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News Patents

Recent Apple patent shows move to build wireless antennas into Mac keyboards

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a batch of 20 patents on Tuesday, including one for an invention that describes integrating wireless antennas into a keyboard. Per AppleInsider, the filing entitled “Antennas for electronic devices,” describes “key antennas,” or radio-frequency transmitters mounted inside individual keys of a keyboard, for devices such as a […]

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Patents Rumor Software

Recently published Apple patents describe steps towards driverless printing for Mac OS X, iOS devices

In a pair of recent filings, Apple proposed methods that would eliminate the necessity of printer drivers in order to streamline the printing process for users of its Mac OS X and iOS devices. The first of the two patent applications, entitled “Walk-Up Printing Without Drivers,” reveals methods of circumventing the printer driver requirement when […]

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iOS Patents

Two Apple patents surface, company looking into inductive charging solutions

It’s the patents that make things interesting. According to Patently Apple, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent application on Thursday detailing two specific plans for an “Inductive Charging System” for iOS devices. Inductive charging is a wireless method using the electromagnetic field to transfer energy over short distances between two objects. […]

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News Patents

Apple files patent for flat keyboard technology that would rely on acoustic pulses rather than physical key taps

This could be weird. But also spiffy. Per a patent application files with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple has looked into a flat keyboard that would detect acoustic pulses from users’ taps instead of relying on physical key presses. The patent, entitled “Piezo-based acoustic and capacitive detection,” was published last week and […]

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News Patents

Apple patent describes simpler networking, use of RFID/new proprietary technology

Because patents are important and show nifty things that may be down the road… According to AppleInsider, Apple has shown interest in improving device discoverability and local networking using existing technology like RFID, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or even a new proprietary wireless method. The details come from Apple’s latest patent application, entitled “Local Device Awareness,” […]