Stylus? Why would you need one, when you got this amazing, finger operated multi-touch interface on a device with a super responsive capacitive touch screen?

It is true in most cases. Except one – when you need/want to actually write or draw something on the touchscreen display. Finger really sucks as a writing tool on touchscreen. And, if a couple of patent applications is any indication, Apple may soon be ready to admit as much.

The first patent app for “Stylus for touchscreen devices” describes just that – a stylus for devices with capacitive touchscreen.

The stylus has a rechargeable battery and “includes a conductive tip that creates capacitive coupling between the stylus and the touch-screen of the computing device”. The tip can also be heated for “more consistent interaction between the capacitive-sensors in the computing device and the stylus” . And, as you can see from the picture above, Apple even thought of the dock inside your iPhone to store and recharge your stylus.

The second patent application is called “Communicating stylus” and describes a bit smarter device, equipped with motion sensors, data storage and wireless transmission chips. With such stylus, you can write on any surface you want – e.g a piece of paper or a whiteboard, while the data is transmitted to your iPhone or iPad nearby.

What’s most interesting about both of these patent applications is that they are brand new. Usually, when we see such “old fashioned” technology in Apple’s patent filings – it’s a continuation applications for some patents Apple has filed years ago.

Not in this case – both stylus patent applications have been filed on January 6, 2010 and only reference each other as related.

Could Apple be really warming up the idea of stylus on at least some of it’s iPhones?

• Apple is looking to improve multi-touch with “hover sensing” on iPhones and iPads
• RIM files for hybrid capacitive/ resistive Blackberry touchscreen patent
• Apple’s touch surface keyboard with tactile feedback
• iPhone Nano is real
• Apple is looking beyond Multi-Touch

The following are 8 iPhone apps that will actually enhance your life in a way that a game cannot, no matter how much fun it is to fling birds at pigs:

1: 360 Panorama ($0.99)

There are various apps in the App Store that allow you to take a panorama photo. Microsoft even has its own iPhone app for this,      PhotoSynth. 360 Panorama has to be the best designed, easiest to use, and most feature-rich panorama app out of the bunch. As soon as you open the app, you are presented with a grid, and 3 icons along the bottom for adding a photo from your library, snapping the photo, or configuring the settings. Then you take the picture, rotate the phone and begin to capture a 360 degree panoramic photo of what you are seeing.

You can then easily upload the photo to the site that is associated with the app and share the 360 degree photo across the Web. All in all, the app is very user friendly and the resulting photos are super impressive.

2: ToonPAINT ($1.99)

This app, out of the hundreds or thousands I have tried makes my top ten list in terms of apps that blew me away. The design of ToonPAINT is fantastic and the pictures that it creates are truly phenomenal. So what does it do? You can load a photo or take one with the camera, and the app turns the picture into a full fledged cartoon. You can then customize the look of the cartoon with colors and easily share it via email or the social Web. There are some extra enhancements that you can buy via an in-app purchase, but even without them, the app is sure to impress your friends and create superb cartoon-like photos.

3: QuickPix ($0.99)

I have followed the evolution of this app since it was first introduced into the App Store and it was awesome then, and it is awesome now. The basic premise is that due to the nature of a mobile device, you want the ability to snap a photo using your phone instantly. If the camera on your phone, in this case the iPhone, takes a few seconds to load the camera app, those seconds can be the difference between capturing an image and missing it.

QuickPix loads instantly and enables you to take a photo significantly faster than the iPhone camera. You can also capture images in burst mode, which works unbelievably fast on the iPhone and somehow, even faster on the iPad. There are many other features as well such as the ability to snap a photo right in the middle of a video, something that can come in handy.

4: FlyScreen (FREE)

Originally a wildly popular Android app, Flyscreen recently launched on the iPhone. The app offers an easy-to-read and pleasant-on-the-eyes user interface that enables you to add your favorite RSS feeds, or social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and read them on the go. Each feed has its own view similar to the “card” concept we have seen in other platforms such as WebOS or on the Playbook and you can share articles directly from within the app and fully customize the look and feel including premium themes.

In addition to the regular “reader” functionality, Flyscreen is the only app that not only lets you actively read your favorite content, it also has a “passive” reading mode that lets you dock your device and the app slowly streams your content onto the screen enabling you to click on articles that only really draw your attention.

