Trying to divine what Apple's up to from
patent applications is never easy, but every now and again the diagrams actually make it obvious -- and it looks like Steve and his elves are hard at work on large-format touch interfaces, possibly for a tablet Mac of some kind. The
latest touch-
related filing is some 52 pages long and details everything from working with multiple finger inputs to onscreen keyboards how window controls would work, but we're mostly transfixed by the claw-like demon-hands that seem to be operating all this kit -- apparently Apple engineers have the same nightmares as the rest of us. If we had to bet, we'd say that a tablet Mac is still a long ways off, but we've been wrong before -- and there's always a chance Steve's got something wild in store for
next month.
[Via
AppleInsider]
posted Aug 29th 2008 4:04PM
sweet mother of god what is wrong with that hand?
too much iphone does that to you
clearly the tablet is being used for porn. *lots* of porn.
"sweet mother of god what is wrong with that hand?"
It was holding a Nano.
I can't even decide if that is a hand or a leg? Is that a scratchscreen technology?
You'd think Apple would have at least one artist in its employ that could draw a decent hand.
Creepyyyyy !
That's a hand?? I thought it was the tripod alien from War of the Worlds.
[Insert witty yet hilarious remark about the hands drawn in this patent]!
Simple, the first version is only available on ET's home world of the Green Planet
It's a known statistical fact that if you draw anatomically correct body parts along with your perfect-perspective product patent lawsuits filed against you will be lost. No one knows why and the result is horrible, deformed hands and faces in the patent system. Go fig.
The hand can:
Blend
Play Doom
Play Crysis
Pick your friends nose
Point to it's home
Kill you with it bare..oh never mind
You have a lot to learn about patent filing. You are meant to be as vague as possible in your patents....that includes the illustrations so you can earn/get money from anything remotely resembling it. So in this case it seems this patent would even hold for aliens.
Timmy !
"Lib-a-la Timmeh !"
:P
he wasnt master of his domain
it's all thumbs!!!
"With his last ounce of strength he reached out to his multi-touch iTablet and indicated the name of his killer by way of a series of patented gestures"
its like the evil monkey hand from that Simpsons Halloween episode. It grants you 3 wishes but they all back fire...
wish # 1 multitouch...
Hand don't like iTunes!
@john.. i lold
From the look of the hand, this tablet can also be used to trigger the nuclear device to melt the Mars ice core and provide a breathable atmosphere.
my preeeecious!
The owner of that hand switched from Windows Vista because, due to the severe cramping caused by all the extra clicks and keystrokes required to do simple things in Vista, his hand simply couldn't take it anymore.
But his hand looks better than the Linux hand.
The hand model used is the husband of GTAIV lady.
Unfortunately, this patent does nothing to address the problem of mutant hands.
Yeah really, that's hilarious. It's guaranteed to be the first thing /anyone/ notices when they look at that patent.
I seem to recall previous Apple patents with similar art problems..
Apple copying Dell & IBM again...
Apple is a bit of a follower. Lets face it, an opportunist, a "me-too"company.
They have been filing so many patents of this subject. They better get something good out then.
Uhhh.... monster freak hands.
Humans have to evolve somehow.. but there's a great Hollywood blockbuster in there about a man who has commercially evolved.. hands.. and decides to break the intellectual property terms.
MUTANT HANDS USERS ONLY PLEASE.
Maybe the "claw-like demon-hand" is meant to instill fear in those who try to steal their patent.
Imagine what that hand would do... TO YOUR FACE!
clearly this was done by the same aliens who made the O2-atmosphere machine for mars
these patents are for a tablet PC that's strictly marketed for the arthritic mole people demographic.
I think someone's been thinking a little too much about Left 4 Dead's box art!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead
'Trying to divine'? What were you trying to say here?
divine has more than one meaning.
The more you know...
Unfortunately none of which fit into the context of this sentence, or article...The more you know...
divine 2 |dəˈvaɪn| |dɪˈvʌɪn|
verb [ trans. ]
discover (something) by guesswork or intuition : his brother usually divined his ulterior motives | [with clause ] they had divined that he was a fake. See note at predict .
• have supernatural or magical insight into (future events) : frauds who claimed to divine the future in chicken's entrails.
• discover (water) by dowsing.
1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer
Seems to fit.
I believe this is the reason there is no copy/paste on the iPhone; I'm guessing Apple wants to leave the more computer-like functionality to a separate device such as this.
that makes no sense at all
Who knows?
Maybe one of the lead programmers at Apple wrote half the Cut Paste code for OSX in an evening, use it to cut paste his code - but hadn't got paste working. The permanently cut but unpastable project is rumoured to exist in the bowels of Cupertino to this very day.
I was not expecting to have a moment of pure horror when I clicked on to Engadget today. I guess there's a first time for everything.
Well, it wasn't the first time for me!
(Think urinal-cleaning blue elephant robots.)
those hands are from steve jobs back from the dead
Yeah, I'm sure engadget will tell us exactly what the effect of that accidentally released story was on Apple stock, if they haven't done so already..
In related news, Apple quietly announced the "reverse kill-switch". One early tester noted, "Applications come back...a bit different."
I just want a new macbook pro with a bluray drive and a decently priced ssd drive...
Holly dead peacock! OMFG, wankers do patents now?
and he goes out swinging!
a simple procedure:
just take the fingers and attach them to the wrist
BINGO! Couldn't quite place a finger on it (hehe). No hand, just fingers on a wrist. Oh and fingernails that take up about a third of the finger.
its called survival of the fittest you non mac loser! Wrist are a thing of the past, get with iRevolution
Evolution according to apple?
