Having pioneered multi-touch for its iPhone and iPod touch handhelds, Apple later extended the technology to trackpads on its Mac notebook line and now appears ripe to introduce the first iPod click-wheels with similar capabilities. 

Though sales of the iPod touch have taken off in recent quarters, recent reports suggest that we haven’t seen the last of click-wheel-based iPods, the next of which is expected to turn up this fall in the form of a fifth-generation iPod nano with a built-in digital camera and more compact circular scroll wheel. 

This new nano could be the first iPod support multi-touch gestures through its click-wheel, according to recent patent filing discovered by AppleInsider this week that details methods for detecting “input gestures that traverse the center of the scroll wheel and to detect multi-touch input.” 

More specifically, the 38-page filing made just this past September describes a “multi-dimensional scroll wheel” that “can sense a moving object, such as a finger, as it is moved not only in a rotational manner but also in a linear manner across the center of the scroll wheel.” This new breed of scroll wheel would also be capable of sensing more than one object at a time, such as multi-finger touch or motion. 

“Applications can be enhanced by the improved range of input enabled by the scroll wheel circuitry,” Apple explained. “For example, linear motion, such as a swipe across the scroll wheel, can enable an image browsing application to cause images, such as album cover pictures for example, to be transitioned across a screen.” 

Multi-touch input, such as one finger touching an inner region of the scroll and another finger rotating in the outer region, can also enable a zooming application to cause a displayed image to be zoomed-in or out, depending on the direction of the rotation. Similarly, a pinching or expanding of a user’s fingers can enable the zooming application to cause a zooming action.

“The scroll wheel circuitry can also bias the sensor element configuration according to the type of input event expected,” the filing adds. “For example, if a particular application permits only linear motion input along a particular axis (e.g., a horizontal or vertical swipe), the scroll wheel circuitry can utilize only the sensor elements arranged along that path to sense for an input event. By using less than all available sensor elements in this manner, the scroll wheel circuitry can achieve power savings.” 

The filing is credited to over half a dozen Apple engineers, including Lakshman Rathnam, Louis Bokma, Fletcher Rothkopf, Andrea Mucignat, Erturk Kocalar, Benjamin Lyon and Joseph Fisher.

(via AppleInsider.com)

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Handset component suppliers have begun shipping parts for the new iPhone, according to a Commercial Times report.

Taiwan-based handset component suppliers have begun shipping components and parts for the new iPhone that Apple is likely to launch in June, the Chinese-language Commercial Times has quoted sources at component suppliers as indicating.

Shipments of the old and new iPhones could top 2-3 million units, respectively, a quarter after Apple launches the new models, the paper quoted component suppliers as saying.

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Taiwanese firm Elan Microelectronics has sued Apple over two of its touch-screen patents, according to a New York Times report.

The suit was filed late Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said company spokesman Dennis Liu. “We couldn’t find a common viewpoint with Apple, so we decided we had to take action,” he said, adding that the companies had been in licensing talks for about two years.

Elan said it won a preliminary court injunction against U.S.-based rival Synaptics in a dispute over one of the patents mentioned in the Apple lawsuit, after a then-subsidiary unit filed suit in 2006. Synaptics counter-sued.

Both actions were dismissed last year after the two companies reached a cross-licensing agreement, according to a statement on Elan’s website.

(both via iClarified.com)

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Image via HowStuffWorks.com

Apple last week was awarded a monstrous 358-page patent covering the touch screen, graphical user interface, and methods that combine to define the iPhone user experience.

Dating back to September of 2007 and granted last Tuesday, U.S. Patent No. 7479949 lists many inventors; notably, Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, iPhone software director Scott Forstall, and FingerWorks co-founder Wayne Westerman.  (FingerWorks was responsible for gadgets with an opaque surface that could respond to gesture controls before being acquired by Apple to aid its multi-touch efforts several years ago.)

The filing is essentially a summary and overview of all the technologies that come together in the iPhone.  In the patent, Apple claims coverage for the device itself, the way gestures like pinches and zooms are detected, and the software the device runs.  Also mentioned are many other different details and aspects of the multi-touch user interface, such as a finger swipe, a two-thumb twist, and a method of determining which object was intended when a touch seems to cover both.

Apple interim chief executive Tim Cook recently promised to aggressively pursue any company or person who “rips off” Apple’s intellectual property, and this patent affords the Cupertino-based iPhone maker the footing it would need to mount any such defense.

In detail

In setting a tone for the filing, Apple described how portable phones received more and more pushbuttons to control new features, but the inability to adapt the input methods to match the application running is a problem.  Thus, a touchscreen device is a better choice; however, gestures can be difficult to interpret or translate into the commands the user actually wants the device to perform.

“Accordingly, there is a need for touch-screen-display electronic devices with more transparent and intuitive user interfaces,” the filing reads.  These improved devices can take input and interpret it as “precise, intended commands that are easy to use, configure, and/or adapt.  Such interfaces increase the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction with portable multifunction devices.”

Future features?

There are also some interesting aspects of the filing that may hint at future plans for the iPhone and iPod, such as “a blogging application” and “a digital video camera application” — both of which have been mentioned in previous coverage of the patent. Similarly, voice-activated dialing could someday be a feature, as the document refers to audio circuitry that “converts the electrical signal [from human sound waves] to audio data and transmits the audio data to the peripherals interface for processing.”

Apple mentions a touchpad for activating or deactivating functions.  The patent describes it as a “touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output.  The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the touch screen or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.”

Interestingly, this is a feature Palm is already touting about its upcoming Pre handset.  According to Palm’s press release: “[The Pre has a] gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation.”  The gesture area is separate from the touch screen.

Final Observations

Along with covering the iPhone, the patent filing is notable for referencing 40 other existing patents, and for naming Jobs first among its inventors. Its granted status was first reported Monday by WorldOfApple.

(via AppleInsider.com)

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There were rumors going around and a couple well crafted photoshops of Apple’s new Notebooks using iPhone/Touch like glass multi touch trackpads that double as displays. Well everything was right about those rumors except for the display part. The new Apple Trackpads used in their new unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pro’s are glass, multi touch, but they aint got any display.. That’s where a new App called Snatch and your iPhone come into play. Snatch transforms your iPhone into a wireless trackpad for your Mac.

Features:

• Using your iPhone as a wireless trackpad — tracking, clicking,
  two-finger scrolling, two-finger tap, window dragging and screen zoom.
• Separate scrolling mode for easy one-finger scrolling in either
  linear (iPhone style) or iPod clickwheel-type circular scrolling.
• Separate keyboard mode for entering text.
• Automatic configuration — just install each piece of software and,
  so long as both devices are on the same network, it just works
• Can also be used in an environment without WiFi by creating an ad hoc network on your Mac.

Currently there are two versions available from the AppStore. There is the full featured version for about $8, and Snatch Test, with limited functionality (just single click and tracking). There is some software that you have to install on your Mac called Snatch Server which allows you to use to your iPhone and Snatch via a password protected wireless netwrok connection.

Limitations:

• No support for three finger or four finger scrolling as offered in
  the new MacBooks — I’m not sure if this is a limitation of iPhone
  hardware though
• Tapping with two fingers, if set to perform right click, doesn’t work
• When scrolling, the action is inverted. It would be good to have an option to change this, as it seems a little unnatural.

This is a really cool app that’s worth playing around with. I dont know if I would buy the full version, but the Free version is nice to toy with. Enjoy

[via TheAppleBlog]

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