Via embeddedflash.com and topiphonenews, seems Apple has filed a patent for: “Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics”.

“United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just released a large document detailing “Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics”. There are lots and lots of information in this patent (#20080174570) but only one particular section that really caught my eye. It has to do with one feature many of us have been wishing for on the iPhone — support for Flash content.

The content from this patent doesn’t say whether Apple will add support for Flash to future versions of iPhone OS 2.0, but it does tell us that Apple has most definitely considered it. And as an added bonus, we may even see native support for Windows Media content.”

In addition to many things, the patent explains possible future inline multimedia content support (QuickTime, Windows Media, and potentially Flash), in what appears to be a browser context contained within an iPhone-like interface.

“[0778]FIGS. 40A-40F illustrate exemplary user interfaces for playing an item of inline multimedia content in accordance with some embodiments.

[0779]In some embodiments, user interfaces 4000A-4000F include the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof: [0780]402, 404, 406, 3902, 3906, 3910, 3912, 3918, 3920, 3922, as described above; [0781]inline multimedia content 4002, such as QuickTime content (4002-1), Windows Media content (4002-2), or Flash content (4002-3);”

If you’re interested you can read the patent here.

Whether or not Apple follows through (when, on what device model, etc), still remains to be seen, but it’s good to know at least “it’s on the books”, officially …

We have also heard talk earlier this year, that Adobe is working towards efforts of a (standalone) player of their own … in some respect.

- Scott Janousek \m/

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 4:03 am and is filed under Apple, Handsets, Mobile, Mobile Application, Mobile Developer, Mobile Device, Mobile OEM, Mobile Platform, Mobile User Interfaces, Mobile Web, iPhone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.