Patent - Gizmodo

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fuchikoma: Could be... Wii is already pretty hard to write in Japanese unless you resort to using deprecated characters... Zii can't even be written properly - y... more »
DVD_Sandwich: How could they trademark the name of something another company already made? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. more »
Knirfie: Won't they get in trouble with Creative (Zii)? And it's probably some crappy peripheral like the heartrate-monitor. more »
Segador: If there's one thing we've learned over the last 3 years, it's that Nintendo can be wildly successful while doing everything the game industry and tec... more »
Scotland: . more »
GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE: Well, if you turn the Z on it's side, and mess with the font, you can make it LOOK like Wii. It's much the the Panasoanics, SQNY, SONNY, etc... more »
Kaiser-Machead: This naming scheme is atrocious. The Wii is probably the worst console name ever, and is not helped by the fact that you wave a long white wand at you... more »
Deckard: (groan) Unleash the Wii & Zii puns. more »
philibuster: It's a fleshlight. more »
dfp3050: I know it's a stretch, but could this be Apple's version of the PowerMatt? more »
brobot - Beboptimus Prime: Honestly this would be really useful for me. I have quickly grown tired of taking out the little insert dealy from my universal dock when I want to d... more »
Kaiser-Machead: Bleh. I'd rather just have the adapter inserts. The dock is a pretty good standard size to fit all iPods. None will get thick enough to not fit in the... more »
njdevil: Knowing Apple, it will work great, but it will be cheaper to hire a stripper to hold your iPod between her breasts. more »
Xentrax: Gizmodo again demonstrated incompetence reprinting bullshit. Still, as can be seen from comments, there are people who still believe it. RunAs comman... more »
HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: "Microsoft has been granted a patent for the sudo command, because apparently you can patent a command that goes back to the mainframe days as long as... more »
Bokusatsu_Tenshi: It's not specifically sudo, it's just some generic line that could remind it. Actually, it could be tons of other things. But I'm shure Microsoft hat... more »
frederic: Don't re-publish crap like this without reading the source. The patent has nothing to do with patenting sudo, and in fact it's cited as previous work... more »
pcfung: Somewhere in the patent "This may be enabled in various ways. In one case, there are two accounts, one with limited rights and one with higher or unli... more »
TJ: I haven't read the patent description nor do I know if I'm justified in saying this but if the text in the article is at all accurate then this is com... more »
jinushaun: While anti-Microsofties are going to be quick to criticise this, if you read the patent application, you'll see that it's different from sudo. An anal... more »

#gaming

Nintendo Files Trademark For Zii, Is It The Wii 2 Though?
If Nintendo's follow-up to the Wii is actually called the Zii, I think that's the first mistake right there. But could this mysterious trademark, filed in Japan in October, actually be for the Wii 2, or something else? More »
#apple

Apple Patent Shows Dock Made From 'Elastic Sponge-Like Substance' That Conforms To Shape of iPod/iPhone
Apple patents are flowing in thick and fast, with yesterday's anti-tampering idea, and now a universal dock which can be molded to the shape of whichever iPod or iPhone you put in it. Is Apple messing with us? More »
#microsoft

Microsoft Patents The Sudo Command
Microsoft has been granted a patent for a sudo command, because apparently you can patent a command that goes back to the mainframe days as long as you explain that it's a "personalized version" with a GUI. More »
#multitouch

Microsoft Getting Cleverer and Cleverer With New Multitouch Screen Keyboard
Oh, those smart rascals at Microsoft are on a roll. I love their Courier tablet concept, and now they may have found the way to make on-screen multitouch keyboards actually work great—even for touch typists like me. More »
#ibm

IBM Files Patent For Tweeting TV Remote
Good lord, this is all we need. A TV remote that allows users to easily ramble on about the shows they watch via their blog or twitter account. For better or worse, IBM appears to be working on this technology. More »
#patents

Sony PS3 Laugh Detector Patent Has Very Juvenile Sense of Humor
Come on, Sony. A repeating boot-to-the-butt wheel? Everyone knows the only surefire kick-based humor must involve the crotch. More »
#weather

Bill Gates Patent Could Save Us From Another Hurricane Katrina
Not content with being the world's richest man, Bill Gates is planning on extending his power to control the weather. More specifically, he has filed a patent for a system that he hopes will prevent the next Katrina. More »
#vizio

