Apparently this batch of patent applications is for a dynamic surface which can "create physical bumps or dots for the user to feel when it is in keyboard mode." In theory, such a surface would allow you to orient your fingers better on the touchscreen for typing, but never interfere with other actions.

As usual, this is yet another neat tease about the lovely tablet which will fit into my handbag one day. Let's just hope it's soon though, because all the rumors, speculation, and gossip are starting to drive me nuts. [Apple Insider]

"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours." That was the only official Apple statement we've yet seen on the matter, by Bruce Sewell, Apple's General Counsel and senior vice president.

Apple is countersuing Nokia for 13 infringing patents. That's three more than Nokia. And it's hard to imagine Nokia coming back at Apple with any less than 18 at this point.

UPDATE: For those interested in the claims themselves, they're here.

Apple Countersues Nokia

CUPERTINO, California-December 11, 2009-Responding to a lawsuit brought against the company by Nokia, Apple® today filed a countersuit claiming that Nokia is infringing 13 Apple patents.

"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," said Bruce Sewell, Apple's General Counsel and senior vice president.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

First filed in June 2008 but just unearthed by AppleInsider, it's been called the "Aesthetically pleasing universal dock" and is made from an "elastic sponge-like substance." It would be able to -

"retain its shape between uses or could be reset using a button placed on the front of the dock for use with a different device. This would eliminate the current problem of differing generations of iPods/iPhones needing adapters to fit into certain docks and chargers."

A shape-shifting iPod dock to match your shape-changing Jaguar C-XS car, perhaps? [AppleInsider]

Apple's patent application notes that it is in the best interest of an electronics manufacturer to be able to know when a device has been "compromised" and opened, thus voiding its warranty. Unauthorized tampering with an electronic device can destroy it, and without evidence of such tampering, a manufacturer may be obligated to support its warranty. Apple's technology, the company said, could save manufacturers "substantial costs.

In another patent, Apple is looking to broaden the role of the accelerometer in it's portable devices, noting that motion could be used to navigate and control the device itself. For example, users could shake the device to play a song or flick it to scroll through menus. That idea has been tossed around before as I recall, so it's not really all that surprising. Perhaps its just a ploy to get us to buy more iPods as more movement will likely result in more drops, tosses and smashes. [Appleinsider]

The patent for an "Expandable Control Device Via Hardware Attachment" touches on a number of control options. According to details from the patent, Sony's motion controller may offer the option to join two motion control units together lengthwise—previously seen in an earlier patent—or in an H-shape.

And as pictured above, a unique, secondary controller attachment may offer a solution to the one DualShock in one hand, one motion controller in the other hand scheme seen at Sony's Tokyo Game Show press conference.

Other potentially interesting add-on possibilities are attachments shaped like a baseball bat, a the business end of a flashlight and a rattle-like sphere that's very maraca like.

Perhaps more interesting is a proposed biometric reader attachment, including a "thumb reader used to validate the identity of the person holding the controller by analyzing the biometric data provided by the attachment."

Additional possibilities included microphone attachments and swappable control faceplates—letting the player customize whether a motion controller has buttons or a d-pad or even a dial.

Of course, this is a patent, not a product announcement. Sony could simply release the motion controller as previously seen, with none of these possibilities becoming actual products. But take a look at some of the drawings in the gallery below and check out the patent to see what Sony may have in mind.

Expandable Control Device Via Hardware Attachment [USPTO.gov]

The suit bears a lot of the stamps of hollow patent trollery, from the outside-the-industry plaintiff company to the oddly late filing. (The iPhone has been out for a couple years now, and it's had a camera the whole time.) But these guys aren't bullshitting: they have a history of winning similar suits against major camera maufacturers, including Sony, which paid them $25m in 2001, and Canon, which paid them $34m in damages in 2003. They've entered into licensing agreements with "many" of the companies they've sued, which include the likes of Samsung, Nokia and Nikon. So, what's their secret? Patents like this:
Digital cameras, have you ever heard of them?

