Lock Screen Alerts and Home Screen App Prefs in Apple Patents

[Cody Overcash]

Application Preferences on Homescreen

A patent filed by Apple hints to the possibility of individual preferences/settings for applications directly from the home screen instead of the current messy system of having to open up the app to change prefs or having to browse through the settings app menus to access preferences. The current system is a bit of a mess and I personally do not like app prefs being in the settings app at all.

"The user interface has a plurality of application icons. In response to a first gesture, the GUI changes the appearances of the application icons whose corresponding applications have user-adjustable settings," the filing explains. "In response to a second gesture on a selected application icon whose appearance is changed, the GUI displays user-adjustable settings of an application that corresponds to the selected application icon. In response to one or more additional gestures, the GUI changes one or more user-adjustable settings of the application that corresponds to the selected application icon."



From the patent diagram above it appears that Apple is thinking the plan is to put an "i" icon on the applications to open the settings from the home screen allowing settings to be easily accessed instead of having to browse through the menus. This system has been used before by Apple for Widgets. Not familiar with widgets? I made up a quick little image of what the system could look like if implemented.



LockScreen Advanced Notification

Apple also has a patent filed that looks a whole like IntelliScreen which is currently only available for jailbroken phones.



Apple could be planning on implementing this more advanced notification system for alerts like voicemail, email, text and possibly more on the lock screen. Further advances could be notifications that remain after the screen is unlocked so you don't have to rely on your memory to remember what notification you unlocked your phone for. Their patent also looks to cover buttons on the homescreen to take you directly to the notifications instead of unlocking your phone and making your way through the menus.

"In response to detecting an interaction by a user with the device, the plurality of icons display notification information for the plurality of communication modalities," the filing explains. "In response to detecting an unlock interaction by the user with the device, the device is unlocked, and a communication in the plurality of communications is presented that was received while the device was in the locked state, or information about the communication is presented."

Please remember the above to patents outline things that we could see on the iPhone. The patents do not mean that these features (while many of us would enjoy them ) are coming. It's up to Apple ---- or neat Apps like IntelliScreen

[via appleinsider]

[Sparblaze]

Finally. I hope Apple adds these features!

[richardjones101]

Yay. I would love that. Inteliscreen never worked on my phone, anyway, it looked complicated when it did!

[Sparblaze]

Come to think of it, it seems like it would be hard to open an app without accidently pressing the info icon. I can't think of a better fix though. Hopefully it will work.

[h.abdulhamid86]

Come to think of it, it seems like it would be hard to open an app without accidently pressing the info icon. I can't think of a better fix though. Hopefully it will work.

According to the info above, the info icons (or whatever is used) would only appear in response to an initial gesture.

[iPhoneMadness]

According to the info above, the info icons (or whatever is used) would only appear in response to an initial gesture.

Maybe the gesture would only show up after holding down the icon to get the wiggle effect?

Anyways, I don't see how Apple can make something better than Intelliscreen. It's so feature rich. Then again it's Apple so I'm waiting to see how this develops, if at all.

[wardy]

Sounds good, hope these get implemented

[A_SWELLGUY]

that would be another reason why I love my iphone. Geese this just gets better and better!

[Starnamer]

Of course, if this is like Intelliscreen, then the patent application will probably fail because Intelliscreen can be quoted as 'prior art', in which case Apple may not implement it.

However, I suspect that Apple's lawyers have worked hard to get the legalese right so that they get the patent and can then sue the pants off Intelliborn for patent infringement!

[Imahottguy]

Dude, yes. It'll be nice to (hopefully) get an 'intelliscreen' like experience via Apple. Intelliscreen is nice and all, but it kinda rubbed me the wrong way with their marketing.

Also, why not leave the prefs in the prefs? If you have so many apps that it takes a minute for your settings to pop up, then perhaps you should consider the necessity of all of those apps, rather than the necessity to put the prefs elsewhere.

[bbplayer5]

This would be amazing.

[pingwhen]

i CAN NOT WAIT

[mikeymcco]

fingers crossed on this one!!!

[sziklassy]

Looks promising. Is it going to have that ugly "i" because, well, it's really ugly! LOL

There are a few things I would rather see before this is developed.

1) MMS (old tech or not who gives a s*#^ I think most computers still come with a 56k modem FFS)
2) Turn by turn directions (probably need to arrange with Google... just DO IT)
3) Native themes (really, is it so hard... make money Apple and sell them on the appstore)

[Sparblaze]

@h.abdulhamid86:
Ok thx. Hmm. I wonder what that gesture could be. I think the wiggle idea would work, instead of dragging the icon around, just tap on it.

[wakedude]

It is important to keep in mind that the parts the information screen patent are already put into place. For example we are already getting alerts about missed phone calls or text messages on the lock screen. Also when you get a text while you are using certain applications a screen pops up showing the text and giving an option to reply or close. That being said. If this is part of the original iphone patent then Intelliscreen is in trouble because Apple documented, patented and implemented the idea first.

[chbearsrock]

Copy + paste, damn it!

[macgerry]

oh god don't clutter the damn thing up it'll start to look like windows aagggg

[DuRo]

The "i" thing looks so ugly . Please let that not be it. I don't have a problem going to settings.

[hartphoto]

Copy + paste, damn it!

No kidding! Come on. I have Intelliscreen working perfectly.