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Future iPads could ditch Apple’s Lightning dock connector in favor of an even more seamless way to power the device: inductive charging through its magnetic Smart Cover.

Apple has a couple of new interesting glimpses into possible new future tech published by the USPTO today, including a patent application for an iPad Smart Cover with a built-in battery and induction charging, and a mobile camera design that offers true optical zoom, instead of the low-quality digital zoom we’re all used to in current devices.

The induction charging patent application (via AppleInsider) makes the Smart Cover about a thousand times more useful than it is in its current form. It adds an inductive charging coil to the Smart Cover, which can transmit to a receiving end within the iPad itself. The Smart Cover would also contain a battery within its segmented padded divisions, which would make it possible to charge up the iPad when the Smart Cover is covering the iPad’s screen and lined up properly via the existing built-in magnets, or when folded behind the iPad to prop it up for viewing.

The Smart Cover itself would need to be plugged in to charge, or alternatively could be fitted with solar panels to pick up extra juice from ambient light. But the big news for the larger ecosystem would be that the iPad itself would have to be outfitted with wireless charging equipment. So long as Apple stuck with an accepted standard like Qi for that tech, it would open the door for plenty of new opportunities from third-party accessory makers: you can basically taste the fresh batch of new Kickstarter projects.

In a second application published today (via UnwiredView), Apple describes a new type of digital camera for inclusion in mobile devices, which would enable optical zooming in a module that’s still small enough to fit inside of an iPhone 5′s case. Basically, the camera would bounce incoming light off of an internal mirror at a 90-degree angle, meaning it could use the entire width of the phone to build a lens and optical zoom element rather than just being limited by the thickness of the device’s body from front to back.

The patent also describes using a light splitter cube to break up incoming light into separate red, blue and green frequencies, which makes it possible to use camera sensors that are more color-accurate, and take in much more light in the same environment vs. sensors that have light-splitting features built in. Once again, this is made possible thanks to the added room for camera elements Apple would be able to use by changing the orientation of the camera components to lengthwise across the device via the mirror behind the lens on the back of the camera.

Both of these patents are significant, because they provide avenues Apple can explore to add truly new and useful features to the iPad and iPhone. Induction charging has been rumored as a possible feature of the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6, but so far it hasn’t come to pass. Apple generally waits on wireless tech for it to prove its value with consumers before adding it to their products, however. The camera design modification, however, is something it could easily implement ahead of anyone else, since Apple tends to focus special attention on camera improvements in the iPhone, especially when making otherwise iterative improvements (as in the leap between the iPhone 4 and 4S, for instance).

Dramatic changes to product hardware would go a long way toward helping Apple address criticism that it’s ‘falling behind’ rivals like Samsung in the innovation department, and these in particular would be impressive by avoiding the specs race in favor of more interesting changes with real relevance to users. Still, Apple’s patents are never a good indicator of immediate product development strategies, so don’t hold your breath for these features in Apple’s next generation of devices.

Samsung hasn’t been catching many breaks in its court battles with Apple as of late, and that trend isn’t quite over yet. A UK court just tossed out claims that Apple violates three Samsung standards-essential patents relating to 3G data transmission, tentatively leaving the American firm free to sell iPhones and other cellular devices in the country — as long as other lawsuits don’t get in the way. Samsung hasn’t determined whether or not it will appeal, but a second try isn’t as surefire as it might be elsewhere, not when the Galaxy maker has a less-than-stellar record in winning cases where 3G is involved. We’d just like the whole mess to be over.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung

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Source: Reuters

Apple received a patent from the USPTO today (via AppleInsider) that describes a technology that would allow device casings to employ a combination of pressure and capacitive sensitivity to detect input. At the very least, the tech could be used to map functions like those Apple currently assigns to the home, power and volume buttons to areas of an iPhone or iPad’s bezel.

Other uses for the patent, which was originally filed in 2009, are described by Apple as a backup or alternate input method for when standard capacitive-based touch interaction either won’t work or is impractical. Capacitive input, the kind used in the iPhone’s touchscreen currently, is much more accurate and responsive than resistive input, but it doesn’t work when wearing gloves, or when there’s sufficient grime on a screen, or when unwanted input signals are coming from a wrist resting on the display and confusing the sensors.

Apple’s system is proposed as an alternative input mechanism for those kinds of situations. And since it’s not exactly a traditional resistive (pressure-only) resistive input method, it could also use capacitive clues to make it more refined as well as being much more sensitive to changes in pressure than capacitive systems. The combination of both types could guard against accidental input when a device is in a pocket, for example.

As the system could live right in the housing of a device (the iPhone 5′s metal casing would be pretty perfect for it, in fact), it could greatly alter the way people interact with Apple devices. You could put scroll bars on either side of a smartphone, for instance, so that moving a finger or thumb up or down with differing pressure pages through content faster or slower.

The company could build context-dependent controls into the back or side housing of all-metal devices with this tech, or even use it to add input to an iWatch housing. The benefits are mainly that it could provide a way to keep the screen clear, which becomes more important as we move to devices with smaller bezels, or smaller displays in the case of an iWatch.

As with any Apple patent, however, this isn’t a roadmap. But it could be a neat way of adding another dimension of interaction to compete with recent changes from other OEMs, including touch input through gloves and eye movement tracking.

Remember when a court ruled that Samsung owed just a tad over $1 billion to Apple back in August? Yeah, that was a lot of money. However, it turns out that Judge Lucy Koh has voided almost half of that award down to 598.9 million. Plus, she’s ordering up a new trial involving 14 of Samsung’s products. Why? Koh says that “the Court identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award.”

Koh is calling for a new trial to set revised damage amounts for the products affected by the “impermissible legal theory” of the judgment, which include the Galaxy Prevail, Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, AT&T Galaxy S II, Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, and Transform.

However, Koh believes that Apple may be affected with damages for sales not included in the original case, and there’s a chance that Samsung can lower the amount it would owe to Apple. Specifics are pretty scarce at this point still, and Koh hasn’t even set a date for the retrial, either, so we’re not sure what to expect, nor what will happen.

The retrial may not take place until appeals of the original ruling have played out, which means that it’s very likely that it will be awhile before the retrial gets under way and revised damages are announced. While we thought that the Apple vs. Samsung court battle might have been slowly coming to a close, it’s picking back up to full speed now.

[via FOSS Patents]

Judge cuts Apple’s award down to $600m in Samsung trial is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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