Exhaustive Apple iPhone patent application appears

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has posted an extremely detailed Apple patent application pertaining to the iPhone. With Apple CEO Steve Jobs listed prominently among the patent’s inventors, the 371-page document details nearly every aspect of the iPhone’s graphical user interface, and mentions a variety of applications and features that have yet to appear in any iPhone model or software. Included in those are GPS functionality and applications for video conferencing, instant messaging, blogging, and a digital video camera app. While it is possible that some or all of the currently unused features could appear in a future model of the iPhone or in a software update, their appearance in the patent filing serves only as an example of Apple’s research in those areas.