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Apple Applies for a Touchscreen Gesture Patent

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the wild-speculation-for-discussion dept.

SuperMog2002 writes "According to an article in PC Magazine, Apple has submitted an application for a patent on "several methods of applying gestures to touch-sensitive input devices." Could there be a new form of tablet PC or PDA in Apple's future?"

4 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe... by Eightyford · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe I had it right when I came up with the iPod Touch, a while back.

    --
    Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
  2. Interesting if it pans out the way article leads by ursabear · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Apple did some really great things with the Newton. They were a little too early, though. Competitors like Palm and Casio did them one better in marketing and ubiquity (probably price, too, if I remember). The Newton and eMate are great, but didn't make it.

    Apple waited a bit before coming out with a portable music player (didn't make a CD player, and watched the first few MP3-Type players hit market). In this case, they did a great job of design and marketing. It's been a hit ever since.

    Now, Apple has made patent application to do some touch-screen stuff. Knowing Apple, they could just be "thinking about something with touch screens", and might just be pro-active in patents. If they do a tablet, iTouchyPod (iPad?, iPodTouch?, iTouch?, touchIPod?), they're likely to learn lots of lessons from the tablet-pc and touch-screen world and do something neat.

    --
    A Passionate Independent Musician
  3. YRO? by Distinguished+Hero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What exactly does this have to do with my rights online?

    --
    Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
  4. Also in Windows Vista by Utopia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Vista also has touch screen guestures in the current beta2 builds.
    Funny this article come up today. I have been playing with the touchscreen tablet UI in Vista all day.