- Cover Flow
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Cover Flow 
The Cover Flow interfaceDeveloper(s) Jonathan del Strother, currently developed by Apple Stable release RC1.2 (1.997) / September 11, 2006 Operating system Mac OS X, Windows (iTunes), iOS (iPod touch,1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation, iPhone, iPod Nano 3rd Generation, iPod Nano 4th Generation, iPod Nano 5th Generation, iPod Classic 6th Generation Type Music software License Proprietary Cover Flow is an animated, three dimensional graphical user interface integrated within iTunes, the Macintosh Finder, and other Apple Inc. products for visually flipping through snapshots of documents, website bookmarks, album artwork, or photographs.
Cover Flow is browsed using the on-screen scrollbar, mouse wheel, gestures, or by selecting a file from a list, which flips through the pages to bring the associated image into view. On iPod and iPhone devices, the user slides their finger across the touch screen or uses the click wheel.
History
Cover Flow was conceived by artist Andrew Coulter Enright[1] and originally implemented by an independent Macintosh developer, Jonathan del Strother. Enright later named the interaction style fliptych to distinguish it from the particular Cover Flow implementation.[2]
Cover Flow was purchased by Apple Inc. in 2006,[3] and its technology was integrated into its music application, iTunes 7.0, which was released September 12, 2006.[4] The name was previously "CoverFlow" without a space.
The last release of Steel Skies’ stand-alone application, version RC1.2, was released on September 10, 2006, and was freely distributed until the end of the next day only, however it remains available for download from MacUpdate.
On January 9, 2007, when Apple announced the iPhone, it was announced that it would incorporate Cover Flow technology.
During the WWDC Keynote on June 11, 2007, Steve Jobs announced that Cover Flow would be added as a view option in Leopard’s Finder.
On September 5, 2007 Apple announced that Cover Flow would be utilized in the third generation iPod nano as well as the new iPod classic and iPod touch models. Cover Flow was integrated into the fourth generation iPod nano by the use of an accelerometer which accesses Cover Flow when the iPod nano is turned horizontally on its side.
On March 14, 2008, Mirror Worlds LLC sued Apple for infringing on its patents (nos. 6006227, 6638313, 6725427, and 6768999) (Mirror Worlds, LLC, vs Apple, Inc; Texas Eastern District Court) [5]
On February 24, 2009, Cover Flow was also included with the public beta of Safari 4, with the final version of Safari 4, released on June 8, using Cover Flow to browse history, bookmarks, RSS feeds, Bonjour, and Address Book.
In April 2010, Apple was granted a design patent on the Cover Flow interface.[6]
On 1 October 2010, Apple was ordered to pay $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds LLC for infringing utility patents relating to Cover Flow.[7][8] On April 4, 2011, Judge Davis reversed the judgement.[9]
Other implementations
- The open source media player Songbird offers a Cover Flow navigation add-on called MediaFlow.[10]
- The proprietary media player MediaMonkey also offers a Cover Flow add-on called MonkeyFlow.[11] It can either be embedded or run as an external remote application.
- Using Compiz Fusion (Shift Switcher)[12] or KDE Plasma Workspaces (Cover Switch on KWin 4.1 or later)[13] on a Unix-like system, it is possible to switch between open applications with a Cover Flow animation.
- A Cover Flow-like interface was used by the graphical search engine Search Me.
- The free jukebox firmware Rockbox also implements a Cover Flow-like album art viewer, called "PictureFlow". However, PictureFlow is not part of the main UI, instead included as a demo.
References
- ^ "Dissatisfaction Sows Innovation". Archived from the original on 2005-12-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20051225123312/http://thetreehouseandthecave.blogspot.com/200BIH4/12/dissatisfaction-sows-innovation.html. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ^ "The Fliptych Interface". http://thetreehouseandthecave.blogspot.com/2006/08/fliptych-interface.html.
- ^ "CoverFlow". SteelSkies.com. http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/.
- ^ "Apple Purchased CoverFlow For iTunes 7". http://replay.web.archive.org/20080520233029/http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/13/1131238.
- ^ http://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txedce/6:2008cv00088/108627/
- ^ "Patent D613,300". http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=D613,300..
- ^ "Apple Challenges Big Award Over Patents". New York Times. October 4, 1010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/technology/05apple.html?ref=technology. Retrieved 2010-10-05. "Apple is challenging a jury verdict that could force it to pay as much as $625.5 million to a company founded by David Gelernter, a Yale computer science professor, for infringing three patents related to how files are displayed on the iPod, the iPhone and Macintosh computers."
- ^ Decker, Susan. "Apple Challenges $625.5 Million Mirror Worlds Patent Verdict". bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-04/apple-challenges-625-5-million-mirror-worlds-patent-verdict.html. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
- ^ "Judge reverses $625.5 million patent judgement previously awarded to Mirror Worlds". http://www.edibleapple.com/apple-wins-judge-reverses-6255-million-patent-judgement-previously-awarded-to-mirror-worlds/.
- ^ "Songbird MediaFlow Add-on". http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/238.
- ^ "MonkeyFlow Add-on". http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31402.
- ^ Plugins/Switcher (Compiz Fusion Wiki), accessed 2007-10-29.
- ^ Cover switch effect (Martin Graesslin, YouTube video)
Categories:- Graphical user interface elements
- ITunes
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