Vizio Import Ban Overturned, Free To Ship TVs To US
US customs has cleared Vizio in an ongoing patent dispute with Funai, meaning that they will be allowed to freely ship their HDTVs into the US once more.
#mockups

Samsung's New Smartphone QWERTY Idea: Keep Trying, Guys
Samsung filed a patent for this avian-looking smartphone concept: Two spring-loaded half-keyboards burst from the sides of the phone, which in theory provides both a larger keyboard and more screen space, since hands are out of the way. In theory. More »
#patent

Apple's Future iPhone Patents Show Fingerprint ID For Different Gestures, Plus More
MacRumors found three interesting patents that point to various new interaction techniques. The most interesting is the fingerprint ID directly on the screen so that the iPhone can see which finger you're using and accept gestures appropriately. More »
#apple

iPhone Patents Promise to Automate Our Relationships at Last
Unwired View uncovered three new iPhone patents that promise to turn everything from calling grandma on her birthday to turning off your phone in a movie theater into gloriously mindless activities. More »
#beer

Bill Gates Applies for Patent on High Tech Keg
The cerveza mogul himself Señor Bill Gates is listed on a new patent for a "thermally sealed container." And yes, one of its potential functions is to hold beer. More »
#windows

Microsoft Wins Patent for Crippling Your Computer Until You Pay Up
Oh ho ho. Microsoft just got a patent for crippling your computer until you pay them dammit. More »
#patents

Apple Patent Hints at iTunes Kiosks
A recent Apple patent application hints at the creation of iTunes kiosks for local and remote media downloading in public areas, such as airports, malls, hotels and even public transportation. More »
#apple

New Apple Patent Points at Next-Gen iPhone Video Chat Again
A new Apple patent on a motion-aware iPhone user interface points again at the possibility of a front-facing video camera for video chat in next generation iPhones. One that won't require the 3G videoconferencing kit. More »
#patents

Apple Patent Implies iPod to Get a Unibody
Last October, Apple started using unibody designs in their MacBook and MacBook Pro. A newly uncovered patent suggests that the next product to incorporate this aluminum case may be the iPod. More »
#patent

Apple's Patent Hints at iChat AV Video Answering Machine Message
This patent for automatically sending an audio or video reply to an iChat call has us excited, because it could point to automated replies not just on computers, but via the iPhone as well. More »
#patents

Apple Patents Movement Gestures for the iPhone
Apple recently applied for a patent for "movement-based interfaces for personal media devices," which means a more advanced accelerometer and movement gestures for the iPhone. More »
#apple

Shot of Jailbroken iPhone Sneaks Into Apple Patent Application
Looks like somebody over at the Apple legal department has been enjoying a little Jailbreak action, because a sketch in a recent patent application includes some features a stock iPhone just doesn't have. Update: More »
#apple

Apple's Ideas for Seamless Biometric Security on iPhone and MacBook
To me, the biometric readers you see on most laptops are obnoxious blemishes—they really can't make them more discrete? Apple feels the same way, so I like their ideas for seamless biometric security.
#apple

Apple Tablet Likely Described in Patent
Hidden within the usual litany of claims in a patent awarded this January-titled "Display Housing for Computing Device", which covers their current portable displays-Apple describes a tablet display, with the display housing the computer device. More »
#iphone

Apple Patent Would Automatically Adjust iPhone, Mac Volume
A newly published Apple patent reveals that the company has worked out a system that would auto-adjust the volume of the iPhone or MacBook speakers based on the levels of ambient noise. More »
#frivolouslawsuits

Tiny Company Sues Apple, Microsoft, and Google, Has Balls the Size of Texas
Cygnus Systems Inc, a small Michigan company, was recently awarded a patent for thumbnail previews of a file, and celebrated by immediately suing the biggest names in town. More »
#apple

Apple Patents For Liquid-Cooled Portables Surface
While us normal folk were gorging on turkey and fixings, the tireless US Patent Office was busy filing an interesting Apple patent detailing a mobile liquid cooling system—something that looks like it could be used in a future portable device.
#lawsuits

