Apple patent filing details touchscreen tablet

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]

[djs @ Aug 29th 2008 4:08PM]

sweet mother of god what is wrong with that hand?

[JohnTitor @ Aug 29th 2008 4:11PM]

too much iphone does that to you

[konshuss @ Aug 29th 2008 4:23PM]

clearly the tablet is being used for porn. *lots* of porn.

[LC @ Aug 29th 2008 4:23PM]

"sweet mother of god what is wrong with that hand?"

It was holding a Nano.

[Saad Rabia @ Aug 29th 2008 4:26PM]

I can't even decide if that is a hand or a leg? Is that a scratchscreen technology?

[BigD145 @ Aug 29th 2008 4:27PM]

You'd think Apple would have at least one artist in its employ that could draw a decent hand.

[Blastar @ Aug 29th 2008 4:28PM]

Creepyyyyy !

[DiligentJay @ Aug 29th 2008 4:37PM]

That's a hand?? I thought it was the tripod alien from War of the Worlds.

[Ray @ Aug 29th 2008 4:37PM]

[Insert witty yet hilarious remark about the hands drawn in this patent]!

[Pusta @ Aug 29th 2008 4:39PM]

Simple, the first version is only available on ET's home world of the Green Planet

[zounds Padang @ Aug 29th 2008 4:41PM]

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.

[timmy @ Aug 29th 2008 4:48PM]

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

[broli @ Aug 29th 2008 8:32PM]

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.

[Pumping_Iron @ Aug 29th 2008 5:12PM]

Timmy !
"Lib-a-la Timmeh !"
:P

[Eh @ Aug 29th 2008 6:00PM]

he wasnt master of his domain

[justinoshi @ Aug 29th 2008 6:32PM]

it's all thumbs!!!

[Wormbolt @ Aug 29th 2008 6:20PM]

"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"

[evplasmaman @ Aug 29th 2008 6:23PM]

its like the evil monkey hand from that Simpsons Halloween episode. It grants you 3 wishes but they all back fire...
wish # 1 multitouch...

[Changeless @ Aug 29th 2008 6:24PM]

Hand don't like iTunes!

[andy @ Aug 29th 2008 8:29PM]

@john.. i lold

[linuxamp @ Aug 30th 2008 1:29AM]

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.

[tha-don @ Aug 30th 2008 1:31AM]

my preeeecious!

[ZeroCorpse @ Aug 30th 2008 11:40AM]

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.

[chef @ Sep 1st 2008 12:26AM]

The hand model used is the husband of GTAIV lady.

[Johan S @ Aug 29th 2008 4:09PM]

Unfortunately, this patent does nothing to address the problem of mutant hands.

[ethana2 @ Aug 29th 2008 5:13PM]

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..

[kccboy2004 @ Aug 29th 2008 8:19PM]

Apple copying Dell & IBM again...

Apple is a bit of a follower. Lets face it, an opportunist, a "me-too"company.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Aug 29th 2008 4:09PM]

They have been filing so many patents of this subject. They better get something good out then.

[Lucky @ Aug 29th 2008 4:10PM]

Uhhh.... monster freak hands.

[huh @ Aug 29th 2008 4:14PM]

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.

[flaystus @ Aug 30th 2008 8:04PM]

MUTANT HANDS USERS ONLY PLEASE.

[apalomba @ Aug 29th 2008 4:14PM]

Maybe the "claw-like demon-hand" is meant to instill fear in those who try to steal their patent.

[apalomba @ Aug 29th 2008 4:16PM]

Imagine what that hand would do... TO YOUR FACE!

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 4:13PM]

clearly this was done by the same aliens who made the O2-atmosphere machine for mars

[StalematE @ Aug 29th 2008 4:15PM]

these patents are for a tablet PC that's strictly marketed for the arthritic mole people demographic.

[eggothewaffle @ Aug 29th 2008 4:15PM]

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

[Mike Cornett @ Aug 29th 2008 4:17PM]

'Trying to divine'? What were you trying to say here?

[vileta2 @ Aug 29th 2008 4:31PM]

divine has more than one meaning.

The more you know...

[Mike Cornett @ Aug 29th 2008 5:38PM]

Unfortunately none of which fit into the context of this sentence, or article...The more you know...

[MeatPop @ Aug 29th 2008 5:58PM]

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.

[Jason @ Aug 29th 2008 6:09PM]

1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer

Seems to fit.

[Corpsed @ Aug 29th 2008 4:18PM]

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.

[sjdurfey @ Aug 29th 2008 5:39PM]

that makes no sense at all

[Decoy @ Aug 29th 2008 9:42PM]

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.

[chefgon_ign @ Aug 29th 2008 4:19PM]

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.

[gad get @ Aug 30th 2008 2:40AM]

Well, it wasn't the first time for me!
(Think urinal-cleaning blue elephant robots.)

[Jesse @ Aug 29th 2008 4:20PM]

those hands are from steve jobs back from the dead

[ethana2 @ Aug 29th 2008 5:16PM]

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..

[Jason @ Aug 29th 2008 6:14PM]

In related news, Apple quietly announced the "reverse kill-switch". One early tester noted, "Applications come back...a bit different."

[JOSE @ Aug 29th 2008 4:21PM]

I just want a new macbook pro with a bluray drive and a decently priced ssd drive...