Apple Patent Reveals Method of Attaching Sapphire Cover Glass to iPhone

Apple’s Patent – Ceramic Cover for Electronic Device Housing

It has been reported that though Apple had not introduced the rumoured sapphire displays with its updated iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones the company is working hard in bringing about a solution for the future according to the latest Apple patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which describes methods of attaching sapphire cover glass to the iPhone.

 Though the patent focuses on attachment methods, it does not indicate potential use of sapphire in electronic devices. The patent describes the use of either sapphire or zirconia which has been titled `Ceramic cover for electronic device housing’, both in crystalline type, to obtain appropriate transparency levels.

 Past inventions of Apple’s dealing with sapphire usually dealt with material production, and the ceramic cover housing patent explains in details the methods of fixing the ceramic cover housing on the handset indicating that instead of using adhesives which add extra thickness to the overall build, an attachment like mortise and tenon joints could be used.

In a single embodiment , the laser ablation technique has been adopted to carve out recesses in a sheet of sapphire which is specified between -.3 mm and 1.0 mm in thickness and a jet of fluid enables it to cool the material carrying away ablated ceramic which could resettle into a freshly cut recess.

Need for Specific Embodiments

Fixing the sapphire to the device housing requires Apple’s usual shock resistant thermoplastic peripheral side members, the thin black buffer zone which is seen on all iPhone and iPad model. Specific embodiments is needed for the peripheral material to hold the housing, the similar design seen in iPhone 6 while others look to cover areas which would remain exposed like the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The sapphire cover has dovetail recesses ablated into it while corresponding angled tenons are integrated together with the peripheral side member and when joined or moulded together in some cases, the components tend to create mechanical interlock providing substantial gap free construction. The peripheral member is made of a ceramic strengthen composite probably using ceramic fibres or particles mixed with polymers wherein these peripheral bodies could be disposed in one or two layers.

Patent Application – Inventor, Kelvin Kwong

Detailed in its patent filing the tech giant company is sinking assets in its sapphire display cover for its flagship smartphone product line. As per the invention, the use of sapphire or zirconia in crystalline form is used though Apple is likely to use sapphire, keeping in mind bet on the material with failed $578 million investment in GT Advanced.

The patent also gives further details with regards to alternative processes in achieving largely a similar design together with moulding techniques, secondary designs and exemplary implementation. Credits of its sapphire iPhone cover patent application go to Kelvin Kwong as its inventor which was first filed for in May 2013.

As with all Apple’s patents and it application, it is yet unknown when and if the said technology indicated would be making its way to the final product. We could wait for more updates coming from these quarters.

Beats Announces First Headphones under Apple

Beats Solo2 Wireless Headphones 

Beats has recently announced its first new product, Solo2 wireless headphones, since its acquisition by Apple. Apple has agreed to acquire the acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beat Music and Beats Electronic, which produces the popular Beats headphones, audio software and speakers.

Beats co-founders, Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre, as part of the acquisition, would be joining Apple who is acquiring the two companies for a sum of $3billion. The purchase price consists of around $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over a period of time.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO comments that `music is an important part of life and holds a special place in the hearts at Apple and hence they have been investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary team in order to continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world’.

 Jimmy Iovine adds that `he had always known in his heart that Beats belong with Apple and the idea started when the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, songwriters, artist and the music industry is something special’.

Largest Acquisition made by Apple

The deal is the largest acquisition ever made by Apple. Beats Electronics is the maker of a wide range of audio equipment, car audio systems besides headphones, audio software and the company is well known for its brand of high end consumer headphones and speakers.

The company had relationship with Monster and HTC earlier and its headphones as well as portable speaker line had a great presence at Apple Retail Store locations. In late January, the company had also launched a music subscription services to compete with Spotify, Pandora as well as Apple’s iTunes Radio though the service is young, had reportedly added about 200,00 subscribers since its launch.

The headphone can be connected to any chosen music player through Bluetooth and would be going on sale this month in the US for about $300 in black/blue, white and red. Besides the wireless capabilities, the updated headphones do not differ radically from Solo2 on ear headphones, joining Powerbeats2 earbuds and Studio headphones in Beats wireless products.