Apple Hit With Bizarre, Poorly Scanned iPhone Browsing Patent Suit
Granted, there aren't that many original ways to sue Apple anymore, but this one is just peculiar. Elliot Gottfurcht, a successful commercial real estate developer, is suing the company because he claims to hold a patent for "the way the iPhone navigates the Internet." He was indeed granted an internet-ish patent in late October, but it's hard to see how exactly it relates to Apple, or how this isn't just another example of Hail Mary patent extortion plot. UPDATE:It looks like the crux of Gottfurcht's claim against Apple is buried in the middle of the patent, and regards a number of methods for navigating web content. More »
#rfeverywhere

Apple Patent Forsees Gadget RF Connectivity Everywhere, From Shirts to Cars
Apple's just filed a patent titled "Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof" which is speculative, but basically offers us a sniff of how the future of gadget interconnectivity might be. Apple imagines small, intelligent and efficient RF transmitter-receivers that can handshake and pass data between gadgets and which are embedded everywhere, literally from your socks upwards. More »
#tivo

Tivo and Echostar DVR Patent Saga Ends With $104 Million Payout to Tivo
After getting resoundly swatted in court by Tivo time and again for walking all over its patent for a "multimedia time warping system" (cool retro-future speak for a DVR), Echostar (now just Dish) is finally admitting defeat once and for all. Following its loss to TiVo in a US Appeals court earlier this year, Echostar appealed to the Supreme Court, which just decided not to hear the case, leaving Echostar nowhere else to turn. More »
#patents

Automatic Cameraphone Zoom Shows Up In Sony Ericsson Patent App
I guess the complicated combination of accelerometers and proximity sensors isn't trivial technology, but this one really should have been done by now: automatic zoom based on camera movement. In a new patent application, Sony Ericsson has detailed technology that judges your intention to zoom by measuring the camera's distance from your body, zooming in as it moves further away. The patent is just for cameraphones at the moment, but there's no reason that it couldn't (or shouldn't) crop up in the next generation of point and shoots as well. [UnwiredView via Engadget]
#cellphones

Google 'Instant Bid' Wireless Patent Could Threaten Cellular, Wi-Fi Providers
If Android sputters out and fades away, Google might have another plan to shake up the phone industry. In a patent filed and 2007 and published this week, Google details plans for an "Instant Bid" system for dealing with wireless connections. The concept is pretty straightforward: devices broadcast their request for service, and available networks automatically return a list of price offers for that service. The system makes perfect sense for locations with competing Wi-Fi hotspots, but the application specifically talks about telecommunication devices. That's where things get interesting. More »
#drmabsurdities

Apple Patents DRM For Pairing Only Official Nike Shoes With Nike+ Sensor
Everyone knows joggers can make the worst criminals—look at them, all smug with their fitness, rubbing it in your face on the sidewalk in front of your house as they make a quick and effortless getaway from whatever malfeasance they've just hoisted on an innocent and unsuspecting car-preferring public. And the intellectual property violations? Boy, don't get me started. But now those degenerates may be getting what's been coming—the days of pairing Nike+ with shoes other than those made by Nike may be numbered, if a recent Apple patent has anything to say about it. More »
#creative

Creative Patent Looks Like an Internet Tablet, Digital Camera and More!
This newly discovered patent by Creative, whether actually in production or not, looks like a pretty neat device. Because from what we can make out from the diagrams, it appears to be much more than just a another media player. Internet tablet seems to make sense, with that right oval on the side being a logical (OK, remotely possible) indication of a Wi-Fi antenna. But we've seen stuff like this before. Flip it around to the backside, however, and surprise! There's a camera. More »
#mactablet

Leaked Apple Patent Filing is Full of New Multitouch Tech For a Mac Tablet
Appleinsider has gotten their hands on a large patent filing from Apple that we haven't seen before, and it's loaded with plans for how a multitouch interface would work on a tablet Mac running full-blown OS X. It covers how small interface buttons will be handled, iPhone-like scrolling through lists, details on a full multi-touch keyboard, and a nifty pop-up scroll wheel. And on top of all that, it seems like it'll even work if you have freaky alien fingers! Let's take a closer look. More »
#multitouch

