Apple, a funky little start-up based in Cupertino, has recently filed a couple of patents which will have hairs standing on end and eyebrows rising incredulously across the globe. Patent one describes a technology the company is working on called the "illuminated touchpad" -- a kind of input device which could track your movements and provide visual feedback via a lighted surface. The application suggests that the optic effects will be linked to input on the device's facade, and that the display might be capable of glowing, ambiguous color effects, as well as direct and specific reaction to motion. Patent two is something of a historical filing. With the launch of Panther (10.3, for you youngsters), Apple had plans to turn your iPod into a
take-anywhere home folder, one which you could simply
boot into using whatever OS X box you happened to have around. Clearly it never happened, but the company has re-filed for a variant of that system, so don't be surprised if you see this technology rearing its head again -- of course, who really knows what The Wizard is doing behind the silicon curtain?
[Via
AppleInsider]
Read - Illuminated touchpad
Read - Method and apparatus rendering user accounts portable
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 11:08AM
ah... as Apple struggles to come out with original thoughts...too bad their "ideas" suck. Guess they'll just have to keep stealing other people's ideas and buying off what they can. Should have a great bit of money to buy people's ideas now with those funny iPhone things selling.
Drew @ Jul 18th 2007 11:10AM
Yeah because you know Microsoft is sooo original...
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 11:23AM
wasn't advocating for M$ =) but they did make a better buy when they paid for the idea of the pc coffee table - oh and who's "new" interface is gonna look like vista? just sayin' ... all these companies lack originality, but this whole filing of patents i feel is to just keep up appearances....since when does apple (or microsoft) care about the law and copyright?
paloooz @ Jul 18th 2007 12:00PM
Yeah man. That big-ass table is pretty awesome. I can't wait to get my own $10,000 big-ass table.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
Mrmean @ Jul 18th 2007 12:03PM
lol, butt hurt much?
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 12:05PM
hehe yea well wait til it comes down in price - just like the overpriced iphone =) which between it's price and my verizon contract (oh and edge sucking) is the only reason I wasn't camping out for one. but still, i wonder what apple is gonna do with these patents here...maybe the light up touch pads are for a space age simon says game.
Nick @ Jul 18th 2007 12:33PM
haha funny when people feel the need to brag about Vista when they shouldn't be.
halfeatenfish @ Jul 18th 2007 1:16PM
@Tom:
you say: 'oh and who's "new" interface is gonna look like vista?'
I guess you haven't gazed upon OS X for the last 5 years.... that "new" interface you speak of is quite old.
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 1:53PM
actually i have no idea what panther cheetah tiger whale dolphin monkey cockatoo tucan elephant dinosaur whatever looks like - but from what i've been reading here it's simply copying -some- design ideas off vista. i highly doubt it's COMPLETELY the same and of course I know OSX has been around for a while, actually I'm on a crapintosh right now...but my point is much broader. as everyone else states here some of these "ideas" that are trying to be patented which already exist - much like the example i brought up...but it was not meant to say one is better than the other or anything like that. the point is basically what all these comments are about... "wtf? it's already been done"
paloooz @ Jul 18th 2007 2:00PM
You know, for someone capable of typing and speaking English (although barely, it's English nonetheless) ... I would expect you to know when you call it quits. Yet, time and time again, you feel the need to extend your ignorance into 2, 3, even 4 comments.
Why don't you just stop while you're ahead?
ssuk @ Jul 18th 2007 3:22PM
Come on guys, are you telling me that it's something NEW that MS and Apple are lifting ideas off each other? Hell, where have you been for the last 20 odd years?
popemello @ Jul 18th 2007 11:20AM
Too bad... the Korg KAOS PAD, a midi / sound device already has a lit, touch sensitive pad - works very well too!
Martin @ Jul 18th 2007 11:21AM
It's not like light up touchpads are so original, Toshiba's had them for years.
Argot @ Jul 18th 2007 11:27AM
No, you are wrong.
Please apply RDF as prescribed by Jobs.
PJK @ Jul 18th 2007 11:24AM
I don't understand how someone can have such a rabid allegiance too or hatred of a corporation. They only care about you spending money on their products, and they will carefully balance the amount they help/screw you based on how that effects the bottom line. All companies are the same, no matter how effective their marketing is at making them appear to be different.
PJK @ Jul 18th 2007 11:25AM
That wasn't directed at any comment in particular, just the general love/hate apple thing we got going in the comments generally.
halfeatenfish @ Jul 18th 2007 1:22PM
It IS silly isn't it? Both companies have their ups and downs. But I see it like this: You have Apple guys who have a much better user experience, but low market share. So they are self conscious about that. These are the Mac evangelists.
