Is it just me or did anyone else think of...?

It's probably just me.

I'm going, I'm going...

Any touchscreen is already capable of displaying that s**tty wheel of theirs - with all those "invented" functions - on-screen.

And if you don't like wheels you could easily change that to pentagram or other symbol preferable. Perhaps some symbol of pornographic nature. I would prefer using iTits control gland with nipple-stiffing feedback control =P

it certainly will attract the shiny shiny brigade... But will be forgotten after 5 mins.

I may be missing something here but, having racked my brain for all of the previous 30 seconds, I can't come up with a need for this. On my iPod I get guided round the menu options by visual indicators on the screen such as the menu item in question becoming highlighted in some way to distinguish it from others. Once the required menu item is highlighted I then click with the centre button to choose that menu option.

I can almost imagine that this might be some help to partially sighted people but only if the light was bright and there were enough different colours to represent each menu option...otherwise they're better off jamming the screen right up to their face and checking for the previously described 'visual feedback' mechanism which is already present - like I have to do when I'm indulging in spectacle-free iPod usage.

As long as they don't charge me £13 for it when every bugger else gets it for free I don't give a crap!

pointless patent as devices have been doing that sort of thing to a limited extent for ages. US patent clerks should throw it out as it may have some innovation but also sucks in trying to get the rights to a load of prior art too.

See gesturing requires use of two fingers

... and another way to waste battery power, but i'm sure the Numpties (with full-blown flashing light syndrome) will be queueing up to buy it.

Keyboard on my smartphone lights up when you type. I don't think this patent should be granted, as it's not exactly unique.

My laptop trackpad looks awful dull, I don't think some flashing lights will jolly it up much either. Why not just jam in an iPhone display instead? and while you're at it pop in some 3G and GPS chips, so it's always online like my phone and with a useful mapping do-dad. I'll be first in the queue for that lappy.

Finger lightworks when rubbed?

That's my coat! The one with tears in it.

Then again, I'm one of those types who are soooo tired of all kinds of devices blinking and lighting up for no reason at all.

(You know, like that blue blinking ear-gear for mobiles...)

umm... prior art everywhere. cell phones anyone? Push a key... any key... and the lights come on. Just because they use a touch interface doesn't mean it's new. Like "The low flying Finn" said... touchscreens have been around a long time and can do all kinda of stuff (all dependant on their user interface of course).

Apple: if we don't have the patent, we'll make it look a little different and then patent it.

<RANT>

I thought we were supposed to be trying to save the environment these days. More lights etc shorten battery life so:

a) you have to charge it more often

b) the overall batery life is shortened (good for apple as you're more likely to replace the iPod as a whole than replace the battery)

I've a laptop which has a set of shortcuts above the keyboard which are lit with indapendent blue LEDs which you cannot turn off and have no functionallity, there is even a light which comes on when you mute sound.

It's time manufacturers started thinking if it is really a neccessary light

</RANT>

J.M. Jarre had a thing, called a "keyboard", that, depending on which "key" you pressed, it lit up, showing you what key had been pressed.

Also, there are these things called plasma balls. When you touch them the part you are touching lights up, with a glow around your finger.

Can't wait for this totally unique invention.

What is it with apple taking common electronics and patenting it?

they are trying to patent ANY sensor system couples with ANY visual feedback.

in a few years when everyone finally stops buying their toys, they will make SCO and RAMBUS business by lawyer look like rank amateurs.

This patent is redundant.

There is already visual feedback on (almost) all touch screen implementations. By essentially retrofitting this concept to a touchpad - that is, giving it some form of 'screen' functionality - Apple are not creating anything new at all. They don't deserve to be granted this patent, but they'll probably get it.

I'll agree with a few other posters that backlighting is useful, though. I love touch-surface technology and Apple do it really well.

Don't apple already make an iPod with a brightly lit multi-coulur touchpad complete with user input feedback?

It's called the iPod Touch and I, for one, thought this was the future of Apple's Ipod interface - Isn't this patent something of a step backwards?

Apple just likes to patent things for future income, like that patent for the "pinching" movement, it's been used on multitouch displays for years yet apple get a hold of it and decide that they've "invented" it.... tits.

For starters, why should I have to physically crank a fucking wheel to select something in a menu? My thumb gets sore after spinning through 5000 different artists. As long as they are making you crank something, why not an actual crank that powers the device? I thought electronics were supposed to reduce physical labor. And secondly, I hate animated menus. Sure they are supposed to be easy to use or whatever, but waiting 200ms for a menu to scroll pisses me off. Buying a faster system is supposed to increase effective response time, and they are wasting it on stupid animations. So yeah, Apple may have reinvented the UI or whatever, but only to apease flashy light muppets and piss off power users.

"Can the wheel flash to the beat of your music?"

If that's in the plans, will they be sued when someone has an epileptic fit while using a flashing iPod?

Could their be a link between this patent and something similar to Perceptive Pixel multi-touch software which Apple already uses in the iphone.

Although patent doesn't refer to such, since when did Apple release patents which stated clearly their intended use.

With a BIG increase in Research and Development over the past 8 Months maybe this is the next big thing that's due.

May sound far fetched but read between the lines and it's not impossible that this is what it could be referring to.