“On March 28, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals that Jony Ive and his team have a few more features for their Smart Cover,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“In August 2012 Apple revealed a mind boggling set of new possible features for the Smart Cover that ranged from inductive charging to built-in solar panels and the use of a flexible display to name a few of innovations being explored,” Purcher reports. “[These new] revelations are a little tamer but still interesting.”
Purcher reports, “Apple is considering adding physical soft buttons to the Smart Cover so that you could easily control your tunes. They’re also considering a built-in window so that you could keep tabs on incoming email, text messages, stock quotes and more… Apple credits Jonathan Ive, Duncan Kerr, Matthew Rohrbach, Steve Hotelling, Christopher Mullens, Martin Grunthaner, and Michael Cretella as the inventors of patent application 20130076614 which was originally filed in Q3 2011.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: iDownload Blog. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarah” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple patent application reveals iPad Smart Cover with built-in inductive charging – March 14, 2013
Uh oh, Microsoft: Apple patent application details iPad Smart Cover with built-in keyboard, flexible Multi-Touch display, and more – August 2, 2012
Apple makes $500 million per quarter from iPad Smart Covers – May 29, 2012
I bet Samsung is working hard on it’s own “invention” based completely on Apple’s patents. 🙂
That’s eastern innovation for sure.
That how they do it downtown! (Downtown Seoul that is.)
Why Not since the US Justice doesn’t enforce any patents!
Too busy protecting Amazon’s monopoly power, and making sure author’s don’t get paid enough to earn a living.
There was the Samurai sword and the Walkman, but any innovation since then? Any???
In theory, Apple could use the same general technology on the iPad cover as it uses on its mythical iWatch.
In both instances a touch-sensitive display and simple interface is tethered to a nearby computer. Both will probably make heavy use of the Notifications function, providing a running account of activities taking place on the computer (iPhone or iPad).