You have MS guys who are afraid to admit that Apple makes really good stuff. These are the guys that for years have said that Mac OS is all eye-candy. Those same guys are now gushing about how beautiful Vista is...
Me, I use both. I use my Mac for most things, but I don't think twice about using the PC for things it does better. WIth virtualization, I can do it in one box, so I'm a Mac guy now.
jaapV @ Jul 18th 2007 11:24AM
For me, these patents are all very 'obvious', meaning that they're not very revolutionary. This makes it hard to defend unless it is a part of a patent portfolio.
I mean, a patent of a thouchpad that lights up when you touch it? Isn't that what a touchscreen does? I believe those in-bar game machines do that?
Hell, even my Philips GoGear does that.
Sparks @ Jul 18th 2007 2:53PM
Well, I gather (from their other filed patents) that the 'light up' feedback thing is in conjunction mostly with a new trackpad or with the supposed mouse with the touch-sensitive surface.
That said, and all other comments on companies involved aside... it seems to me that we've reached a point in general where people are pre-emptively patenting things in self-defense. In other words, companies who want to make something will patent it specifically so that if they make it, someone *else* (either a patent-holding clearinghouse, or a competitor) doesn't go patent it and then turn around to sue them. Which is not the way the patent system should be used, but seems to be what it's become.
Señor Swanky @ Jul 18th 2007 11:31AM
This is a deceptive patent-- it's for the iPhone, not literally a trackpad. How else to submit patent applications without showing your intentions?
Think out of the geek-box, geeks. Sheesh. When Microsoft patents something, they show their hand, i.e., a device that intends to destroy users' spirit, patent application #1W1LLSKRWU.
Ignacio @ Jul 18th 2007 11:44AM
You can easily recognize Apple patent applications by the non-human hands & fingers used to illustrate them...
Al @ Jul 18th 2007 12:00PM
As for follow your finger movements, I wonder if it will be like the good old palms and wince with the fake "ink" when you write something in the input area as visual feedback..
I have absolutely no interest in the iphone, especially being in korea.. however about the home directory idea... to take that a step further it would be nice to use the iphone as a supertouchpad as I prefer touchpads over mice, balls, etc anyday... i enjoy near silence from tapping the pad instead of clicking, horizontal/vertical scrolling in silence without clicking...
Some people here are interested in the iphone but not many.. only hype about the beauty and it's a foreign product... but it's a big letdown otherwise.. as a side note, it's interesting how not a lot of people want a prada or make a big deal about it :)
darius @ Jul 18th 2007 12:09PM
dude your just a hater "some people are interested but not many" you just cant afford it but to see that phone and ACTUALLY use it and with the memory itself the iphone is now the NEW standard and whether any of you want to admit it or not in 2 years youll all be using something similar, it just shocks me to see that that there is actually negative response surrounding the phone and not because of the technology in it but just the monopoly of it, i mean its a product ppl and if it it was 2 or 3 hundred dollars less you would ALL love it
Al @ Jul 18th 2007 7:15PM
i give credit where it's due.. the iphone has its merits but apple has a long history of doing a kickass job on version 2.0... i could afford the iphone but i would rather put that money towards a nice shiny new dslr camera, keep it banked for the kids or turbo kit for the [grocery getter] car
as for using something similar in 2 years, we'll see... the iphone just blended all of the "cool" features in other devices into one... many touchscreen mp3 players exist and i see people with them on the subway.. too many people watching tv on their phones.. the iphone is cool but it lacks all of the things that would make me want to jump for it.. that iphone will have far from a monopoly until they price it around $100 for joe average, mom and pop and the hype is over and it's just as common as any nokia, samsung or cyon/lg phone
i'm so glad to have left canada.. the phones in korea are so much cheaper, beautiful and feature packed.. sorta like how cars are tuned down or stripped before exported... canada/usa really loves to milk their customers good
anyways it's just a product (as you said) get over it :)
spil @ Jul 18th 2007 12:06PM
Screw light up touchpads, I want me an iPod I can boot OS X from! (although couldn't I do this any way, by just putting OS X on the iPod in disk mode?)
paloooz @ Jul 18th 2007 12:10PM
You'd have to symlink /Volumes/x/Users/x to /Users/x and restart. I can't verify that right now, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.
darius @ Jul 18th 2007 12:09PM
now is it me or did apple have a windows operating system out before M$, i mean yes Microsoft sells way more OS's but lets understand that M$ arent the pioneers of anything to where as though apple has always tried to bring new products that intergrate life with technology, lets also remember that patent battles hold back technologys for years which M$ is well known for doing
John @ Jul 18th 2007 12:15PM
My guess is that behind the 'silicon curtain', the 'wizard' is rolling around in a pile of money, Scrooge McDuck style.
joe @ Jul 18th 2007 12:23PM
Can't you Apple guys defend Apple without trashing Microsoft?