To have a patent as fundamental as this—among others, including a patent on digital shutter buttons, and one for storage and display methods for digital images—awarded in the early 90s and upheld by the courts is nothing to scoff at. When this thing finally kicks off—the scheduling conference isn't until January, so it'll probably be a few months before we see fireworks—it'll be one to watch, since companies who land in court with Apple have a tendency to—one sec—DIE HORRIBLY. There. [LoopinSight, specific patent list here]

The technology has been available for years, and the DSLR market has been veering toward the general public ever since that cursed D was appended to it, so it's almost surprising that it's taking this long for touchscreens to infiltrate. But not really: DSLRs are proudly retro, built around mirror box and lens designs that date back decades, and covered in buttons to the point that, to an amateur, they are totally unapproachable. That said, the standard Canon and Nikon button layouts do work pretty well, and there are a lot of parameters you've got to deal with, so, well, here we are, staring down a Canon patent application for a basic touchscreen interface, in 2009:

Here's how it works, as interpreted by the Photography Bay:

1. Sliding your finger across the panel in a vertical direction changes aperture values.

2. Sliding your finger across the panel in a horizontal direction changes shutter speed.

Other features contemplated by the patent that may be enabled by touch entry through the LCD include the following settings:

Focus detection area
Exposure correction value
Flash adjustment correction value
Photometry mode (i.e., metering mode)
Drive mode
ISO value
Auto focus mode
White balance mode
Exposure correction value

In other words, the touchscreen would do everything your current 1970s aviation panel of a DSLR backside would, without the buttons.

In practice, I think a DSLR touchscreen would need to be supplementary. Given that a lot of DSLR adjustment is done with the photographer's eye in the viewfinder, the tactile feedback provided by buttons will be hard to replace; while it might make settings menus a bit easier to navigate, having a touchscreen won't do much good when you're trying to adjust aperture on the fly, or pull down your exposure time after a light flickers on. However wonderfully or horrifically it's executed, though, a touchscreen DSLR from a major manufacturer will happen, and probably soon. [Photography Bay]

Apple Patent Describes iPod UI "Pushed" to Other Devices

An Apple patent filed in May 2008 describes a way of pushing whatever UI Apple wants to non-Apple hardware, for consistency's sake. That non-Apple hardware could include car stereos or something like the Chumby One (which has iPod functionality, but with a lookalike UI). It's a nice idea for Apple, but could be tricky given the myriad different hardware that might want to take advantage. What if the hardware has a resistive touchscreen, or a shitty processor? Might it just be better to use a custom interface for iPod integration? Regardless, it's in Remainders because it's not really that unexpected or interesting in its implications. [MacRumors]

Philips Announces Very Pretty Pro LCD Line

Philips' new high-end LCD line looks pretty fantastic, with two important caveats. First, let's drool a little: The two models (40- and 46-inch) have a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1ms response time, 5 HDMI ports (not sure why you'd need that many, but whatever) and a 200Hz refresh rate, with a nice brushed-aluminum look. Now, the caveats. First, they're UK only, and second, they're prohibitively expensive at about $3,000 and $4,100, respectively. Still, drool-worthy. [Engadget]

NYTimes Columnist Proposes Boycott of "Pro-Communist China" Bing

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has proposed a boycott of Microsoft's Bing search engine due to its supposed pro-Chinese-government censorship of search terms like "Dalai Lama" and "Tienanmen" when searched in simplified Chinese characters. In English and other non-Chinese languages, the results you'd expect from "Tienanmen" show up, but in Chinese, apparently it returns sanitized results (no massacre, in that case). Since I'm not really sure how to type simplified Chinese characters on an all-Amurrican MacBook Pro keyboard, I haven't tested it myself—but if true, it's a little underhanded on Microsoft's part, although certainly paling in comparison to, you know, the Chinese government. What's odd is that Google's Chinese search also returns censored results, but "to a much lesser extent," so I guess it's okay. Weird stuff. [TechFlash]

Ooma Adds New Handsets and International Plan

Internet phone company Ooma began shipping its new Telo handset as well as offering a very cheap international calling plan (500 minutes for $5 per month). Ooma, for those who don't know (I assume this includes everyone) varies from other VoIP services like Vonage by cutting out the monthly fees, instead packing them into a fairly expensive set-top box, at $250. So this international plan requiring a monthly fee is a big deal for them, but it winds up in Remainders because I honestly had not even heard of Ooma until this morning. Oops. [Electronista]

"Avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient [PlayStation Eye or wand-based motion control?—Ed], may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor's face or bounce off the actor's face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show."

