Apple gets one-upped on homescreen contact patent

Quite a few people have been asking me what app it was that I used in that post the other day about the rumored new iPhone. Unfortunately, it wasn't an app (although the jailbreak apps LockInfo and Intelliscreen offer similar features) -- it was one concept among many that have been suggested for a potential new homescreen on the iPhone's next OS revision. There have been a lot of great ideas bouncing around for the kinds of information Apple could put on a completely revamped iPhone homescreen: an easier-to-read clock, a list of received push notifications, easy access to contacts and/or email, and more.

It seems as though Apple is experimenting with some of those things as well: the company recently filed a patent for including a contact, with picture, on the iPhone's home screen as an icon. Rather than navigate through the system to find your aunt that you call all the time, you could save auntie's picture on the home screen, and then hit one icon to call her up.

Unfortunately for Apple, as Engadget points out, the Android OS actually lets you do this already, so the chances of their getting this patent approved are low. But it does tell us that Apple is at least thinking about how they could make the homescreen a little more useful. They may still be tied to the icon scheme, but at least they're looking at adding a little more functionality.
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