Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been generally satisfied with the chiclet-style keyboards that have become omnipresent in laptops and Apple’s latest generation of desktop keyboards, but Cupertino feels that these thinner, lower-profile input devices limit tactile feedback. A patent application from Apple, filed in 2009 but only now revealed, aims to improve the user experience by “expelling air from the input device proximate the key when user selection is imminent.” That’s right — your keyboard could blow on your fingertips as you blow our minds in the comments. Another solution in the patent would function like a vacuum to pull keys away when a proximity sensor detects that you’re about to type, providing simulated feedback. If this concept takes off in the future, your next MacBook Air could really live up to its name.

Apple patent application shows keyboard that doesn’t require contact, blows air originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 10:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Microsoft patent application shows custom Kinect gestures, roaming user profiles

Microsoft patent application shows custom Kinect gestures, roaming user profiles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An East Texas jury recently awarded a relatively small computer firm patent troll a pretty hefty settlement (in you and me dollars) in a patent infringement suit that named Google, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, and Myspace as defendants. The jury awarded Bedrock Computer Technologies LLC $5 million for a patent concerning the Linux kernel found in the software behind Google’s servers. The patent in question is described as a “method and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data.” It appears Google is the first of the defendants to face a judgement, but we have a feeling this decision might have set a precedent. Of course, no infringement suit would be complete without a healthy helping of appeals — and considering the decision came from a district court, we can almost guarantee this case is no exception. You didn’t expect the big guys to stay down for the count, did you?

Update: As it turns out, the plaintiff in question here, Bedrock Computer Technologies, is actually owned by David Garrod, a lawyer and patent reform activist. Ars Technica profiled Garrod following the initial suit, pointing to the clear contradiction between his trolling and reform efforts. What’s more, Bedrock sued Google and the rest of the defendants in June 2009. Just six months later, Bedrock was back in the courtroom, but this time it was on the receiving end. Red Hat, the company supplying the OS behind Google’s search engine services, was suing Bedrock for patent invalidity.

Google ordered to pay $5 million in Linux patent infringement suit (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple patents aren’t normally worth the pixels it takes to write about them — any half-smart company will patent any and every idea its employees have, just in case. But this USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt hybrid dock connector looks like it might be pretty serious.

The current dock connector is horrible. Unless you can see the tiny symbol printed in light gray on one side, you’ll end up jamming it in backwards half the time. It is also big. Back when those big white iPods were the latest thing, this wasn’t a problem. Now, though, the slot is nearly as wide as the iPod Nano itself.

The patent, filed way back in 2009, has just been published. It shows a smaller connector which can carry “one or more new high-speed communication standards, such as USB 3.0 and DisplayPort.” I doubt that it will actually use USB 3.0. Much more likely is a Thunderbolt plug, which uses the above-mentioned (mini) DisplayPort interface.

The cable would carry power, USB, serial data, audio, video and display data. It also looks pretty similar, internally at least, to the current connector. Then again, patent drawings are notoriously bad.

I’d expect the transition to begin once the entire Mac lineup has a Thunderbolt interface, and the Thunderbolt has started to arrive on PCs. I’d also expect some backwards compatibility, or at least two cables (or an adapter) in iDevice boxes so people with stone-age USB-only computers can still charge and sync their iPods.

Reduced size multi-pin male plug connector [Free Patents Online via Apple Insider]

See Also:

• Apple Files Patent for a Smart Bike
• Apple Patent Details GPS-equipped Nike+ Shoes
• Apple Patent Watch: Monitor Docking Station

Google and Nortel have agreed on the princely sum of $900 million to start off a “stalking horse” auction — wherein outside parties are still free to outdo Google’s bid — for the acquisition of Nortel’s rather vast patent portfolio. The sale comes as part of the latter company’s bankruptcy selloff and involves some 6,000 patents and patent applications, which encompass both wired and wireless communications, semiconductors, data networking, voice, and the internet — going so far as to even touch on web search and social networking. The thing is, Google’s not really enamored with these tidbits of intellectual property to the tune of nearly a billion dollars. No sir, a rather bitter blog post from the company this morning makes it quite clear that Google’s acting in order to bolster its own intellectual property library and to “create a disincentive for others to sue.” Both Android and Chrome get obliquely mentioned in Google’s announcement as benefiting from the move, which should be completed by June of this year pending other bids and regulatory approvals.

Update: Microsoft has noted that it has “a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel’s patents that covers all Microsoft products and services, resulting from the patent cross-license signed with Nortel in 2006.” That license will also transfer with the sale of the patent rights. All that means is that Microsoft cannot be sued for infringing on that bundle of rights as it is already licensed to use them. That means Microsoft is extremely unlikely to participate in this auction — other than, of course, as a means to prevent others from obtaining the same rights.

Continue reading Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls (update)

Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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