Hasta La Gadget!

The Apple patent collection is one that inspires not just a vision of the future as it will be, but one that, even in this most recent collection, shows what will likely never be. The newest set of patents revealed this week at Unwired View show a future iPhone that’s got features that would change the device not in the software department, but in the hardware – three dimensional screens, speakers sitting behind the front glass, and more.

One of these patents shows tactile feedback – here working with a flexible display technology that’ll allow you to have a three-dimensional keyboard. Once you need the keyboard to appear on your display, the keys rise from the surface of the display. Imagine the possibilities if this were able to be applied to games and other apps as well! There’s no knowing how far you could go in the wacky world of bumpy moving screens!

This set of patents also points toward a device whose display’s ability to be flexible is able to react to sound vibrations. With a laser microphone, it’s been suggested, the possibility even exists that there’d be no need for microphone holes anymore. The same would therefor be true the other way around – an iPhone with no need for speaker holes anywhere at all.

Once you’ve got the iPhone 5 in your hand, think about how much of a future push it’d be to have speakers up front – but not through holes, right through the display. And the display can move for a variety of functions. And the whole device is thinner – why not? You’ll find that the future of the iPhone isn’t necessarily shown in the Apple patent collection you’re seeing today, but in science fiction films that are already in theaters – check out Looper this Friday and you’ll see.

iPhone patents point to invisible speakers and disappearing buttons is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just a week ago, we reported that the Wi-Fi bug in iOS 6 has been fixed, but it seems as though that was a premature conclusion as some iDevice owners who have upgraded to iOS 6 still reported that the Wi-Fi issues continue to plague their device. In a 91-page thread on Apple’s Support Communities webpage (and growing, I would suppose), this just speaks volumes – literally and figuratively, on what a significant problem this is when it came to upgrading older iOS-powered devices such as the previous generation iPhone and third-generation iPads to iOS 6.

It seems that after upgrading to iOS 6 on their iPhone 4S and new iPads, they are still faced with disabled Wi-Fi connectivity, where one cannot connect since the option has been “grayed out.” Not only that, it appears as though this particular issue has also affected Bluetooth capabilities of the respective devices too, where users claimed to be unable to pair up with or even recognize other devices as the “search wheel” continues spinning indefinitely. Other users could turn on Wi-Fi, but that did not do them a whole lot of good either as they remained unable to connect to their local network.

Hopefully a concrete fix will be issued soon, but for the moment, those who are affected might consider downgrading to iOS 5.1, how about it?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iOS 6: New Maps solution , Apple acknowledges that Maps app is a “work in progress”,

According to many of our readers, if Apple’s iOS 6 Maps software isn’t suitably filling in for the old Google-powered Maps then the quickest workaround is simply using Google Maps as a web app. While we’ll likely be waiting some time to find out if a standalone replacement from Google really is in the cards, The New York Times‘ David Pogue mentions — while bemoaning some navigation related mishaps in the new app — Street View imagery will be accessible that way “in two weeks.” Hopefully users will find that makes the wait easier, but at least they’re not making you carry around one of those backpacks to make it all work.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Google Maps Street View will be available via Mobile Safari in two weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It appears that Apple has gotten the China Compulsory Certificate for the iPhone 5 in a couple iterations, both of them quite possibly headed for China Telecom. The first of these will likely be the global GSM model – here in the approval found by Sina marked as WCDMA phone model A1429. The second is a CDMA2000 version model number A1442 of the device – this will likely be a brand new model of the iPhone as the current CDMA iPhone 5 (A1429) does not currently have China Telecom in its listing of networks. Of course there’s always the future.

The iPhone 5 will likely be available across much of China by the end of 2012. With China Unicom also already noting that they’ll have the device by the end of the year, we’ll see more than one major carrier working with the device. Apple has not been shy in the past year about making their move into and across China a priority as it is at the moment for them a relatively untapped market. China is already a place where users are able to purchase the iPhone 5 on the “grey market”, so to speak, but they aren’t currently able to purchase a device at retail.

This device is sweeping across the United States and the UK and bits of Europe rather soon, and the whole world will be in the iPhone 5 love bubble sooner than later. We’ve got an iPhone 5 full review for your perusal if you like, and there’s always the iPhone 5 tag portal for your enjoyment as well. This device has already sold more than 5 million units over its opening weekend and is on track to set each other iPhone sales record in the dust.

For those of you interested in picking up an iPhone 5 in the near future and are interested in what you’ll need to know about its operating system, you can check the iOS 6 changelog as well as our iPhone 5 software rundown – which was a pre-event post, but remains true today. The iPhone 5 will be running iOS 6 out of the box, but if you already own an iPhone 4S, iPad 3, or something similar, you can update your system wirelessly today for free – just hit the settings!

[via TNW]

iPhone 5 seeks approval for China is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s iOS 6 doesn’t appear to be doing the company any favors when it comes to user satisfaction, according to a new poll conducted by mobile customer research firm On Device. The survey of just under 16,000 iPhone owners in the U.S. found that compared to iOS 5, those with iOS 6 were slightly less satisfied with their devices. The drop is small, but still noteworthy because On Device says this is the first time it’s seeing a drop in satisfaction.

“We have always seen an increase in device satisfaction as consumer upgrade their mobile operating system from one version to another,” On Device CEO Alistair Hill explained in an emailed statement, adding that that’s also traditionally been the case among Android OS versions. The company notes that especially compared to the jump between iOS 4 and iOS 5, which shows strong improvements, the drop from iOS 5 to iOS 6 seems especially unusual.

Consumers have not responded well to the replacement of Google Maps with Apple’s own mobile maps offering, which seems to be the primary source of a lot of frustration. That’s likely the problem that’s led to much of the dissatisfaction seen in the On Device survey, since aside from some issues with how the App Store now displays search results, I’ve seen few other complaints.

It’s also worth noting that despite a slight decrease in satisfaction vs. iOS 5, generally, satisfaction is still very high overall, and Apple still seems to have a significant lead on Android devices, according to a recent study by J.D. Power. In other words, while iOS 6 may have some disappointing features, judging by these results it looks unlikely to have a material effect on iOS device sales going forward.