The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple 52 patents today, including a notable patent for a new hearing aid technology that would make the iPhone an even better device for the hearing impaired.
The iPhone 5S could come with a sapphire crystal capacitive touch home button that incorporates a new fingerprint sensor, according to supply chain sources in Taiwan.
Apple is expected to do away with the traditional physical home button, which has long been one of the most unreliable components on iOS devices. It’s thought that using sapphire crystal, which has a hardness second only to diamond, will prevent the button from getting scratched and ruining the fingerprint sensor.
If you are an extremely wealthy individual with questionable intelligence, horrible financial acumen and the good taste of a Teletubby, there are any number of horrible bling purveyors who will be happy to take your iPhone and encrust it in so much bling that even R. Kelly would think it was a tacky waste of blood diamonds.
So it’s no surprise that some Hong Kong businessman commissioned a $15 million diamong encrusted iPhone 5, which is, of course, absolutely hideous. The centerpiece? A giant, 26-carat black diamond as the home button.
