“On October 26, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application titled ‘Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control,’ which was originally filed on June 23, 2006,” Neo reports for MacNN.
Neo reports, “Apple’s patent goes into great detail describing the chameleonic nature of a next generation touch screen iPod which will clearly be able to transform itself from being a music player to PDA to photo album and yes a cellular phone!”
Full article with patent application illustrations here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple to debut touchscreen iPod this December – October 18, 2006
Apple’s ‘touchless’ touchscreen iPod revealed – July 25, 2006
More info surfaces regarding Apple’s latest iPod touch-screen patent filing – July 21, 2006
Hon Hai Chairman: Apple about to unveil next-gen iPod using a ‘none-touch’ concept – June 15, 2006
My bezel was touch sensitive once. Once.
What’s up with the MDN server lately? … S….L…O……W
I…..agree……….very……..s….l………o…………..w….
Newton Lives! (Newton 2100, not the 1st with bad handwriting…)
Ok now I’m getting excited. I’ve wanted Apple to come out with a PDA they’re willing to stick with, for a long time. And if its gonna have a larger screen and video playback – oh man…
I don’t want
Anybody else
When I think about Zune
I touch my bezel
It’s really hit and miss trying to access this site. Slow. Times out more often than not.
MDN has always been slow for me, but apparently not for them, so they’re happy. Must be all the lovely ads being pulled for remote servers.
This next-generation device is going to turn the world on its ear. Innovation at its best, and nobody will be able to ignore Apple. You thought the iPod was big? Just wait.
Great to see even more details of Apple’s next gen iPod. It’s driving me nuts already. Get it out the door Apple, NOW.
Steve said 2007 was going to be a great year and if this is one of the surprises, I’m in for a dozen!
Could it be that Apple is going for the all-in-one holy grail? Nobody’s even come close to pulling it off for my money but if anyone can, it’s going to be Jobs and his trusty sidekick Ive.
The Newton reborn, I couldn’t agree more. This is definitely the best thing I’ve ever seen from Apple. I love my Newton. I was disappointed to see it discontinued. I found the hand writing recognition not too bad.
This builds on that system with all of Jobs’, and Ives’ flair, savvy and style.
Watch out Blackberry apple has you in their sights
One iPod to control them all.
And what a massive patent fence Apple is building around its iPod borders. That’ll keep the immigrants out — Creative, Real and Microsoft included. I guess the blood sucking shysters do have their uses, when you can use them to afflict your enemies.
Ya, but can it “squirt”?
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There are too many of us trying to post our witty comments at the same time. Time to upgrade to an Xserve Xeon.
Only problem with it is… unlike the current iPod it needs TWO hands to operate!
Shivver me timbers and heave ho. I won’t be able ter use me new iPod aboard the Victory.
wow…that patent application was quite detailed. the use of the bevel as a touch sensitive part is brilliant in that nobody will need to touch the screen and it won’t get mucked up. i’m excited to see something like this come out of apple’s doors soon.
It seems that every article gives mention to LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son for the head’s up.
Perhaps he should get his own site…
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WTF!
Bevel != touchwheel
(For those of you without coding skills the above means bevel is not touchwheel)
It appears that the controls actually surround the iPod screen. A small area around the perimeter that is touch sensitive.
This is going to send the Zune back to the dark ages, well, it’s already there compared to the 5.5G iPods.
Hi. I’m an iPod.
And I’m a Zune. (To iPod): Hey, want me to squirt you a song?
What?
Yeah. I can squirt you a song and you can play it for three days. Let me show you.
OK. (Pause) Uh, you OK over there?
Yeah. I’m getting ready to squirt.
Should I be wearing protection or something?
Oh no. It’s what I’m designed to do. Create a social network.
Well, you can’t be too careful about those kinds of things.
OK. It’s coming. I’m getting ready to squirt. AHHH! Did you get it?
Hmm. Guess not. Maybe you can only squirt with another Zune. A “keep it in the family” sort of thing.
Oh yeah. I forgot about that.
Yeah. Too bad. Hey, you need a tissue? I think you’re still oozing over there.
The moral of this story is:
Only Apple can build an iPod killer.
Now we know why:
Reporter: Are you worried about Zune?
Steve Jobs: In a word, no.
From the illustrations, it looks like a right handed device. Bummer.
justified
That was funny. LOL this squirting must stop. Just think of all the viruses (STD) zuning is going to share in the wild. They must cure the aids of zune with ipods. Hehehe