5: doat (FREE)

This one is interesting. DoAT launched at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt event and has since seen some nice tech coverage. What the developers set out to do is revolutionize mobile search and while competing with giants like Google might be a huge challenge, DoAT seems to be doing a fantastic job so far. When you launch the mobile app, you can search for anything you would generally search via Google on Safari. DoAT then shows you results of Web apps for the query you entered.

For example, if you search for your name in DoAT, you can see results for you under different categories such as People, Internet,  Reference, and others. As soon as you select the relevant category, you are presented with live dynamic results in the form of Web apps. So in our example, if you click People, the app will show you your Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google results for your name, and others. If you had clicked Reference as a category, you might see any mention of your name on various sites such as Wikepedia, Answers.com, or others. The app might take you some time to get used to but it definitely offers a lot of value depending on your search query.

6: Boxcar (FREE or $4.99)

I think Boxcar might be a little more well known than the other apps here, but it is well worth a mention. Boxcar is the notification system that the iPhone is missing, at least until iOS5 is out to the public. However, even after iOS5 is out, Boxcar offers a lot of value that Apple will not offer. With boxcar, you can get notifications for so many services including Twitter, Facebook, Email, a specific Twitter search, an RSS feed, and so much more.

The app lets you customize the way  you are notified and in the year and a half I have been using Boxcar, I  have become increasingly dependent on the service and with the exception of a few cases, it never disappointed me and was always a reliable solution.

7: Silent Film Director ($0.99)

This app, like ToonPAINT, is pretty much guaranteed to blow you away.  With Silent Film Director, you take a video either from your library or the video camera, choose your soundtrack and effect, and convert the video to an old-fashioned movie that kind of reminds of you of a Charlie Chaplin clip depending on the year you choose in the settings. There are tons of customization options in Silent Film Director and the design of the app is nothing short of stunning.

8: Onavo (FREE)

To end off with a bang, here is an app that you will use, love, and want to share with your friends. Onavo will save you serious money on your data plan and without you even knowing it is there. Basically, Onavo runs your Web traffic through their servers and basically shrinks your data. Onavo also enables you to see what apps are using the most data and how much of your plan you have used. This is great for users with limited data plans and it is even greater for people who travel a lot. It can save you serious money on roaming charges, which we all know are completely out of control.

There you have it, folks, 8 fantastic apps most of you have never heard of and will absolutely love. If you have others you can recommend, please leave them in the comments so others can benefit from them as well. You can also let me know what you think of these, find me on Twitter at @hilzfuld.

• Updated Google Mobile App for iPhone available now
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• Yahoo launches Sketch-a-Search, Yahoo Search apps for iPhone
• Voice-enabled Google Mobile app for iPhone now available

Which is probably why, despite numerous requests from users and tech press, Apple was in no rush to make an inductive wireless charger for it’s iPods, iPhones, and iPads. In the meantime, Apple might be quietly working on it’s own wireless charging system that will make current solutions look like toys.

The system, described in a patent application “Wireless power utilization in a local computing environment” is based on the mid range wireless power transfer physics described in this paper (.pdf). It makes use of wireless near field magnetic resonance (NFMR) power transmission to power devices up to 1 meter distant.

Apple’s NFMR power supply will be integrated into desktop iMac or Macbook Pro and will create a 1 m zone in front of it, where computer peripherals like mouse and keyboard, or smaller devices like iPods, iPhones and iPads can be wirelessly charged. Peripherals, of course, will have to be equipped with special coupling antennas able to received the power.

To expand the wireless charging zone, the antennas in peripherals can be configured to act both as power receivers, and repeaters – sending some of the received power down the line and expanding the charging zone coverage.

And, just to make sure that your older Macs can wirelessly charge everything else, Apple proposes to also build NFMR power supply into separate USB dongle.

Unfortunately, this is now just a patent application and I have no idea if this wireless charging will ever make it to the real products. But Apple says that NFMR physics are good to transfer at least several watts of power for about 1 meter of distance. Which should be quite enough for most purposes.

Patent Apple wireless system (*.pdf)

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It’s called “Consumer abuse detection system and method” and is meant to help Apple service reps to see whether the broken device you brought in was your fault or Apple’s.

