They say there's no rest for the wicked, and that's never been more true for Apple's lawyers after the Cupertino firm set about another attempt to put Samsung out of business in the United Stated while simultaneously taking the Korean company for as much as it can in the process.
Solar power is one of those things that was once supposed to provide a fix for all of our power-based problems. Even though some companies are using solar energy to at least part fuel their datacenters, it has still not quite lived up to its billing. Solar energy has even been talked of as a way of powering our personal gadgets, too, but so far nothing has really come to fruition. Sure, calculators and keyboards exist that run on power generated from the sun, but that's a far cry from keeping a power hungry iPhone juiced all day long.
The jury has finally reached a verdict in the round two of Apple vs Samsung trial and has found Samsung to have infringed on two out of five patents of Apple. As a result, Samsung has been ordered to pay Apple around 120 million dollars ($119,625,000 to be exact) in damages, a far cry from $2.2 billion which Apple asked for.
Along with the iPhone 5's release back in late 2012, Apple also took the wraps off its new EarPods earphones, which represented a marked improvement upon the previous ear buds in terms of design, audible output, and comfort. Aside from packing a mic and some basic controls, there wasn't really much else to tell about the EarPods, but a new patent filing by the Cupertino company suggests that an accelerometer and beamforming mics could be thrown in to an improved edition, allowing the peripheral to include its very own voice-recognition facility.
Every year, a new trend seems to hit the smartphone market, and if it isn't large displays or gold color configurations, then it's the manufacturers' new found love for a curved display. Naturally, Samsung was first to the draw with the Galaxy Round, closely followed by its compatriot LG with the impressive G Flex, and although an iPhone featuring an angled panel would seem quite a way off right now, a newly-awarded patent suggests that the Cupertino company is very much considering it.
Apple's Siri voice-recognition technology might not yet have made waves among the iOS-using community, but the implementation first seen with the iPhone 4s back in 2011 shows no sign of disappearing. We've already seen how the likes of Honda and General Motors announce plans to include the Siri Eyes Free technology into upcoming production cars, and now, a new patent filing from Apple suggest that it too is ready to take Siri to the next level. Published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, the filing outlines a speaker dock system that includes Siri integration, which would be interacted with via the in-built speaker system.
Apple, like all of the big tech companies, is always filing new patents and ideas with the USPTO, and one published this week suggests that the company could be looking into solar-based charging options for both the MacBook and the iOS device range. Such technology is already available, but its use is extremely limited, and with solar charging peripherals often bulky and impractical, Apple is looking for a simplified way to charge devices without he use of an inevitably hard-to-find plug socket.
In breaking news, the International Trade Commission (ITC) has just delivered its verdict on a long-running case between Apple and Samsung, ruling in favor of Apple in a decision that will see certain Samsung devices banned from import to the US. The case has been running for a number of years, and this particular ordeal began when Apple counter-sued Samsung in 2011 after the Galaxy maker claimed that a handful of the Cupertino-based company's devices were infringing on its patents.
It's fair to say, given the courtroom history and market face-offs between the two, that a certain amount of friction, animosity and contempt exists between Apple and Samsung. The two companies were at loggerheads last year in a court hearing which saw Apple reign supreme over its bitter rival, but with a new trial taking place this year in the same San Jose location, issues have by no means been resolved. As a very relevant subplot, Apple has never been shy of dragging Google into proceedings, and following on from the Cupertino's recent demands to see the Android source code as part of the hearing, Tim Cook's legal bureaucrats have now dragged both the newly-released Samsung Galaxy S4 and Google Now into the equation.
Patently Apple does a pretty stellar job of keeping abreast of all the goings concerning the fruit company's intellectual property dealings, and has today spotted a couple of rather interesting patent applications that shed light on a system which would allow your iPhone to act as a "Smart Key." In walking towards your car, a Bluetooth connection from your device would enable you to automatically unlock the vehicle, in turn allowing you to avoid the cumbersome rigmarole of rooting around your pocket or purse for the key.
