“A number of interesting Apple patent applications surfaced at the US Patent & Trademark Office yesterday,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The first covers Apple’s ongoing research into solar energy for use with future portable devices,” Purcher reports. “The second covers a new finger-oil resistant coating for iOS devices to keep our displays fingerprint free. The patent was only filed in February of this year which would suggest that this new coating may apply to devices set to be released in the coming months or years and not a technology already applied.”
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Purcher reports, “The last patent is very interesting as well as it covers a new iPhone related antenna clip for use with an all-metal embodiment. The patent states that the patent figure is an exploded view of the device which could suggest that the antenna clip could one day be a part of an iPhone-nano-like device.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ultra-oleophobics!
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Man, Apple keeps churning out those ideas. Fingerprint free coating? That would be nice for sure. The iphone clip has its place. Especially if it really is for a nano phone. I could clip it on my T-shirt when jogging. That would be usefull.
A month ago, I was joking that Apple was developing a ST:TNG type com badge. Now it is one step closer to reality.
I’m not seeing a phone that small. More likely an antenna for an iPod nano or shuffle that streams music from the cloud, thus reducing cost by negating the need for onboard storage.
… But very useless for anyone on a plane or visiting a foreign country with outrageous roaming data rates. And being tied to a wifi spot doesn’t scream “portable” to me…
And the patents etc on wifi networks with up to 60 mile radius means nothing….
The devices will, most likely, be iCloud ready.
I followed up on this patent and it states that “In a cellular frequency spectrum, the threshold distance may be different depending on if a tri-band, quad-band or penta-band antenna is used.” So I still say that it applies to some kind of phone. But the cloud angle is interesting.
The clip is likely so that all of apples devices can be part of the iCloud fun, regardless of size.