News

Apple Files Patent For 'Multi-Functional Handheld Device'

Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 1:50 PM - by

Apple in March filed a patent for a "multi-functional handheld device;" the patent was published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on Thursday, according to a report by Neo at MacNN. While Apple wasn't specific as to whether this will be a brand-new device or a variation on the iPod, the company did note in the filing that users would be able to switch between different user interfaces for such functions as PDA, cell phone, games, music and video.

Of course, there is no guarantee that Apple will ever produce a multi-functional device with such options. Companies typically cover all their bases in patent filings, which gives them options to pick and choose the functionality that they ultimately want to bring to market. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs has, for example, confirmed that Apple developed a PDA that was never released, a decision that he said was the correct one.

Neo's article contains more specific information about Apple's filing.

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Rainy Day said:

member since 07 Jun 2005 with 607 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:24 pm

Which isn’t to say Apple won’t introduce a PDA someday.

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BradC said:

member since 29 Apr 2005 with 81 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:40 pm

Quote:
Which isn’t to say Apple won’t introduce a PDA someday.

True. But my point, just to split hairs here, was that the particular PDA sitting in Apple's R&D labs was not released, for whatever reason. But, yes, Apple could release a PDA someday. They could still be working on one now, for all we know. I'd imagine that if we could see the R&D lab of any tech company, we'd be amazed by what's there. But not all of it would see the light of day.

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