Apple patents touch sensitive bezel for future tablets

9:08 am, February 3rd, 2010, John Brownlee

Our eagle-eyed patent scouring friend Jack Purcher over at Patently Apple has noticed a cool new filing trickle through the USPTO pipe, which deals with tablet computer with advanced touch technologies.

The patent describes technology which uses a touch-capable bezel that could control things like music volume, track skipping, zooming functions or even gaming controls. Given the iPad’s pretty sizable bezel and Apple’s recent forays with display-less, touch-capacitive surfaces (e.g. the Magic Mouse) this seems like it would be a great addition for next-generation iPads… especially in addition to a touch-capacitive back.

This is a very Apple thought process. We’re unfortunately a long way away from eliminating bezel entirely from our devices, and as much as Apple might want out iPads to just be slates of glass in our lap, it’s not going to happen anytime soon, Making the bezel actually useful is the next best thing.

Posted by John Brownlee in News, Tablet, iPad | Comment on this article

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About the author

John Brownlee has written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Berlin with a charming girlfriend against whom he is currently enjoying a thirteen game cribbage winning streak, and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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4 comments

Ok so why does everyone keep saying this is for the next gen iPad? Is there some evidence yet that this couldn’t be for the current version of the iPad and Apple waited to announce it until the patent was granted? I mean this would after all be a smart strategy… announce just the bare minimum of iPad features at the event, enough to wet the appetites of the fans as well as the content publishers and developers all the while keeping their competitors at bay by leaving them to think that the device has less features than it really does… Then once the launch of the device OR the launch of the new iPhone OS comes into play it’s they tout all these amazing features that no one knew where there and catch all their competitors with their pants down…. I truly believe this is what’s going on… Steve Jobs said himself (allegedly) that this is the most important thing he has ever done… I don’t think he’s referring to an oversized iPod I’d think he’d be referring to a lot of the things that he purposely didn’t show at the event. Microsoft and Google are playing checkers here and Apple is playing chess. IMHO

Michael Perry, on February 3rd, 2010 at 9:29 am

“We’re unfortunately a long way away from eliminating bezel entirely from our devices, and as much as Apple might want out iPads to just be slates of glass in our lap, it’s not going to happen anytime soon…”

The iPad needs a bezel because you must be able to hold it in your hand(s).
It is an ergonomic necessity and completely unlike the screen of an iMac for example.

J, on February 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am

I was hoping for an adjustable bezel.

The whole face is active, but in SETTINGS > BEZEL you can drag & drop
a corner of the bezel to the thickness you want — than that part of the face
is inactive so you can hold it & not have any commands executed.
And you can choose the bezels look, too — colors, patterns or textures like woodgrain or stone.

Maybe in iPad 2.

CaryMG, on February 4th, 2010 at 1:58 am

You guys are all hopeless. I’ve never seen a bigger collection of dumb asses in my life. What you saw Jobs hold up at the keynote IS THE FUCKEN IPAD AND THERE ISN’T ANYTHING ELSE ADDED PLUS WHO KNOWS WHAT THE 2ND GEN WILL HAVE.

STOP SPREADING MORE RUMORS JOHN !!!!!!!!!

porkchop1234, on February 4th, 2010 at 6:06 am