New Apple patents suggest Apple hasn’t completely written off using a stylus with the iPad and iPhone. Despite Steve Jobs’ famous quote saying, if your device needs a stylus “they blew it!” these patents show that Apple’s considering the possibility. Before those of us who love inking on our iPads get too excited we have [...]
A new Apple patent hints at some advanced camera focus features that could come to the next iPhone. According to Patently Apple, a newly public patent hints that Apple could add a new processor to an upcoming iPhone to help with new camera features. The patent shows Apple’s idea to use multi-touch gestures for focusing [...]
There are now conflicting news on the status of the HTC import ban in the U.S. as part of the HTC-Apple patent disagreement. News of the initial import ban suggests that only the AT&T HTC One X and the Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE were affected by the ban, but now there are news that [...]
Following HTC’s import bans on high profile Android handsets such as the HTC One X and the Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE as a result of HTC’s ongoing patent dispute with Apple, the latest Android manufacturer to face an import ban is Motorola Mobility as a result of disputes over intellectual property with Microsoft. According [...]
The issue of contention that Apple has with HTC in regards to the import ban behind the HTC One X for AT&T and the HTC EVO 4G LTE for Sprint is the way that HTC Sense and Android handle app associations with linked content. Specifically, for example, Apple says that it has the patent for [...]
In Apple’s litigation against Samsung in a California court for patent infringement related to the Galaxy Nexus Android smartphone, Apple has requested that Google make available the differences, if any, between the Android source code and the implementation of Android on the Galaxy Nexus. While Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich’s source code has been released [...]
Though manufacturers like HTC may be giving up on physical keyboards on smartphones in favor of thin and light designs, Google’s recent patent application may suggest that the Android OS-maker is still not giving up in that form factor and we may potentially see a Nexus smartphone in the future with a physical sliding keyboard. [...]
A recently unearthed patent filed by Sony in late 2010 reveals that the company had been considering an Xperia smartphone design with multiple slide-out keyboards–similar to the idea of a Swiss Army knife–so that users can slide up the keypads that they don’t need to reveal a keypad that they do like. The versatility of [...]
Ever wanted a Google Nexus smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard? Well, it looks like that dream may one day become a reality if a new patent filing is any indication. According to PatentBolt, yesterday, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Google that shows off a QWERTY smartphone design. The [...]
In Nokia’s most recent financial quarter, the company announced a$1.7 billion loss attributed to rapidly declining sales of devices using its Symbian cash cow operating system as the company makes a hard transition to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS. Nokia had cautioned and analysts had warned before that it will get worse before it gets [...]
Nokia was just awarded a patent for automatic uploads to social networks, making it easy for users to share their life events with others on various sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Microsoft Live, and others. As it stands, for example, in order for a user to share a photo with others, they must [...]
We had reported earlier that HTC had filed for a face unlock and biometric security for Android, features that Google had introduced to market on the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Motorola debuted with the fingerprint reader on the Atrix 4G early last year, and now it seems that Apple is [...]
It appears that HTC has been granted a patent on face to unlock on a mobile device with a front-facing camera. The feature, which had debuted first on Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is available on any number of Android smartphones and tablets running the software, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus [...]
I guess one could call the legal and business wrangling that is going on between the big mobile players entertaining. At times it certainly appears so. Apple, Google, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Microsoft, you name it, we hear about different players all the time, and I think it could be argued that those of us who [...]
After having been in the smartphone business for over a decade, HTC may be looking to expand its product portfolio. A recent patent application filed in early 2011 reveals that HTC may be looking to expand its ecosystem and create a media player, or phone-less handheld device that connects to the Internet only via WiFi, [...]
Sony has filed for a patent application that would allow users to control their phones more accurately without having to touch their capacitive displays as they do now on many modern smartphones. By situating the front-facing camera, which is primarily used for video chats and self portrait shots today, behind the glass touchscreen display rather [...]
In a bid to compete against consumer tablets that offer all-day mobility thanks to low-power consumption while at the same time delivering the full performance of Windows, Microsoft is looking to patent a hybrid system where the tablet, which will also serve as a display, can be used on its own with low-powered system requirements [...]
Standing somewhat close to a major landmark but don’t know where you are? Hopefully, with Google’s patent application, there will be an app for that soon as the software giant has created a system where a user can snap a picture of a nearby landmark, upload it to Google’s servers, and Google will do the [...]
Under new CEO Tim Cook, it appears that Apple is softening Steve Jobs’ declaration of thermonuclear war against Google’s rival Android operating system. The company is now no longer seeking the destruction and demise of the Android ecosystem, but rather, like Microsoft, is looking from the follies of Android as Google lacks strength in patents [...]
Every Android phone today has a front facing camera, but I rarely use the front facing camera, and I know I’m not alone. A new Google Patent , published on PatentBolt, may finally give us a reason to use our front facing cameras — gestures. Google wants to turn the camera on the front of [...]
Google had recently filed a patent for multitouch trackpad gestures, potentially bringing new functionality to Chrome OS and the company’s Android OS. However, another potential, rather than the merely using Android on a laptop or desktop system, would be the trackpad as an application for Google’s scalability feature that comes with the next-generation Android 5.0 [...]
Apple’s latest battle, to continue Steve Jobs’ declaration of thermonuclear war, against Android, Apple’s latest lawsuit against Samsung Mobile in German court centers around the method to unlock a touchscreen phone that centers around Apple’s patent on slide to unlock among others. As Google hopes to protect and defend its Android ecosystem, it is now [...]