The virtual avatars would be overlaid just like Joel Robinson's silhouette in Mystery Science Theater 3000. In fact, the patent application actually mentions the cult U.S comedy series.

"The avatar of the audience member 39a is now out of its seat, has rushed up to the actor in the scene, and has kicked the actor in the behind while the target is still displayed. The first participant to accomplish this may be awarded points…The kicked individual may be displaced or the portion of the body that is kicked may respond. Key to this aspect of the invention is modeling the physics and the interaction of the impacting object, e.g. the duck and the underlying object, e.g. the water, in a way that is realistic. Known game technology techniques can be used to accomplish this modeling."

Sony's patent also mentions the possibility of overlaying advertising like Nike and Coke logos. Come to think of it, being able to throw tomatoes at ads might actually get me to stop skipping them. At least until the novelty wears off. Either way, crazy stuff, no? [USPTO via Silicon Era via Kotaku]

The Gerbil Shirt wraps your torso in plastic tube passageways, making your bod a super highway of fun for Binky and Bart. The interior surfaces are textured for traction and have air vents for easy breathing.

Also, you can run a faucet through the tubes for "easy cleaning." (It helps if the gerbils are still inside.)

As bad as the idea may be, the Gerbil Shirt is still slightly more ethical than the inevitable follow-up, Gerbil Pants. [Patently Absurd via tywkiwdbi via Neatorama via OhGizmo!]

The story inspired widespread hyperventilation last week, most of which revolved around a few impassioned quotes:

Here it is, patent number7617530. Thanks, USPTO, for giving Microsoft, which is already a monopoly, a monopoly on something that's been in use since 1980 and wasn't invented by Microsoft. Here's Wikipedia's description of sudo, which you can meaningfully compare to Microsoft's description of its "invention".

This from Groklaw, a site that specializes in free and open source software legal affairs, i.e. exactly this kind of thing. But for whatever reason—zeal? clicks?—their reading of the patent, which we picked up, turn out to overblown. Says Sudo maintainer Todd Miller, via Ars:

I've already received a number of questions about US patent 7,617,530 that some people seem to believe might cover sudo. I don't think that is the case," he wrote. "Sudo simply doesn't work this way. When a command is run via sudo the user is actively running the command as a different user. What is described in the patent is a mechanism whereby an application or the operating system detects that an action needs to be run with increased privileges and automatically prompts the user with a list of potential users that have the appropriate privilege level to perform the task.

So, if not this, then what does the Microsoft patent cover? Back to Ars:

Specifically, it describes a user interface which displays accounts that have the necessary rights to perform an action when the user is blocked from performing an action that requires higher access privileges.

These are similar, but not patent similar.

Turns out, though, that there is a Linux tool called PolicyKit just like what Microsoft patented, which prompts users to switch to a higher-level user account when they hit against a permissions barrier. It was created after the patent was filed, but before it was made public. So, Microsoft, on all counts: not guilty. [ArsTechnica]

A system comprising: a pen-based input tablet configured to collect and organize received ink information into ink strokes.

"Upon the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, the ink manager notifies the handwriting recognition engine and organizes the preceding ink strokes into an ink phrase data structure...The present invention, in large part, relates to the observation that client applications and handwriting recognition software in pen-based computer systems can make far more accurate ink-related decisions based on entire ink phrases, rather than individual ink strokes."

I'm thinking a possible Apple tablet would still be a finger-based multi-touch device, but this seems to suggest Apple is also thinking about the note taking side of things, as well. Either way, tablets are mentioned all over the application…one step closer to Jesus' wet dream? [USPTO via Unwired View]

Now, touch screens are nothing new, obviously. The iPhone's an obvious example, as are the multitude of touchscreen handsets that have done their fair share of pinch zooming, screen swiping and touch typing in its wake.

