iPhone 5S event tipped for June 20 while Apple patent suggests ceramics

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.

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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.

Google pledges not to sue open-source devs and users

Google pledges not to sue opensource devs and users

Google has always been pretty firm in its stance that “open systems win.” Now its going so far as to publicly pledge that it will “not sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked.” The Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge, as the company is calling it, is the latest effort to back open-source software which Mountain View contends is one of the driving sources of innovation in cloud-computing and the internet. The first set of patents that are part of the initiative are related to MapReduce, which is used to process large data sets, though the company will eventually expand it to cover other technologies. The pledge is similar to Twitter’s Innovators Patent Agreement which it announced in April of last year. There wont be any immediate benefit to end users, but anything that encourages innovation and minimizes litigation seems like a net positive in our book. For more details hit up the source link.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google 1, 2

Google patent application would tie camera settings to local weather

Google patent application would tie camera settings to weather

GPS is burgeoning into a tool for more than just finding our way, such as choosing gears on a weekend drive. If one of Google’s newly published patent applications becomes reality, positioning might also fix our off-color photos. Its proposed technique would use GPS to automatically tune a camera based on both the local climate and whether or not you’re outdoors: the white balance and saturation could be different for a sunny day in the park than a rainy day stuck inside, for example. While automatic settings are already commonplace, the method could lead to more accurate output that reduces the urge to flick on a manual mode. There’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see the patent in a shipping product, but don’t be surprised if future Android smartphones produce uncannily good photography with little effort.

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Source: USPTO

Camera Settings Depend On Local Weather In Google Patent Application

Camera Settings Depend On Local Weather In Google Patent ApplicationOriginally, GPS was used by the military, and ever since the technology has made its way to the masses for peaceful and civilian use, we have seen our fair share of GPS navigation systems. Of course, these dedicated GPS navigation systems were once considered to be a “must have” device, but the proliferation of more affordable and yet capable smartphones with integrated GPS capability, alongside powerful mobile mapping software, rendered such dedicated GPS navigation devices more or less obsolete. Google has not forgotten about the functionality of GPS, and their recently published patent application has proposed the clever use of GPS to tune a camera automatically, depending on where you are, the local climate as well as your position – whether you are indoors or outdoors, so much so that the white balance and saturation will be configured accordingly to make shooting photos with your smartphone more or less a dummy-proof experience.

Of course, this remains a patent as at press time, and could very well be in the same boat for many more years to come, but I suppose the door is always open for Google to include this in future Android smartphones for a more intuitive photo taking experience.

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Apple Patent Looks At Wrap-Around AMOLED Display

Apple Patent Looks At Wrap Around AMOLED DisplayApple is a company (among many other companies these days) who treat patents like the new corporate “currency”, turning them into bargaining chips down the road – hey, you never know when you might need those old patents filed so many years ago, right? What you see above is actually a diagram that was spotted in an Apple patent application which appeared over at the USPTO as freshly as today, where it describes a “consumer electronic product”’s display.

Yes sir, this particular patent would involves manufacturing a device that relies on an open-ended transparent body, where glass would be a good example, and this will end up as a full wrap-around display whenever you unfurl a flexible AMOLED screen within it. Of course, this does not mean the entire surface of the flexible AMOLED will be used simultaneously, although a “detection mechanism” has been detailed, including a camera alongside facial recognition software which would figure out on its own just how much of the screen you are able to view, hence helping conserve juice since power is sent only to the relevant segments of the display.

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Apple patents wrap-around AMOLED display

This week Apple’s industrial designers and inventors have found their way back into the USPTO with a patent filing for a wrap-around display. This means that you’ll have a device that’s got a display that’s wrapping around its sides rather than just sitting on the front – AMOLED in technology, too. You’ll have brightness and light coming at you from all directions!

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What you’re actually looking at here is more of a concept for a future set of possibilities. Patents such as this don’t always have to make it to the market with a fully operational product – you probably wont see an oval-shaped iPhone in the near future. But what we can be excited about is the fact that we’re well on our way to this sort of technology making its way to the public in products that are slightly less wacky – as just part of the full show.

There’s a set of examples that Apple gives with diagrams showing angles at which this transforming display might be implemented. If you’ve got a couple of caps on each end, any number of candybar-shaped modules might be created. As Engadget notes, one of these describes how the caps of each one of these cellphone-like devices could be connected to one another, creating a long snake of devices – or perhaps one massive display.

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As for the rest of the mobile universe, we’ve already seen some flexible AMOLED concepts out there in the wild. Samsung in particular has been bringing some odd heat here and there – still not inside a market-ready device, but getting closer every day!

