You’d think this is something Apple would already have locked down already, but the guy who just mindlessly rubber stamps all patent applications at the USPTO apparently lost this one behind some filing cabinets for a few years. No bother, because he found it, and now Cupertino owns a patent for the veritable iPod click wheel… just in time for Apple to eliminate it entirely with the next generation of all touchscreen iPods! Great timing!
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
6 responses to “Apple Finally Wins Patent For The iPod Click Wheel”
Just when you thout no one uses it…
better late than never!
This was a great innovation back in the day, but I’m glad to see that Apple have almost entirely moved over to full touchscreens. This probably still has some interesting uses, just can’t think what it could be implemented into.