Apple’s recent patent for fingerprint recognition tech on what looks suspiciously like an iPhone is down on our list of most wanted features for the next iPhone, but we may have to wait another whole year for that. And it may not even make the cut at all: Apple patents all sorts of wondrous kit that’s never realised. Here are five of our favourites from the archives we’re still waiting on.
Touchscreen Mac OS X
Apple’s done a fantastic job of pushing multitouch tech, especially on the iPhone and iPod touch, but while there are plenty of touchscreen Windows PCs to be found, there’s no option to poke your way around OS X. There would be though, if Apple got round to realising this touchscreen patent, which shows a keyboard running on the OS X desktop. A touchscreen iMac would be lovely, but we hope Apple’s still saving it for the supposed Mac tablet.
Nike+ for extreme sports
Sure, you can use Nike+ with your iPod to keep track of your jogging distance and repping ability on the free weights, but wouldn’t you love a way to work out just much air you caught on the slopes? This Apple patent describes a gizmo that fits on to your boots, and works out data like speed and height from an accelerometer tucked away inside. The market may be a bit too small to make this one economically viable (How many ski jumpers do you actually know?) but it’s a tantalising step for the likes of the Nike+ peripheral nonetheless.
iPhone gloves
The iPhone’s responsive, capacitive screen is no small part of the smartphone’s trailblazing success, but it does have one flaw: it won’t work with your gloves on. One bright spark at Apple had an idea to help you beat the cold, with a pair of mitts designed for the mobile, which work thanks to an electrical conductive layer inside the material. Presumably an even brighter spark on the Cupertino campus then pointed out that even with these iPhone gloves on, you still wouldn’t be able to pick out individual keys in portrait QWERTY mode anyway. Perhaps the advent of a landscape keyboard in iPhone OS 3.0 will put them back in the pipeline?
Sharing multimedia during iPhone calls
Heard a song you like? Don’t just tell someone about it, send them it instead. This Apple patent outlines how an iPhone could be used to share multimedia while you chat, streaming the data on a second channel and even letting you play it back once loaded, mid-conference. There’s no sign of this in iPhone OS 3.0 of course, but the introduction of video recording to the iPhone 3GS raises the exciting prospect of one day being able to shoot where you are, and send the video to your co-chatter. Would that make holidays better or worse?
Apple TV motion remote
Apple TV is absolutely crying out for this one. Taking a cue from the Nintendo Wii’s motion control, this Apple patented remote would see you moving a cursor on screen with your wrist thanks to an infrared sensor slapped on top of your telly. You could even scroll through all of your media with a wave of the Wiimote-like wand, and zoom in and out of pictures (or video, why not?) just by pushing and pulling back and forth. Apple TV badly needs a better reason to exist than just as a placeholder for Boxee – we hope motion control is it.
