Behind the iPod Scroll Wheel

Via Geek News Central, we find this News.com article explaining the origin of the extremely graceful iPod scroll wheel:

The iPod’s scroll wheel has been through three iterations. The first one actually rotated; then there was the touch-sensitive one; and finally there’s the clickable one found on the iPod Mini and fourth-generation iPod. I’d always assumed that this bit of design genius sprang from Apple Computer’s labs. But in fact, I discovered that a company called Synaptics, which primarily makes touchpads for laptops, actually perfected this little piece of navigational heaven, in accordance with Apple’s stringent design requirements.

The writer observes that the most compelling reason to like the iPod is the scroll wheel, and I’ve got to agree. When I got my first iPod, I was blown away by the UI and how naturally the scroll wheel worked.