| Cover Flow | |
|---|---|
| Developers | Originally Jonathan del Strother; subsequently developed byApple Inc. |
| Operating system | macOS (Mac OS X Leopard up tomacOS High Sierra) (only supported in iTunes 7 onwards onMac OS X Tiger) iPod Nano 3rd GenerationiPod Nano 4th GenerationiPod Nano 5th Generation iPod Classic 6th Generation |
| Successor | Gallery View (macOS Mojave and above) |
| Type | User interface |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
Cover Flow is an animated, three-dimensionalgraphical user interface element that was integrated within theMacintosh Finder and otherApple 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 thetouch screen or uses theclick wheel.
Apple discontinued the use of Cover Flow after settling apatent suit againstMirror Worlds. It is now absent on the Mac in everything other than Finder withOS X El Capitan.[1] InmacOS Mojave, a completely different Gallery view feature replaces Cover Flow in Finder.[2] It was removed fromiOS in 2015 with the release ofiOS 8.4, which replaced the Music app withApple Music.
Cover Flow was conceived by artistAndrew Coulter Enright[3] and originally implemented by an independent Macintosh developer, Jonathan del Strother. Enright later named the interaction stylefliptych to distinguish it from the particular Cover Flow implementation.[4]
Cover Flow was purchased byApple Inc. in 2006,[5] and its technology was integrated into its music application,iTunes 7.0, which was released September 12, 2006.[6] 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 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 theiPhone, it was announced that it would incorporate Cover Flow technology.
During theWWDC Keynote on June 11, 2007,Steve Jobs announced that Cover Flow would be added as a view option inMac OS X Leopard's Finder.
On September 5, 2007 Apple announced that Cover Flow would be utilized in the third generationiPod nano as well as the newiPod classic andiPod Touch models. Cover Flow was integrated into the fourth-generationiPod 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)[7]
On February 24, 2009, Cover Flow was also included with the public beta ofSafari 4, with the final version of Safari 4, released on June 8, using Cover Flow to browse history, bookmarks, RSS feeds,Bonjour, and the Address Book.
In April 2010, Apple was granted USdesign patent D613,300 on the Cover Flow interface.[8]
On October 1, 2010, Apple was ordered to pay $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds LLC for infringingutility patents relating to Cover Flow.[9][10] On April 4, 2011, Judge Davis reversed the judgement.[11]
With the release of version 11 of iTunes, Cover Flow was removed from the iTunes interface.
iOS 7 saw Cover Flow replaced by Album Wall.[12] This feature shows tiles of album art in rows when the device is in landscape.[13] This feature was removed with the release ofApple Music and iOS 8.4 on June 30, 2015.
In macOS Mojave, Cover Flow was removed from Finder and replaced by gallery view marking the end of Cover Flow in all Apple products.
