Yeah because that's going to be great to watch video on when your slimy, oily fingers and smudged up the screen! Unless they figure out a way to make the screen self-cleaning, I remain skeptical.

Or, you know, you could wash your hands . . .

there were theories that they could use some sort of glass...but i dunno... The touchscreens arent that bad on the Treos, so why wouldn't it work for an iPod video?

Last I checked, the Treo's have buttons, and most everyone I know who owns one (including me) uses a fingernail rather than a finger when you have to select something on-screen. Like all touch-screens, the oil residue on CLEAN hands will make the screen annoyingly ugly after only a few uses. That said, for an iPod, I am not certain it matters so much as long as what you are using it for is listening to music. If the goal is to watch video, then I, too, am skeptical of the concept.

Since when do we expect objects we come in physical contact with to stay magically clean. Thats an unrealistic expectation. I wipe off my razr, my psp, my laptop screen and my glasses daily. No big deal.

I have a plastic screen protector (one of those electrostatic ones) on my Palm, and all it needs is an occasional swipe with a clean cloth to kept clean enough to be usable. I'm confident that something will come along that will alleviate the screen smudging problem at least to some extent. What bothers me is that a touch screen would be way too easy to accidentally activate when handling the device. Also, I like being able to activate my iPod's controls without having to look at the unit. This was a problem with the 3G and I think it will be a real problem with a touch screen iPod.

And additionally since you're going to get such an excellent movie-watching experience out of you e 3.5" screen god forbid a fingerprint get in your way. :rolls eyes:

I wonder if the scroll wheel is in an exact position, or it appears wherever you touch. seems like it'd be hard to always nail the exact location.

How can they patent that when pPod on the Pocket PC has been doing it for years?

Do we know if Apple is planning to do away with buttons completely? What are they going to do with all that extra space on the ipod? Also, why no talk about the tablet? I'm very curious/confused by that two handed touch business going on.

It would seem to me, with the comments being made about the 5G screen being too small, that Apple is planning to expand the viewing area into the existing controls area. This makes sense, it would increase screen size from ~2"x1.5" to ~3.75"x2" in landscape orientation. If they were to include the ability to flip orientations it would add a lot more than just a larger screen, it would add flexibility. However, Apple likes to keep the iPod simple-stupid... So all bets are off until more leaks appear. The two-handed touchscreen image shows a tablet-like interface and device shell whereas the single-hand image is only the iPod interface, they don't show the casing/shell. Let's hope in any case they fix the "I accidentally touched the screen" scratches on the 5G and Nano.

The iPod set-up going on here looks really confusing to use with the overlayed scroll-wheel and all. I don't like it one bit. As for the tablet, I think that's a far more interesting idea. To me, it would make sense less as a stand-alone device but as a CONTROLLER for an Apple move into the living room computer market. Perhaps it works with a suped up media center-esque Mini? Notice that the iTunes image it shows is complete with a Burn icon in the upper right-hand corner.

To summarise the above posts, I agree that for this to work Apple is going to need to: - Provide a nice lint-free microfibre cloth with the device (I have one for my glasses that gets daily use cleaning my PocketPC Phone screen). - Make sure the device is uber scratch-resistant, or provide a bunch of screen protectors (or maybe tear-off screen protectors motocross-style!) - Have a secondary switch/button for turning off the touch sensitivity - Perhaps have the above double as a button to light up the scroll wheel position? E.g. hit a button with your left thumb that turns on the touch screen and shows the controls, then use your right thumb to navigate? Is this what the second image is showing?

We've update the mock-up page with links from a few readers. Send us more if you have them and we'll add it to the collection :-) http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2006/GearNGadgets/Febru...

I think that if the made it scratch resistent to begin with, included screen protectors/ cloth, and put a DOUBLE hold switch (one slide trns off touch, one turns buttons + touch off) , or even an ultra thin super strong plastic protector to protect screen. That takes care of the screen. I hope the touch screen iPod doesnt REPLACE the video... I started hyper-ventilating when I thought of an apple tablet. (OMG OMG Ok...ok...breathe) their great combo of design with funcionality, in a tablet, one of the most awesome devices made ever? Also, if they made open source, with open source widgets, and multiple sizes, they could dominate the tablet industry. (think high powered ones, AND ultra portables)

Regardless of whether or not they're going to use it in the product, will this patent stand? This isn't exactly a new idea. We've all been imagining something like this for a while (the virtual scroll wheel on screen idea).

the king has no clothes!

Burn icon-- or Browse icon-- or Search icon... could be anything they should have it set up so that when you hold the ipod lengthwise like a psp, dock style menus come up on both sides that are easily pressed with your thumb(s), for the movie mode at least. then when in music mode (all of a sudden it needs switchable modes lol) you hold it traditionally and the disappearing scroll wheel comes up. because really, they dont HAVE to use the scroll wheel for everything... perhaps when in the menu, when you select the "movies" folder it switches 'modes' and one just changes the way they hold the thing.... or something. i really hope apple's new designs dont suffer due to too much focus on keeping with ipod tradition (ie scroll wheel or stubborn scratch-easy surfaces)