Add in pressure sensitive gestures, however, and a new level of control descends on the venerable touchscreen. Again, Apple's been here before—at least with a 2007 patent—but nevertheless it's interesting to see a giant like Nokia weighing in with some ideas too (let's just hope they get their homework handed in before doomsday though, right?).

Like I said, the Apple one is going on two years old, and we haven't seen anything yet. Our expectations with these things must remain in the realm of the real and the grounded. Still, as we explained earlier, touchscreens are our future, and the added functionality provided by a pressure-sensitive screen seems an inevitability. Question is, who's going to be first to successfully drive this tech to where it really counts: Into the mainstream consumer market? [Unwired View via Engadget]

Apple Insider says this multitouch interface is designed to recognize specific user hands touching the device (personalized profiles!), and could differentiate between actions such as typing, or hands just resting on the surface. There's also talk of scrollwheel elements for basic OS X control and tactile feedback that wouldn't disrupt movement across the device surface.

Obviously, this seems like a fit for a tablet-based keyboard interface. But maybe it could work as a standalone as well. Many of the functions described revolve mostly around keyboard/tablet like functions, and subsitution gestures for direct object manipulation. And in the patent flowchart, the display seems to be listed as an entirely different component. Then again, it could just be a Red Herring. [Apple Insider via Electronista]

"The invention relates to an implement for coring bananas and filling the latter through the cored portion with ice cream and more particularly to a banana extractor and ice cream injector.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of an implement of this character, wherein the barrel or cylinder thereof is formed with a knife tip so that the said barrel or cylinder can be readily inserted within a banana to bore or core the same and thereafter a charge of ice cream introduced within the banana so that the same may be consumed, that is, the ice cream, on the eating of the banana, thus effecting a combination of banana and ice cream in a convenient and attractive form."

This sounds amazing. And why limit ourselves to ice cream? As Blam posits, filling a banana with peanut butter and jelly would also make for a damned near perfect snack. It's been over 75 years. How much longer do we have to wait for this thing? [Novah 11]

Sony's PS3 emotion-detecting patent would ostensibly work by picking up physical cues like laughter, though we're not exactly sure how it'll detect some of the other emotions it claims to, including sadness, boredom, joy, excitement and anger. It's kind of a cool idea—a game could adjust to your growing frustration by decreasing the difficulty before you heave the PS3 out the window in a fit of rage, for example. But if they plan on using humor, they better get out of the Humor Stone Age where the butt-kick wheel resides. May I suggest Glenn Beck, Fox News' fantastic up-and-coming satirist? [Joystiq]

Original 1967 mouse patent? Check. Crazy virtual reality input methods? Ditto. In addition to abandoned pyramid-shaped and Timex clock mice, highlights include a mouse that has a telephone built into it, and another that's built-into a telephone. [Technologizer]

If RIM's application is granted, it would allow a next-generation BlackBerry (something high-end like a Storm 3) to truly offer the best of both worlds when it comes to user input. [USPTO via Unwired View]

Today, tech companies are some of the worst offenders in patent application, filing crazy patents for any half-baked idea they can think up, without the slightest regard for whether an object can actually be made. That's not even going into patents for basic ideas like Page Up/Page Down keys. Questionable patents aside, the strict miniaturization policy might have finally given us an iPhone Nano.

The days of physical patents are over, but some are still collecting the rare miniature versions, including the roller skate and paper clip. They're pretty cool, especially if you're as big a paper clip fanatic as I am. [Wired]

The iPhone and iPod-related lawsuit, filed Wednesday, also includes Microsoft (Zune), Cowon (Curve), iRiver LG, high end speaker firm Bang & Olufsen, Philips and even iPhone clone manufacturer Meizu. There are 20 defendants named in all.

The lawsuit states that all 20 defendants have in one form or another abused a 2003 patent (left vague in the lawsuit) that "recognizes different swipe movements on a touchpad without having to provide visual feedback or to look at the player to understand what's taking place."

Tsera says it wants plain old money and "enhanced damages" from Apple for misuse of the patent. Good luck with that. [Apple Insider]