Patent: Multi-Sized Icon Interface for Mac OS X?

Appleinsider points to a recent patent application published from Apple which explores the use of different sized icons within one window. The relative size differences in the interface are said to reflect the relative importance of each icon.

"To this end," Apple wrote, "a user's arbitrary sizing of various icons in accordance with the present invention generates icon representations that can advantageously represent categorization of application or file importance, and/or the size of a file represented by an icon."

Apple's files patents for many ideas that are never actually implemented, but Apple's early multi-touch patents did first reveal technologies that made their way into the Apple iPhone.