 Comments

raul said:

So what do you think, should I buy the 30g video ipod now? Or should I wait for the next generation ipod video with bigger and better screen?

October 30, 2006 8:42 PM

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