Apple patent wants to turn iPhone’s backlight into a light beacon of sorts for runners

Apple has a couple of ideas we may or may not see in future iterations of the iPhone: turning the backlight into a safety light for runners or as a party trick of sorts to synchronize with music. The company filed a patent in May and was just published today with the title “Handheld devices as visual indicators.” As a party accessory, the filing describes that the light being transmitted can be configured with the playlists on the device and it’ll vary the “light level transmitted by the display in accordance with the song being played.” It could be a fun thing to play around with but, of course, expect it to be a battery drain.

The other feature is a bit more functional and useful for those who like going on night runs or walks. The backlight can be used to serve as a light beacon to alert cars and other pedestrians of your presence. The light can either blink, fade in and out, strobe, or pulsate. While useful, we can’t say yet if this will even make its way to Apple devices. A lot of the patents the company applies for don’t make it to the actual products. And we don’t know yet if the patent itself will be approved. What do you think? Is this a feature you’d want? There are third-party apps for this purpose already, if you are.

Source: The Verge

Apple patent looks to be taking on Bitmoji

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Looks like it isn’t just Facebook who’s taking cues from Snapchat. Apple looks to be creating an “avatar editing environment” which has a design an editing process that looks so eerily similar to Bitmoji. To be fair, the patent was filed back in 2011 but we can’t help compare the similarities. With Apple upping the game on its iMessage service, perhaps it’ll make sense for them to develop more features for it—including a 3D avatar model. As seen in some diagrams, it shows you can edit everything from hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. Based on the patent, though, it just won’t be used for chatting. It could also have applications in gaming, eye-tracking, and responsive action. Think of it as something you can use in virtual reality.

We don’t know if Apple will make use of the feature but there is a sense of ridiculousness in trying to patent this kind of feature. Bitmoji isn’t exactly new. Plus, if you remember avatar creation has been around for a while. Yahoo Avatar, anyone? Either way, let’s see what Apple decided to do with this.

Source: CNN + Mashable

Apple obtains patent for bendable iPhone

Patents don’t usually translate into products but sometimes they do and certain ideas we want to see implemented—like this new patent Apple has recently been granted. The design in the patent shows what could be the basis for a foldable iPhone. Apple applied for the patent back in July 2014 and features a flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen that is reminiscent of clamshell phones of the past.

Apple has always relied on liquid-crystal displays (LCD) but rumours have been floating around that OLED is in Apple’s future. Having “bendable” phones isn’t exactly a new thing. The likes of LG have played around with the idea before so if a foldable iPhone is in our future we won’t be as surprised. What do you think? Is this something you’d want to have?

Source: Recode

Apple patents wrap-around screen for the iPhone

A recently approved Apple patent might give us an iPhone in the future that comes with a wrap-around display. Described in the filing, the device will have a flexible screen so it can form a loop and have the image or video be presented in this loop continuously. This means they want to make use of as much of the screen as possible. It won’t be like Samsung’s Galaxy Edge in the sense that the patent stated the sides won’t be used but it could just been a bigger display to look at.

The downside to this is there isn’t existing screen technology that can pull this off commercially yet. OLED is the closest we can get. And also, this is still a patent. Apple could be future-proofing themselves but it doesn’t exactly mean they intend to make the technology in the near future.

Source: The Next Web