Apple Considers Using Iconic Logo As a Notification Light, Patent App Suggests (theverge.com) 42
Apple has applied for a patent to use the logo on the back of its phones as a notification light. The patent application, which was first spotted by Apple Insider, outlines how the "adjustable decoration" could respond to events such as "incoming communication" or "a calendar reminder" by changing its appearance or flashing to attract your attention. The Verge reports: The feature makes sense for Apple's products. After all, the company has a history of illuminating its logo on its older MacBooks, even if it dropped the design feature with the laptop's 2015 redesign. It wouldn't be a massive leap for it to bring back its illuminated logo with a little practical functionality added. The application makes frequent references to "cellular telephone" calls as part of its description, which heavily suggests that Apple is considering using the feature on a future iPhone. However, the patent also includes images showing a series of "illustrative electronic devices" including a laptop, a tablet, and what appears to be an iMac.
No (Score:5, Insightful)
This should not be fucking patentable. It's a fucking notification LED.
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This should not be fucking patentable. It's a fucking notification LED.
"Courage".
Yep. Purpose is a "camera in use"/face light (Score:2)
Agreed. Patents are written in a peculiar way to do legal history, so to know what the patent is about you have to start reading at the bottom of the claims section, then read up/backwards until you reach statements so general that they don't really mean anything useful.
It turns out this particular patent application says Apple is planning to use a light-up logo that flashes or changes color to indicate when the camera is on and probably when it detects a face or similar useful information about what the c
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It turns out this particular patent application says Apple is planning to use a light-up logo that flashes or changes color to indicate when the camera is on
It seemed a bit more specific than that - it seemed like an electronically controllable tint/haze/opacity/mirror layer, with a dialectric stack on top of that to make a thin-film interference filter. That sounds to me like much more arty effects than just lighting up or changing color.
Or, as opposed to and (Score:2)
Yes, there would be a layer on top of the light that would either change the tint (color), or a layer that could change the opacity of the layer (making it brighter and dinner), or haze.
So some kind of efeft with the light up logo - any of the above would meet the claims of the patent.
Which would activate based on the camera.
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This should not be fucking patentable. It's a fucking notification LED.
No it's not. Apple is patenting a logo, with on top of that an electronically controllable tint/haze/opacity/mirror, with on top of that a dialectric stack to make a thin-film interference filter, and on top of that a transparent layer.
A notification LED satisfies the same end-goals, sure. But patents aren't about end-goals; they're about how the device is constructed. The construction that Apple is proposing is completely unrelated to LEDs.
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Stacking things which exist on top of each other and putting it in the shape of an Apple logo is not a patentable invention. So it may be unrelated to LEDs, but it sure as heck is still related to the topic.
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And yet we know that Apple would also know that whatever they're doing is prior art or not unique enough to file a patent for, so I think that we must be misunderstanding something about the patent. It's not that I think Apple wouldn't try to patent something obvious, but I do think that they're likely not to waste their own time by constructing a patent for nothing. I tried reading the patent application and it is boring af, and I don't trust the summary is giving the whole story. It seems like it would be
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Stacking things which exist on top of each other and putting it in the shape of an Apple logo is not a patentable invention
It is patentable if stacking things on top of each other creates an effect that wouldn't be obvious, or if stacking them on top of each other is something that is difficult to do and not obvious. And it would have to be obvious _before_ you read about it.
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This should not be fucking patentable. It's a fucking notification LED.
Imagine you are an engineer at Apple who has this (reasonably obvious) idea. And you tell your boss "this should not be fucking patentable". Your boss agrees. Next year Apple implements this feature and they are hit by a lawsuit from some company that patented this "fucking unpatentable" feature.
You and your boss have some explaining to do.
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[1] https://blog.motorola.com/2019/09/05/motorola-one-zoom-perfect-every-perspective/ [motorola.com]
[2] OK, it's not shaped like a bitten apple, but I imagine that's not one of Apple's patent claims.
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A somewhat less aggressive approach to no (Score:2)
You really don't need obscenities to point out the absurdity.
And what's really absurd is that Apple might have thought they needed to do this because patent law has gone right off the rails. In no small part to companies like Apple patenting stupid shit like this.
Oh, I seem to have slipped into obscenity my
...on a logoed device (Score:3)
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And I'm one of the persons that want to keep notifications at a minimum since they are disruptive.
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While I’m here, let me throw in one last complaint:
Desktop Phone Voice Recording Indicator (Score:3, Insightful)
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Lenovo ThinkPad laptops currently use the red dot in the i of Think as an indicator, so that's a current example of prior art that uses the logo as an indicator.
The black poison apple? (Score:1)
The black poison apple is iconic all right, a great marker for shallow, technologically clueless, brand obsessed, credit card maxed misty eyed wannabees to be precise.
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The black poison apple is iconic all right, a great marker for shallow, technologically clueless, brand obsessed, credit card maxed misty eyed wannabees to be precise.
Fucking Thug Apple and its Fucking paid social media Thugmods. This is how Apple makes everbody hate it.
Oh FFS this already exists. (Score:3)
Some Chinese company had little gmail-style icon boxes that sat on one's desk and could be programmed to light up in varying colours and patterns to communicate various events. THIS IS NOT NEW. It is at least 5 years old if not more, for sale in Canada at MemEx.
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This Apple patent is about: a logo, with on top of that an electronically controllable tint/haze/opacity/mirror, with on top of that a dialectric stack to make a thin-film interference filter, and on top of that a transparent layer.
That's literally the configuration that the Apple patent is patenting, not more, not less.
This construction isn't even vaguely related to the gmail-style icon boxes. Sure they achieve the same end. But a patent is about how the device is constructed, not about the ends it achieve
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Stacking things which exist on top of each other and putting it in the shape of an Apple logo is not a patentable invention.
LOL (Score:1)
How will it ... (Score:2)
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Bright logo, keep walking to find that powerful 5G network.
No light on? Stop and the network is ready for use? The tracking and ads are ready on the fast new network.
Add some rainbow colors.
Red: Keep searching.
Green: Network found.
Yellow: too many users on the same tower? Suggests looking for another tower?
Blue? Police cell-site simulator in use in the area?
One light becomes the new GUI for very average users. Like clicking on o
Motorola beat them to it (Score:1)
It could look very nice. (Score:2)
The last time I used over head transparency film was to print some colored stripes to put behind the Apple logo in my PPC iBook G4 from 2004 to get the old logo look. It lit up nicely and looked great. I put the thing in about a week before Jobs purged the company of the old Apple ][ style logos.
E-Ink (Score:2)
Just use an e-ink display on the back of the phone, that way you can show actual information.
Commenters continue to disappoint on patents (Score:2)
After all of these years, why are there still so few slashdot commenters that read the *claims* of a patent?
Everyone is just reading the summary and shouting "herp derp obvious/general".
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ThinkPad Red Dot? (Score:2)
If nothing else, as an indicator of on/off status if it's lit, but I think there was some generation that used it as a "breathing" sleep indicator similar to what Apple's done in the past.