5 ms·

> It truly is a good and clever idea, and, presuming it is patent-protected strongly enough, the lack of a digital crown is going to put competitors at a disadv

by Thiz 12y ago

> It truly is a good and clever idea, and, presuming it is patent-protected strongly enough, the lack of a digital crown is going to put competitors at a disadvantage. I rather scroll using the edge of the screen, I hate reading on my phone and interrupting with my finger to scroll, that's why I swipe at the very edge of the screen, almost scrolling with the metal. When watches get thinner, and they will, the crown will give place to the scrolling edge, longer area, more ergonomic. And I hope nobody patents it.

smackfu 12y ago
It's kind of gross that basic UI controls can be patented like that.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
TapamN 12y ago
Apple can't patent digital crowns because they didn't invent them. They probably have patented their specific implementation. The Timex Data Link USB smartwatch was using a digital crown back in 2002. It was used to scroll through entries, with tactile and audio feedback. There was a exponential speed curve to the scrolling; you could scroll slowly, one item at a time, or use a quick spin to advance dozens of entries in a second. Pulling the crown into the "set" position would allow you to edit the current item, and returning the crown to the home position would save the changes. Pushing the crown in from the home position would activate the light. It was a huge improvement over the older Data Link watches from the 90s, which only had a few buttons. Scrolling through items involved holding down a next/previous button, waiting for the auto repeat to kick in, and waiting until you got near what you wanted, then pressing the next/previous button a couple extra times to find what you wanted.
bydo 12y ago
Apple patented this in January 2009: "the touchpad is a touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the touch screen 112 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen."[1] They've yet to actually implement it in a device, though Palm used an offscreen gesture area on its Prē later that same year.[2] 1: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F7479949 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=H... 2: http://prethinking.com/home/2009/5/25/how-to-the-palm-pre-gesture-guide.html http://prethinking.com/home/2009/5/25/how-to-the-palm-pre-ge...

by Thiz 12y ago

smackfu 12y ago

It's kind of gross that basic UI controls can be patented like that.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

TapamN 12y ago

Apple can't patent digital crowns because they didn't invent them. They probably have patented their specific implementation. The Timex Data Link USB smartwatch was using a digital crown back in 2002. It was used to scroll through entries, with tactile and audio feedback. There was a exponential speed curve to the scrolling; you could scroll slowly, one item at a time, or use a quick spin to advance dozens of entries in a second. Pulling the crown into the "set" position would allow you to edit the current item, and returning the crown to the home position would save the changes. Pushing the crown in from the home position would activate the light. It was a huge improvement over the older Data Link watches from the 90s, which only had a few buttons. Scrolling through items involved holding down a next/previous button, waiting for the auto repeat to kick in, and waiting until you got near what you wanted, then pressing the next/previous button a couple extra times to find what you wanted.

bydo 12y ago

Apple patented this in January 2009: "the touchpad is a touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the touch screen 112 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen."[1] They've yet to actually implement it in a device, though Palm used an offscreen gesture area on its Prē later that same year.[2] 1: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F7479949 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=H... 2: http://prethinking.com/home/2009/5/25/how-to-the-palm-pre-gesture-guide.html http://prethinking.com/home/2009/5/25/how-to-the-palm-pre-ge...