Could it be that the mark of a true business mastermind is identifying the oddest source of extraneous cost and ruthlessly scything it out? If so, Apple iPod chief Tony Fadell might just be a genius: the latest patent application to go public from the company, bearing his name, is for a collapsible CD or DVD adaptor that snaps around an 8cm disk and makes it the correct, 12cm diameter to fit safely into a slot-loading drive. The reason for this new splash of intellectual property? Saving on shipping and production costs of software releases.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on November 29th, 2007 with no comments.
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A London-based analyst is predicting tension between the Apple and Nokia camps come 2008, as the Finnish company develops the latest, touchscreen-focused upgrade to its S60 cellphone OS. Already seen in promotional films, the Nokia Touch appears to use a capacitative touch-sensitive panel called Haptikos that adds haptic feedback to an OS that appears - in pre-release videos at least - to borrow heavily from the iPhone’s interface. Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura, believes that “Apple will likely view Nokia as infringing on its user interface patents” and seek to delay development and production of the next-gen Nokia handsets.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on November 28th, 2007 with no comments.
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We’re big fans of MultiTouch here at MY iTablet, and it looks like Apple feels the same way. Three patents first filed shortly after the iPhone’s US launch indicate that the technology is developing from the small-scale screens of their cellphone and its iPod Touch cousin into something more suitable for larger displays. Unlike the current touchscreen, which can recognise multiple finger contact-points, the new patents describe a touch-panel that can recognise a full hand in contact, then filter out the palm and track the finger movements and gestures.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on November 23rd, 2007 with no comments.
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Solid-state flash memory has had a much-raised profile since Apple first adopted the skip-free format for their iPod range, and ever since new announcements in NAND development have often been followed-up with refreshes of the PMP line that take advantage of increased capacity. Similarly, demand for Apple’s products has often seen NAND availability hit, and prices pushed up. It looks as though, given nine new patent applications from Cupertino, Apple are seeking to remove some of their dependence on third-party suppliers.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on November 20th, 2007 with no comments.
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Attempts to change the venerable keyboard are usually met with failure - despite promising claims of productivity benefits, there’s often too great a pay-off for users used to the traditional QWERTY ‘board - but if anyone can encourage us to upgrade, perhaps it’s Apple. Their latest patent describes a MultiTouch surface particularly suitable for a MacBook (or a Mac Tablet, maybe?) which, thanks to a lifting framework of key-edges that presses underneath, can be both a smooth touchpad or a delineated keyboard.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on October 31st, 2007 with no comments.
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