Friday, April 27th 2012
Apple Seeks to Patent MacBook Air Design, OLED Brightness
Apple wants to hold patents to the wedge-shaped design of its MacBook Air, and an interesting technique to adjust OLED display brightness. The application for this patent passed through USPTO, on Thursday. The application describes claims over "wedge shaped top case", with a lid hinged to a base. The wedge-shape contributes to the user's impression of a device, its lightness, and its durability. Apple's MacBook Air bears this design, and reports indicate that so will the upcoming MacBook Pro series. Wired.com opines that the move is to block out partners of Intel's Ultrabook ecosystem from imitating the design.
Another more interesting patent application for a technique to adjust brightness of OLED displays. None of Apple's products, not even the iPod Nano, feature an OLED screen, yet Apple is frantically applying for the patent. While conventional LCD panels use an augmented illumination source (such as LED or CCFL), in OLED displays, there is no external illumination, and hence adjusting brightness is very tricky from a technical standpoint. The method Apple described in its patent claim consists of converting an image (frame) on a logarithmic scale along the palette, dimming it, and then displaying that dimmed frame. This patent could prove valuable for Apple, as the industry is beginning to transition from TFT-LCD to OLED flat-panel displays.
Source:
Wired
Another more interesting patent application for a technique to adjust brightness of OLED displays. None of Apple's products, not even the iPod Nano, feature an OLED screen, yet Apple is frantically applying for the patent. While conventional LCD panels use an augmented illumination source (such as LED or CCFL), in OLED displays, there is no external illumination, and hence adjusting brightness is very tricky from a technical standpoint. The method Apple described in its patent claim consists of converting an image (frame) on a logarithmic scale along the palette, dimming it, and then displaying that dimmed frame. This patent could prove valuable for Apple, as the industry is beginning to transition from TFT-LCD to OLED flat-panel displays.
57 Comments on Apple Seeks to Patent MacBook Air Design, OLED Brightness
www.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX31E/
I think Apple really need to just fuck off with their patent shite. The OLED brightness patent? Fair enough if they have the tech already but people dish out patents to Apple as if they were receiving back handers left right and centre.
I'm sure those design concepts are so innocuous someone forgot to patent it... and Apple is doing that right now! :shadedshu
As Isaac Newton discovered, the Law of Gravity will mean that (eventually) even Apple will fall.
Hmmm... maybe I should go and attempt to patent the spherical truncated icosahedron shape of a soccer ball....
Sh1t, that's a damn good idea! Anyone know a patent lawyer... hehe ;)
I think I just saved the world. TPU now hosts prior art! :)
Now, Apple is trying to do the same with its major rivals.
Get a patent for a technology that even Apple have yet to use but the industry will surely use in the future. Go on a spree suing everyone after that.
A very Microsoft thing to do, if I might say so.
Apple is so defensive of patents because of the amount of industrial incest that goes on today. Apple creates a trend via product and marketing and EVERYONE copies them. So now they have just become super defensive. Its not right but anyone in their position would do the same thing I think.
Apple really needs to focus on innovation and less on hiring deuhcy intellectual property attorneys.
The "application for this patent passed", but if the "patent" itself gets granted... not that I have any faith to loose in the US "patent system"...
These fuckers think others don't see what they are doing ? We all see what these fuckers are doing, they are the biggest patent trolls and thieves in the history of human kind, they just take someone else's technology and patent every part of it in order to sue back the company that invented it.
OLED is Samsung's innovative display technology so Apple scumbags just want to patent OLED in order to sue Samsung the innovator of this technology.
Those at Apple are just a bunch of scumbags mother fuckers the most deplorable human beings on earth, bunch of thieves faggots liars and deceivers, they all need to die in pain and fast, burn mother fuckers burn.
Then they sue everybody who tries to compete with them. They sued Microsoft because Windows looked too much like Mac OS; Jobs declared thermonuclear war on Android, even though Android had been in development LONG before iOS; and they sued Samsung because the Galaxy Tab 10.1 "looked too much like the iPad" and only let them start selling it again once they'd removed everything that made it better than the iPad.
Apple doesn't want to innovate or compete. They steal other people's ideas and market the fuck out of them until they sell like hotcakes, then they sue everyone who might even have a chance of beating them. Fuck 'em, the miserable assholes.
in all honesty im surprised they havent copywrited "mac silver" as im sure they will soon. make a certain shade. then BAM copywrite.
And others copy Apple because Apple is the target wether you like it or not.
And then we have the Apple Newton, which pretty much created the concept of the PDA.
So just shut up because Apple have made a lot of decent stuff and all the IOS devices are big and famous because they deserve it. Really, they do, and the market think they do. And why did Intel and whatever came up with the concept of "Ultrabooks"? Could it have something to do with the fact that there were good computers on the market that people wanted to buy that was light and thin and had a certain look? A market that could do with some competition?
I am sick and tired of the mindless hating.
Yes, I did have a high end WinMo phone and I loved it. I only moved to the iPhone (via Android) because HP refused to provide an upgrade to 6.1, so I was lagging behind with features and app support.
Actually, it was PSION back in the 80s who created the first PDAs. I got the chance to play with one a few years ago and it was really ahead of its time.
I will concede that the ultrabooks are an attempt to get interest from the MacBook Air lovers.