![Apple Patents of the Day [November 8th 2012]](https://mobileminute.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ipad-20796_616x210.jpeg)
Apple Patents of the Day [November 8th 2012]
1) Apple Files Patent for..
"iPads Rectangle,curved corners design"
Apple has been awarded a design patent for the “rectangles with curved corners” look of the iPad.
The patent is called: "Portable Display Device" filed back in November 2010 (six months AFTER the launch of the first iPad) was approved on Tuesday by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Thoughts?
Personally..
I think it's great to want to protect ones intellectual property but at the same time looking at it from a societal percepective apple has made SO MANY patents, it's almost limiting the innovation of other companies..
(Samsung - who by the way had to pay over $1billion in 'damages' for patent infringement against Apple)
..to create superior products that would deliver superior value to consumers, which essentially means we're relying on Apple to be the grand inovator of the feature for all our devices, and only them. It doesn't exactly spell out a "Free market society" to me.
..but then again, we do live in a dictatorship after-all so who am I to kid.
2) Apple invents packaging that doubles as an iPhone/iPad dock
The folks over at www.Patentlyapple.com found that while apple did originally file the patent in May of 2011 it was published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The image below should yield some foresight on what to expect: showing iPod nano-like packaging with a removable lid and base that transforms into a dock or stand for the device.
It appears the dock would act as a permanent solution, with the image below showing room to accommodate a charging cable as well as small parts to hold the device snugly in place.
What does this mean for you?
Well, if you're a minimalist like me, then now you don't have to drop a load (of cash) on a fancy new dock to hold up your shiny new devices.
3) A cooling system for mobile devices which could serve as an option for cooling future iPhones, iPods and iPads. Configured to drive both a fan and alert device, the patent describes a shared motor and clutch that would save space by powering both the fan and the device’s vibrating function.
The description notes: Faster, more powerful processors could produce more heat within mobile devices and an internal fan within the device would alleviate that problem as air could be pulled into the device through an input port.
4) Apple presented a new dual-mode headphone design which could also be used as a speaker system. The headphones would be able to detect if they were being used near a user’s ears to determine if they should be in “headphone mode” or “speaker mode”, there is an audio signal passing through an amplifier in the latter case that would be bypassed in headphone mode.
Live long and prosper,
Kevin