Hasta La Gadget!

HTC is a company that is clearly reeling from a lack of innovation, or at least due to the fact that their rivals in the smartphone arena have pulled far ahead of them. In fact, the latest blow would be the fact that Nokia has just picked up a victory in a patent lawsuit against HTC, where Justice Arnold of the England and Wales High Court has placed an order for an injunction against HTC of Taiwan, which happens to be ruled to have violated Nokia’s EP0998024 patent on “modular structure for a transmitter and a mobile station”.

This will add more pressure to HTC for sure, especially after the company has not been in the pink of health, financially speaking. Nokia happens to be the owner of one of the biggest patent portfolios where the mobile space is concerned, and this latest injunction against HTC means that Nokia has the option to file a ban on HTC One sales over in the UK. In fact, the HTC One mini has already been banned from being sold in the UK from December 6th onward, so hopefully HTC will be able to pull together a case in their appeal which will have the relevant amount of “arguing firepower” to overturn the sales ban.

HTC One Mini To Get UK Ban, HTC One Ban Also Possible original content from Ubergizmo.

With the iPhone 5s, Apple has introduced Touch ID which basically provides its users a layer of security that identifies the user through their fingerprints. While Touch ID is reported to be pretty decent and responsive, it does not mean that it is the perfect system, and a recent Apple patent has suggested that the Cupertino company could be looking at facial detection/recognition as a means of providing added security as well. However as with the case with most patents, there’s no telling if and when Apple will implement it, but based on our understanding of this particular patent, it does sound like a pretty good idea. (more…)

Apple Patent Reveals Plans For Facial Detection And Recognition original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple has more often than not been the party that brings someone else to court, but this time around, they are on the receiving end of a lawsuit after being sued by patent company DSS Technology Management. The reason for this lawsuit? DSS claims that Apple has allegedly infringed a couple of patents of theirs that have something to do with using wireless peripheral devices. Oh yeah, just so that everyone is on the same page, DSS stands for Document Security Systems.

DSS’ accusation would see Apple’s products such as the iMac, Mac mini, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano and the upcoming Mac Pro for infringing at least one of their claims in its patents that deliver wireless Bluetooth connectivity to a plethora of peripheral devices. DSS claimed to have obtained a pair of patent portfolios in October from two different owners, and has every intention to make money from their acquisitions via licensing.

The patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,699,357 and 6,128,290, where both of them have been described as “Personal Data Network.” DSS is currently suing for damages which could possibly see the inclusion of lost profits, and chances are they would also ask for some royalty from Apple. Apple has remained mum on the situation, however.

DSS Sues Apple For Patent Infringement original content from Ubergizmo.

We’re sure you guys have heard of the Lytro camera which for those unfamiliar, is a rather unique camera in the sense that you could shoot your photos first and focus on specific portions of the photo later. This allowed photographers to capture images in the moment without having to worry about fiddling with focus and finding that sweet spot. Such a camera would be interesting especially if brought to mobile devices, especially when mobile devices are used heavily in taking photos these days since we have them on us all the time.

Well it looks like Apple could be interested in something similar as the Cupertino company has recently filed for a patent for a plenoptic camera, which is essentially similar technology found inside the Lytro camera. According to the patent, Apple’s take will include an adapter holding a microlens array used to take low resolution refocusable images, where users will be able to choose their point of focus in the software later.

While it remains to see if this technology ever makes its way into future Apple products, it is not completely out of the question as Lytro’s founder, Ren Ng, revealed that Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, had called him over to discuss what both companies could do together. Apart from Apple, we have also heard the rumors that Nokia might be interested in something similar which could debut in their 2014 smartphones, and that Toshiba has developed a similar type of sensor as well. Exciting times are definitely ahead of us!

Apple Patent Reveals Lytro-like Camera Plans original content from Ubergizmo.

Arguably the most notable characteristic of the iPhone 5s is the TouchID fingerprint sensor, which lets you unlock your phone and authorize app purchases simply by resting a pre-authenticated fingertip on the home button. It turns out, however, that Apple might’ve had plans for the technology that go far beyond just that. According to a patent application filed with the World International Property Organization, the Cupertino company may use TouchID’s sensor technology to transform the Home button into a trackpad, similar to the ones on BlackBerry’s older line of Curve handhelds. Indeed, the patent filing describes how users could navigate the phone by “revolving” or “twisting” their fingerprint on the button’s sensor. Additionally, the sensor could measure the length of time and amount of pressure that is placed on it, which might lead to more interesting use-cases in apps or games.

What’s even more intriguing, however, is that the document goes on to describe how the entire display can be used to read your fingerprints. This sounds like a crazy idea at first, but if implemented, the phone would then know exactly which finger of which hand is on the screen. This could lead to certain actions mapped to specific digits — perhaps a long-press of your index finger could launch Maps, while a pinch of your pinky and thumb could open up Messages, for example. A few diagrams from the patent application show how screen-wide fingerprint recognition could be used for playing a piano or touch-typing on the virtual keyboard. If you’re concerned that this could lead to serious battery drain, the patent even addresses that, stating that the phone would be smart enough to recognize when it’s in moments of fingerprint recognition (i.e. “enhanced sensitivity”) or when it’s normal everyday use, otherwise known as “reduced sensitivity.”

Further, it seems that enhanced sensitivity could just be restricted to small screen areas so that only certain apps — like banking or email perhaps — would be cloaked in that extra layer of protection. Of course, just because such functionality is filed away in a patent application doesn’t mean we’ll see this in real life. However, taken with the promise of Apple’s recent acquisition, we’ll admit we’re very interested to see how the iPhone 6 will turn out. Those interested in patent minutiae can go ahead and peruse the rather lengthy 612-page document in the link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Via: Unwired View

Source: WIPO