Chris @ Jul 18th 2007 1:44PM
What?! That takes all the fun out of it! :P
johnnyg0 @ Jul 18th 2007 12:39PM
Wha? Did Apple just patented the Korg Kaoss Pad?
How can a company put a patent on something that has been for sale for years?
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 12:41PM
lol the iphone isn't the new standard! i mean i'm VERY happy it's bringing more users to the cell phone "PDA" (for lack of better wording) market finally after these types of phones have been around for years. So this means more push on the mobile internet front, but that's the only thing i'm glad for. if iphone had a lower price, then i'd also be happy that other companies would have to lower theirs to compete. but that hasn't happened yet. but if you think the iphone is original, then you'd be the wrong person i'd want to review this patent application! lol
Mr. @ Jul 18th 2007 1:06PM
Can you guys just give it a break! Geez its a friggin patent. Apple made no claims to the public, there was no new product release, no big announcement or marketing campaign... They just filed for a patent! Seriously, they should just disable comments on any Apple related post. You guys just lose it over this company, and I have no idea why (you sound like the Apple fanatics in the 90's).
Engadget could put up a post about Steve Jobs taking a crap, and you guys would just go off about "how un-innovative his crap is", or "its not a revolutionary crap because so and so had a crap the same color the other day".
Get a life people! Apple isnt going anywhere.
Chris @ Jul 18th 2007 1:41PM
Mr. - That wasn't a very innovative comment. We all know Steve Job's crap looks like shiny Web 2.0 graphics.
Tom @ Jul 18th 2007 1:57PM
I agree with TheBigB. but also would like to bring up a recent engadget post about Apple's advertising and how it was stealing ideas for commercials, etc. oh and also how about the whole "iphone" name? apple's blatant disregard for authorship and creative rights and licensing is a giant middle finger to the audience in which they try to attract - designers/creatives. "yes, buy our computer, create your pretty graphics...you never know maybe one day something you slaved over can be stolen and used in one of our commercials - or better yet maybe we'll patent YOUR idea for US!"
fli @ Jul 18th 2007 3:38PM
Hey did any of u guys ever see the ipod commerical for the 5g pods, where that one guy is swishing the ipods around and the colour trails follow?
Well imaging that those colour trails happen whenever u drag ur fingers across ur touch pad for ur 6g ipod. wow ! I would want one.
Neptune5 @ Jul 18th 2007 4:39PM
With out IBM & Xerox, Apple wouldn't have Been as Successful
and with out Apple Microsoft would have been making bogus apps and everyone would probably still be using Line commands and no mouse.
it doesn't matter if the technology exists already, it's how you implement it and execute it so it can be a standard , IMB had the technology to make desktop PCs but they where greedy so they didin't
Xerox thought The Mouse & GUI where just toys and people wouldn't take it seriously , so when Apple came into the game and employed all these technologies together so that your mom and dad could use a computer with out a text book size manual ,
The whole world notice then IBM Noticed , Then Microsoft took notice
and the rest is History with out Steve Jobs/Apple IMB wouldn't have needed to make Microsoft the company it is today.
greatslack @ Jul 18th 2007 7:22PM
So we can recreate the Billie Jean video on our 2G iPhones?
HUKI365 @ Jul 19th 2007 7:16AM
What is the use of a backlit touchpad? Really? Surely it is easier to just intergrate a iPhone like interface? Imagine - desktop icons, or even the entire dock right there on your touchpad.
For regular computers integrate the touchpad instead of the numpad.
It just seems to me that visual feedback is a stepback.
TheBigB @ Jul 20th 2007 7:59AM
alright... ENOUGH!
lets shine some light on the points made above.
Apple is paying people for ideas;
is this really true? for my idea they we're the first OS to handle Jeff Han's Multi-touch screen
http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
this to clear out another point made: Apple copies from other companies.
Here I'm NOT stating that Microsoft ISN'T original, but because Microsoft's more popular to the wider public, it's just a misunderstanding people make because they assume Microsoft has the original idea.
And great, yet another comment discussion about the originality of Vista vs. OSX.
Yes, OSX is the original one, but that does not downgrade the originality of Vista. Alike most of the companies do (and some should start doing) Microsoft asked peoples opinion on product improvements, to deliver a quality product. Now I don't want to start a discussion on what Vista's quality is, but just to mention it. As a result, Vista looks like OSX in user-functional ways, because of it's costumers.
Kevin @ Jul 20th 2007 4:51PM
sounds like the "trace motion" lighting on the vx8550.