Fresh off the news that Apple has been awarded a patent on multi-touch devices, Apple has now been awarded yet another patent that directly points to third-party widgets to be built in iOS 5's new notification center.
For anyone keeping up with the jailbreak community, this comes at no surprise at all. Many developers have already debuted Proof-of-Concept widgets on jailbroken iOS 5 devices. UISettings, SpringPrefs, and Music Center have all been created in the short time sine the iOS 5 betas became available. This new information makes it pretty clear that Apple will most likely allow these widgets into the App Store (maybe even its own section).
The patent indicates that allowing such widgets could be as simple as Apple enabling certain public APIs, including the "Widget Creator Module," which I would assume does, well, exactly what it says it does- helps devs create widgets. As the beta builds of iOS 5 increase, we'll be sure to keep our eye out for any changes that allow extra widgets without the need for a jailbreak.
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