The Apple Files

The blog community has recently been reporting about various patent applications being made by Apple concerning touch screen displays and whether they point to a possible Macintosh tablet computer (jokingly called the iTablet by the Mac community) or a true video iPod with full touch screen interface (recalling that Steve Jobs clearly stated that the 5G iPod is not the eagerly awaited video ipod). This post will serve as a useful round-up for those interested (with plenty of pictures after the jump!)

Currently there are two applications that are of interest, the first of which details a touch screen system that makes use multiple finger actions to perform a particular task (for example, place two fingers, one at either corner of a photo and drag them apart to resize the photo!). For those with new-ish powerbooks, this may remind you of the two-finger scrolling on the trackpad (if you don’t know what this is, then it’s best illustrated by the small animation on this apple.com page for the powerbook). A computer display/interface that uses many of the ideas in Apple’s patent application has already been prototyped by the University of New York and an impressive video has been doing the rounds on various blogs/websites. It illustrates what we could expect from Apple if they are granted the patents and they go ahead to produce a device that utilises this multi-touch interface.

A screenshot from the video illustrating New York University’s touch screen display (click for video):

This has led some to believe the video iPod will sport just a display and no click-wheel, with the touch screen display itself serving as the interface. A talented photoshopper by the name of bud62 created what he thought this may look like, whether Apple’s creation (if it even exists!) will look like this remains to be seen.

The video iPod mockup (i.e., this is not an official release by Apple!) by bud62:

The second patent application details how on on-screen keyboard would work (this points to the tablet computer that people are theorising). Although on-screen keyboards are nothing new for PDAs and MS Windows based tablet PCs, Apple proposes a more “intelligent” keyboard. The following pictures are from Apple’s patent application and they illustrate such an on-screen keyboard.

1. A normal screenshot without any on-screen keyboard.
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2. The keyboard is brought up, notice it just sits on top of everything, obscuring the display.
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3. In this different mode, all current applications are shifted upwards so they can be seen better.
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4. Here, everything is squashed so the keyboard can fit in.
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5. Here, everything is again squashed, except the current active application (in this case it’s the Finder).
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6. Finally, a moveable “floating” keyboard.
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These patent applications, are afterall applications, and even if they are granted to Apple, they may not make any products based on them any time soon. Apple will be having a press event tomorrow (the 28th) in Cupertino, and they could very well be announcing, amongst other things, the true video iPod, or even an iTablet (well we can dream can’t we!)

Stay tuned for a new post after Apple’s press event, we may have some real pictures then!