Future Apple Watches could be customized by their users thanks to modular accessories built into their strap links, suggests a newly-published patent.
These add-ons could include everything from extra displays and batteries to blood pressure and sweat sensors, GPS trackers, speakers, and even additional inputs devices such as force sensors.
If there was doubt Apple is moving forward with development of a self-driving car program, events over the last week show Cupertino is indeed mapping out a course.
An Apple patent application for an autonomous vehicle collision-avoidance system published Thursday is the second public acknowledgment that Cupertino is very much in the game.
Could future Apple Watches ditch the rectangular form factor of current models and opt instead for a round watch design, similar to the Pebble Time Round?
A pair of patent applications filed today suggest this is something Apple is considering. Titled “Electronic device having display with curved edges,” the twin applications make no secret about what they contain.
The question is whether Apple will follow through with them.
Apple has filed a patent for a wraparound glass enclosure that would be perfect for next year’s “all-glass” iPhone 8. It is designed to be thin and light, but also robust, scratch-resistant, and radio-transparent.
Relatives of four U.K. citizens who were killed by the driver of a truck as he used his phone while driving are campaigning for Apple to introduce a feature disabling drivers’ iPhones from working in the car.
“There is an epidemic of people using their phone at the wheel,” said Doug Houghton, who lost two of his sons in the incident. “And what do you do with epidemics? You cure them.”
Recovering your lost iPhone may get a lot easier soon, based on a patent Apple was recently awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The new patent describes a method for determining an iPhone’s location after shutdown that would make Find My iPhone work even if a thief turns your device off.
Future versions of the Apple Watch may be able to identify owners just by taking their pulse.
Apple was awarded a patent this week that details the use of biometrics on a smartwatch that can identify the user based on their heart rate and other variables. All without the users having to make any input.
Samsung and Apple will go back to the Supreme Court this week as part of their never-ending legal battle over patents.
The Tuesday hearing will concern how much of the $399 million patent-infringement damages awarded against Samsung the South Korean tech giant should actually pay.
The U.S. Court of Appeals gave Apple another victory today in its five-year-long legal battle with Samsung.
Apple won its appeal in an 8-3 ruling that reinstated a previous patent-infringement verdict that awarded the company $119.6 million. The judges in the case said it was wrong for the three-judge panel to throw out the verdict in February and suggested Apple could be owed even more money.
After switching to a Taptic Touch ID sensor for the iPhone 7, Apple is strongly rumored to be eliminating a physical “Home” button altogether for next year’s iPhone 8 — and instead integrating Touch ID fingerprint sensors into the main display.
Now a newly-published patent appears to back up that rumor, with the stated goal of expanding screen real estate by avoiding, “assigning valuable surface space exclusively to a component that may only be used briefly during the process of identifying the user.”
Future Apple devices could be controlled using gaze tracking or point gestures, claims a newly-published patent, describing Apple’s investigations into 3D depth-mapping technology.
The technology would build on the kind of 3D depth-mapping tech being used in the new dual lens iPhone 7, but would apply this to new ways for users to interface with their iMac or, possibly, Apple TV by using in-air gestures or eye-tracking to navigate on-screen menus and content.
The iPhone 7 launch comes with just a little bit of bad news for Apple.
A federal jury in Texas has ruled that the iPhone-maker has infringed on patents held by a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp, resulting in a hefty fine.
A recent batch of trademarks filed by alleged Apple shell companies may have just hinted at a bunch of new products and features to be revealed soon, including something called an “Iris Engine.”
Everyone points and laughs when dimwitted thieves got caught after taking identifying selfies with stolen iPhones or iPads.
However, in its quest to help crack down on Apple-related crime, Apple may go even further by using its Touch ID fingerprint sensor to record the fingerprints of would-be iOS thieves — at least according to a newly-published patent application update.
You can breath a sigh of relief: Apple’s forthcoming Project Titan apparently isn’t going to be an articulated tank, after all!
As it turns out, the patent which circulated yesterday — showing how Apple had acquired a patent for allowing an articulated vehicle to survive gunfire or harsh weather situations — should never have been signed over to Cupertino in the first place.
With Project Titan reportedly gathering momentum, it might come as no surprise to hear that Apple was granted a vehicle-related patent today.
What might surprise you a bit more is that this doesn’t relate to the Apple Car many people are expecting — but rather to robust steering controls for an articulated truck, originally filed by a company which manufactures and sells military vehicles.
Ripping off Apple’s iconic designs is one thing, but Samsung just took its copying to a whole new level of stupid by trying to patent the Apple Watch.
Its new filing for a “Wearable Device” uses not one but many sketches of Apple’s popular smartwatch, complete with digital crown and all the same straps.
Apple has considered bringing the Apple Watch’s digital crown over to other iOS devices such as the iPad, according to a newly-published patent application.
An iPad-specific digital crown could be used for a variety of functions — including controlling the device’s volume, resizing text, zooming in on photos or with the Camera app, and much more.
A new opponent has stepped onto Apple’s continuously revolving carousel of legal battles, and this time the iPhone’s battery charging capabilities could cost Apple some serious cash.
The iPhone went on sale nine years ago today, and to mark the momentous occasion a Florida man is suing Apple for a whopping $10 billion and 1.5 percent of all future Apple earnings — because he claims to have come up with the idea for Apple’s breakthrough mobile device all way back in 1992.
Nothing is worse at concerts than having some dude block your view of the band for 45 minutes to take crappy iPhone pics. But those days may be coming to an end soon thanks to Apple.
The company was recently granted a patent that would allow concerts and other private events to block iPhone users from taking photos and videos of the event by using infrared signals.
Apple took a major step this week toward getting out of its $533 million payment to the patent troll Smartflash LLC after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that two of three patents owned by Smartflash are invalid.
The patent agency ruled that the two of the patents shouldn’t have even been issues in the first place because they are abstract concepts and not specific inventions. The USPTO made a similar ruling against one of Smartflash’s patents in March, which could help Apple get the case dismissed.
The super-fast WiFi on your iPhone may be the result of patent violations, according to a new lawsuit filed by the California Institute of Technology that claims Apple violated four of its patents.
Walkie Talkies could be getting a big upgrade thanks to a new Apple patent that reveals the company has been thinking about more than just iPhones when it comes to two-way voice conversations.
Apple’s new patent describes a revamped wireless communication device that connects to a receiver module via Lightning or standard headphone jack, only instead of broadcasting to other devices using cellular it uses point-to-point ad hoc networking.
Apple’s most hated patent troll, VirnetX, has hit the iPhone-maker with more legal woes this week, after it requested a court in Texas to have iMessage and FaceTime banned in the U.S.
VirnetX was awarded $625 million in damages after a jury found Apple had infringed on the company’s patents with iMessage and FaceTime. Now the patent troll is asking for an extra $190 million on top of the injunction because it feels Apple’s just been too unreasonable.