Apple Seeks to Patent MacBook Air Design, OLED Brightness

[btarunr]

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.



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[FordGT90Concept]

For shame!

 

[the54thvoid]

Hmm, here's a wedge design already released by Asus.

http://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.

 

[Jurassic1024]

As soon as I saw that headline, I thought, Ultrabooks, and sure enough.... That's the last straw for me. Apple is garbage along with whoever is approving their patents. Innovators my ass.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Does anyone hold a patent for "laptop device with a screen" or a "laptop device using the concept of being transportable".

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.

 

[Naito]

I'm sorry, but isn't this just a logical design step in removing the unnecessary bulk of notebook, if you're trying to make it as thin as possible? It's kinda like Apple patenting multi-touch screens, even though that it is the next logical step in screen technology - most of us have more than 1 digit, don't we?

Hmmm... maybe I should go and attempt to patent the spherical truncated icosahedron shape of a soccer ball....

 

[THE_EGG]

Soon they will try and patent keyboards....

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Soon they will try and patent keyboards....

Worse. They will patent the process of applying for patents using a computer as part of the patent process. All patents will be 0wn3d by Apple!

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!

 

[keling]

Hmmm...I guess they learned their lesson with the Chinese company that owned the name iPad before it did. Must be a bitter experience for them.


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.

 

[RejZoR]

So this is the whole patent system for. Patenting stupid things. Seriously Apple, patent some actual technology or just fuck off.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

just fuck off.

This.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Id like to smash that mac book air in half on their heads.

 

[Red_Machine]

Lol, I didn't know MacBooks were that THICK. xD

 

[faramir]

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.

Precisely ! May they burn in hell along with their former CEO.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Precisely ! May they burn in hell along with their former CEO.

Wow someone makes software that has become trendy and you wish eternal damnation on his immortal soul? Overreact much?

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.

 

[phanbuey]

they will get denied (hopefully).

Apple really needs to focus on innovation and less on hiring deuhcy intellectual property attorneys.

 

[babash*t]

Just lol

 

[Mistral]

Seriously...

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"...

 

[p34225]

Fuck Apple

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.

 

[THE_EGG]

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 ever, 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 and faggots, they all need to die in pain and fast, burn mother fuckers burn.
Fuck you Apple, you disgusting human beings your place is not in this world but in hell.

Actually it was first invented in the '80's by Eastman Kodak company. But I do agree with you about apple. I mean seriously, a patent for a shape of a laptop?!

 

[Red_Machine]

Apple creates a trend via product and marketing and EVERYONE copies them.

Actually, it's Apple who copies first. Steve Jobs copied the Xerox Star when he was designing the Lisa and the Macintosh, he stole what little market Microsoft had with Windows Mobile when he brought out the iPhone and your average consumer thinks Apple invented the tablet PC, when Microsoft has had them since Windows 3.11.

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.

 

[Solaris17]

Actually, it's Apple who copies first. Steve Jobs copied the Xerox Star when he was designing the Lisa and the Macintosh, he stole what little market Microsoft had with Windows Mobile when he brought out the iPhone and your average consumer thinks Apple invented the tablet PC, when Microsoft has had them since Windows 3.11.

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.

MM is a mac fan iirc he is blind to these conversations.

in all honesty im surprised they havent copywrited "mac silver" as im sure they will soon. make a certain shade. then BAM copywrite.

 

[Teiji]

Looks like the new Asus Ivy Bridge ultrabooks will be in trouble. (I hope not though.)

 

[Frick]

Actually, it's Apple who copies first. Steve Jobs copied the Xerox Star when he was designing the Lisa and the Macintosh, he stole what little market Microsoft had with Windows Mobile when he brought out the iPhone and your average consumer thinks Apple invented the tablet PC, when Microsoft has had them since Windows 3.11.

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.

Ok. Right. Some of it might be true (like the Galaxy thing) but iPhones and iPads? The reason both of them exploded the market was because they were SO MUCH BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE ON THE MARKET. Did you use even a high end WinMo phone? When people had used those for a decade IOS came and blew them away, for very good reasons. It wasn't perfect but it was smooth and easy to use and you didn't have to use that stylus and it was like a fresh wind in their faces. The same with iPads. Tablets have been around for ever but they just weren't very good. They were clumsy and mostly aimed at the corporate sector. Then the iPad came and did things right for the consumers and it was a huge hit, again for good reasons. And if Apple stolen and copied everything they ever did, why did it become huge first when apple did it?

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.

 

[Red_Machine]

Mindless? I own an iPod, iPhone, a Mac AND will be buying the new iPad soon. Calling me mindless is like calling the Queen racist.

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.