Jan 21
Though most of the MacBooks you’ll see out in the wild today – from the last few years, that is – work without any apparent buttons under their surface, they … Continue reading
Nov 07
A patent application has been made public this week which shows Motorola to be thinking about creating “tattoo stickers” that would be applied to a users throat. These aren’t the same sort of temporary tattoos you’d have gotten in 12-packs of Barqs rootbeer in the 90′s, but a sort of sticker that’d be just a […]
Oct 15
If you think you’re going to make the world your oyster with Google Glass without raising your hands up to circle your favorite objects, you’re in for a real change of heart. What we’re seeing today is a patent application made by Google to keep the idea of “hearting” things to themselves. What you’d do […]
Mar 29
Take today’s latest iPhone news with a grain of salt, folks, but it looks like Apple’s next iPhone could be announced on June 20, and be released a couple weeks later sometime in early July. This isn’t an odd time frame for Apple, however, as they’ve made announcements in June in the past. This would then point to a fall launch of a possible lower-cost iPhone that, according to a new patent, could come with a ceramic body.
The new patent filing from Apple provides only slightly more evidence that a cheaper iPhone may be in our future. The patent suggests that the low-cost iPhone could be made out of a type of ceramic, with the materials mentioned being zirconia and alumina. Zirconia is said to allow radio waves to pass through easily, making it ideal for electronics consumption.
Of course, there’s a whole list of materials that are rumored for a low-cost iPhone, so we’re merely just adding more to the list with today’s ceramics patent. As for the iPhone 5S this June, that would be right after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference took place, or at least compared to last year’s dates for the event. Apple has yet to announce dates for this year’s WWDC, but that could be the time when Apple makes the official announcement.
Apple has recently been using the fall season to announce and launch its new products. The last time that the company announced a new iPhone was back in 2010 when they unveiled the iPhone 4 at WWDC in June. Of course, it certainly wouldn’t be odd of them to go back to the summer release cycle, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see what they decide to do.
[via CNET]
iPhone 5S event tipped for June 20 while Apple patent suggests ceramics is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 14
Apple’s new Smart Cover for the iPad has a lot of potential, and it seems the company thinks so as well. Case in point: Apple just applied for a patent that would see the Smart Cover being used as a wireless charger to charge up the iPad when the Smart Cover is closed. Both the iPad and Smart Cover would have induction coils to make the wireless charging possible.
The Smart Cover itself would include battery cells to give the iPad some extra juice, and users would charge up the Smart Cover via a USB cable. This is different than most other wireless charging methods, in that the iPad wouldn’t use a stationary charging dock to wirelessly charge, but rather the iPad would use the Smart Cover to charge up, allowing to take it wherever without being tethered to a charging dock.
The patent also notes that solar cells could also be implemented into the Smart Cover, that way there would be no need to charge up the cover itself when the internal battery gets low. The Smart Cover already consists of magnets that have alternating polarities to ensure a perfect fit on the iPad every time, which is a technology that could be of assistance to wireless charging with the Smart Cover.
Of course, most patents never see the light of day, and it’s usually just a way for company’s to copyright their ideas just in case they want to use them in the future with no guarantees of actual implementation, but a wireless charging Smart Cover seems realistic enough that it would make complete since for it to come to the market at some point.
[via AppleInsider]
Apple files for Smart Cover inductive charging patent for iPad is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Aug 30
Amazon applies for dual-display device patent, where e-ink and LCD play nice together
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Been holding out on that Kindle Fire purchase because you just can’t wean yourself off the eye-friendly e-ink? Well, this patent application from the folk at Amazon suggests this is something they’re not unaware of. The patent outlines a device incorporating two or more displays, one being static in nature (a-la e-ink) and the other more suitable for video (that’d be LCD or OLED etc). If you’re thinking this sounds like a fast route to flat-battery town, the patent argues to the contrary. The static display would save power by offloading the workload from the LCD, when its slow moving nature was more suitable to the content. Will we see something like this popping up next week? One can but dream.
Amazon applies for dual-display device patent, where e-ink and LCD play nice together originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 06:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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