Amazon had an idea for a robot that would live its life charging up other devices. This robot would call when bidden, and would be able to follow the user around when there's a need to walk. This robot - or army of robots - would address a problem that many citizens have at airports every single day of the year. It'd do a lot more good than those confounded outlet stickers, anyway.
Two power teams of mobile device creators have joined forces this week: Xiaomi and Nokia. Nokia is a legendary mobile phone maker that's gone through some unprecedented changes over the last few years. Xiaomi is still a relative up-and-comer in the business, based in China and set to expand across the whole earth with their high-quality low-cost devices.
Back in July of 2016, Apple filed a patent for a paper bag - here in May of 2017, Apple has been granted that patent. Invented by an impressive 22 people and filed for a term of 15 years, Apple now owns the ornamental design for the bag that Apple products come in when sold by Apple Stores. This is the sort of bag that customers feel guilty about throwing away, it's made so extremely well and designed so nicely.
The patent system was formed in order to foster innovation but, unsurprisingly, some enterprising people have been able to turn it into a business. To be more specific, some have the business of suing others for patents they never created or never use. Yes, these are the patent trolls that threaten even giants like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft. In order to protect its often-targeted platform, Google has formed the "Android Networked Cross-License Agreement" with its hardware partners. And to give it a catchier name, Google is calling it "PAX", the Latin word for "peace".
The latest patent oddity comes from Google, which has detailed a wearable baseball hat/camera/broadcasting system that would, in theory at least, make it easy to share your world with the rest of the world. The camera system involves a battery-toting baseball cap with a camera and microphone clipped onto the brim, a bone conduction speaker tucked away somewhere near the wearer's skull, and Bluetooth connectivity for pairing with a smartphone.
Dyson has patented a new device described as a ‘high-velocity’ hairbrush that can dry and curl hair as well as untangle it. The patent shows a long cylindrical brush with rows of bristles on one end and what appears to be a power cord on the other. This would essentially be a hot brush with the ability to blow air through small slots to also double as a hairdryer, cutting down grooming time and only requiring one hand.
Using a vaporizer — that is, the act of vaping — has officially been deemed uncool by society, but will that stigma remain if Apple gets into the game? A new patent has surfaced showing the Cupertino company has patented a vaping device that sounds similar to most of the other models already on the market, but with a different type of heating element. Per the patent, this vaporizer will feature a chamber in which a 'substance' is placed to be turned into vapor using a heating element.
This afternoon Apple released a statement which suggests they've begun a process to sue Qualcomm for unfair licensing practices for mobile technology. Apple also suggests that, due to Apple cooperating with a Korea-based regulatory probe into Qualcomm's business, the mobile processor-makers have withheld money owed to Apple. An amount of money, Apple says, that runs up to $1-billion in unpaid royalty rebates.
This week we're having a peek at a set of official drawings of an accessory for the iPad from Apple. These drawings were made in pursuit of a patent related to the device. In these drawings, the iPad is given the power to show notifications in several ways, the lot of which are displayed on the iPad's smart cover in low-power lights.
Microsoft envisions uses for augmented reality beyond digital pets and reading messages overlaid onto your environment — namely, finding your lost keys, among other things. Such was detailed in a patent recently filed by Microsoft, which goes on to describe the tracking of items that are moveable like wallets, your phone, and other similar things. Augmented reality could also be used to track the state of something, such as the level of milk in a milk carton.
It's a strange list of patents that Nokia is suing Apple over - and not a list we'd have expected would have come so late in the game. Nokia's set of suits have been filed in the United States and Germany, for starters - they suggest they'll go further in the near future. At the same time Apple is suing Nokia for what they suggest is an effort to "extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anticompetitively from Apple and other innovative suppliers of cell phones."
The Apple Watch could get a little bit slimmer in future iterations if ideas in a new Apple patent ever see the light of day. The patent application in question details a haptic motor that takes up residence in the band of the watch instead of the watch itself.
