Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

The best electronic key is the one you always have with you

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

“The best camera is the one you have with you” is an old photography adage, and Apple may be looking to extend that principle to its iPhone. And it’s not about the iPhone as a camera, either—if you always have it with you, an iPhone could serve as a remote control device for any number of uses, including as a wireless electronic key. Using the iPhone as an electronic key is part of a recently published patent application titled “Motion Based Input Selection.” It’s important to remember that the patent application itself merely describes a unique way of using motion detection to generate an input, such as turning a virtual combination lock-style dial. Still, it’s the suggested uses of a unique numerical sequence or other combination of input that is generating excitement. The Telegraph says that the patent is already being referred to as the “iKey” patent , based on the suggestion that a “device” such as an iPhone could use the motion-based input method to generate a combination which is then “transmitted to an external device to unlock the external device.” Such an external device could be anything, including an “electronic lock that may be used to access a door, car, house, or other physical area.” The patent in particular describes methods in which the input could be selecting combinations of numbers, letters, colors, or images, or even a combination. In fact, if the external device is suitably capable, it can send an application the necessary configuration of input needed to unlock it. The possible inputs can also be randomized, and the transmission between the mobile device and the external device could encrypted for greater security. Since the iPhone is the kind of device you tend to always have with you, it could be a great all-in-one control device. For instance, Apple also recently filed a patent application for using the iPhone as a sort of advanced universal remote —one that can dim the lights, adjust the surround sound, switch the TV to “cinema mode,” all in preparation for watching a movie at night. The company already offers an app that can control iTunes or an Apple TV remotely, and other apps exist to control home automation systems or a DSLR tethered to a WiFi-equipped computer. Car security firm Viper also offers an app to lock, unlock, and remotely start a vehicle that has the company’s SmartStart electronics installed . Though many remote applications already exist for the iPhone—including one that locks and unlocks a car—perhaps Apple could leverage the patent’s motion sensing to build an app with a consistent interface that is designed to communicate with a wide variety of lock devices, making the iPhone an out-of-the-box electronic key. Read the comments on this post

MeeGo code coming in March, will run on Atom boards and N900

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

In an announcement published last week, Nokia’s Valtteri Halla revealed that Intel and Nokia are planning to launch the public MeeGo source code repository by the end of the month. The MeeGo project began to take shape last month when Intel and Nokia announced plans to merge their respective Linux-based mobile computing platforms into a single open source software project. The unified software platform, which consists of technology from Maemo and Moblin, will be designed for use on a wide range of device form factors and will support both ARM and x86 architectures. Read the comments on this post

Ubisoft on DRM snafu: servers attacked, pirates locked out

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Those playing Assassin’s Creed 2 on the PC got a rude reminder of DRM’s pitfalls when the servers that authenticate the game went down. Many complained on the company’s official forum , and tempers ran hot. Remember: the game has to be in contact with Ubisoft’s servers to work; if the connection is lost, the game shuts down. Ars Technica contacted Ubisoft to ask about the issue, and we were told that the issue wasn’t simply a server malfunction. “This ‘failure’ was due to a massive DDoS attack on our servers,” an Ubisoft spokesperson told Ars. “Our servers didn’t go down but 5 percent of the overall people attempting to connect received denial of service errors. This is, of course, unacceptable and our teams are working around the clock to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” The issue of pirates playing the game also gets short shrift. “Neither Assassin’s Creed II nor Silent Hunter 5 are cracked at the time we speak. As mentioned previously, ‘cracked’ versions are incomplete… as in missing whole parts of the game and crucial features,” the spokesperson continued. That means that with just the data from the disc or your download, you won’t be able to play the game. The content requires whatever the Ubisoft servers are giving it.  Ubisoft leaves us all with a reminder that no matter how intrusive or failure-prone it is, DRM isn’t going away. “We worry about our customers and apologize to anyone who couldn’t play ACII or SH5 yesterday. All in all, we hope people understand all this is done to preserve the future of PC gaming.” Read the comments on this post

Week in Apple: Steam on the Mac, Apple flings poo at HTC

// March 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Apple’s lawsuit against HTC may have been the talk of the Internet for most of the week, but Valve’s teasers for Steam coming to the Mac took the prize for most exciting news. MacHeist also released a new software bundle and the rumor mill gossipped about HDMI on the next Mac mini. Need to catch up? Valve creates fake Apple ads, teases Steam on OS X : Valve has begun sending images to gaming sites showing its properties tarted up in Mac colors and images. Is Steam coming to OS X? We should know very soon. Apple vs HTC: proxy fight over Android could last years : Apple’s lawsuits against HTC could be the start of a multi-year legal battle , or the start of a proxy fight against Google’s Android. Either way, it may become the poster child for the ills of the US patent system. Read the comments on this post

