In April, Apple filed an updated 52-page application for a patent on an extensive multi-touch interface for a full Mac OS X-based system. The illustrations that accompany the application look like the long-heralded but non-existent "iTablet."
The filing includes descriptions of various interfaces, including a full-size onscreen keyboard that can use modifier keys, like shift or control. "Although only two keys are described, it should be noted that two keys is not a limitation and that more than two keys may be actuated simultaneously to produce one or more control signals," reads to the application. So multiple modifiers can be used, such as shift-opt-ctrl-3, used to capture the screen to the pasteboard. Another interface element is a virtual iPod scroll wheel that can be accessed on demand. Like the iPod's scroll wheel, it can be used as a virtual jog dial and be tied to a number of possible adjustments. Other multi-touch gestures we have seen in the iPhone UI and carried over to the MacBook Air trackpad, such as scrolling, zooming, and rotation, are also described in the patent application.