Apple has apparently filed a new patent for what they are terming 3D Spiral UI which may apparently kick Cover Flow out of iOS and OS X as the Spiral UI patent covers both handheld iOS and desktop OS X software.
According to an article over on iPhone Download Blog, and by way of Patently Apple, apparently the design of Spiral UI should work well on both multi-touch and standard displays and will apparently show more info that is currently possible in a “limited space.”
According to the Patently Apple article…” Apple’s patent describes methods and arrangements for manipulating a playlist by providing a graphical user interface in the form of a receding spiral made up of a collection of icons representing media items in the playlist having an icon in the center of the spiral representing the entire playlist. By way of selecting and dragging a representation of a media item or playlist into the center of the receding spiral, a new receding spiral based on the media item or playlist currently in the center of the spiral is created and displayed.”
However, Apple also patented a ‘V’ shaped version of the UI although using the ‘V’ version would not offer much more than what Apple already uses in their software and is basically a 3D version of Cover Flow.
So it would appear that Apple is looking to bring a new UI to iOS and OS X, but the big question is will the Spiral UI make an appearance in the next release of iOS and would it be available for the iPhone 5 and the new Apple iPad?
What do our readers think of this new Spiral UI for iOS and OS X; do you like the receding spiral design or would you prefer to remain with Cover Flow? And if you want to check out how the Spiral UI works you can hit up Memory-life