Apple filed a patent last July that suggests they might be exploring replacing their dock connector and/or headphone jacks with the MagSafe connector that they now use to charge the MacBook Air and Pro. That would be both awesome and horrible at the same time. The MagSafe power connector impressed me when I first made [...]
Apple already includes its Thunderbolt port, created as a collaboration with Intel, on its MacBook and iMac, but the standard may also be going mobile as well. The iOS-maker has recently filed for patents to use Thunderbolt on mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. At the very least, Thunderbolt would be able [...]
For frequent travelers, the challenge isn’t always trying to find the quickest route from point A to point B while on foot, but doing so while steering clear of danger and staying safe, especially in foreign and unfamiliar surroundings. Fortunately, the engineers at Microsoft has figured that out, and the Redmond, Washington software giant was [...]
One expert believes that Apple could stand to profit $10 for every Android device sold if the company ended its legal war over Google and the Android franchise and started to work on licensing agreements like what competitor Microsoft had done. 3LP Advisors LLC manager partner Kevin Rivette revealed the figure to Bloomberg. Rivette pegs [...]
Apple was recently awarded a patent for hydrogen fuel technology on mobile devices. Thought the patent award gives Apple an early advantage and lead in the space, it’s unclear when and if this technology will make it into smaller mobile devices from Apple or other manufacturers, including the company’s MacBook Air and Pro line of [...]
In Samsung’s and Apple’s on-going patent design lawsuit, Samsung may have seemingly scored a victory against Apple’s iPad with its slightly re-designed Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which was created for the German market after Apple had won an early victory against the original Galaxy Tab 10.1. On the 10.1N model, Samsung made some slight modifications to [...]
As a sunset frames the Golden Gate Bridge, a young man sits down in front of a lone MacBook Air, flashes the back of his iPhone at the camera and gains access to his password protected files. The next James Bond movie with Apple product placement? Nope, it’s how you might log into a future MacBook Air [...]
As if you needed any more proof that there is something wrong with the U.S. Patent system, Apple has been awarded a patent for using Slide to Unlock as a means of unlocking phone. The Slide to Unlock action gained popularity with the iPhone in 2007, and since then has come to pretty much every [...]
Steve Jobs’ biography titled ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson, coming Monday, reveals the late Apple executive’s disdain and utter hatred for rival Google’s Android operating system. At one point, Jobs says that he is declaring thermonuclear war against Android. When the iPhone came out in mid-2007 with what was then the iPhone OS, it joined [...]
On the heels of Samsung being forced to license mobile technology from Microsoft as the former company claims that Android infringes on its Windows Phone patents and in the midst of Samsung fighting a patent war on multiple fronts with Apple, Google’s Eric Schmidt goes on record to defend his company’s acquisition of Motorola, saying [...]
In its ongoing patent dispute suit against rival Samsung, Apple had won an early decisive victory in a German court, which upheld ban of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for sale in Germany. However, the lawsuit, a win for Apple, still means little for Samsung and long-term implications of the decision will need further assessment. The [...]
The legal wranglings continue and Samsung continues to come out with the short straw, at least in Germany. The Düsseldorf Regional Court has upheld the original preliminary injunction against Samsung that prohibited Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. That injunction had been in effect for a month. This doesn’t mean Samsung has [...]
Interesting. It’s a shame really that legal maneuvering seems to be as much a variable with Tablets and mobile devices these days as do specs, prices, and release dates. But apparently that’s the world we live in at the moment. According to SlashGear, Samsung after making a lot of noise with its announcement of the [...]
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Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE Review: A Worthy Successor to the Original (Video)
When Sprint had debuted the original WiMax-capable HTC EVO 4G nearly two years ago, it was an instant hit on the Now network. Not only was the HTC EVO 4G the first 4G smartphone in the world taking advantage of Sprint’s then speedy WiMax network, but it brought some new features and pizzazz to the [...]
Last year Toshiba waded into the Android tablet market with the Thrive, a 10.1-inch slate that served as the company’s response to what they deemed missing in the then current crop. Thus, it had several full-size ports, a rugged-ish exterior, and a thick chassis to accommodate both. Though a decent tablet, the Thrive didn’t generate [...]
Samsung Shows That It Is a Software Company
As exciting as it has been to talk, postulate, and speculate about the Galaxy S III’s hardware and specs before the third-generation Galaxy flagship smartphone was announced on May 3rd in London, once the device was announced one thing became apparent: Samsung is now a software company. That doesn’t mean that Samsung is shying away [...]
Autumn Dynasty Review: A Great RTS for the iPad
With its large touchscreen, the iPad seems like the perfect platform for Real Time Strategy games, and Autumn Dynasty proves it, mostly. Autumn Dynasty is an RTS iPad game with art that looks like tradition Chinese painting. The story involves quelling a rebellion while solving a mystery of shady noblemen. The story though, just serves [...]
Griffin GuitarConnect Pro Review: Record Your Jams with Ease
The Griffin GuitarConnect Pro interfaces with your Guitar and your iPad or iPhone so you can record your music easily using apps like Apple’s GarageBand. My son Daniel, who’s learning to play guitar, helped me test it out and he loved it. When he gets as good as Jimi Hendrix, I’m sure he’ll steal my [...]
Google Search App iPhone and iPad Update Looks Beautiful (Video)
Google just delivered a beautiful update to the company’s Google Search app for the iPhone and iPad The Google Search app for iPhone and iPad replaced Safari as my browser of choice, earning a spot in the iPhone and iPad dock. It’s faster and offers a beautiful new full screen image search which looks awesome on the [...]
