While nobody should base their purchasing decisions on patents, it’s always interesting to see what companies are working on behind the scenes. Today, it looks like Apple is working on a next generation Lightning connector.
Apple has today been granted a patent for an Apple Watch charging carrying case which works like the AirPods case – providing somewhere to store the Watch when not in use, while simultaneously recharging it. The design is significantly different to that offered with the original $10k+ Apple Watch Edition.
While a charging case for a device typically worn all day might sound less useful than the AirPods case, it makes more sense when you read the details …
A new Apple patent details a stylus that can be used without a screen. It specifically mentions “force sensors” which leads us to believe that this could be used with future versions of the Mac that have Force Touch trackpads.
A fourth Apple patent application for 5G technology has today been published by the US Patent & Trademark Office. 5G will be the next step up in mobile data, and could offer speeds more than ten times faster than today’s LTE/4G networks.
The patent application was published shortly after AT&T announced plans to be the first U.S. carrier to launch mobile 5G …
A new patent application by Apple hints at RF-based long-range wireless charging, along the lines of the Energous system which was recently granted FCC approval.
As is usual with Apple patent applications, the wording is as general as possible – encompassing both wired and wireless charging – but the problem it aims to solve does appear to be one that arises primarily with long-range wireless charging …
A sizeable number of Apple Pencil fans have been waiting impatiently for iPhone support ever since Tim Cook apparently let slip that it was on the way …
Apple has today been granted a patent for using hand gestures to control a Mac. The inventors named in the patent are from PrimeSense, the company that developed Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, and which Apple acquired back in 2013.
PrimeSense was also involved in developing some of the technology behind Face ID, and the patent here appears to rely on a similar TrueDepth camera in a Mac …
The US Patent & Trademark Office has today published an Apple patent application for a foldable display. This follows earlier rumors that the company was working with LG on a future foldable iPhone.
An electronic device may have a flexible portion that allows the device to be folded. The device may have a flexible display. The flexible display may have a bending region that allows the display to bend along a bend axis when the device is folded.
The patent describes a display that can be ‘opened and closed like a book’ …
The Apple v Samsung patent trial in which the judge said she’d like to see the case resolved before she retires is not the only long-running patent lawsuit between the two companies. That first one is about design patents – the look of the phone.
But a separate case has also been rumbling on regarding Samsung’s use of several patented iPhone features, including slide-to-unlock, autocorrect, and automatic links for things like phone numbers …
Back in 2015, Apple was found to have infringed a chip efficiency patent belonging to the University of Wisconsin. The company was told at the time that it would have to pay damages that might amount to as much as $862M …
Anyone who’s ever had a blood pressure test will know that it normally involves an inflatable cuff that squeezes your arm until it cuts off circulation, then gradually deflates it, measuring the point at which circulation first resumes and then returns to normal.
But an Apple patent published today describes a clever method for calculating blood pressure using nothing more than an Apple Watch with a sensor-equipped band …
Find My iPhone is a great feature to have if you’ve ever realised you’ve misplaced your iPhone. You can not only track the device, but also post a message on the Lock screen asking a finder to contact you …
An Apple patent filed back in May and published today describes how an iDevice backlight could serve as a strobe light. Apple gives a couple of examples of how this might be used …
An Apple patent granted today describes how the front-facing camera, light sensor and proximity sensor found in existing iPhones could be used for health measurements.
The electronic device uses one or more of the camera and the proximity sensor to emit light into a body part of a user touching a surface of the electronic device and one or more of the camera, the ambient light sensor, and the proximity sensor to receive at least part of the emitted light reflected by the body part of the user. The electronic device computes health data of the user based upon sensor data regarding the received light.
It also considers using additional sensors mounted in the same area for further health measurements …
Apple today has been granted a handful of new patents, some of which are more notable than others. Such patents include one for an iPhone “smart dock” with Siri built-in, a new 911 calling method, and more.
We’ve been hearing a lot about the 3D camera system in the iPhone 8 being capable of facial recognition to allow automatic login without Touch ID or passcode. A new patent application published today suggests that Apple also wants to bring this capability to future Macs.
But Apple has more in mind that just a simple unlock function …
Apple has today been granted a patent for augmented reality apps for interior design and animated movie posters. The patent award comes the day after we learned more about plans for an AR app in partnership with Swedish furniture company Ikea.
Apple recently announced ARKit as part of iOS 11, providing hands-on demos at WWDC …
Apple has patents for virtual keyboards on MacBooks dating back as far as 2009, but a continuation patent application published today shows that the company is still exploring the idea.
A virtual keyboard was of course a headline feature of the iPhone when it was launched in 2007, and Apple also introduced the feature to the latest MacBook Pro models in the form of the Touch Bar. Patently Apple illustrated the patent using a Lenovo Yoga Book, showing what is in effect a giant Touch Bar replacing a physical keyboard.
If the idea fills you with horror, as it does me, we may not need to worry too much …
Apple has been accused of violating the patents of a Boston-based company through its launch of Apple Pay. Universal Secure Registry CEO Kenneth Weiss says he ‘was the first in the space, and the secure payment technology that he developed goes right to the core of Apple Pay.’
In an interview, Weiss says that the patents cover all three key elements of Apple Pay.
Kenneth P. Weiss, received 13 patents for authentication systems that use a smartphone, biometric identification such as a fingerprint and the generation of secure one-time tokens to conduct financial transactions.
While it’s not unusual for more than one company to be simultaneously working on the same technology, Weiss says that in this case both Visa and Apple were aware of his technology four years prior to the launch of Apple Pay …
An Apple patent published today describes using iMessages instead of voice to interact with Siri in environments when speaking wouldn’t be practical.
This could span both ends of the spectrum, from very noisy environments like construction sites, where your voice cannot be heard, to very quiet ones like libraries, where you would disturb people by speaking. It would also be useful for people who don’t feel comfortable talking to their phone in public …
Allowing Siri access from the lock screen is a potential security threat that has, in the past, allowed someone to access personal data like photos. Additionally, Siri will respond to any command given by anyone when your device is unlocked.
Apple thinks it has a solution, using a combination of a special phrase and authenticating your unique voice to ensure that Siri responds to you and only to you …
I wondered soon after the launch of the 2016 MacBook Pro whether Apple might have plans to bring the Touch Bar and Touch ID to a new Magic Keyboard. A new Apple patent application shows that the company is at least exploring the idea.
As ever, the language of the patent is dense, but the illustrations include a standalone keyboard as well as a laptop one.
In some embodiments, the device may also include a processing unit positioned within the housing, and a primary display positioned at least partially within the housing and configured to display a graphical-user interface executed by the processing unit. In some embodiments, the display is an organic light-emitting diode display. The electronic device may be a keyboard device.
As I noted previously, this would seem to address the greatest weakness of the Touch Bar …
With the iPhone 8 expected to embed a fingerprint sensor into the display to allow much smaller top and bottom bezels, there’s no doubt that Apple has the technology required to make this possible. We’ve seen a steady stream of patents describing different ways to achieve this.
The back-and-forth patent lawsuits between Apple and Nokia could be about to get more interesting. Nokia is seeking access to documents from Samsung’s patent battles with Apple to assist its own case.
Apple sued Nokia last year, claiming that the company had deliberately excluded some patents from an agreement between the two companies, subsequently transferring five of them to a patent troll which unsuccessfully tried to extort $100M from the Cupertino company. Apple seemingly filed the lawsuit in an attempt to head off any further such attempts …