Headphones with Built-in Rechargeable Battery

The headphones come with a built-in rechargeable battery which can run up to 12 hours of wireless playback time and should one forget to charge the headphones or the battery goes off, all that is needed is to just plug in the RemoteTalk cable and use the pair wired while continuing with your music.

Moreover Users can receive calls, skip songs as well as adjust the volume levels with the use of the `b’ button and volume buttons on the ear cup, expecting good hours of wireless playback, according to the company. Beats President, Luke Wood has commented that `they are taking the most popular headphone in the world and adding wireless Bluetooth functions to it.

The Solo2 is a world class headphone lauded for its acoustics and it joins the growing family of successful wireless products’. It was reported that Apple has officially closed on the deal to purchase Beat Electronic for $3B where Apple had announced the deal in an official press release.

Project Management Software from a Reputable Company: Project Management, rather a smooth ride!

Comindware Project is a fresh new addition to the crowded market of Project Manager Software products vowing to take forward the benchmark, for such software, to a whole new level. The software by Comindware chiefly focuses on collaboration and features that will help you keep yourself organized, and with its own unique design it has got the look and feel of a winner.

Whenever someone considers purchasing project-managing software, they expect the product to be the best way to achieve their project management plan, tracking, reporting and collaborating. It is that dynamic software that one could look out for to serve their purposes right from the time of your WBS creation – identifying your tasks and subtasks - allocation and management of resources – defining priorities including task viewing pinned to a predictive Grantt Chart. You can export reports that can be used for client updates as well as invoicing depending on the employee time spent.

Ease of Implementation 

The cloud-based product for trials is easy to access and appears seamlessly without bugs. You will get tutorials available that will help you get familiar with this software. There are discounts offered on purchasing the product, like - 5 percent off on your first month’s payment or 10 percent discount on your first year’s payment.

Setups 

You are able to set up as many tasks as you want, but when you assign to anyone other than yourself, you will need to add him/her to your list of resources. Besides creating tasks, you can add deadlines to it as well and assign a person who will finish the task in future.

About People 

You can easily track your resources by just clicking on the People option in the software menu and select from the names of the people appearing in the list generated. Project management app-Comindware Project takes care of your resource allocation so that nobody is over scheduled and shows who are available to be assigned a task.

Charts and Teamwork 

A project manager software is always incomplete without a Grantt Chart and this version of the project software has not failed to provide that.

Optimized Team Collaboration 

This product is able to facilitate the most exciting aspect of getting your whole team involved in a particular task. It boosts employee engagement that automatically guarantees you of an increased productivity. Every person connected on a project will be able to communicate in a single room. You can even create private rooms in case you and your deputy need to exchange some private communications.

Pricing 

The company’s focus on collaboration reflects in the company’s pricing of such a highly recommended product and this company has a natural feel for the logistical parts of any project manager’s map. You can purchase it for about $300 a year for one user only. The prices decrease on addition of licenses. It would be really great thing if you buy it for 10 managers as your designated users will be able to use the product as well. All these features position this software as an affordable team collaborative project management software. The on premise product costs slightly more reasonably.

Swype Keyboard – Updated Version of App

Nuance Communication, Inc. has announced that its famous Swype keyboard for iPhone, iPod and iPad touch users with iOS8 would be available now in over 20 languages. Those iPhone and iPad users preferring Swype’s iOS keyboard will find more to tap into, in the updated version of the app.

Other features also include new intuitive emoji support besides the new keyboard layouts. iPad users can access all available Swype themes and its continuous touch technology will bring about a change in the way people feed in text on the smartphone which became the top paid third party keyboard within 24 hours of its launch on the App Store.

Swype is one of the many third party keyboards which have come up since Apple opened support for them in iOS 8 and though the built-in keyboard of Apple provides predictive typing as well as other features, some of the third party keyboard provides additional functionality like gesture based type and Swype is one of them.

Version 1.1 of Swype was released recently adding a number of features and tweaks for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users and one have the option of choosing from 21 languages which include 16 new ones which are available for download.

New Keyboard Layouts

Nuance Communication. Inc., has been a leading provider of voice and language solution for all businesses as well as consumers across the world and its technologies, applications and services has provided the users with enhanced way in interacting with devices and system.

