Hasta La Gadget!

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.

In 2011, former Sony employee Seijiro Tomita launched a suit against Nintendo, claiming the 3DS infringed on a patent he holds to display 3D visuals without glasses. Today, a federal court in New York decided to award Tomita with $30.2 million in damages for Iwata and Co.’s infringement. The house that Mario built unsuccessfully argued that it didn’t rely on key parts of the patent, and that Tomita was just one of several folks it met with when it was looking into 3D tech in 2003. Nintendo’s pockets are certainly deep enough to handle the sting, but we can’t imagine it’s a welcomed loss with sales forecasts taking dips.

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: Reuters

Isn’t it annoying when you want to click a link, but because of your clumsiness or because the link is positioned badly, you end up clicking something else? This isn’t a big deal since you can always hit the back button, but what if you clicked away from a form page and thus had to fill up the page again, or if a recommended link you wanted is no longer there after you went back? Amazon apparently understands your frustrations and has patented a technology called gravity-based links. As its name implies, this technology creates links on websites that have a gravitational pull for your mouse cursor, thus drawing your mouse to certain links on a website. In Amazon’s case we expect that these gravity-based links will include links such as add to cart, checkout now, purchase, as well as other recommended links that will ultimately add more books/items to your cart, and add to Amazon’s revenue.

While seemingly nefarious in nature, Amazon claims in the patent that these gravity-based links have potential to help those who are disabled or have poor motor skills, stating, “Some users may lack the fine motor skills desired to operate a variety of input mechanisms due to declining health, injury, etc.” Seems legit. Since this is a patent, there’s no telling if and when Amazon will implement such a technology, or if it will be relegated to the files stored at the USPTO and collect dust in the years to come. However if you are surfing Amazon’s website one day and find your mouse cursor being dragged towards certain links, well, you have your answer there.

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A patent application has just revealed that Google is going to be implementing rear-touch controls for its future Android smartphones. The patent is similar to a patent filed by Apple in 2006, which it planned on using to implement the rear-touch feature in its future iPads. However, it’s been 7 years since Apple was granted the patent, and yet there are still no iPads with rear-touch controls. Perhaps Apple will begin production on that project now that Google is gunning for it too.

The rear-touch controls will allow users to navigate through various content. They will be able to flip through pages in a magazine or an e-book, navigate through their music selection by skipping or replaying their songs, scroll around through web pages, and more. There are a ton of possibilities that can come with rear-touch controls, and most will be utilized in order to create a much more pleasant one-handed user experience.

While Google has just received its patent, and Apple had the patent since 2006, they’re still way behind Sony. Sony was the first to implement rear-touch controls in its PlayStation Vita device. The device utilizes the rear-touch feature in many games. The touch-pad is used in many games to perform tasks like lobbing grenades, performing silent kills, controlling the camera, selecting multiple targets, navigating through maps, and more.

Google will not be limiting rear-touch controls on just Android smartphones however. It says that it may bring it to its Android tablets and Chromebook as well. Hopefully Google follows through with implementing its rear-touch controls, unlike Apple. We could see the use of rear-touch controls be used in so many ways other than just flipping a page. Developers would probably have a field day with the feature, integrating it within their apps and their games for a much better user experience.

[via Patent Bolt]

Google patents rear-touch controls 6 years after Apple is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Unlike buying physical goods, returning digital purchases can get a bit tricky. Purchasing songs and movies on iTunes, for example, pretty much tie you to the product and you can’t sell it once you’re done with it. This is compared to physical purchases of CDs or DVDs where you can always resell them when you think you no longer plan to listen or watch it. However a recently discovered Apple patent reveals that perhaps one day in the future, Apple will allow us to resell our digital purchases made on iTunes. It’s actually a pretty interesting system and it’s quite complex. (more…)

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