This is kind of neat. Back in early 2011, Apple patented an idea for a way for drivers to control the tunes playing on their iPhones or iPods without taking their hands off the wheel.
The solution? A tiny little ring that fits on your steeling wheel with an iPod clickwheel on top.
The ring â€" abut the size and shape of the plastic trinket you might find inside a box of Cracker Jacks â€" would connect via Bluetooth to your iPhone or iPod, which in turn would be hooked up to your car stereo. It even had a rotatable face plate.
You’d think Siri would kill the need for an accessory like this, since voice is clearly a better way to search for and play tracks than a remote control is, but even with Siri, you still need to take one hand off the wheel to trigger the voice control.
I think it’s doubtful we’ll ever see something like this as a real product, but it’s still a cute little patent when it comes to being a simple, elegant solution to a common problem.
- Source Patently Apple
- Image Patently Apple
John Brownlee is Cult of Mac's Deputy Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his girlfriend and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter. (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by John Brownlee.
Posted in News | Tagged: Apple, clickwheel, iPod, patents |
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