To do that, Apple proposes placing a number of sensors that can detect liquid, thermal changes, shocks and tampering inside the device. Those sensors then record any occurrence of the “abuse” events – like dropping, drowning or burning your iPhone – onto memory chip, and make this info available to the service center staff.

Looks like an interesting approach, which, if implemented, can help Apple reduce  bogus warranty service claims.

And,  incidentally, help them rebut those stories about  iPods and iPhones exploding for no good reason, that get so much attention from the press.

Like that stupid story about exploding iPod, that ruled interwebs this Monday.

Why do I say it’s a stupid story? Because it is.

The guy in the original Times Online article admits that he actually dropped the iPod on the floor. And then, for good measure, threw it out the backdoor, before the darn thing exploded.

But our devices shouldn’t explode at all, even if dropped,  you say. Yes?

Errr… Not necessarily.

Look, it is an electronic device. If you drop it hard enough – it will crack. And, if you throw it really hard, you know, like 10 or 20 meters out the back door, maybe even non-removable battery cover inside your iPod will crack. And, if your battery cover has cracked, and it’s wet  outside, what happens?

It is Lithium Ion battery you have inside. Lithium! Remember your high school chemistry classes? What happens when you mix Lithium and water? Big Kaboom…

In case you forgot, here’s a nice YouTube video, showing how disposable lithium battery strap reacts to water:

Doesn’t that look exactly like what happened to the unfortunate iPod touch? And where’s Apple’s fault in that?

• Apple’s iPhone – iPod Phone coming to Japan first
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• FaceTime is coming to the iPad and iPod Touch
• One iPod dock to hold them all

He informs us that:

The first piece of news is that Nike+ will definitely be extending its compatibility beyond the iPod Nano to the iPhone and iPod Touch. No surprise there really, but the interesting detail is that it could also make use of both devices Wi-Fi (and, ultimately for the iPhone, 3G capability) to let you update your training log on the fly. Once you’ve legged round your local park you’ll be able to send the data (probably via a software app like the one the new SportBand uses) wirelessly without having to sit down and drip sweat over your computer. Very cool.

This is going to come in very handy for users around the world, even though it is still not super sophisticated when compared to miCoach. You will be able to add notes to each run and then share and compare schedules with your Nike+ buddies.

• iPhone Nike+ UI in the wild
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• Google offers improved search results for iPhone, iPod touch
• PwnageTool 2.0 released for old iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch

It would be difficult to put such an interface on iPod Nano – with your finger covering a better part of touchscreen, how would you operate it?

Don’t worry, Apple now has a solution. Why not make a full screen iPod or iPhone Nano, and put an operational touchpanel on the back side?

This way you can have a full screen of Next Gen iPod/iPhone Nano for viewing. When active touchpanel on the back side is activated, transparent device controls appear, depending on the mode the device is in – scroll wheel, song list for music, alphanumeric keypad for dialing, QWERTY softkeys for messages.

The cursor on the screen will follow the position of your finger. You can slide the finger through the force sensitive touchpanel, applying pressure when you reach the desired control or symbol and selecting it.

Since the materials on the bottom touchsurface need not be transparent, haptic controls like VibeTonz can be easily implemented in the device, providing vibration touch feedback when controls are pressed.

There are still technological and ergonomic limitations of how small such a device can be. You should not expect to see 3G iPhone Nano anytime soon.

But a full screen iPod Nano with active force sensitive touchpanel at the bottom is a real possibility even today. And so is a little bigger 2-2.5G iPhone Nano with the same technology.

Source: Apple patent filing

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The virus is functional on iPods that have Linux OS installed. So far the virus is not able to run automatically and has to be launched by user. When launched the program scans hard disc of the player and infects all *.elf executable files.

When infected *.elf files are launched, the message  «You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus»  is displayed.

Podloso virus does not pose any danger for your devices yet, since it belongs to the “proof of concept” class. The virus is not malicious and, since it requires manual loading by the user, it doesn’t have capability to infect devices of unsuspecting friends.