Apple may soon enable paid iPhone app upgrades

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

An unexpected dialog box in iTunes may be a sign that Apple will soon allow developers to offer upgrade pricing for iPhone apps. Developer Fraser Speirs was warned that the “discounted price is only available to customers who own a previous version” of an item when he tried updating all his apps via iTunes. Developers of desktop software typically offer a discount to users who have paid for a previous version of software when they upgrade to the next major release. On the iPhone, minor updates to apps are free to all users, but there is no mechanism in the App Store to offer current users upgrade pricing on new major version releases. Some developers have gotten around this limitation by developing a new version and naming it with the major version number—think Rolando 2 or Tweetie 2. However, if users want that version, they have to pay full price. There’s no way to offer someone who bought the original versions of Rolando or Tweetie a discount. Many users balked when Tweetie 2 was a full-price paid upgrade, though the improvements were generally compelling enough to justify the cost . The dialog box that Speirs encountered could have been an error since he was updating apps he already purchased. Still, it appears to be a sign Apple is testing the capability to offer discounts to buyers of previous versions of apps. Both developers and users have been asking for such a capability since the App Store launched in 2008. Read the comments on this post

Behavioral efforts, not money, will drive energy efficiency

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

When it comes to reducing carbon emissions, most of the attention has focused on new technologies like renewable power and electric vehicles, as well as their associated costs. But study after study shows that we can save both energy and a significant amount of cash through the use of energy efficiency technology that’s already on the market. A Policy Forum in today’s issue of Science suggests that the bottleneck isn’t so much technological or economic as it is behavioral, and argues that the US needs to start performing tests of behavior-oriented programs. The article cites several studies we’ve covered here on Ars, such as the McKinsey analysis of energy efficiency , which suggested that $520 billion in efficiency investments would save us $1.2 trillion by 2020, and continue saving money beyond that. In the process, the nation’s energy demand would drop by 23 percent. Assuming we were all rational actors on the economic scene, reports like that should be enough to trigger a flurry of activity. Read the comments on this post

Bright future for UMPCs, touchscreens, and tablets

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Market research firm Gartner is forecasting a much better year in 2010 for PC shipments worldwide than last year , expecting a 20 percent increase year-over-year. However, mobile computing will be the main impetus behind that growth. Mobile PCs accounted for over half—55 percent—of all PC shipments in 2009, but Gartner expects that percentage to climb to 70 percent by 2012. Apple in particular has seen most of its sales of Macs come from MacBook and MacBook Pro models for some time, leading the industry in this trend for the last three years. “The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets,” George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a statement. Netbooks will continue to sell well in 2010, but are expected to decline as ultra-low-voltage, ultra-thin laptops and “next-generation tablets”—think iPad—take over this product segment. The iPad has fueled renewed interest in tablets in particular, and the company expects that traditional tablets and iPad-like devices could move 10.5 million units combined by the end of the year. “We expect mobile PCs to drive 90 percent of PC growth over the next three years,” Shiffler added. Growth will also come from other touchscreen-based mobile devices, such as the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Nexus One. Touchscreens will begin to move down market to midrange devices as well. “As phone capabilities increase, consumers are becoming much more aware of the benefits of touch interfaces, and vendors are responding,” according to Gartner principal research analyst Roberta Cozza. Gartner expects sales of touchscreen-based mobile devices to nearly double in 2010, selling more 362 million units. Over the next three years, such devices will account for 58 percent of sales worldwide, and as much as 80 percent in “developed markets.” However, warned Gartner analyst CK Lu, vendors can’t just slap a touchscreen in a device and call it a day. “Touch technology is just an enabler, and ultimately, it is a compelling user experience—which includes good UI design, applications and services—that will make or break a product,” he said in a statement. Apple has a commanding lead on this front with its App Store, responsible for an overwhelming majority of mobile app sales last year. Other platforms, such as Android, are beginning to slowly catch up in both experience and app ecosystems. Read the comments on this post

