Apple Files Patent For Rearranging Touchescreen User Interface

A patent has been filed by Apple covering a feature for user interfaces of mobile devices utilizing touchscreen interfaces (ie the iPhone) that enables easy and fast reconfiguration of the user interface. One such method described involves making contact with one of the icons and moving the point of contact across the display surface; the motion and contact are detected by the portable "electronic device" and the displayed icon is moved accordingly.

In addition, it allows for icons to be automatically displaced by other icons, and the movement of icons to static-placed holders akin to the Dock in Mac OS X. This method seems to be a simple enough method of arranging applications on the iPhone's home screen, but there isn't really a call for this at the moment. It is possible that Apple might use this in conjunction with another feature they may add.

[story and images via MacNN]