Hasta La Gadget!

Today, at an event in New York, GE announced that it will open up “thousands” of patents from its library of some 20,000 to inventors using Quirky’s crowdsourced product development platform. That means that if you’re bright enough, you can use a GE patent to invent something. GE will still collect royalties on your brain power, but they promise not to sue you. More »

In a preliminary decision, a judge of the International Trade Commission said that Samsung is infringing a very crucial part of a patent held by Apple, by adding text-selection feature in its devices which include both tablets and smartphones. This could mean trouble for the Korean manufacturer, because if the ruling is upheld, Samsung could be barred from importing devices in to the U.S. Apple says that the Galaxy, Nexus, Transform and other devices are infringing upon its patent. It is now up to the final decision of a full commission to either uphold or overturn this decision, which is expected in August.

The same judge also ruled that Samsung devices did not infringe on an Apple patent that allows devices to detect if another device or a microphone have been plugged in to the microphone jack. The decision was issued on the 26th of March but kept confidential so that both Samsung and Apple could redact sensitive business information. The complaint against Samsung was fined by Apple back in 2011, seven patents were initially listed, though one was dropped from the list during litigation.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: “Babel” Moniker For Google’s Rumored Unified Chat Service Spotted Again, Microsoft Believes Facebook Home Imitates Windows Phone,

The Federal Patent Court of Germany has invalidated all claims of Apple’s slide to unlock patent, and rules that none of the 14 amendments that Apple has suggested for salvaging the patent are valid. A bench of five judges, headed by Judge Vivian Sredl, made this ruling after a full day hearing. At least two of the judges on the bench are reported to have engineering backgrounds. It doesn’t end here though, Apple will be appealing this decision at the Federal Court of Justice. It is being reported that Apple, Samsung and Google knew that the Federal Patent Court was probably going to invalidate this patent.

This patent invalidation means a victory for Samsung and Motorola Mobility, though the final outcome can be changed if the appeal turns in Apple’s favor. For now, Apple’s patent EP 1964022 on “unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image” are invalid as granted. The court ruled that software such as the one described in the patent does not meet technicity requirement under European patent law, therefore Apple’s patent can not stand. Under U.S. patent law, there’s no such thing as a technicity requirement.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Cockroach Cam: Be Very Afraid, I/O Denim Jeans Loves Your Smartphone,

A couple of new Apple patent applications published today (via AppleInsider) show how the company might be thinking about competing with recent innovations from other big tech companies with similar, but different designs. The first is a filing that describes a convertible MacBook design, with a touch-sensitive screen that separates from the base. The second is a method for navigating a Street View-style view of virtual maps, complete with a twist that allows it to go inside buildings, too.

The first design for a convertible MacBook may look familiar, since it actually resembles a lot of designs available from Windows device makers, and some previous Android tablet designs. The screen detaches from the keyboard and body portion, which isn’t in itself terribly unique, but the screen in Apple’s version communicates with the brains in the base via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other wireless communication protocols, meaning all the serious computing work is still handled by the traditionally located GPU and CPU. The screen itself is touch-sensitive, but doesn’t act as a standalone tablet in quite the same way it does in some new Windows device designs.

The screen also can charge wirelessly via the same kind of tech used in induction charging, drawing power from the base. What Apple describes here isn’t so much a convertible tablet, but more of a MacBook with a screen that solves the clumsy issue of how to use touch effectively on a notebook by allowing it to temporarily come off the base for more ergonomic touch-based interaction. Apple has talked about how touch doesn’t work on a traditional computer form factor in the past; this is one way around that.

Another patent application published today could give a clue as to where Apple is headed with Maps. It describes a navigation method for a Street View-style look at the world from the perspective of someone walking the streets themselves. The difference between Apple’s patent and existing Google Street View navigation is that Apple’s is motion controlled, treating the environment as a panorama, which can be navigated based on motion detection from onboard device sensors to let a user truly experience a virtual “walk” through the streets of a city.

There’s been little evidence to suggest Apple is deploying tech to gather its own Street View-style imagery for Apple Maps thus far, but another recent development at least makes sense given the context of this patent. Apple recently acquired indoor mapping company WiFiSlam, and this patent also describes making use of the system to map and navigated indoor environments, too, so that users could go “inside” select buildings. It was originally filed in September of 2011.

Both these patent applications seem more like Apple hedging its bets than reflections of any immediate upcoming products, based on recent reports. But they also address issues that could become or are already competitive sore spots for the company, so there’s still a decent chance we may eventually see them make their way to shipping products.

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.
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