Apple's Multi-Touch Gesture Patent Has So Many Combinations It's a Shocker
You can already do a handful of gestures on the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro's trackpad, but Apple's going in and patenting a whole bunch more. Not only are there gestures in this application that involve a thumb and three fingers—something casual users will probably never use—but there's even a sample of how this would work for games like Tetris (shown after the jump) or Final Fantasy. Each "chord" would correspond to a character or movement or attack or something, which is definitely not simple like the Firefox/Opera mouse gestures we've gotten used to. Still, more gestures are always good, and we're sure the end product won't be ridiculous like these. [Unwired View via Crunchgear] More »
#iphone3g

Patent Shows Apple Researching Advanced iPhone Sensor Use, iChat Integration
Over at Mac Rumors they've unearthed a recent patent that shows Apple is researching cleverer use of the iPhone's many sensors. More nifty than turning the screen off when you put it to your ear, the new uses may include things like working out it's in your pocket (by temperature, proximity and ambient light) and then auto-switching to vibrate mode. Intriguingly, there's a hint that by detecting you've docked the phone, it may pass an ongoing phone call to a VoIP call over iChat. This all makes sense: making best use of those sensors and the iPhone's power... but like all Apple patents, we may never see these ideas in a real-life software update. [MacRumors]
#retromodo

Retromodo: Microsoft Takes a Few Steps Back With "The Veda" Computing System
While The Veda concept is a fairly new idea out of Microsoft's R&D labs, the design itself looks as though it was picked out of a time capsule sealed in the mid '90's. Apparently, the Veda can be used as a phone when the screen is closed, as a multimedia player when the screen is open, and as a normal portable PC by opening the screen and extracting the keyboard. It also looks about the same size as a library dictionary. More »
#appleiphonepatent

Full Apple Patent Shows iPhone Future Possibilities
The US Patent and Trademark Office has published today a 372-page document detailing every known and unknown aspect of the iPhone. As you can imagine, the most interesting bits of patent 20080122796 are the features never detailed before—like video conference, GPS, widget creator, multimedia messaging, and video recording. Apple secrecy often pushes USPTO patent publication to just mere days before the release of the actual product, to avoid the disclosure of new products or features. Could this mean that we will see some—if not all—of these new listed features in the upcoming iPhone 2.0? We don't know for sure, but here's the complete list for you to judge. More »
#questionoftheday

Cellphone Call Quality Warning System: Useful or Redundant?
We were talking today in Campfire—Giz's virtual office—about Apple's newly uncovered patent on a system that warns you about bad quality or dropping cellular or Wi-Fi connections "ahead of time." Jason thought it could be useful to know that, so you could just avoid making the call. I thought that it wouldn't be useful at all, because if I needed to call, I would call anyway—and if the connection dropped, I would call again. Are we missing something? Do you really want to know the quality of a call beforehand, especially if you are traveling, and said quality is constantly changing as you move? And don't cellphones already warn you about dropping calls? More »
#apple

Apple Files Patent To Put Solar Cells on Portable Devices
Is Apple planning on giving their MacBooks, iPods and possibly the iPhone a solar powered boost of energy? Doubtful—but we know they have thought about it thanks to a recently published patent for "solar cells on portable devices." According to the patent, Apple would completely cover a device in a thin layer of solar cells—including the display to maximize the amount of power that the device could harness from the sun. More »
#law

Nintendo Billed $21 Million For Patent Infringement
A federal jury has ordered Nintendo to pay Anascape $21 million for infringing on patents, and almost ironically, all of this has nothing to do with the Wiimote. Instead, their violations were for the GameCube, WaveBird and Wii Classic controllers. The news doesn't come as any huge surprise, as during the last generation of consoles all three of the big manufacturers found themselves in hot ~~coffee~~ water for various controller patent issues—Microsoft just settled with Anascape for an undisclosed amount earlier this month. Nintendo is expected to seek an appeal using the argument, "It'sa not-ta me, Mario!" [Yahoo News]
#philips

High-Pressure Tooth Spray Cleans Teeth With Water, Not Bristles
Toothbrush-like contraptions that spray water into your teeth holes have been around for years, but Philips' new patent has several innovations that makes sure you don't blast your gums into submission. The spray head has probes that can detect how far away it is from your teeth, ensuring optimum distance. More »

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