Coming from Apple: Hot-Unpluggable iPods

A recent unveiled Apple patent filing doesn't seem revolutionary, but it fits in with the company's long-standing tradition of smoothing out the bumps along our day-to-day technological ride.

Originally filed in August of 2004, the "Hot Unpluggable Media Storage Device" design extends the USB/FireWire "hot-pluggable" concept so that you can unplug an external device as easily as you can plug it in. The system would enable an external device -- oh, say, an iPod -- to remain connected to a host device (usually a computer) but unmounted until the host actually needs to transmit or receive data.

The upshot is that you'd be able to just unplug your iPod once you've finished loading it up, rather than having to go through the extra step of disconnecting it via software. It may seem like a minor thing, but removing the manual unmounting step makes USB devices that much more consumer-friendly -- and it reduces the chances of the data corruption that can occur when you unplug a USB device without unmounting first. (Something with which, alas, I have a little too much experience.)

Revolutionary? Maybe not so much. Incredibly useful? You bet. Anything that makes technology more day-to-day usable and reduces the chance of accidentally wiping out data is a good thing, in my book.

You can have a look at the patent filing here if you're into that sort of thing.