Apple patent filing hints at iPhones (and Macs?) that can use the Apple Pencil

There’s more evidence that the Apple Pencil will come to the iPhone in a new patent filing (number 9,648,7040) for “devices and methods for manipulating user interfaces wth a stylus.”

In the patent filing, Apple notes the use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Touch-sensitive surfaces include touchpads and touch-screen displays.

User interfaces can be manipulated with either finger or stylus inputs. Apple says that finger inputs are more common than stylus inputs, in part because existing methods that use styluses are “cumbersome and inefficient.” Obviously, the company feels the Apple Pencil helps overcome such limitations. And the patent mentions use of the device with not only iPads, but also iPhones and iPad touches. Interestingly, it also mentioned the macOS.

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.