However now that we have a working “proof-of-concept” it shouldn’t take long to see more dangerous mutations. Good news and more work for Kaspersky and other antivirus vendors, I guess

Source: Kaspersky

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…an iPod Bra:

I don’t even know know into which category to put it – funniest April Fools prank or great Valentine’s day gifts for your beloved

As for how an iPod Bra should be used, I leave that to your wild imagination.

Source: ITDoor.net via 163.com

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Well, it seems that Barrons may have been correct. The recent patent filing for “Handheld computing device” shows that Apple has given a lot of thought of how to integrate cellphone functionality with it’s lucrative iPod franchise.

In order to improve robustness of the current iPod’s Apple has developed advanced manufacturing and assembly techniques for the device. Instead of plastics, Apple will use ceramic materials such as Zirkonia to make device enclosures (surfaces) through extrusion process. The use of ceramics has a lot of advantages such as:

“…they are highly scratch resistant, have color embedded in it (no paint or coatings), can be made into a wide variety of colors, and provides a variety of surface finishes including smooth and rough. Furthermore, the density of ceramics is typically higher than other materials therefore their weight is higher for the same sized part. This additional weight makes the handheld device feel more robust and it makes the device exude greater quality. “

Through extrusion the device body can be made from a single piece instead of top and bottom plastic plates.

Imagine what a device may look like when Apple applies it’s design genius to the new cover surface material properties.

But the design possibilities was not the main reason for Apple to explore the use of ceramics for it’s next iPod. It seems that the main attraction was the radio transparency of the material which is

“…especially important for wireless hand held devices that include antennas internal to the enclosure. Radio transparency allows the wireless signals to pass through the enclosure and in some cases enhances these transmissions…. Generally speaking, when using an internal antenna, it is desirable to increase the radio transparency of the enclosure in order to effectively perform wireless transmissions there through. Thus, a substantial portion of the enclosure is formed form materials capable of providing radio-transparency (e.g., ceramics, etc.). In most cases, the radio transparent portions of the enclosure constitutes a significant area of the entire enclosure. For example, greater than 50%, more particularly greater than 75%, and even more particularly greater than 85%. The radio transparent portions may even be greater than 90%, and more particularly greater than 95%, and in some cases 100% of the enclosure…”

And all these new manufacturing techniques and materials will allow Apple to produce a device that in addition to printed circuit boards, hard drive and audio assembly will:

“… include one or more antennas tuned to operate over the GSM, PCS and/or DCS frequency bands. By way of example, monopole, dipole and tri band and quad band antennas may be used. In one example, a PCS+DCS dipole antenna is used. The antenna may protrude out of the enclosure or it may be fully enclosed by the enclosure. If the later, some portion of the enclosure is configured to be radio transparent (e.g., capable of transmitting and receiving RF signals therethrough). For example, the end caps and/or the main body of the enclosure may be radio-transparent.
In one implementation, the main body is formed from a ceramic material that is radio-transparent. By utilizing a ceramic enclosure that is radio-transparent, an internal antenna may be used, which is typically more robust and durable than an external antenna. Furthermore, many advantages regarding the use of an internal antenna may be achieved. For example, a smaller and cheaper antenna may be used. Furthermore, the antenna can be integrated with other components and placed at almost any location within the enclosure, which helps make a smaller and more compact device in addition to reducing the cost of manufacture…”

Robust, scratch resistant colorfull and small iPod that doubles as a cellphone. Seems that Apple might soon take some market share from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and other handset manufacturers

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Well, it seems that Apple feels your pain. Recent patent filing shows that Apple is working on a “Universal docking station for handheld devices” that should solve most of the problems described above. As you can see from the picture, this docking station can be a stand alone device that connects to computer or music system through separate cables and dataports. Alternatively it can be integrated inside your iMac, home stereo or even the desk to reduce cable clutter.

And Apple has thought of a great number of ways of how you can fit the different sized handhelds there. While the base of the docking station containing various data ports is stable, the device holding area will contain a number of clever mechanical tricks to accommodate different sized devices. These tricks include a number of various sliding, bending, conforming, rotating or pivoting members that adjust to accept and firmly hold in place handhelds of various sizes and shapes.

So with all mechanical problems for universal iPod dock apparently solved, we can expect to see one in Apple stores pretty soon. But what about the other devices, like my Sony PSP and Motorola KRZR cellphone, can I dock them too? Probably not. Apple doesn’t say anything about the different data transfer and power input jacks on other devices. But if they can come up with a clever way to solve this problem too… Now that will be one cool gizmo to have.

