Items tagged with Patent
As you read this, you're more than likely surrounded by wireless signals. However, wouldn't it be great if those waves of energy could be utilized for purposes other than just delivering data? Apple sure thinks so, as its latest patent application thoroughly highlights.
The proposed patent is titled "Wireless...
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Using Windows Hello, a feature Microsoft introduced with Windows 10, you can log into your system (assuming it's compatible) with your face or your fingerprint. It's a nifty alternative to hammering out a password, but it could also be more secure. In an effort to make it so, Microsoft was recently granted a patent...
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For all of Microsoft's successes in hardware (Surface Pro and Surface Book are both great devices), it has never been able to make an impact in the mobile phone market. The failure to do so was underscored at the end of last year when Microsoft decided to stop selling Lumia handsets at its Microsoft Store. Be that as it may, Microsoft has
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For whatever reason, Apple continues to drag its feet in offering a true laptop with a touchscreen display. However, it hasn't abandoned touch functionality on laptop systems completely. Apple introduced the Touch Bar on its latest MacBook Pro model, which replaces the row of Function keys at the top, and now it's been discovered that Apple
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Microsoft may have closed the door on its Lumia family of smartphones, but that doesn’t mean that the company has given up on phones altogether. Mobile represents a huge opportunity for a company like Microsoft — an opportunity that up until this point it has largely squandered.
However, a new patent filing reveals...
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If you thought Samsung was going to fold after its Galaxy Note7 debacle played out, you'd be partially right. As has been rumored for quite some time, Samsung has been hard at work on a new smartphone concept that would allow its users to fold it up to save on space. We're not talking flip-phones here, but a phone...
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In case you haven't already picked up on it, helpful artificial intelligence is making a big play to become embedded in many of the devices that we use on a daily basis. With its top-end Pixel smartphone, Google has an AI assistant running throughout the entire OS. And we just recently learned that Samsung will...
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We’ve stated on many occasions that Windows 10 is an excellent operating system, albeit one with a few rough edges that could be smoothed-out. However, Microsoft has angered some users over the past year or so, in its willingness to dance right up to the line of what customers feel is acceptable practice for promoting...
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There's probably isn't a huge crowd of smartphone shoppers fretting over the decision to go with Android or Windows Phone, but for those pondering the two platforms, Samsung may one day make the choice easy—go with both! That's the idea behind a patent application Samsung filed in South Korea, one that describes a...
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Google's taken contingencies for the inevitable day when a self-driving car mows down a pedestrian. To keep injuries to a minimum, Google filed for and was granted a patent for a sort of sticky hood that would grip people who've been hit by an autonomous vehicle. The concept behind it is to prevent people from...
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One of our least favorite things to do is type out anything lengthy on a virtual keyboard, like those found on smartphones, tablets, and so forth. With that in mind, you'll have to excuse us for not being stoked about a recently discovered Apple patent for a "configurable force-sensitive input structure for electronic...
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With so much of the VR talk revolving around Oculus' Rift and HTC's Vive lately, it'd be easy to forget that Sony has its own competitor coming, called PlayStation VR. And now, as new patents have revealed, the Japanese gaming giant could have a nifty trick up its sleeve. Or rather, a trick wrapped around its...
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According to a new patent published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, Apple is mulling the idea of using "self-healing" material in future iPhones to help prevent water from killing the device.
The patent name is subtle: "Electronic device with hidden connector." Where the "hidden" comes in is with the use of...
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Don’t get me wrong, today’s smartphones are fast, can have relatively long battery life, and keep us connected at all times. But with a few exceptions — namely the BlackBerry Priv and YotaPhone — they all follow the same basic design principles. You have a 4- to 6-inch slab of glass that’s surrounded by a plastic or...
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A couple of interesting patents owned by Nintendo were published last week, and while it wouldn't have been surprising to see the details relate to the company's upcoming NX console, it actually has to do with something completely different, and unexpected.
According to a post at NeoGAF that dissects the multiple...
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Investors in GoPro hit the panic button yesterday after it came to light that Apple was granted a bunch of patents, one of which is for a wearable camera design. What they're worried about is the competition that Apple brings to the table -- at present, when it comes to wearable cameras, there's the GoPro's lineup and a handful of non-threatening
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When you're as a big as Apple, lawsuits are impossible to avoid. After fighting Samsung for years on the design front, Apple's latest scuffle in the courtroom is happening in a country where a huge chunk of its profits are coming from: China. Recently, Apple has been attempting to have a Chinese company's...
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Last month, news emerged that Philips was suing Nintendo over alleged patent infringements in the U.S., and the proverbial chickens are already coming home to roost in other countries. According to Reuters, Philips said it has won a patent suit in the UK (although no details about amounts for compensation have been...
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In what is an incredibly pleasant surprise, Apple and Google released a joint statement stating that the two companies have agreed to drop all of the ongoing patent litigation between them pertaining to smartphones. "Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform," said the...
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To paraphrase David Letterman, we wouldn’t give Nintendo’s troubles to a monkey on a rock. Amid a terrible sales performance that only got worse over the first quarter of this year (Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut over the the Wii U’s awful sales back in January) and a mini-scandal when word emerged that...
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We don’t know much about Microsoft’s smartwatch efforts beyond the assumption that the company is surely making one if for no other reason than all of its competitors are, but a patent application granted to Microsoft a few days ago gives us a number of clues as to what its smartwatch will be like. First...
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Apple's just been granted a rather interesting patent for an "Electronic device display module," which is really a fancy way of describing a clever dual-sided laptop display with a solar panel on back. The front of the lid would house your typical LCD, though the backside would be constructed from electrochromic glass atop photovoltaic cells...
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