Patently Apple

Teen Killed in Las Vegas Refusing to give up his iPad

A sad story comes out of Las Vegas today. The Associated Press reports that two men have been arrested in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas. Police announced Sunday that two young men were booked into the Clark County jail in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas.

Video: Google's Sergey Brin Shares his Philosophy about Glass

It's not a demo, more of a philosophical argument: Why did Sergey Brin and his team at Google want to build an eye-mounted camera/computer, codenamed Glass? Onstage at TED 2013, Brin calls for a new way of seeing our relationship with our mobile computers -- not hunched over a screen but meeting the world heads-up.

Sadly, more Suicides from Foxconn Factory have been reported

According to a new press release by China Labor Watch, another Foxconn employee from their Zhengzhou factory where Apple's iPhone is assembled jumped off a building to his death last Tuesday. The news that was officially made public hours ago stated that this was the third employee from the same factory to have fatally jumped off of buildings in the span of the last 20 days.

Apple to cut iPad mini Orders to AU Optronics, an iDevice Camera Shortage is Brewing & Corning Upgrades their Glass

In November we reported that AU Optronics was having problems ramping up to mass production of the 7.9 inch display panels used in Apple's iPad mini. The company was only producing about halve of their production target. Today we learn that AU Optronics is once again unable to keep up with Apple's orders.

Apple Advances their Future Shopping App Again & More

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals their ongoing work with their future "Shopping App." Apple first revealed an extensive patent filing for NFC as it related to "Shopping" back in 2010 as a companion app to their future iWallet. Just like Apple's Passbook keeps gift cards, coupons, tickets and passes into an organized app, Apple's iWallet is likely to contain another round of things that relate to their financial app and the "Shopping" feature is just one. Last week's update to the Shopping app focused on methods of setting payment option preferences and more. Today's patent application adds at least five major aspects to the "Shopping" apps patent claims. The base of the patent doesn't change much if any. It's all about securing key aspects of the invention that Apple wants to protect, just in case they have to go court over it in the future.

Apple Invents All-New Touch Sensor Panel for Larger Displays

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an all-new touch sensor panel design for larger displays. Today's touch sensor panels are designed like a checkerboard taking on a matrix of drive and sense lines arranged in rows and columns in horizontal and vertical directions. That may be fine for smaller touch displays but as the touch displays become larger such as those for a future MacBook or even an iMac, the current design becomes a drag on the speed of touch command execution. Apple's next generation touch sensor panel is likely to take on either a web-like design or one that incorporates thick diamond-like shapes so that the user's finger is more likely to hit the sensors faster and easier.

Apple Reveals a Future Illumination System for iDevice Cameras While Hinting of a Stand Alone Camera & Beyond

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a next generation lighting system for iDevices. The new system is designed to provide superior lighting to your photos day or night in a unique manner. Apple's patent also describes a new remote light source accessory while strongly hinting that a standalone camera is still a future option of theirs. With Samsung's Galaxy Zoom or the like on the horizon, a standalone or new kind of hybrid iDevice camera or advanced camera accessory isn't out of the question for the future.

Apple Moving Away from Hon Hai may be a Good Thing

Hon Hai, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics suffered their biggest decline in sales in its history, according to a new Bloomberg report. To give this a larger perspective, a new report out of Beijing yesterday stated that "Foxconn's net loss in 2012 was US $316 million, the biggest loss it had suffered since listing in Hong Kong in 2005." So Hon Hai's downward trend has been ongoing since 2012. In April we posted a report titled "Windows 8 is a Disaster Leading the PC Sector to its Worst Quarter in Roughly 20 Years." Bloomberg echoed this in their report by stating that the "failure of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8 to drive PC growth pushed Hon Hai's revenue down the most in at least 13 years." So Hon Hai's downward trend isn't caused by an "Apple slowdown" alone, but rather a number of problems with the tech industry at large and the company itself.

With Gartner seeing a Slowdown in Feature Phones in 2013, Is it Time for Apple to Step into the Mid-Range Smartphone Market?

New research data from Gartner states that sales of Mobile Phones in all regions except Asia/Pacific declined in the First Quarter of 2013. The new Gartner statistics show us that Apple's iOS operating system remained in the number two spot in Q1 2013 but dropped 4.3% from the same quarter last year.

The Organ & Tissue Donor Registry that Steve Jobs Pushed for Opened Today

Back in In October 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that made California the first state in the nation to create a live donor registry for kidney transplants. The bill also required California drivers to decide whether they want to be organ donors when they renew their driver licenses. According to one supporter, this second measure alone should double the number of organ transplants available in California. This was a project that Apple's late Co-Founder and CEO Steve Jobs pushed hard to get done. The registry created by that bill opened today.

