Apple Investigating Multitouch Mouse
Hrmpf notes that Apple has applied for a patent (in March 2006) which extends the concept of Multitouch to a computer mouse.
The user would be able to perform gestures such as pinching or a virtual scroll wheel on the surface of the mouse. In one embodiment, the touch-sensitive mouse would use an internal light source and a optically transmissive surface to track finger positions.
Gestures can also be used to invoke and manipulate virtual control interfaces, such as volume knobs, switches, sliders, handles, knobs, doors, and other widgets that may be created to facilitate human interaction with the computing system.
Combinations of taps or gestures could trigger different actions such as "tapping with the middle and ring fingers could open iTunes or be set in the preference panel to do any particular action."
Apple has had a number of patent applications related to multitouch technology in the past, and features multitouch technology prominently on the Apple iPhone.
Popular Stories
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters.
Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
