New Apple patent hints at radial menus in iPhone 5

A recent patent filed by Apple reveals an interesting new interface tweak that could crop up in your next iPhone or iPad.

The idea takes Apple back to its salad days of the original iPod, incorporating circular-interaction into a touchscreen design. By turning pop-up menus into radial selectors, it could provide an easy and intuitive way of selecting options.

Currently when you hold down your pinkie on a a picture in Safari, a little list of menu options comes up. This forces you to take your finger off the screen and then tap the button you want.

In this new system, a series of buttons would spring up around your finger in a circle. You'd simply make a circular gesture with your pinkie to choose the right option, and then remove your limblet to select it.

It would certainly make doing things like copy and paste quicker, and let Apple and app designers add far more contextual options to menus across the iPhone and iPad.

Of course, it’s only a patent. Apple files hundreds of these things and they don’t necessarily come true. But it shows that Apple isn’t standing still with iOS and, in the face of competition, feels the need to have a rethink about the three-year-old operating system.