Tagged ‘patent application’

Categories: Computers & Accessories    Tags: , , , , ,

Not content with going gesture-crazy and turning mouse scrolling upside down in Mac OS X Lion, Apple has been pondering ways of tossing the traditional keyboard in the dustbin. A new Apple patent application has surfaced revealing Cupertino’s take on an entirely flat, touch-sensitive keyboard that come to future MacBooks.

We’ve already seen similar touchscreen keyboards on real world products including the Acer Iconia 6102 and the Toshiba Libretto W100 but Apple’s design takes the concept a little bit further…

Read more

Categories: Mobile Phones    Tags: , , , ,

Apple makes patent applications to lock down lots of mad ideas but this is the oddest we’ve seen in a while: a plan to turn your iPhone into a virtual wingman.

The idea is to create a picture of you based on the stuff you have stashed on your iPhone and connect you to other iPhone owners nearby who seem compatible.

It’s almost as if Apple saw the Cupidtino dating site for fanboys and girls and thought: we can do better than that. Read on for more details on how a future iPhone could handle your introductions for you…

Read more

Categories: Apps & Software    Tags: , , , , ,

Google has said in the past that Google Goggles could do face recognition but won’t because, well, it’s a bit icky. Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman and frequent ponderer of the “creepy”, reiterated that point earlier this week saying the idea of Google creating a facial recognition database was “very concerning” and that Google just wouldn’t do it.

However, it seems that not everyone at Google agrees. A patent application focused on recognising faces on social networks popped up in February and, yesterday, an even more intriguing document was released by the US Patent and Trademark Office – a facial recognition patent focused on celebrities!

Read more

Categories: Apps & Software    Tags: , , ,

If Apple outs an iTunes streaming, a recently published patent application may just reveal how it’s going to work. Rather than simply asking to fling your files up into the cloud and expecting you to wait for songs to buffer, the iTunes snapshot in the patent application shows an option to “Sync partial music”.

The ‘iCloud‘ system would store a snippet of the song on your local device and then be synced with the complete version in the crowd meaning you could start playing songs immediately without waiting. Read on for more details…

Read more

Categories: Gadgets    Tags: , , , , ,

Coming straight out of left field, Patently Apple, home to the most committed Apple patent watchers out there, has pulled together some patents and come to an intriguing conclusion: Apple’s toying with creating a iMac/iPad hybrid. It’s a wacky idea but at least there’s some patent drawings to ponder…

Read more

Categories: MP3 & Audio    Tags: , , , , ,

That photo of a new iPod nano with a camera that popped up earlier this week might just be the real deal. A patent application filed by Apple shows an iPod nano with a camera, screensaver features to show information on the screen while your iPod nano is sleeping and new sensors including a motion sensor, temperature gauge and microphone.

Read more

Categories: Mobile Phones    Tags: , , , , ,

Apple has submitted 3D patent applications in the past and another intriguing one has passed over the desk of the US Patent and Trademark Office this week.

The document entitled “Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors” (catchy title, hey?) and outlines a method for producing 3D pictures using a hardware-based approach with dual cameras in an iPhone or iPod touch combined with seperate luma, chroma and depth/distance sensors…

Read more

Categories: Mobile Phones    Tags: , , , , ,

The iPhone 5 could arrive as a substantially thinner package thanks to new, smaller conductive nodes to slip beneath its multi-touch screen. A patent application that just popped out of the tech innovation toaster that is the US Patent and Trademark Office with Apple’s name on it shows a new method for creating a thinner capacitive touchscreen. That could have a bearing on the iPad 2 but seems more likely to arrive in the iPhone 5 at the earliest. Regardless, the Apple tech is interesting as ever…

Read more

« Older Entries
  1. Plasmacluster tech: The fresh air beauty treatment
  2. Replicating dinosaurs with 3D printing
  3. Bookbinding: Always judge a book by its cover

Hot chat, right here!


Our most commented stories right now...
[template - archive.php]