Patently Apple

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.

Copycat Samsung Considers an Apple-Like App-Dock for Future Mobile Device Interfaces

Samsung is at it again. Within a new patent application published by the US Patent Office today, Samsung is found presenting some new user interface ideas for their touch display devices covering page turning effects and a new screen-unlock feature. Yet one of their so-called new ideas is one "borrowed" from Apple. It's the iOS app-dock that's like a glass shelf reserved for your most used/favorite apps. Samsung's patent figure is illustrated in our cover graphic above. Samsung's oh-so creative engineers just couldn't resist borrowing yet another Apple user interface element.

Apple revisits their iDevice Camera Swipe Controls Invention

On May 09, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple's iPhone. Today's patent reveals an innovative concept that is designed to help users control their incoming calls and voicemail by simply swiping their finger over the external camera lens. It will control replay and fast forwarding of voicemail. In addition, the new methodology will also enhance one handed navigation of web pages, documents, a contact list or your iTunes library by simply swiping the camera lens in different swiping motion combinations. The majority of this patent was first reported on back in February 2010 under the title "Cool New Finger Swiping Camera Controls coming to iPhone & iPad." You can obtain more details and patent graphics from that report. Apple is adding one distinct addition to their original invention by adding general page scrolling.

Apple Cracks the Top 10 Fortune 500 List for the First Time

A new milestone for Apple was reported on today. Apple has made its first foray into the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list, replacing Silicon Valley's previous top-10 tech entry, Hewlett-Packard, which fell steeply while recording the biggest loss of any company to make the list in 2013.

Apple Granted a Patent for Invisible Backside Button and Slider Controls for Future iDevices & Beyond

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we single out a patent that generally relates to input devices and device display systems, and more particularly to invisible input systems and device display systems. The input devices and display systems may become visible when illuminated from behind through microperforated holes that are invisible to the naked eye.

Apple Granted 34 Patents Today Covering iTunes for iOS & More

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's granted patent relating to iTunes for iOS based devices and specifically the upgraded "Movie" section of iTunes. The second granted patent that we highlight is Apple's iDevice magnetometer that relates to their iOS "Maps" application. To top off our report we provide with a full listing of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.

Apple Granted 4 Design Patents Including the new iPad mini

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of four newly granted design patents for Apple Inc. today. Three out of the four designs cover the iPad. More specifically, two of the iPad designs cover Apple's new iPad mini which was only introduced on October 23, 2012. So it's great to see that USPTO is getting faster at granting designs as they're still relevant. The other designs cover Apple's virtual keyboard on an iPad and a particular iOS user interface. Two of the iPad related designs credited Apple's Co-Founder and late CEO Steve Jobs.

Adobe Dropping Packaged-Software for Cloud only Services

According to the Wall Street Journal, Adobe Systems has officially decided to pull the plug on most of their packaged-software business and double down on delivering its popular design tools through the online service they introduced a year ago called "Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe, known for their industry leading graphics software for illustrators, photographers and publishers believes that creative professionals prefer features of the online service including the fact that it is constantly updated with new features.