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It looks like Apple is thinking along the same lines with the development of the iPod music player. We have already described Apple’s Audio Navigation Patent for iPod, (filed Nov 24, 2004) that lets you access your music library following voice commands in the menu. As one of the possible applications, the patent specifically mentioned exercising. Now another patent form Apple (filed on Nov. 24, 2004) became public that describes “Music synchronization arrangement” for portable music player:

the invention pertains to a computing device that is capable of controlling the speed of the music so as to affect the mood and behavior of the user during an activity such as exercise. By way of example, the speed of the music can be controlled to match the pace of the activity (synching the speed of the music to the activity of the user) or alternatively it can be controlled to drive the pace of the activity (increasing or decreasing the speed of the music to encourage a greater or lower pace). One aspect of the invention relates to adjusting the tempo (or some other attribute) of the music being outputted from the computing device. By way of example, a songs tempo may be increased or decreased before or during playing. Another aspect of the invention relates to selecting music for outputting based on tempo (or some other attribute). For example, the computing device may only play songs having a particular tempo. Yet another aspect of the invention relates to both selecting music based on tempo and adjusting the tempo of the music.

Basically what it describes is a pre-programmed possibility for your iPod, with built-in accelerometer, to select and play music depending on the kind of exercise your are doing, or even play a faster music to make your run quicker.

Apple surely knows that very often people use iPods during their exercising. And now we have two patents, filed on Nov.24 2004 (18 months ago) showing Apple’s keen interest to enhance usefulness of iPods during exercising sessions. Then there is  Apple-Nike partnership, that Business Week says was initiated by Apple 18 months ago.

Seems that all the chips are falling into place and we will see iPod Sport pretty soon.

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But speculations about Apples iPhone ran rampant ever since and recent news gives more confirmation that they might be true. Only now Apple is turning towards more competitive and advanced markets like Japan.

According to Reuters Apple is working with Japan’s Softbank to develop a cellphone with integrated iPod music player for a Vodafone Japan network recently purchased by Japanese firm. Softbank plans to use it’s new iPod phone to compete with it’s bigger wireless rivals – KDDI and NTT DoCoMo.

According to the report iPod phone will be able to download songs from ITunes store and will carry both Softbank and Apple brands.

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One of the problems when searching for a particular song or changing playlists is that you have to look at the tiny screen when navigating to the right place. This is particularly troublesome if you forgot your glasses or can not shift your eyes from other things you are doing. Like crossing the street, jogging or driving and watching the road ahead.

Now Apple may have found solution for this problem – Audio navigation interface. In patent application made public today Apple describes such a system for automatic generation of audio navigation tags for your iPod.

The tags are generated from the metadata of your music or video files – the text information like author, song name and duration, film director or lead actor name, etc;- which comes with a song or video that you download from iTunes store. This text information is then converted using text-to-speech software into a small audio files – audio navigation tags. The iPod computing capabilities are too small to do a good text-to speech translation, so this operation is carried out on your Mac or PC.

Audio navigation tags then are attached to the songs or videos themselves and transferred to you iPod. When getting there, audio navigation tags can be stored with the songs themselves or transferred to a separate database and then synchronized with the navigation menu. The same audio information can be generated for user playlists and every song in the playlist.

So for example when an iPod user wants to play “In the air tonight” by Phil Collins he navigates to the song using his preferred path: “Menu”->”Music”->”Pop”->”Phil Collins”->”In the air tonight”->”Play”. However instead of having to look at the screen, all along the way he hears audio prompts advising him on the next navigation steps.

Now, audio navigation menus are used in various business applications for a long time and there’s not much to patent here. However the clever thing with this particular Apple’s patent seems to be the way they solved the dynamic synchronization problem for constantly changing metafiles of huge music collections stored on the iPod.

By dynamically generating audio tags in iTunes on your computer when song is downloaded or playlist is created and then synchronizing it with the iPod, Apple is able to make audio navigation as easy to use and update as current text navigation system.

And since no hardware and navigation control changes are necessary, audio navigation can be added to current iPods through simple software update.

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