Apple is exploring a new system that would automatically allow a portable device such as an iPhone or iPod to be safely disconnected from a host computer with a simple touch, according to a newly revealed patent filing.

Another patent made public Thursday shows that Apple is interested in a system that reads text messages and broadcasts them audibly on a separate device.

Touch and go

Currently, a USB device or similar attached to a computer like an iPod or thumb drive must be “ejected” before it can be physically disconnected. This is to ensure that no communication between the computer and the device is taking place when it is disconnected. If a device is unexpectedly unplugged, it can result in corrupted data.

Apple’s possible solution for this problem would generate a signal when the device is touched by the user, or even if an impending touch is detected. The signal would trigger the host to initiate operations to disengage the device.

“These features allow a user to disconnect from the host system more quickly and also prevents data corruption due to failure of the user to follow proper procedures,” the filing reads.

The patent covers USB devices, SD cards, mobile phones, media players, game consoles computer peripherals, biometric sensors, headsets and more.

Text message to speech

While this patent filing centers around multimedia data transfer, the most interesting part of the summary deals specifically with text messages.

“The reading of text messages can be troublesome due to, in part, the small size of the typical display screen or the inability to control ambient light conditions,” the patent states. “This is particularly troublesome to those users having impaired vision where reading a text message, of any reasonable size, for example, is difficult.”

Filed for on March 27, 2009, this patent, revealed Thursday, describes the transmission of vocalized multimedia data to a “receiver unit by way of the voice channel without the use of a backend server.” Essentially, it would directly transmit the audible interpretation of a text message to an independent receiver.

(via AppleInsider.com)

&

Apple has officially patetented the dell’iPhone box which is the box that you get when you buy a new iPhone. The actual document was released today. Click HERE to see for yourself. It is said that it took 17 designers including the Steve Jobs and Jonathon Ive to complete.

(via TheiPhoneSpot.net)

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, Featured, Rumors, What's New, iPhone, iPhone 3G S apple, box, charging, iPhone, iphone 3g, iPhone 3G(S), patent, steve jobs, undock

Apple has spent some time outlining technology that would add a new level of interaction between iPhone users, such as the ability to share and control playback of digital media files like music tracks and video during a telephone call. 

The concept is outlined in a 19-page patent filing discovered by AppleInsider this week titled “Methods and systems for mixing media with communications” and credited to Apple software engineer Jeffrey Terlizzi. It begins by noting that while media items are becoming increasingly portable for mobile users these days, they’re still not as easily shared with others located remotely in real time. 

“For example, an individual may call his friend to discuss music, but in order for the friend to listen to the music, the individual either may have to send the music to the friend using a device other than his telephone,” according to the filing, “or he may have to end the phone call and use the telephone to send the friend an email with the music attached.” 

Cut-and-dried, Apple’s approach to improving upon this limitation is to include an “Add Media” option to the iPhone’s phone application that would allow users to attach and transmit media items to another iPhone user with whom they’re currently engaged in a phone call. Among the listed types of media suitable for transmission during calls are music files, video, images, voicemails, and podcasts. 

“For example, the user may initiate a telephone call with his friend in order to ask the friend if she is familiar with a particular song,” Apple said. “Once the phone call has been established between the user and his friend, the user may select the song of interest from his communications device, and he may send the song to his friend over the same communication path used by the communications device to establish the communications operation, so that the two may continue their phone conversation while the song plays simultaneously.” 

Alternatively, the filing notes that “the communications device may receive a communications operation in the form of a request for a video conference, and once the conference is established, the user may select a video (e.g., a YouTube.TM. selection) to be sent back to the conference initiator by the communications device over the same communication path.” 

iPhone users would also have full control over playback of media items once they’re shared, according to Apple. For example, they could pause and resume playback of a shared digital music track, skip to the next or previous track in the sender’s music library, or switch to transmitting a different media item entirely.

Throughout the filing, the Cupertino-based company makes numerous references to interactive iPhone video conferences where digital media files are shared, something not possible with today’s iPhone models because they don’t include include a forward-facing video camera. 

