Apple patent shows the company thought of putting a camera in the Apple Watch’s band

Image: Apple / USPTO

A patent that Apple applied for back in 2016 has been brought back into the spotlight, suggesting the company looked into integrating a camera into its smartwatch. Apple’s approach was to put it at the end of the Watch’s strap, allowing you to twist and turn the camera to take any photo you need it to without having to contort your wrist into awkward positions.

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Will selfie cameras be hidden behind the screen? Samsung patent seems to think so

Patent drawings showing what it'll look like with the selfie camera, earpiece, and sensors placed behind the screen

With bezels continuously shrinking, placing key components are becoming a bit of an issue. We’ve seen recently how the fingerprint sensor is being moved behind the glass display, are front cameras next? A new Samsung patent suggests so. They take this a step further by moving even the earpiece as well as proximity and ambient light sensors. Xiaomi tried putting the earpiece below the screen with the Mi Mix but it apparently didn’t sound great. But no one has attempted to put the selfie camera behind the glass. We aren’t sure the technology exists just yet.

An early patent, which has been referenced by Samsung, Apple, LG, and others, suggests a transparent OLED that has a high refresh rate and could turn the screen on and off to let the camera have a look during inactive periods. But for now we have to wait and see if this ever comes into fruition. Perhaps it might but it’s too early to tell. For now we need to live with notches and weirdly placed cameras as a response to slimmer bezels.

Source: GSMArena

Is there a foldable smartphone/tablet in Microsoft's future?

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Microsoft's patented a design of a tablet that can fold into a smartphone. Discovered by MSPowerUser, the patent discusses a device that can switch from phone to tablet thanks to an articulating hinge design. Now, technology companies patent ideas all the time and there's little guarantee that the product or its components will ever maket it to market.

But this is Microsoft we are talking about, a company that is also a hardware manufacturer thanks to Xbox, Windows Phone and Surface. Now Windows Phone is dwindling market share into extinction, but Microsoft can still be a player if it comes out with a mobile 2-in-1 product like this. Here's why.

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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