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RIM patent application puts pressure on sensitive touchscreens for a possible unlock alternative
RIM's been busy on the patent application front lately, filing off concepts for anything from smartphone docks to rotating keypads -- even flirting with potential forays into forensics peripherals. Perhaps sensing the crushing need to differentiate its ailing BlackBerry brand, Waterloo's taken to the USPTO with a doc submitted last November that could do just that. The pressure-sensitive input scheme and touchscreen interface described therein would respond to a user-set pattern of force by granting access to a handheld device's features and applications. Sure sounds a heckuva lot like a new password protection implementation, but that's just our humble take. What it actually is, where it goes from this legal limbo and whether or not it ever winds up in BB 10 tech is truly up in the air. What you can count on, though, is a continued flood of in-process IP procurement from a company close to the edge.
Filipinos paying taxes by SMS
For us here in the States, April 17 was the deadline for filing those pesky 2006 taxes. There were probably a few million folks scrambling to get their tax filing completed online or with a mad dash to the post office. Why not pay taxes by SMS? After all, text messaging is a bigger industry than Hollywood. Alas, we're not quite there yet, but in the Philippines, the Bureau of Revenue Service is offering a tax filing service that works via text messaging. The SMS tax service, dubbed "PAYBIR," allows Filipino taxpayers with a tab of $281 or less to pay by whipping out their mobile. The service works in concert with Land Bank of the Philippines and Globe Telecom, which uses its G-Cash service to facilitate tax payments for SMS customers.[Via textually.org]
