Patent: Notebook with integrated iPod mini

[amac4me]

Patent Application 20040224638

A must read:
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/patent_peek_apple_notebook_with_integrated_ipod_mini/

 

[zelmo]

This seems a bit far fetched to me, although I might be interested in Apple moving to a 3G iPod-like interface on their laptops, which could be used as a multi-button trackpad with vertical and horizontal scrolling, and also be the best controller for iTunes on your laptop.

 

[Capt Underpants]

And when the mini isn't in the laptop will there be a huge hole there? Or are we going to have an extra trackpad plug-in thing that we'll have to keep up with?

I don't think Apple will ever go for this.

 

[shadowmoses]

I dont like the idea much and cannot see it happening. It just doesnt seem very apple..

ShadOW

 

[andiwm2003]

why would one make a notebook larger and more heavy to integrate an ipod that can't do anything the notebook can do anyway?

another "over integration idea" to create the "everything device".

if they had a ipod slot in the imacs, that would be at least useful. and i can't see even that happening.

 

[Sam I Am]

How about just the clickwheel instead of the trackpad?

 

[mkrishnan]

The drawing is crazy to me. Although it would be cool if, keeping the trackpad (and perhaps even dropping the button?), the trackpad had the clickwheel drawn on it, and had enhanced functionality (à la iScroll) that used the image of the clickwheel.

But that aside, lots of notebooks used to (maybe still do?) have the ability to play CDs without fully waking up / opening. If the iBook gained the ability to use the full iTunes library clamshell, I'd think that could be fun. It's a whole different value equation now than when the CD feature bowed, because back then few, if any, people had their entire collection of music ripped on their HD. Now.....

 

[superbovine]

I have seen that patent posted here on the forum from another article, but they used a different picture.

you can see all the pictures here.

http://aiw1.uspto.gov:80/.aiw?docid=us20040224638ki&SectionNum=1&IDKey=0371DD5A825A&HomeUrl=http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html%26r=35%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PG01%26s1=%2522Apple%2BComputer%2522%26s2=games%26OS=%26RS=

or

http://tinyurl.com/79zf3

 

[michaelrjohnson]

Interesting thought, but cumbersome in it's illustrated implementation. Perhaps some other integration but not explicitly as illustrated?

 

[GKThursday]

New Trackpad idea

I've thought that apple might one day go for a round track pad, and surround it with a click wheel. The click wheel could be used for scrolling, and could be the mouse button. They could even (gasp!) make it a multi-button mouse! If they made it somewhat like the controller on the ipod, you could push in different spots for different functions, maybe make it two buttons (top and bottom) or maybe make one button the bottom half and make the top half two buttons. If they did that, you could even make one of the buttons an expose hot button. Well that's my idea anyway.
GK