Apple goes retro-rotary with iPhone Nano patent
By Triston McIntyre
Have you not purchased your beloved iPhone because the wife just won’t let you spend half a grand on “the latest toy”? You are in luck: Apple submitted a patent today that could be direct evidence that a downscaled Nano-like iPhone is in the works, and you might even get a little rotary phone nastalgia for free!
Though the technology included in the recently released iPhone has been justifed time and time again as users discover the true value of such a well-rounded portable device, there are still multitudes would would rather avoid the hefty price tag as they don’t feel all those nifty features like a large touchscreen, high quality camera, or Safari are a necessity.
Apple has long been a proponent of targeting the price ranges of all interested customers, and this patent could be the proof people were looking for that Apple wouldn’t leave the wallet-light buyers out.
This patent clearly depicts a rotary-styled keypad that works in conjunction with the already existent scroll wheel in iPods. Not only that, it displays a direct correlation between the numbers being selected and the classic 3 letter to a number layout (i.e abc, def, ghi, etc.)
Now, do we really think that Apple will make this the centric feature of the iPhone Nano (if such a thing ever makes it to production)? Probably not. Chances are Apple is simply patenting all embodiments of iPhone knockoffs so a few hacks in Japan and China don’t get silly with themselves.
There are said to a be two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. I would like to add to that list “patents,” as Apple has never wasted time submitting a patent it didn’t at least show moderate attention. Now how to get out of the first two…
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July 9th, 2007
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