“For example, the user may wish to transmit a video media item to the recipient of a communications operation, where the ongoing communications operation is in the form of a video conference,” Apple said. “Thus, there may be two video data streams to transmit to the recipient, one related to the media item and one related to the communications operation.”

“There may also be two audio data streams to transmit. In order to transmit all of the streams over the same communication path, the control circuitry may employ a multiplexer to combine together any video streams, and to combine together any audio streams,” the filing adds. “The multiplexer may then combine into one fixed stream the two combined streams. The control circuitry may signal the communications circuitry to transmit the fixed stream to the recipient of the communications operation using any suitable approach.”

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, Featured, Rumors, What's New, iPhone apple, features, in-call, iPhone, iphone 3g, music, patent, youtube

Patent requests from Apple continue to provide clues as to where the company may take its iPhone interface in the coming years, such as a new filing which depicts a version of the handset with a front-facing video camera and a software interface capable of adjusting itself for more precise interaction when the user carrying the phone is in motion.

While the former discovery hints towards the inevitable adoption of video conference capabilities by the iPhone in the coming years, the adaptive software interface concept could materialize much sooner, improving a user’s accuracy in making touch selections by increasing the size of user interface elements on the touch-screen when it’s determined that the user is operating the device while jogging or participation in some other kind of motion-based activity.

To solve this problem, the Cupertino-based company proposes an updated version of iPhone software that can detect when the device is in motion and then compare the detected degree of motion to one or more predetermined “signatures of motion.” The iPhone software could then adjust itself by enlarging selection areas on the screen to a degree suitable for the current motion of the device and user.

The 16-page filing made back in November of 2007 also suggests that interface elements — such as an array of home screen icons — could shift their position on the screen based on predictions of where the user may touch the screen, though the need for such adjustments isn’t entirely clear from Apple’s description.

“The shift moves the target touch areas of the display objects to a different position. In some implementations, the new position is a predetermined distance from the original position,” the company says. “In some other implementations, the new position is determined by the device based on a prediction of where the user will touch the touch-sensitive display if the user wanted to select the user interface element while the device is in motion.”

The filing is credited to Apple employee John Louch. For those interested, the front-facing video camera depicted in Apple’s illustrations is the element labeled “180″ near the proximity and ambient light sensors.

read the full article: AppleInsider

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPod Touch News apple, iPhone, patent, touchscreen, User interface, Video Camera, video chat

An Apple patent filing details a hidden biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac to let users lock down their systems with fingerprints or facial recognition, according to an AppleInsider report.

Apple is trying to provide a method of securing device access that does not require an extra step for authentication.

The solution, the company suggests, would be to automatically use a sensor either hidden within the device or else repurposed from its usual role. Devices could recognize a fingerprint or finger vein pattern simply by waiting for the user to touch the display, which would hide the sensors on or behind the screen. A forward-facing camera could alternately look for retinal patterns or even recognize the facial features of owners when they’re in the right position for use.

Notebooks could use the trackpad, palmrest and a webcam for a similar purpose. Apple goes so far as to suggest the possibility of recognizing the user’s distinctive voice or even collecting DNA samples to recognize a user’s genetic sequence. Biometrics could also be context-sensitive and detect the shape of a user’s ear before allowing a call to go through, for example.

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, Featured, What's New, iPhone biometric, facial, finger, iPhone, patent, recognition, scan

Image via HowStuffWorks.com

Apple last week was awarded a monstrous 358-page patent covering the touch screen, graphical user interface, and methods that combine to define the iPhone user experience.

Dating back to September of 2007 and granted last Tuesday, U.S. Patent No. 7479949 lists many inventors; notably, Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, iPhone software director Scott Forstall, and FingerWorks co-founder Wayne Westerman.  (FingerWorks was responsible for gadgets with an opaque surface that could respond to gesture controls before being acquired by Apple to aid its multi-touch efforts several years ago.)

The filing is essentially a summary and overview of all the technologies that come together in the iPhone.  In the patent, Apple claims coverage for the device itself, the way gestures like pinches and zooms are detected, and the software the device runs.  Also mentioned are many other different details and aspects of the multi-touch user interface, such as a finger swipe, a two-thumb twist, and a method of determining which object was intended when a touch seems to cover both.

