Apple’s Dashboard patent revealed: Widgets for your iPod a natural
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 5, 2006 at 6:00pm
On Jan. 5, 2006, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple’s patent application titled “Widget authoring and editing environment.” The patent relates to Apple’s Mac OS X Dashboard feature.
There were two notable points of interest in the patent, with the first residing in Patent Point # 52 covering the environments that Dashboard could eventually run on. Beyond the desktop, Dashboard and/or Widgets will be able to run on a “handheld computer, mobile device, consumer electronic device or the like.” Of course this aspect of Dashboard & Widgets had been previously covered in a Next Wave Series chapter titled “Apple’s iPod-Pro 2006, a specialized computer,” where I stated the following:
”…downloading Widgets like a clock and other conveniences will be an option. Being that a wireless iPod is connected to the network, these XML based web services would provide live updated information on the fly. I’m sure that you could think of a hundred ways you’ll be able to customize your iPod – and that’s going to be the fun of a wireless iPod with a cool live UI.”
This is going to be, without a doubt, one of the coolest aspects of Apple’s future wireless over-the-air video iPod.
The second notable point of interest, resides in Patent Point # 60 relating to the sub-header titled “Widget Installation.” The excerpt of interest states that “Authentication and payment may be prerequisites for such operations in some embodiments.” This is definitely a little gem worth noting as its implications could be far reaching – especially in relation to future wireless over-the-air portables.
About the Patent
For those wishing to review the patent, you’ll find the following topics being presented: Hardware Architecture, Dashboard and Widgets, Widget Installation, Software Architecture, Dashboard Server, Dashboard Client, Widget Location, Widget Development, Remote Server Access, Widget Authoring Environment, Widget Editing and Examples of Widgets.
Apple’s summary of the invention: According to the techniques of the present invention, an authoring environment is provided for creating and/or editing widgets for use in a user-activatable dashboard (also referred to as a unified interest layer). Widgets created using the techniques of the invention can have any or all of various characteristics selectable by the widget author, including for example: the ability to expand and/or collapse; two-sided appearance, allowing a user to flip the widget over to see additional user interface elements; scrolling regions; and the like.” Apple’s Abstract adds that “The authoring environment facilitates creation of widgets that have a consistent appearance and mechanism, and allows third-party developers to easily create widgets that have a look and feel that is consistent with a predefined set of widgets.
NOTICE
Macsimum News presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.
For this Patent’s details, see patent application 20060005207.
The inventors that are listed on patent 20060005207 are John O Louch, Andrew M. Grignon, Timothy Wayne Bumgarner and Eric Steven Peyton for serial number 145577 originally filed on June 3, 2005 – just weeks before Apple’s official launching of Mac OS X Tiger.
neo@macsimumnews.com
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
