Three new iPhone patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office today published several of Apple's patent approvals, all of which relate to different aspects of the iPhone's functionality. The first deals with organization of the iPhone's interface as to reduce the clutter of adding too many visual elements to a document. The patent seems to indicate the use of nested interface elements, such as clicking a button to summon a menu detailing operations that the user can perform.

The second patent demonstrates user input on the software keyboard and how the iPhone highlights the letter that was pressed, as well as how much time the button stays highlighted.

The third relates to gestures which can select, and consequently delete items using the touch screen. The process recognizes gestures to first edit the list, then select the item for deletion, and finally delete the item.

by MacNN Staff