A little light has been shed on what exactly Apple has planned for P.A. Semi, that is recently acquired for $278 million. It is rumored that prior to this acquisition, Apple had invested in P.A. Semi back in 2005. You will remember back in 2005, Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel chips. At the time P.A. Semi was operating with a PPC license, and it is assumed that Apple had come to them to manufacture low power PPC chips for there Mac lineup.
It seems that Apple again has their eye on P.A. Semi, but it does not answer the question of why they bought them. It would appear that P.A. Semi had acquired a little obligatory debt, that Apple paid off, and brought P.A. Semi under Apple’s control. Now Apple has access to all of P.A. Semi’s intellectual property and patents, and to Apple they must have been worth the cash.
Apple’s plans behind the acquisition are foggy. They want P.A. Semi not for a product that they currently design, but for their experience. Apple most likely will use P.A. Semi to design a chip for a new portable device, as it is very unlikely they would switch CPU architectures again for the Mac line. Unfortunately, we will just have to wait and see.
[Via MacRumors]
Written by Chase Higgins on May 8th, 2008 with no comments.
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Native instant messaging is a much sought after feature for iPhone owners. There are already a number of third party applications that bring instant messaging to the iPhone, some of them even do a really good job of it. With the SDK on it’s way there will be even more, and of them, a lot more clients that perform well. There is one problem with both of these type of clients though; they can not run in the background.
The reason for this, is applications that do not have Apple’s blessing generally can not run in the background, as they do not have the correct permissions to do so. This means if you close the instant messaging application, or leave to do something else, then you will be signed off and your conversations ended. If Apple made the application though, they could allow it to run in the background, just as other services on the iPhone do, such as the phone application.
This patent sketch shows some clues on how the application would work. The application is set up much like the current SMS application on the iPhone, with a few notable differences. The patent application was filed in August of last year, and granted last month. It was not said if Apple plans to release this application with iPhone firmware 2.0, or iif it will be made available through iTunes, and downloaded at the owners discretion.
[Via TUAW]
Written by Chase Higgins on April 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Is there such a thing as too big a cellphone display? Obviously yes, otherwise it might be too massive for your pocket; thing is, users are getting all too accustomed to the luxury of browsing the full internet on their iPhone, and soon you know they’re going to be clamouring for more. Perhaps that’s why Apple has developed a new type of head-mounted display: maybe as an upcoming iPhone with augmented reality, maybe a new display peripheral for a MacBook. Or maybe, as is most likely I think, just because it’s a cool thing to develop.
The patent describes a system of two miniature display sources (LCD or OLED), one for each eye, which allow for a broader field of view. Being separate, they would also allow for individual adjustment for a user’s face. Apple also suggests a slight offset could be introduced for creating stereoscope-like 3D.
“[T]he invention provides methods and apparatus for providing a wider field of view and creating a more natural viewing situation for a user of a head mounted display, which results in improved comfort and usability for head mounted displays” Apple patent
Developed by John Tang, of Apple’s Industrial Design Group, although the patent describes some vague usage scenarios it’s primarily dealing with the technical aspect of creating large view-through near-to-eye displays. It’s also possible that Apple have a heads-up video display in mind. A 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio is mentioned, as is movie data played from a portable device.
Written by Chris Davies on April 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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A patent application filed by Apple was recently outed detailing Apple’s plans to set up a virtual network using iTunes. This was to be a precaution, in case AT&T and Apple could not reach a deal. The application details how the network would have worked.
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Written by Chase Higgins on April 10th, 2008 with no comments.
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Despite having only been available for less than 12 months, the iPhone’s form-factor is already well-cemented; could an Apple handset sporting anything other than a full-face touchscreen be viewed as a true iPhone? Brand recognition is great, but it can be stifling as well, especially if you want to introduce new form-factors but still preserve the functionality you’ve built up. After all, any handset with the iPhone’s GUI but with, say, a smaller display would cause a drop in usability. Staska from Unwired View has been doing some patent digging and come up with what might be Apple’s solution to the issue: titled “Dual-Sided Trackpad”, it describes a clamshell cellphone with a transparent, flip-down touchpad covering a large display. When closed it can be used like the original iPhone - touching the screen directly - but when open the reverse side of the trackpad is active.
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Written by Chris Davies on March 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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