MP3.com editor Eliot Van Buskirk says that Apple is not responsible for designing the iPod’s Scroll Wheel. “There are many reasons to like the iPod, but to me, the most compelling one is the Scroll Wheel,” writes Van Buskirk. “The 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 sprung from Apple’s R&D labs, but, in fact, I discovered that a company called Synaptics, which primarily makes touchpads for laptops, actually designed this little piece of navigational heaven, in accordance with Apple’s stringent design requirements.” Link credit to iPodlounge
