If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Apple must be blushing all over; a Microsoft patent has just shown up that documents “Stacking Data Wheels” in a format that many have compared to CoverFlow.  Dating back to 2006 but only just made public, the application suggests the system would be applied to mobile devices, such as Windows Mobile smartphones, the Zune PMP and the Windows Live interface.

“The user interface is arranged as a stack of wheels, with each wheel having one or more data tiles. One data tile from each wheel is simultaneously viewable, and each wheel spins independent of the other wheels to allow a user to view each of the data tiles on a particular wheel” Microsoft patent description

Different applications and functionality would be represented by different panels of the wheel, including messaging, calendar and office apps.  The patent also suggests websites could arrange their GUI using a plugin system.

[via MacNN]