View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/08/03/12/microsoft.cover.flow
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008 9:25pm
Microsoft: Cover Flow-like ...
In response to Apple's chiding remarks regarding the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard launch – urging Microsoft to "start their photocopiers" – the Redmond-based software and electronics giant has applied for a patent to Cover Flow-style OS interface. The patent states that the idea revolves around "stacking data wheels" and is primarily designed for mobile environments, potentially the Xbox 360, according to an analysis of the patent by MacNN

The concept is expected to appear in mobile phones, the Zune MP3 player, and Windows Mobile PDAs. It is designed to function with various common mobile applications such as mail, calendar, contact lists, and instant messaging, among others. In addition to internal resources, the patent application shows that web sites can take advantage of the concept by using a plugin module to simplify browsing content.