Apple Reinvents Retail Packaging Transformer Style
It appears that Apple is seriously thinking of taking their iDevice retail packaging to the next level, Transformer style. Apple's invention is all about providing for packaging with multiple uses and functions after opening. In one embodiment, the packaging includes a base and a removable lid. The base converts into being a docking station for the iDevice. I guess the Transformers idea came about after Ive was madly inventing a new robotic hand that could test out Single and Multi-Touch surfaces automatically so that he wouldn't have to do it all day himself (ha!). What will he think of next?
Apple's Transformer-Like Packaging
Apple filing states that the Lid 102 is sized to accommodate an item such as an iPhone smart phone, or iPod Touch. In particular, the dimensions of packaging could alternatively be sized to accommodate portable entertainment devices such as an MP3 player or smart phone, computer tablets such as the iPad or any other suitable device one wishes to both package and display.
Jony Ive has a New Toy
In another patent application published today by UPSTO, Apple reveals an invention that includes a robot hand and at least two testing fingers of different lengths. Apple's filing states that the two testing fingers are coupled to the robot hand. The robot hand and the two testing fingers are positioned such that the two testing fingers point toward the touch panel under test. When the robot hand then moves toward the touch panel, the longer testing finger contacts the panel first, to simulate a single-touch event. As the robot hand then continues to move in the same direction toward the touch panel, the longer testing finger contracts until the shorter testing finger also contacts the panel. At that point, a two-touch event is being simulated.
Both patent applications were filed in May 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
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