That is actually a rendering of the latex-covered robot hand that will be controlled by Steve's brain in a jar, considering that he is now dead.
nice move apple, way to promote your own os (the itunes shown is the windows version)
wait, you mean they actually want to market their software? how bizarre
His point is that it is the Windows version of iTunes, not the Mac version. I couldn't say for sure (haven't loaded either in quite some time) but the shaded bar at the top sure looks Vista-y.
Seriously, it's about time. I was wondering when apple was going to go for that market. It looks disappointing that they seem to be straying from the active digitizer screens for serious photoshop/graphics editing... unless it's implied that by having freakishly mutated hands you have the active digitizer elements in your fingernails.
(okok, i guess it could be a hybrid, but i don't recall seeing any pens in any of the pics)
There are styluses (styli?) for iPhones now, so it's safe to assume someone could make one with a small enough tip to be useful on a tablet computer. No idea about pressure sensitivity and whatnot, though...perhaps the tip would "smoosh" up against the glass with more pressure, making the point of contact bigger. :P
Why doesnt the comment system remember me like it says it will. I have to keep clicking "Returning" and type my credentials.
It's just not that into you?
Even the Egyptians drew better hands than that.
Why do patent drawings always look so fucked up? This isnt the worst, by far but still...
Free Zombie Survival Guide with every purchase!!! (Clearly the person in the illustrations didn't read theirs.)
Well add this to Apple's list.
Nothing really new from a tech stand point since HP and others have stuff like this, but at least they are trying new stuff.
Here's what we know:
- It's going to be Air-thin.
- With a sensitive accelerometer.
- High-resolution.
- Multitouch.
I'll be impressed if the screen has a 3D dual-layer effect.
I'll probably wait for Google's open version though :))
I'm scared, Mommy! Make the bad hand go away!
remember guys that a patent is for technologies that do NOT already exist, being that pen tablets writing on screens already do, no way to file your own patent for it, but it can still be used in the technology.
They seem to be developing a touchscreen tablet for ET.
Everyone leave the hand alone. That poor man obviously has the arthritis.
Can it only be used by ET?
Paranoid thinker:
This hand was drawn deformed on purpose, because they KNOW Engadget will grab the patent images, and they know the deformed hand will gain some sort of "viral marketing" publicity and such....etc. It will get more attention, more comments, and could possibly spark an Anti-Apple comment war.... all of which will have the images gain more views and consequently, more popularity.
We are all mice in an Apple lab.
And this is all based on 3 points:
- Any sketch artist knows how to draw a hand. ----> Therefore, it was done on purpose.
- Apple knows what it's doing ----> Therefore, it was done for a good reason.
- Apple is all about money -----> Therefore, the reason involves making more money, or saving more money.
We are all mice in an corporate lab.
fixed.
We are all mice in a corporate lab.
[Moar fixed.]
I hope the tablet wasn't used to draw the picture; either the tablet is inaccurate or THE HAND IS OUT THERE. O_O
Dude, I think you need to lay off the caffeine...
In Applet Union, the Half Life 2 alien plays you!
Sounded better in my head.
Seriously, for those who CAN form your hands into that shape, note how far off the lengths of the digits and fingers/thumb are from reality. It's not even remotely human, even terrestrial.
Why is this patentable?
It sounds to me like a work of authorship, like a book. This is not a machine that takes significant risks and deserves years of holding everyone else in the industry back so that we can reward the huge investment that Apple has made.
Our patent system is broken, and Apple loves it!
I believe the love child of a human and a pterodactyl would have claw-like hands like that.
silly dudes - they drew the hands like that on purpose so that people on engadget would comment on it a lot, making this story rank higher in google!
I'm a little concerned why apple is hiring satan worshiping artists...
That hand clearly illustrates the perils of playing 1st person shooters on your PC. It actually looks like mine after a long session, although I haven't reached this guy's ossification level yet.
If your hand looks remotely like that, you should probably see a doctor...
So your saying that Apple OSsified him? Hmm...
I swear that hand looks like one from "Better Off Dead"
I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!!!
My theory is that Apple just waits to here the rumors of what it's going to do next... and then does them.
Mutant army? They've already got one hurr hurr hur
ba-dum-tish
Geez, I see apple fanboys are just messed up in the head... look at their hands!
Are they aliens?
Hasn't Apple got the memo that Tablets flopped? How about making a $400-500 netbook? Oh wait, that doesn't meet Apple's profit margin.
How about this prediction:
The Macbook Air was just a primer. Next November, or January, They completely redesign it, and come out with a 1/8" thick Macbook Air tablet! Kill the air and make it AWESOME at the same time.
Since I still have a little bit of waiting until I can order the latest Acer Aspire, I bet that the launch will actually have a netbook included in it, making it harder to choose yet again
The only problem seeing Apple involved in the netbook war is that they have to compete with existing models in the market place, so they do not get to set whatever price they want.
woop! Windows 7 seen in the wild!
I bet it will have the atom processor. EEEpc like componets
Until now, I thought Gollum was a fictional character. I now know better!
This would actually make sense for Apple to make a tablet because look at the iPhone & iPod Touch. Why would they just make 2 devices with touch screen capabilities and not put that technology into their computers. I think a tablet mac is coming soon.
How did I know that everyone probably noticed the freak hand....with the billions of dollars apple is making you would think they would pay an artist (100-200$) to draw it for them instead of having one of the secretaries do it....oh sorry "administrative assistant"