BlackBerry's Social Networking App (BBM) is coming to iOS

BlackBerry announced during their conference today that their BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), their mobile social network is coming to Android and iOS in the coming months. BlackBerry has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. The service sends and receives more than 10 billion messages each day, which is nearly double what other mobile messaging apps produce. BlackBerry states that "iOS and Android users would be able to add their contacts through PIN, email, SMS or QR code scan, regardless of platform. Android users would also be able to connect using a compatible NFC-capable device."

Apple is Granted New Patents for Multitouch & Trackpads

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two multitouch related patents. The second patent covers a movable trackpad like those associated with the iPod Classic and the Apple TV remote. The first granted patent that we cover today is for yet another major multitouch patent covering contact tracking and an identification module for touch sensing.

Apple Granted Patents for Movie Storyboarding, Final Cut Timecoding and iMovie Template Creation

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three granted patents covering technologies found in iMovie and/or Final Cut Pro.

Apple Granted 35 Patents Covering Future iDevices that will respond to Acoustic Commands like Taps, Scratches & More

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we first cover Apple's granted patent which discusses how acoustic transducers could one day be configured to accept acoustic commands that consist of tapping, scratching and other interactions with a surface of an iPad, iPhone or MacBook Pro. Our report concludes with a list of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.

Apple Granted Two Patents for waterproofing iDevices

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two of Apple's patents relating to waterproofing iDevices. A waterproofing test was recently conducted by Square Trade showing how waterproofing has been upgraded in Apple's iPhone 5 and our report includes that video. Our report also covers Apple's sole granted design patent of the day covering the iPad with an email interface which includes a credit to Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs.

New Wi-Fi Standard in the Works with Ten Times Speed Boost

Late yesterday, the Nikkei reported that some 20 global companies including Electronics, NTT, Qualcomm, Ericson, China Mobile and Samsung have agreed to jointly develop a new Wi-Fi technology that is ten times faster than the current standard.

Samsung Sets up New Korean Patent Foundation to Eliminate Royalty Payments to US and European Companies by 2023

Although Samsung is the world's biggest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and supplier of chips and flat-screens, Samsung continues to pay outsiders billions of dollars in return for using patents in semiconductors, displays and other software. Samsung wants to have first access to cheaper home grown ideas and solutions in the future and in order to get their hands on this new technology Samsung has set up the new "Samsung Future Technology Foundation."

ABC to Introduce "Live" TV for Apple's iDevices on Tuesday

It's being reported today that ABC will be quietly revolutionizing its app for iPhones and iPads with a button called "live." Users around New York and Philadelphia will be able to live-stream all the programming from ABC's local stations there, the first time that any major broadcaster has turned on such a technology.

We're stuck with Mobile 4G Communications until 2020

If you were hoping for a faster wireless technology to come along in the next few years to replace 4G so that you could quickly download games and movies, you're out of luck. Korea IT News is reporting today that 5G technology won't be coming to market until 2020, if not longer.

Hon Hai Reports Boost in iPhone Shipments in April

Mainland China's Central News Agency reports today that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest contract electronics maker of products such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, reported more than a 12 percent monthly increase in sales for April, citing strong demand for consumer electronics products. Hon Hai currently holds about a 70 percent stake in Foxconn which experienced a pickup in iPhone shipments in April from the first three months of the year

New Stats Show Apple Leader in Tablets, Samsung in Phones

There's good and bad news to be found in the latest statistical breakdown of "smart mobile device" shipments by independent analyst firm Canalys who notes that in Q1 2013, 308.7 million mobile devices were shipped. The analysis considers smart mobile devices to consist of notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft were the winners in specific areas.

Apple Patent Points to Future iPhone Dock with Lightning

In April of this year we posted a report titled "Apple Electro-Optical Connector Patents Surface that may Point to "Lightning's" Road Map," which was Apple's most up to date patent on their new lightning connector technology. Today, two older 2011 Lightning related patents surfaced as continuation patents which basically means that in all likelihood Apple simply updated their 2011 patent claims and no more. However, if you've never viewed these patents, they do provide those interested in the technology behind Lightning with some real meat to sink their teeth into. One surprise that we noted is that Apple clearly indicates that a Lightning centric dock could be on tap in the future.

Surprising Report Surfaces Claiming Sharp has Dropped Apple

A surprising Korean report this afternoon emphatically states that Sharp, the leading company in the small & medium-sized LCD panel market, is starkly changing its supply strategy. After inviting investments from Samsung, the Japan-based company is strengthening its cooperation with Samsung. According to the industry on May 8, Sharp stopped the production of LCD panels for iPad as of January this year and started supplying Samsung with small & medium-sized IGZO panels instead.