“Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals that Jony Ive and his team have considered expanding the Apple Watch’s digital crown to other iOS devices such as the iPad,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Apple notes that the digital crown could be used as a volume controller or locking the touch screen, turning on the touch screen, taking a picture, resizing text and other actions,” Purcher reports. “Apple’s patent FIG. 2 noted below illustrates an expanded view of an exemplary device #200 such as an iPad, though it could be an iPhone or iPod touch as well.”
“The device could include touch screen surrounded by border region. The border region could be a region between touch screen and the edge of device,” Purcher reports. “In some examples, the device may not have a border region and may instead have a surface composed only of touch screen.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Seems like a patent that’ll never be used.
As we wrote just over a year ago:
One could view the Digital Crown in much the same way as the original iPod’s mechanical click wheel which taught users the UI concept and how to use later iPod models’ capacitive-sensing click wheel. Looked at this way, the mechanical Digital Crown is a teaching aid, letting us spin and click mechanically until we’re ready for the more advanced virtual “Digital Crown.”
Plus, in a skeuomorphic manner, the mechanical Digital Crown is a familiar element for a wristwatch, so it makes it easy to accept Apple Watch on your wrist. Then, later, when users realize what Apple Watch is, and how it works, they’ll no longer need such hand-holding. It’s a very Apple-like way use things that people recognize from the real world in order to introduce a strange new product.
SEE ALSO:
After getting assimilated by Apple Watch, now I want a Digital Crown on my iPhone – August 13, 2015
Why Apple Watch’s Digital Crown will be a thing of the past – July 16, 2015