On March 24, 2009, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two of Apple’s newly granted patents. The first generally relates to a passive cooling system designed for portable devices and the second patent generally relates to user interfaces, and in particular, to user interfaces that use touch-sensitive displays and include an interface reconfiguration mode. Although it’s evident that Apple’s granted patent covers the iPod touch and iPhone – as the patent figures prove out, the fact remains that the patent actually covers “any portable electronic device.” This of course would extend to any future ebook or touch based netbook that Apple may be planning for later this year. The latter patent also adds to Apple’s war chest of touch display related patents which could be used in any future patent challenge. Apple’s COO Tim Cook back in January of this year, made it clear that Apple would be “ready to suit up and go against anyone” who would rip off their touch-related IP. Although some critics think that would be an uphill battle for Apple, Tim Cook was adamant in Apple’s position: “We are watching the landscape. We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

Granted Patent: Portable electronic device with interface reconfiguration mode

Apple’s Background: As portable devices become more compact, and the amount of information to be processed and stored increases, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with the device. This is unfortunate since the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device’s features or tools. Some portable electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.

Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This is unfortunate because it may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and/or menu hierarchies, such inflexibility is frustrating to many users.

Some conventional user interfaces can be configured by users, thereby allowing at least partial customization. Unfortunately, the process of modifying such conventional user interfaces is often as cumbersome and complicated as the use of the conventional user interface itself. In particular, the required behaviors during configuration of such conventional user interfaces are often counter intuitive and the corresponding indicators guiding user actions are often difficult to understand. These challenges are often a source of additional frustration for users.

Accordingly, there is a need for a more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for portable devices that enable a user to configure the user interface.

Apple’s Summary: The above deficiencies and other problems associated with user interfaces for portable devices are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed portable electronic device, which includes an interface reconfiguration mode that intuitively allows a user to reposition displayed graphical objects.

One aspect of the invention is a method in which a portable electronic device displays a first plurality of icons (e.g., graphical objects) in a first region in a touch-sensitive display; detects a first predefined user action, with respect to the touch-sensitive display, for initiating a predefined user interface reconfiguration process; and varies positions of one or more icons in the first plurality of icons in response to detecting the first predefined user action. The varying includes varying the positions of the one or more icons about respective average positions.

Apple’s patent FIG. 2A is an illustration of one embodiment of a portable electronic device responsive to touch input for adjustment of the position of one or more icons.

The varying may include animating the one or more icons to simulate floating of the one or more icons on a surface corresponding to a surface of the touch-sensitive display.

The varying position of a respective icon in the one or more icons may correspond to an equation of motion in a plane substantially coincident with the touch-sensitive display. The equation of motion may have a coefficient of friction less than a threshold, a non-zero initial velocity for the respective icon, a non-zero angular velocity, and/or a restoring force about the respective average position of the respective icon such that the position of the respective icon oscillates in a region substantially centered on the respective average position of the respective icon. In some embodiments, the respective icon rotates about the respective average position of the respective icon while maintaining a fixed orientation with respect to the touch-sensitive display.

Apple’s patent FIGS. 2B and 2C are illustrations of a single embodiment of a portable electronic device responsive to touch input for adjustment of the position of one or more icons.

In some embodiments, the method further includes: detecting a user making a point of contact with the touch-sensitive display at a first position corresponding to a first icon in the one or more icons and detecting movement of the point of contact to a second position of the touch-sensitive display; and responding to detecting the point of contact and detecting movement of the point of contact by displaying movement of the first icon to the second position of the touch-sensitive display, and displaying the first icon at the second position.
A second icon in the one or more icons may be moved from a respective initial position to a respective new position when the second position of the first icon at least partially overlaps with the respective initial position of the second icon. The position of the first icon may be fixed at the second position in response to detecting a second predefined user action, with respect to the touch-sensitive display, for terminating the predefined user interface reconfiguration process.

The aforementioned methods may be performed by a portable electronic device having a touch-sensitive display with a graphical user interface (GUI), one or more processors, memory and one or more modules, programs or sets of instructions stored in the memory for performing these methods. In some embodiments, the portable electronic device provides a plurality of functions, including wireless communication.

Instructions for performing the aforementioned methods may be included in a computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.

Inventors: Apple lists the following engineers as the inventors of granted patent 7,509,588: Van Os; Marcel (San Francisco, CA), Anzures; Freddy Allen (San Francisco, CA), Forstall; Scott (Mountain View, CA), Christie; Greg (San Jose, CA), Ording; Bas (San Francisco, CA), Chaudhri; Imran (San Francisco, CA) and Lemay; Stephen O. (San Francisco, CA)

Apple’s other published granted patent today titled Handle arrangement with integrated heat pipe, relates to a passive cooling system integrated with an articulating handle for use with a portable computing system. Granted patent 7,508,662 was invented by Apple’s Ray Chang (Cupertino, CA).

For more information on today’s granted patents, simply feed the individual patent numbers noted above into this search engine.

NOTICE: MacNN 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

Written and researched by Jack “Neo” Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor. E-mail Jack