Apple’s ITC complaint names HTC phones, 10 other patents

// March 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

As we reported, Apple filed a federal lawsuit against HTC Tuesday claiming infringement of 10 of Apple’s patents related to smartphone technology. Apple said that HTC violated 20 of its patents, and the remaining 10 are covered under a parallel complaint with the ITC. That complaint also names essentially every current HTC product as infringing devices. The complaint, unlike the federal lawsuit, specifically calls out HTC smartphones by name. Devices suspected of infringement include the Nexus One, Touch Pro and Pro2, Touch Diamond, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream (aka T-mobile G1), myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. Several of the devices run Google’s Android operating system, though the rest run a version of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. Neither of the complaints specifically target either Google or Microsoft, however. Likewise, Apple has yet to file any complaint against Palm over its webOS-based Pre or Pixi smartphones, though COO Tim Cook alluded that could happen last year. The 10 patents in question in the ITC complaint include: 5481721 : Method for Providing Automatic and Dynamic Translation of Object Oriented Programming Language-Based Message Passing Into Operating System Message Passing Using Proxy Objects 5519867 : Object-Oriented Multitasking System 6275983 : Object-Oriented Operating System 5566337 : Method and Apparatus for Distributing Events in an Operating System 5929852 : Encapsulated Network Entity Reference of a Network Component System 5946647 : System and Method for Performing an Action on a Structure in Computer-Generated Data 5969705 : Message Protocol for Controlling a User Interface from an Inactive Application Program 6343263 : Real-Time Signal Processing System for Serially Transmitted Data 5915131 : Method and Apparatus for Handling I/O Requests Utilizing Separate Programming Interfaces to Access Separate I/O Services RE39486 : Extensible, Replaceable Network Component Systems Those patents are related to technologies used in the iPhone and iPod touch as well as Macs running Mac OS X. Notably, they are all software patents, and software patents have a contentious status in the US. However, Apple states in its complaint that these patents have some litigation history and that a number of companies (the list of which is redacted as confidential) license these technologies. The federal case, in contrast, requests the 10 patents listed in the suit be declared as valid, suggesting they have yet to be tested in court. One tidbit that caught our eye in the ITC complaint is that NeXT remains a separate, wholly owned subsidiary of Apple. Both Apple and NeXT are named as complaintants. Read the comments on this post

Apple files alt iPhone input, physical "key" login patents

// February 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Two recently published patent applications from Apple caught our attention for their craftiness. One shows how to use the iPhone’s camera as an alternate gesture input method; the other details a system using a uniquely shaped signet to log in to a computer. The first patent, “Camera as Input Interface,” adds alternate input methods for a touchscreen phone, particularly useful when the touchscreen is pressed against your face during a phone call. The patent describes a method using the built-in camera as a gesture detector, recognizing “swiping” up, down, left, or right using a finger. The gestures could be used to control voicemail, for instance, by swiping “forward” or “back” to skip to the next or previous message. The input could be augmented with accelerometer data to recognize a “tap” as well, according to the patent application. MacRumors notes that Apple has filed a number of alternate input methods for the iPhone, including a rear surface or an outer bezel that are also touch-sensitive. The second patent, “Shape Detecting Input Device,” describes a system using a touchscreen to recognize uniquely shaped signets , and to perform actions associated with a specific shape. One application would be to log in a unique user based on the recognized shape. This is similar to the now-defunct practice of stamping a seal from a signet ring into sealing wax to verify a document’s authenticity or source. If such a signet were indeed on a ring, it could also be used to unlock an iPhone. Apple’s patent suggests that unique signet shapes could be embedded in a ring, a tag, a card, a stamp, or even a key. Other suggested actions initiated by the signet shape recognition include configuring a system to a unique user’s needs, launching certain applications, or encrypting or decrypting messages or other content, making the signet like a modern, high-tech decoder ring.

Bloom Energy fuel cell claim raises hype, questions

// February 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

In a binge of hype that might make Dean Kamen blush, the world has been introduced to Bloom Energy, a new entrant to the fuel cell business that claims to be ready to revolutionize the energy economy. Plug a Bloom Box in to your building’s natural gas line, the company claims, and you can start getting clean power at a price that beats the grid. Unfortunately, for the moment, that’s about all it’s saying. Which is unfortunate, since the details are critical. Fuel cells are well understood technology, and already in use in some commercial deployments. There’s a lot to like about fuel cells, as they’re quite efficient and, when fueled with hydrogen, produce water as the only byproduct. Fuel cells haven’t already swept the electricity market, however, for one simple reason: the hardware is ferociously expensive.

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