patents

Documents pointing toward Apple's use of LED lights on an iPhone suggest that Apple may take a page out of gaming company Razer's playbook for smartphones. True, technically the iPhone had a glowing Apple logo well before Razer Phone 2, but imagine Razer's surprise when they awake one morning in the near future to find one of the biggest, most successful companies in the world using that same smartphone feature? And for real, this time, not just in a DIY mod sort of sense.

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A USPTO patent application was made public today as filed by Apple back in March of 2019 for a so-called "Display Device." This device is also described in the patent as "an augmented reality headset." The details of this patent - the drawings, the methods - aren't nearly as important as the patent's filing details. Let's take a peek at where Apple's at when it comes to working with augmented reality holograms in a pair of smart glasses.

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Nintendo's launch of the simplified Switch Lite may worry fans that the gaming giant may have run out of ideas for its revolutionary Joy-Con controller. That couldn't be further from the truth, with Nintendo teasing a new Joy-Con accessory this week. But more than that, it also still has a few ideas up its sleeve to spruce up the controllers, including a hinge that could allow part of the sticks to bend backward for a supposedly more ergonomic playing style.

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A Google patent application published on Friday details a baby monitor powered by artificial intelligence, enabling it to monitor a baby for signs of activity in order to alert parents over WiFi. The patent details technology that monitors a baby's eyes, among other things, not just detecting movement and audio, but rather intelligently understanding it in order to determine whether it's time to check on the infant.

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While the majority of patents never really get implemented into actual products or features, they can still be a useful indicator of a company's vision for the future. They can even hold clues to features that may someday actually make it into products, provided the technology or hardware already exists. That may be the case for three out of dozens of patents that Apple granted today which relate to the Apple Watch. Interesting on their own, the three also paint the picture of a future wearable that isn't only more secure but also more health-focused.

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Google has designed a smartwatch with a camera integrated into the display, potentially tipping one possible way that the long-rumored Pixel Watch could differentiate itself from the Apple Watch and other wearables. Talk of a Pixel Watch, to sit alongside the Pixel range of smartphones and act as a flagship example of what Wear OS by Google could do, has simmered for several years now.

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If you're the type of person who finds smartwatches to be generally boring devices, then boy does IBM have the patent to you. The company filed a patent for a smartwatch with an unfolding display way back in 2016, and thanks to that patent's recent publication by the USPTO, we're just now getting an idea of what it entails. If you thought folding phones were a bit on the ridiculous side, then this watch will surely elicit a similar reaction.

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Smartwatches with cameras never really took off, not least because early attempts were both bulky and inconvenient, but Apple's designers believe they may have cracked it. A recently granted patent shows just how a future Apple Watch could accommodate a camera without forcing you to twist your wrist uncomfortably, or indeed solely shoot photos up your nose.

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Huawei may have delayed the launch of its Mate X foldable smartphone, but that doesn't mean the company isn't already thinking up more in the flexible OLED series, and according to a freshly-revealed design patent it's also considering taking the opposite approach. The Huawei Mate X managed to outshine Samsung's big Galaxy Fold announcement, taking Mobile World Congress 2019 by surprise several months ago.

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Facebook has filed a patent application with the USPTO that details a drone involving two kites. The system, which is simply called a 'dual-kite aerial vehicle,' would use the two kites to maintain a specific altitude while also generating electricity that enables longer duration flights. The application was published by the USPTO on May 30.

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There are probably three holy grails of mobile devices: a foldable phone/tablet hybrid, a flexible/deformable device, and a transparent tablet. One of those has more or less become a reality but the other two have yet to even see a prototype. That's not stopping companies from filing patents left and right in a race to "reserve" ideas for future use and it seems that LG has just been granted one of the most ambitious one of all, a foldable device that is almost all transparent screen.

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There are patents that make you wish they existed right here, right now. And then there are patents that leave you scratching your head, questioning the thinking process that went into the idea. OPPO's latest patent is, without question, one of the latter. We've all heard of dual screen phones but OPPO's idea of one that slides out definitely takes the crown in terms of oddity and uselessness.

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