Do you remember the classic scroll wheel on the iPod product line? According to a Reddit community “archaeological” discovery, a technology patent granted in 2005 suggests that Apple considered deploying the iPod’s scroll wheel experience on the iPad, only with a virtual scroll wheel.
The patent for this technology dates back as far as 2005, the early stages of Apple’s development of the iPad. The patent application discusses a number of different implementations of the virtual wheel and virtual knob, all of which look like the iPod’s click wheel. One implementation includes volume controls, similar to the volume controls on the iPod’s click wheel.
The patent also shows a number of other UI implementations, including multi-touch gestures such as two-finger zoom. But Apple hasn’t really advanced and implemented the idea.
Independent tech journalist Sonny Dickson posted a video in 2017 showing an early Apple prototype for the iPhone that largely followed the iPod’s operating model.
The video showed that the iPhone would use an iPod-like mode of operation, with a virtual scroll wheel on the bottom half of the screen. The prototype, called Acorn, has a menu assigned to the top half, just like the early iPod, and a black menu bar in the middle, with four buttons for fast forward, fast rewind, menu, and play/pause.
