Apple Patent Details Spaces for the iPad

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Posted April 1, 2011 at 4:08pm by iClarified

A recent patent filing by Apple details an implementation of Spaces for the iPad.

Discovered by Patently Apple, the new filing notes that existing methods for performing manipulations of workspace views are cumbersome and inefficient.

For example, moving between one workspace view and another workspace view may require selecting an icon or other small graphical user interface object with a cursor, and/or remembering unintuitive keyboard shortcuts or other navigation commands.

Apple suggests a solution would be to create a "plurality of workspace views". ie Spaces. They illustrate that a two finger pinching gesture at the bottom right corner of the device could bring up a grid view of your Spaces.

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The method includes creating a plurality of workspace views. A respective workspace view is configured to contain content assigned by a user to the respective workspace view. The content includes application windows. The method further includes displaying a first workspace view in the plurality of workspace views on the display, without displaying other workspace views in the plurality of workspace views. The method also includes detecting a first multifinger gesture on the touch-sensitive surface. In response to detecting the first multifinger gesture on the touch-sensitive surface, the method includes replacing display of the first workspace view with concurrent display of the plurality of workspace views.

In accordance with some embodiments, a graphical user interface on a multifunction device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface includes a plurality of workspace views. The respective workspace view is configured to contain content assigned by a user to the respective workspace view. The content includes application windows. A first workspace view in the plurality of workspace views on the display is displayed without displaying other workspace views in the plurality of workspace views. A first multifinger gesture is detected on the touch-sensitive surface. In response to detecting the first multifinger gesture on the touch-sensitive surface, display of the first workspace view is replaced with concurrent display of the plurality of workspace views.
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Perhaps we might see a sneak peak of this at WWDC 2011.

Apple Patent Details Spaces for the iPad

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Ron - April 2, 2011 at 1:14pm

I see this being for a touchscreen OS X device, not iOS--iOS in its current iteration (and all previous) does not allow workspaces in the first place. Think about the last time you had a browser open, a notepad, and Netflix. It's the biggest disadvantage iOS has to Android--the single-feed method (clicking the weather app, closing it, opening email, etc)of information display and data collection (jailbreaking does help). In the end, this sounds a lot like a combination of Overboard on Cydia, and one of the widget implementations.

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