Swype is a part of Nuance’s portfolio of touch, voice and natural language understanding innovations which defines new generations of smart systems and personal assistant technologies. People can experience more human conversation with the world’s most updated phone, computers, tablets, cars, TVs apps and service through Nuance technology, from leading manufacturers and operators.

 The app owned by Nuance has added new keyboard layouts which supports AZERTY as well as QWERTZ besides the tradition QWERTY style. `Sound on keypress’ enabled will help to hear a sound while pressing a key or one could opt out of it according to the user’s preference.

New Swype Features

The features for new Swype for iPhone and iPod touch includes –

Expanded Language Support besides English, Italian, German, French and Spanish, Swype has more than 20 languages which include Czech, Dutch, Danish, UK English, Finnish, Greek, Hinglish, Hungarian, Irish, Norwegian, Polish Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish and Turkish.

It has intuitive Emoji input wherein when a message is send to a friend in anexcited mood; Swype automatically suggests the right emoji.

It predicts emoji based on the words entered and if the sender is feeling happy or confused, tenacious or satisfied, Swype tends to get the right emoji to suit the mood.

The Qwerty, Qwertz and Azerty keyboard layout for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch user with iOS 8 and new layout especially for iPad makes it easy to Swype whichever way it is held. All of the Swype’s built in themes are made available for the iPad and users of tablets could choose from the choice of Dark, Light, Sand, Earth and Sun for a different look and feel to the keyboard while other third party keyboards for iOS 8 include Fleksy, Ginger, and SwiftKey keyboard. The app is available at $1 in Apple’s App Store.

Apple/Barclaycard - New Co-branded Credit Card

With the launch of Apple Pay last month in the US, Apple and Barclaycard have come up with a new co-branded credit card with embedded EMV chip and pin support together with revised rewards and financing options.The latest Apple Rewards cards comes now with three points on each dollar spent at the Apple Store, one point for a dollar on all purchases and two for restaurants.

When a user reaches the threshold of 2,500 points, they are eligible to receive a $25 Apple Store Gift Card. Barclaycard recently announced a revamped version on its credit card partnership with Apple and the Barclaycard Apple Rewards Visa, offering new Apple rewards program as well as financing deal through AppleInsider.

Moreover, the cards also provides a privilege to the customers with the ability to finance purchases that are made through Apple with no interest for purchases made in the first thirty days, on opening an account and the purchases made under $498 could be financed for 6 months while purchases under $998 for 12 months and over $999 for 18 months.

The new card is an improvement from the earlier Barclaycard with iTunes Rewards whichdid not offer a triple points rewards for their consumers and started off by paying only two points on every dollar spent at the Apple Store or iTunes Store with one point on every dollar spent anywhere else.

Stronger Security Support – Chip & Pin 

The pay-out at 2,500 points was at iTunes gift card instead of an Apple Store gift card and reaching that threshold seemed a bit difficult for several customers without the option of the triple points.However, though the card is not confirmed yet to work with Apple Pay, it is expected since both Visa as well as Barclaycard is participating partners.

Moreover the new card also includes a stronger security support of Chip & Pin security and not Chip and signature as in the case of most of the other latest cards in the US, with embedded EMV Chip for the purpose of security.

Barclaycard Apple Rewards Visa can be applied for, at present on Barclaycards’ Official website and Apple is also promoting updated card with its reward and financing options on the online store of the company.

Though as of now, the new Barclaycard Apple Visa Rewards does not work with Apple Pay, support for Apple’s mobile payment system is expected keeping in mind that Barclaycard is a supporter of the system together with Visa.

Apple to Enable Apple Pay 

Users could apply for the Barclaycard Visa with Apple rewards wherein they can receive a reply within a short span of time of around 30 seconds and if the same is approved, a new account can be activated for immediate use at Apple.

Apple, it is said is planning to enable the card for Apple Pay soon, given to understand that Barclaycard is one of the participating Apple Pay partners as well as Apple’s long standing retail partner. To get to know on more details, users could check with Barclaycards which has a new FAQ at its website providing details on the specifics of earning and claiming rewards.