A new patent filed by Apple reveals the possibility that the Apple Watch’s trademark Crown Dial could be headed to the iPhone and iPad.
Whatever our thoughts on the Apple Watch, something the Bandwidth Blog team can agree on wearables generally is that analogue features tend to translate well to digital use. One such example is the former’s Crown Dial, through which users navigate throughout the wearable.
Apple have been quite proud of their achievement in this regard, and touted the crown dial quite heavily when the Watch was first unveiled.
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Now, thanks to the leak of a recent patent, it would seem that Apple is exploring the possibility of installing a crown dial aboard the iPhone and iPad.
While that might seem nonsensical at first, it’s not without precedent. BlackBerry‘s earlier phones made use of an analogue dial through which users navigated throughout the phone.
The parent depicts that an iPhone or iPad-styled crown would serve to supplement multitouch, and would be used to scroll throughout iOS as well as control volume settings, resize text and unlock or lock a touchscreen.
We’re left to feel that the addition of a crown to either the iPhone or iPad would be an awkward contribution, and perhaps its one best left aboard the far smaller Apple Watch.
Apple, however, as a long history of filing patents which it doesn’t intend to capitalize on, leaving us to speculate that this idea might well never see the light of day.
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What are your thoughts on the potential addition of a crown dial to either the iPhone or iPad? Would you make use of it, or is it an unnecessary feature? Be sure to share your opinion in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
