Tag: patent
Do leaked patents reveal new iPhone?
It doesn't take a genius to assume that Apple are likely working on a fourth generation iPhone, but so far it's been slim pickings in terms of solid details on the project. While a new set of leaked patents neither…
Apple patents 'winter-friendly' touchscreen gloves
Apple has decided to apply for a patent on a means of using a multi-touch device with gloves. Traditional gloves block the electrical impulses from your skin, meaning that a capacitive touchscreen doesn’t get any signal when your mittened hand touches it.
You might be thinking ‘how can you patent a product that’s already on the market?’, but the difference here is that the fingertips of the unconductive outer layer can be drawn back to reveal a more conductive inner layer. Apple suggests this could be accomplished with an elastic ring.
Apple’s patent application (via AppleInsider)
Related posts: DOTS Gloves | Etre Touchy Gadget Gloves
Nokia patent takes E71 and adds swivel screen
Patents are fun. Sometimes they turn into something real, and other times they’re probably just the musings of an over-imaginative designer.
One of Nokia’s recent patents probably falls into the latter camp. It looks a bit like someone’s taken the Nokia E71 and added a wide touchscreen as large as the handset itself which can swivel into position when ready to use…
Apple patents idea for complex "3D Desktop" layout – development of Windows 7 thrown into chaos
Attention Microsoft! Apple has patented a new thing! There’ll be emergency meetings going on in Microsoft’s Seattle HQ today, thanks to internet scavengers tracking down some 3D desktop ideas Apple’s been toying with. Which means MS is going to have to start pretending it actually had the idea six years ago.
The patented potential “Multi-Dimensional Desktop” layout looks a little bewildering compared to Apple’s traditional locked-down simplicity, but the concept of having all your documents sitting behind each other in a little line waiting to be flipped through seems decent enough. It could work. Here’s how it looks. The finished thing will probably be in colour, if it ever comes out.
it also makes your monitor…
Apple working on streaming your iTunes library over the internet?
An interesting patent has turned up that suggests some new features we could be seeing in the next generation of iPods and iPhones. A rather crude diagram explains how Apple want to be able to let you share your iTunes library with your devices over the internet…
Chunky Nokia cameraphone patent discovered, looks a bit retro, N85 coming?
There’s something chunky and slightly retro about the latest patent to escape from Nokia. The slider phone itself looks reasonably up-to-date, but that swivelling camera on top is decidedly blocky, and either fell out of a Duplo set or travelled forward in time about three decades. (OK it could’ve come off a Nokia N90.)
Nevertheless, the potential specs are 21st century enough, with the rotatable camera snapping a minimum of five megapixel images, if not six…
Apple looking to create a virtual shopping world?
A patent filed by Apple suggests they could be looking to building a virtual shopping complex where customers, represented by avatars, can shop and interact with one another and with staff…
Apple patent points to clamshell iPhone
Unlike most established mobile phone manufacturers, Apple has so far released just one handset design. The iPhone is a large candybar — a sleek, shiny, touchy-feely one, granted, but still a candybar.
However, a recent patent suggests that Apple may be considering a clamshell iPhone, looking and behaving like a cross between the current iPhone, a clamshell phone, and a Nintendo DS…
RIM patent for vaguely different slider phone, new BlackBerries coming?
I get a bit cheesed off with the number of technology patents being filed, with seemingly small variations on a similar theme.
Take the latest from Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, which details a “Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and Qwerty Hideaway Keyboard”.
Yes, indeed, we’ve all seen devices with keyboards that slide out from under the phone, but apparently this one is different because it’s got a trackball on it.
Woop!
Apple patent hints at TiVo-style podcast customisation
Apple has filed a patent concerning its plans for next-generation podcasts, or as it calls it, ‘Creation, Management, and Delivery of Personalized Media Items’. Gotta love those patent titles, eh? And it’s about as murky in the actual description:
