We look back at the biggest patents filed and acquisitions made this month including Apple, Google and Microsoft
Innovation is one of the most important facets of the technology industry. In terms of the day-to-day news that we at TrustedReviews cover, that innovation tends to manifest itself in two main ways: patents and acquisitions.
Whether they’re coming up with a bright idea themselves, or purchasing smaller companies that have had those bright ideas, all the big guns are active in these two key areas. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung - they’re all at it.
With that in mind, we'll be taking a look back at the most interesting patents and acquisitions launched each month, and how they might impact the services, products, and apps we use each day.
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Google acquires Odysee
Google has purchased Odysee, an iOS and Android app concerned with the backing up and sharing of photos.
But why would Google need such a company? Its Google+ Photos service already automatically backs up your smartphone photos to the cloud, and obviously sharing these photos is already integral.
Odysee’s capabilities are a little different, though. It allows for full quality photos to be automatically backed up, via the cloud, to your computer. At the same time, Odysee concerns itself with the seamless private sharing of these high quality images.
Also, it’s been rumoured that Google is looking to separate its Photos feature into a stand-alone app. Bulking out its feature-set would be a natural move if the company wants to be able to compete with the other formidable photo-sharing services out there.
Apple buttonless Touch ID patent
We’ve recently heard claims that Apple is set to improve its Touch ID fingerprint recognition system for the next iPhone, but there’s something far more exciting on the horizon.
According to a patent that was recently unveiled, Apple is looking at ways to incorporate Touch ID into the very touchscreen of its devices. The potential for a significantly smaller iPhone is obvious here.
Apple is now making iPhones with significantly bigger displays then before, and it can do so because these phones are slimmer, and the side bezels are thinner. There’s one major area to improve, though, and that’s the top and bottom bezel areas.
Put simply, the iPhone’s signature home button is now limiting how compact Apple can go with its phone design. It will almost certainly be removed in the years to come, and now we know that this won’t come at the expense of Touch ID.
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Google auto-Incognito Mode patent
Google has just won a patent for a kind of smart Incognito Mode that automatically engages a private web browsing session where appropriate.
Right now, if you want to start a private web browsing session, where no cookies, history, or web caching files are stored locally, you have to do so manually.
Google’s proposal is that this process could be initiated automatically every time you access certain websites - whether they relate to banking, log-in screens, payment inputs, or something a little more risqué.
Given that this patent request was filed back in 2011, it’s quite possible that Google is about ready to roll with this handy feature in a near-future version of Chrome.
Apple iPhone thumbstick home button patent
If we’ve learned anything about patents, it’s that they don’t signify a direction a company is going to take, but rather some of many paths it might take.
For example, while the Apple patent above suggests that the company wants to do away with the home button altogether from its iOS devices, another patent revealed in January points to the company adding even more functionality to it.
This one will be of interest to gamers - yes, even those hardcore gamers who typically turn their nose up at mobile games.
The patent puts forward a technology whereby Apple integrates a pop-out analogue nub into the iPhone’s home button. The whole home button literally pops out of its housing by a millimetre or two, offering full X and Y axis inputs as well as Z axis (so you can still press it in like a button).
Suddenly, the iPhone becomes a proper gaming device (of sorts) with a physical input method. We’re a little dubious that this will ever become a reality - a home button-free future sounds far more likely - but it’s an interesting glimpse at a possible future nonetheless.
Microsoft Sunrise acquisition
Microsoft is on a bit of a productivity app acquisition spree at the moment. Well, okay, this is the second notable productivity app acquisition it’s made in as many months.
But given the rapid turn-around and complete integration of the Accompli email app - now Outlook - we reckon the acquisition of the Sunrise calendar app is worthy of mention.
Especially as Microsoft has confirmed that it wants nothing less than to reinvent the way people use calendars with this acquisition, and that it’s all part of its plan to “rethink the productivity category.”
Sunrise is notable for incorporating multiple third party apps and services into a polished calendar app, thus providing a more comprehensive organisational tool than is usual.
If nothing else, this acquisition shows that Microsoft’s new cross-platform software focus is very real, and that Google probably needs to be a little worried.
Apple VR headset patent
Another Apple patent to round off our selection, but this time it has nothing to do with the iPhone's home button.
The Apple VR headset essentially appears to be Apple’s take on the Samsung Gear VR - that is, a cheap head-mounted dock that turns your smartphone into a virtual reality headset.
The patent, which has been given the snappy name of ‘Head-Mounted Display Apparatus for Retaining a Portable Electronic Device with Display,’ talks about using an iPhone as the primary screen for a VR experience.
It also mentions a separate remote control that would be used in addition to the headset.
As ever with Apple patents, this is absolutely no guarantee that Apple is planning to enter the VR space. But it’s still interesting to note that the company has been researching virtual reality technology, and that in doing so it came to a very similar conclusion to its great Korean rival.