A rotary-dial iPhone Nano?

“Mabel, give me Klondike 309.” Apple goes old school in the patent showing a click-wheel dial in a phone application. Hey, Apple is changing what we all thought about touch screens, so what do we know?

It appears that the click wheel will have data on it as well, guiding your choices depending on the application.

In the examples in the image, you can dial by the screen approximating where you are touching, by the click wheel displaying numbers or letters or… you get the idea.

As Apple gets comfortable in the phone segment, (1 million iPhones sold?) moving down stream to the masses with a simpler device that performs fewer tasks certainly would seem appropriate. Heads up Motorola!

Read [Gizmodo] Patent [USPTO]