It may also be to protect the details of an actual product. By showcasing your new ideas on an old product, you get to patent the ideas without giving too many hints to the competitors.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Patents Reveal Ongoing Touch and Multi-Touch Research
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It may also be to protect the details of an actual product. By showcasing your new ideas on an old product, you get to patent the ideas without giving too many hints to the competitors.
That is true - the touch functionality alone would not blur the lines between the Touch and the Classic, as the Touch would have a much different feature set.
I guess the future of iPods will be a device as small as the iPod nano but without the wheel control. i.e. nano size but all touch screen
only a guess
Touch interfaces are the way of the future, it's just a matter of time in my opinion...
Wait, I think I mis-interpreted the patent. It appears based on the picture that you turn your finger upside down and tap screen. You don't point with your finger as I originally thought to get the fingernail action. So, the skin side of your finger is for normal operation and the fingernail side is the second button. I would think, press and hold would be another option to get menus to copy/paste, etc.
effectively is a touch vs plastic/hard surface touch. i get the impression that a finger press would do normal action and even a stylus would work for the secondary.
I think this would be awkward.
The iPhone is already multi touch, right? What about actions that take 2 fingers to perform? Swiping text with 2 fingers instead of one for select and a 2 fingers tap for secondary menu?
I know the iPhone UI is careful to avoid the need for any menu, so a 2 fingers tap could bring up one of these pop up dialogs with Copy/Cut/Paste/More... options. That's just a software update, no need for new hardware.
Any purists care to refute the feasibility of that idea?
The iPhone is already multi touch, right? What about actions that take 2 fingers to perform? Swiping text with 2 fingers instead of one for select and a 2 fingers tap for secondary menu?
I know the iPhone UI is careful to avoid the need for any menu, so a 2 fingers tap could bring up one of these pop up dialogs with Copy/Cut/Paste/More... options. That's just a software update, no need for new hardware.
Any purists care to refute the feasibility of that idea?
I remember when I worked at the Apple store trying to sell an iPhone to a woman with 3 inch finger nails.... yeah, that didn't go over so well.
That's true, but that's also the most widely spread lie about OS X. Almost every application supports the non existing 2nd mouse button (right click or ctrl-click) and that's good news. With screens becoming larger, it takes more and more mouse movements to access the application menu. If you ask me, it's about time we also had a key that allows direct access to the menu (such as alt-F in Windows which drops the File menu and allows one to use the arrow keys to select the appropriate option) instead of having to remember dozens of shortcuts.
With HP's suspiciously iMac-esque touchscreen offering due out in Q3 this year I think it's time Apple put all their patents to proper use on a desktop or laptop solution instead of fannying about with iPods.
I think you are looking for Control-F2. (If you are on a laptop, you need to toggle the keyboard prefs so it doesn't use the "laptop shortcuts" such as screen brightness"
arn
I'm guessing the same thing they do now whenever they need to use a mouse or keyboard...
I find that severed finger kind of creepy.
It would be nice to have a combination of pressure and capacitive sensitivity in a future iPod Touch.
It would be nice to have a combination of pressure and capacitive sensitivity in a future iPod Touch.
Yes it is like a right click, but I'm not so sure about this either. There is a LOT of room for error with this and making sure ONLY YOUR NAIL touches and not any part of your flesh or the inverse. Seems like a good concept, but that it would not be accurate or functional.
And the gloves? So what if you have gloves on and your flesh is not exposed you would just be right clicking everywhere??? lol... Not sure about this Apple, but something along these lines could be great.
I think it would be better for more people to just have the iPhone etc. accept capacitive and pressure touch in general so girls could use their fingers or nails and come up with something else that is more functional for a right click!
That's what I was thinking too. It makes MUCH MORE sense. That is how it is in OS X with the Dock, click and hold for right click, among the other ways of course.
The only problem is they would have to reimplement the magnifying glass and tweak things a bit for copy and paste. But it is MUCH MORE consistent and is already that way with saving pictures online or in email now in iPhone OS 2.0 so that is my vote.
Just to clairify....
Not going to quote anybody but there are lots of posts saying their nails are too short or long etc. but if you look at the diagram it shows the BACK of the fingernail not the tip of the fingernail. Most people have SOME sort of a fingernail...
Not going to quote anybody but there are lots of posts saying their nails are too short or long etc. but if you look at the diagram it shows the BACK of the fingernail not the tip of the fingernail. Most people have SOME sort of a fingernail...
This type of technology is discriminatory! How on earth are amorphous blobs supposed to use mutli-touch devices?!
I disagree. I think as soon as the flash cost and capacity gets good enough that the Touch will just replace the Classic and the Nano will go Touch as well. That will last for a while until over time iPods will be no more and it will be all iPhone all in one mobile type devices that have data available all the time with different types of networks.
I think it is very possible that the current Classic is the last of the original style iPods and that the Nano will go Touch in its next full revision as well. The Shuffle will probably stick around a while for the low cost people.
It makes absolutely no sense to have a click wheel and touch. It would be like making the screen on the Touch smaller and adding a click wheel instead of the home button. It is a complete oxymoron and horrible implementation of an old technology needlessly and confusingly being coupled with a newer superior technology!
This is quite weird. If Apple makes all iPods touch screen, then what's the way to differentiate them.
- Screen Size
- Memory Capacity
- WIFI/Data Networks
- Apps
- Cameras/iChat
Etc.
If all iPods had click wheels what would differentiate them??? Oh wait!
It will happen very soon trust me, maybe even by this holiday season if not next!
Yes my friend, I am aware of this shortcut. And that's my point, exactly. Why ctrl-F2? Don't take me wrong, I'm not a Windows troll or apologist, but if you ever get a chance to use a PC, have a look at menu bars and buttons in the UI. They have a single underlined letter that allow you to access that particular menu item or button with a single 'accelerator' (not a shortcut as such). For instance, instead of pulling down the File menu with the mouse, you can use Alt-F from your keyboard and go directly to the File menu. On a Mac, it's ctrl-F2 then right arrow. If you want to access the 5th menu item, it's 5 times right arrow. No direct access. See the point?
Maybe I'll start a new thread on that, I don't think I should hijack this one... Sorry everyone!