Apple interim chief executive Tim Cook recently promised to aggressively pursue any company or person who “rips off” Apple’s intellectual property, and this patent affords the Cupertino-based iPhone maker the footing it would need to mount any such defense.

In detail

In setting a tone for the filing, Apple described how portable phones received more and more pushbuttons to control new features, but the inability to adapt the input methods to match the application running is a problem.  Thus, a touchscreen device is a better choice; however, gestures can be difficult to interpret or translate into the commands the user actually wants the device to perform.

“Accordingly, there is a need for touch-screen-display electronic devices with more transparent and intuitive user interfaces,” the filing reads.  These improved devices can take input and interpret it as “precise, intended commands that are easy to use, configure, and/or adapt.  Such interfaces increase the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction with portable multifunction devices.”

Future features?

There are also some interesting aspects of the filing that may hint at future plans for the iPhone and iPod, such as “a blogging application” and “a digital video camera application” — both of which have been mentioned in previous coverage of the patent. Similarly, voice-activated dialing could someday be a feature, as the document refers to audio circuitry that “converts the electrical signal [from human sound waves] to audio data and transmits the audio data to the peripherals interface for processing.”

Apple mentions a touchpad for activating or deactivating functions.  The patent describes it as a “touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output.  The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the touch screen or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.”

Interestingly, this is a feature Palm is already touting about its upcoming Pre handset.  According to Palm’s press release: “[The Pre has a] gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation.”  The gesture area is separate from the touch screen.

Final Observations

Along with covering the iPhone, the patent filing is notable for referencing 40 other existing patents, and for naming Jobs first among its inventors. Its granted status was first reported Monday by WorldOfApple.

(via AppleInsider.com)

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, What's New, iPhone, iPod Touch News 3G, apple, cheif executive, iPhone, ipod touch, Multi-touch, palm, patent, pre, steve jobs, Tim Cook, touch screen

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, Apple News, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPod Touch News apple, iPhone, Keyboard, Keyboards, MacRumors, Multi-touch, Office, patent, screen, Swipe, touch, US, virtual

Apple recently submitted a Patent that hopes to solve the problem of not being able to see new notifications (email, sms, IM etc) while your iPhone is asleep. Currently the only way to see if you have missed anything is to turn on the screen (and in some cases slide to unlock). Apple hopes to solve this in it’s next generation of iPhones by using two backlight systems. Read more…

 Retweet This Post

Apple News, Rumors apple, iPhone, news, patent, rumors

Apple is either looking at apps like Intelliscreen that display info about SMS, Emails and Call/Voice Messages on your lockscreen because they have filed a patent for a notification panel on the lockscreen for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) according to AppleInsider.

“Improved Notification of Missed Communications

A second filing, made a few months earlier, discusses improvements to the iPhone’s notification dialog that informs users of missed calls, text messages, and voicemails when they’re away from their phone or the phone is locked.

Today’s implementation is completely text-based, somewhat poorly formatted, and disappears once the user unlocks the handset — leaving the user to rely on memory and the individual red icon notification badges in order to retrieve and reply to those transmissions.

The iPhone team’s filing instead proposes a more properly formatted notification panel — in one of approximately a half dozen potential layouts — that would not only remain visible once the phone is unlocked, but actually provide direct links or buttons to the missed
communications.

“In response to detecting an interaction by a user with the device, the plurality of icons display notification information for the plurality of communication modalities,” the filing explains. “In response to detecting an unlock interaction by the user with the device, the device is unlocked, and a communication in the plurality of communications is presented that was received while the device was in the locked state, or information about the communication is presented.”

Such an implementation could become increasingly useful once Apple releases support for global push notifications that will allow third party applications to receive transmissions in the background or when the phone is in a locked state. “

[via AppleInsider]

 Retweet This Post

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

3G iPhone, Apple News, Rumors, What's New, iPhone apple, iPhone, news, patent, rumors