What is Apple Planning on Making with this 3x3cm Touch Screen?

[puffnstuff]

I don't see how it would be too small to be usable.Play, pause and stop icons do not take up much space.

 

[robotmonkey]

It's obviously a finger print scanner so keychain can log you in with justthe touch of your hand 🙂

 

[cvaldes]

Fingerprint scanners are ugly. There is no way Steve is going to accept something like that.

Most likely it is some sort of input interface, but not the primary viewing screen for content (wrong aspect ratio).

 

[dukeace2094]

remember this?

anyone remember this?

http://gizmodo.com/5493613/apple-hires-expert-on-wearable-technologies

im thinking watch or some sort of piece of wearable tech...

 

[alent1234]

i bet this is an apple leak to confuse the competition?

what is it? we don't know but we better make one since apple is going to make it

 

[blackpond]

Come on, so obvious. It's a digital pet tag. Touch it to find out who woofy's family is.

 

[SockRolid]

Virtual click wheel for iPod nano

It's roughly the same size as the click wheel on the nano. The nano is 38.7mm wide, so 3x3 cm would fit. Of course, unless this touchpad is flexible, the nano would need to be redesigned to have a flat front surface.

No multitouch due to small size, but it could add visual feedback to the "virtual click wheel" interface. Animating wheel segments that the user clicks, for example...

 

[ComputersaysNo]

I'm going for 3D glasses, and this being the left or right eye-panel.

 

[Bilvox]

laptops...

I could see it definitely turning up as the touch pad on a new MacBook Pro.

 

[DragonJade]

How about a combined display/touchpad that goes on the lid of a laptop?

e.g.

http://www.softsailor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/slideshow_lg_laptop.jpg

Or a secondary touchpad for laptops - possibly for multimedia controls.

 

[MacFly123]

The only thing this makes any sense for at 3cm x 3cm is a new iPod Shuffle with a little screen for basic playback control. Steve won't concede back to buttons now, so he will do something different.......... Enter this screen!

It will probably use simple touch like tap to play/pause, swipe left/right to skip, and so on. That is my bet, and I think it is a pretty good one! 🙂

P.S. Sounds like a lot of you people really need to get out a ruler and look at how small 3cm x 3cm really is before you make ridiculous predictions that make no sense at all lol! MacBook Pro touch pad? iPod nano? Apple TV remote? Really people??? REALLY??? LOL!

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

The iWatch is finnaly here!

For those who are metrically challenged (like me) This is close to the accurate size for 3cm x 3cm.

I measured it on my iPhone screen and it covers just a little bit more than a 2x2 grid of icons (with exterior spacing included!). The icons are closer together side by side so it covers about 2 and a third icons horizontally (from the far left edge of the screen)

I've tried posting the image I made depicting this here, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to post directly from my iphone (help?) and my work email won't receive the image if I send it to myself 🙁

 

[SkippyThorson]

Sounds like laptop Touch sensitive power buttons to me to be completely honest. That was the first thing that came to my mind.

THIS CRAP BETTER NOT BE REPLACING THE CLICKWHEEL.

(Could this even be a solar panel, and not a display?)

 

[coolant113]

possibly a trackpad or some sort for laptops.

 

[gimpymw]

It's for a remote control. Probably for the new ATV.

 

[TastyOther]

That's it! 😀

I'm thinking it's for an iPod Shuffle, or maybe a status indicator for a wireless mouse or keyboard.

Or maybe, it's for checking battery status, new e-mails, etc on MacBooks without opening them. THAT would be cool.

Be interesting to see if Paul Allen/Vulcan Inc. would have prior art on that idea...

http://geextreme.com/?p=9

 

[Peace]

1"X1" ?

Perhaps it's a touch power button for the new 22" iMac Touch ?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I highly doubt that Apple will add this to the MacBook/Pros. An external display on the lid is ugly and Jony Ive would never approve of that design.

I also doubt that Apple will add this to the current aluminum remote. It will be power-hungry since the remote uses button cell batteries. Those cells don't offer much power.

I think this was a prototype part for testing something, probably the retina display. It makes no sense to make a full-size screen for testing. A smaller version to save on costs and still prove the design works. Developing the retina display probably started from smaller screens and then grew bigger. If we knew the resolution of the screen, we could better guess what it was used for, prototype or something else.

 

[Full of Win]

It's the screen to the Apple virtual pet, the iPet. This will be a massive hit in Japan.

 

[iMacoo7]

I'm quite a Apple fanboy, and yesterday I was searching the web for news about a upcomming TomTom car-kit for the iPhone 4, when i suddently stumpled over this video. I know the title on the system menu says "iPod" but who knows?

It looks like apple are creating a car or sound system that's going to be using a new UI, which might just fit this little screen perfectly.

I'm really hoping that they'll create a car-kit, would be so awesome.


/ChristianLom

Dude?? What on earth are you talking about? That is an actual iPod Touch........And how does that refer to what is being talked about?

 

[TastyOther]

I highly doubt that Apple will add this to the MacBook/Pros. An external display on the lid is ugly and Jony Ive would never approve of that design.

I also doubt that Apple will add this to the current aluminum remote. It will be power-hungry since the remote uses button cell batteries. Those cells don't offer much power.

Depending on the screen tech and expected usage, they might do six months of a 3x3 AMOLED display, which we known can deliver about 226ppi or so. Since we don't know if this is LED backlit LCD, OLED or AMOLED...

I'm thinking new Nano with swipe control of some description, perhaps a little like the infra-red pointing device on the Archos 9 in user interface where you swipe your thumb.

 

[iMacoo7]

My vote is on it being for a remote, its exactly as wide as the current Apple Remote.

What said remote might look like:

Now thats what im talking about!

 

[mcmlxix]

Given Apple's tendency to stick rigidly to its design principles, I can't see it dropping the home button from an ios device.

Waive your wrist in a clock-wise motion instead of the home button. It's just that easy.

 

[PstLMac]

Perhaps finger biometric scanner...

 

[dba7dba]

Maybe it will be used as touchpad in a Macbook (Pro). We use our fingers to control iphone/itouch/ipad.

Why not use replace the traditional touchpad with a small screen? You could add some cool effects or maybe add specific buttons for iTunes etc (play, stop pause).