Who do you think will reach the market first, folks? And better yet: do you think there’s really a need for a product with a bendy screen in our modern age?

[via AppleInsider]


Apple patents wrap-around AMOLED display is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple in court over Siri patent infringment claim

Apple is dealing with another problem in China and this time it involves its personal assistant program, Siri. A couple of weeks back, Apple had faced criticism by the television program China’s Central Television over issues people had with the company’s warranty policy. Now Apple is now dealing with the patent infringement claims made by Shanghai’s Zhizhen Network Technology company. The company filed the claims last July.

Apple in court over Siri patent infringent claims

Zhizhen says that Siri infringes on its “Xiao i Robot” software that it had patented back in 2004, a while before Siri was developed in 2007 and released on the iPhone 4S in 2011. The i Robot software does exactly the same thing as Siri, such as responding to the user’s commands. Xiao i Robot, however, is available for both iOS and Android devices. Zhizhen says that it’s currently being used by over 100 million people in China.

The two companies went to pre-trial today to discuss the issue. Apple denied Zhizhen’s claim and asked for the case to be rejected. The court, however, rejected its request. Zhizhen’s lawyer, Si Weijiang, stated that if the company wins the case, they will ask Apple to “stop manufacturing and selling products using its patent rights.” He also stated that they will probably demand compensation from Apple in the future.

Apple had similar legal issues with another company in China. The company, Proview, claimed that Apple committed fraud when it acquired its iPad trademark. Apple purchased the trademark through IP Application Development, a U.K. subsidary, but Proview stated that the subsidary didn’t have the right to sell the trademark. Through a long, complicated legal battle, Apple finally settled the lawsuit by paying Proview $60 million. We will see how this legal battle over Siri plays out when the official case takes place in July.

[via AKP]


Apple in court over Siri patent infringment claim is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple Sued For Patent Infringement With Siri

Apple Sued For Patent Infringement With SiriWell, well, what do we have here? A company that has decided to take Apple to court? This is definitely something that most folks have taken for granted, considering how Samsung and Apple were trading barbs in the courtroom since last year. The latest lawsuit thrown in Apple’s direction does not come from the South Korean conglomerate, however, as it is a China-based company that decided to sue Apple for a patent infringement that involves Siri, Apple’s voice controlled assistant.

Apple made an appearance in a Shanghai court today, where the Cupertino-based firm had to deal with a patent suit that claimed that the Siri digital assistant which is currently featured in iPhones and iPads is actually software that infringed on the China-based company’s patents. Zhi Zhen Network Technology, received a patent for their Xiao i Robot software in 2006, where Xiao i Robot boasts of voice interactions, and has the smarts to answer questions and carry out simple conversations. A monetary settlement could end up as a result for a happy ending for everyone, but Apple is definitely not going to give up without a fight.

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LG Issued Patent For A Phone With Three Displays

LG Issued Patent For A Phone With Three DisplaysPhones these days are getting pretty big, especially with devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the LG Optimus G Pro that seem to blur the line between a smartphone and a tablet. The question is, is there a better way to offer more content on the screen without having to stretch out the pockets on our pants? Well LG might have come up with something back in 2010 thanks to a recently issued patent that reveals LG’s plans for a smartphone with three displays. As it stands there are flip smartphones in Japan that have twin displays, although triple displays probably takes the cake.

The drawing above should be able to give you a pretty good idea of what LG had in mind, which is basically a main display with two smaller displays that can be slid out when needed. These smaller side panel displays appear to offer users options and controls, while the main LCD focuses on the content. Like in the drawing above, one side panel can be used to display photos in a gallery, while the main screen is the camera, while the other side panel offers camera options. We have to say it sounds like a pretty cool idea, although that means we will most likely be spending a lot of time in landscape mode if we were to fully take advantage of the additional displays. We’re not sure if LG will ever make this a reality, but what say you?

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Microsoft’s Touch Cover Patent Granted

Microsoft has finally picked up a patent for their Microsoft Touch Cover, thanks to the good people over at the US Patent and Trademark Office who were the ones who granted this particular patent. If one were to be more specific, it would boil down to Microsoft’s design of the Touch Cover itself that picked up this particular patent, alongside the design that makes up the magnetic base for the cover that enables it to quickly and tightly hook up the Surface tablet to itself. Microsoft’s research team turned this magnetic bonding between the tablet and the Touch Cover, showing it off in its two main Surface TV ads, where one of them would include the Surface Pro commercial that aired in February.

In fact, Microsoft was not short on promotional material where the Touch Cover is concerned, touting it to be one of the most unique features that can be found on the Surface tablet, never mind that based on technical terms, you can purchase it as an optional accessory to the tablet. Microsofts Touch Cover Patent Granted

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