Apple gets a lot of patents approved on a regular basis. More often than not it's the company covering its bases for future technology and ideas, rather than an indication of a pending feature upgrade for an existing product. But when it comes to the Apple Pencil, one can hope.
Apple wins patents all the time, and this week heading into 2020 is certainly no different.
There may be some substance to the rumor calling for an iPhone with an under-display Touch ID in 2020 as the Cupertino tech giant just won a patent for an optical imaging sensor that could be used for under-display biometrics in future iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and more.
A future version of the Memoji feature on iPhone and iPad might be able to automatically generate a virtual three-dimensional avatar from users’ photographs.
Apple is rumored to be working on an advanced augmented reality headset. Its latest patent filing offers a glimpse into how accurate and reliable gaze tracking could permit users to interact with a computer-generated environment more easily than with hands.
Apple's been researching compact over-the-ear headphones with a foldable headband for easy transport and orientation detection that'd automatically adjust left/right audio channels depending if the user is wearing them correctly or with the left earpiece over their left ear.
Despite the open floor plan of your typical Apple Store (or perhaps because of it), the crowds, and the current security systems in place, robberies aren't as rare as Apple would like. In an effort to thwart that, the company has invented a new wireless security system.
Apple's HomePod wireless speaker could gain a host of additional capabilities in the future, including 3D hand gestures, the Face ID facial recognition system and much more.
A U.S. appeals court has upheld a judgement against Apple worth $440 million, reports Reuters. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied the iPhone-maker's request to throw out the 2016 jury verdict, which found it guilty of infringing on patents belonging to VirnetX.
Qualcomm has secured another victory in its legal spat with Apple, this time in Germany after a Munich court ruled that some iPhone models that employ Intel-made cellular modems violate a Qualcomm patent which covers so-called envelope tracking, a feature that helps smartphones save battery power while sending and receiving wireless signals.
Apple's acknowledged that the iPhone-exclusive iOS 12.1.2 software update has indeed circumvented a pair of Qualcomm patents—in spite of Qualcomm's claims to the contrary.
Even though Apple has not officially confirmed that the latest iOS 12.1.2 update does pack in fixes for a pair of Qualcomm software patents that were supposed to remove any infringing functionality, Qualcomm told Reuters yesterday that the Cupertino firm remains in violation of a Chinese court’s orders to stop selling iPhone 6s through iPhone X in the country.