Mac Password

If a new patent spotted by the USPTO archeologists over at Patently Apple is believed, Lion might boasts a new way to navigate menus that would make Mac OS X more suitable to touch input than ever before.

The patents describe a scrollable menu that would provide context-sensitive commands right where a user touches, minimizing the amount of screen real estate devoted to menu bars, toolboxes and palettes.

The implementation seems similar to the Ribbon as seen in Microsoft’s latest Office software suite: basically, you’d see a command displayed on the screen which would be tappable. If you scroll your trackpad or touchscreen, you’d be able to cycle through those commands.

In a nutshell, the idea is very similar to Stacks, but for menu commands instead of apps or files. Like Stacks, commands would fan out once the “Menu” section was touched.

The idea ultimately seems to be to converge the different ways we interface with applications in both iOS and OS X. My only concern here is that for power users, menus are simply more efficient than having to scroll through a stack of commands. Apple patents often don’t see the light of day, but if this one does come to OS X, let’s hope it’s at least user configurable.

People who read this also read:

• Apple iOS 4.3.5 update released
  You've probably only just got around to updating your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to iOS 4.3.4 and along comes another security update released by Apple to protect your iDevice....
• Forget iOS – Star Trek PADD puts LCARS on your iPad
  Fanboy trekkies, prepare to to boldly go where no man has gone before - to the App Store to download the new Star Trek iPad app. Actually, the app has been live for a day or so now - so many men have probably gone there but you get the point. ...
• Apple takes on HTC in patent war
  Apple has accused the smartphone maker HTC of infringing its patents, in the latest phase of the legal battle between phone and tablet PC makers....
• iOS 4 Encryption was Cracked, How to Protect Your iPhone
  ElcomSoft, a Russian computer security firm that specializes in cracking passwords and circumventing encrypted systems, has successfully broken iOS 4's hardware encryption....
• Apple wins $625m patents appeal
  A jury decided last year that Apple's Spotlight, Time Machine and Cover Flow systems violated three patents held by small technology firm Mirror Worlds....