Apple Granted Patent for System With Wireless Messages To Enhance Location Accuracy

Apple Address Weakness Characteristic in GPS Based Navigation System

In a patent granted to Apple, the company imagines complete cities outfitted with low-power wireless transmitters capable of sending pinpoint precise location data as well as dynamic environmental alerts, to iPhones and in-car navigation systems. As issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Patent of Apple, tends to continue the investigation into beacon-based navigation of the company though on a grand scale. Rather than aiding iPhone owners in locating car that may be parked in an underground lot or locate their position utilising advanced geo-fencing algorithms, the latest invention of Apple tends to address weakness characteristic in all GPS –based navigation systems.

The present patent endeavours to resolve reception issue which come up in thickly inhabited cities, at times referred as urban canyon environments for their elevated buildings while simultaneously increasing the granularity of positioning data. Essentially, the solution of Apple tends to consume less power than A-GPS, Wi-Fi positioning as well as cellular tower triangulation procedures, all present augmentation to vanilla GPS.The plan calls for a multitude of stationary transmitters to be installed at strategic locations next in the vicinity of the city roads, like adjacent building, within pre-existing traffic lights, guard rails, roadside signs together with other structures.

Transmitter – A Smart Wireless Hub

Every transmitter is mostly a smart wireless hub rising with radio transceivers, which is a perfect configuration support cellular, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi and GPS data transfer proprieties and the equipment can be fed by AC line power or solar system.A stationary waypoint device, in operation broadcasts its location data, plotted on a Cartesian plane through wireless Bluetooth LE message.

Each message is sent at known signal strength enabling the receiving device such as iPhone or car to induce relative location built on received signal strength indicator – RSS value. The receiving device could utilise various techniques in determining its total position based on the number as well as quality of the messages received, with two choices comprising of triangulation together with time-of-flight computations. In some examples, an iPhone could utilise location data provided by static devices in performance with GPS details though the invention of Apple has the capability of operating as a locked system.

Apple’s Invention – A Role in Autonomous Vehicle Logic

As an addition, the transmitters could also send out z-axis data to be used on multi-level highways for instance, a measurement which is regularly available from commercial GPS system. With regards to navigation, the system can be organised in tracking vehicle movement with great degree of precision. A series of transmitters for instance, could be installed along off-ramps and on-ramps, forks in a road, freeway exits as well as other locations where the traditional GPS system tends to fail in resolving user position with sufficient accuracy.

Though it has not been mentioned in the recent document, the invention of Apple could play a role in autonomous vehicle logic and the described transmitters in particular could be shaped to broadcast rich data comprising of information with regards to traffic, road as well as other driving conditions. User for instance could be informed of an upcoming speed limit change, rough weather, and risky road condition while driving past a connected transmitter.

With the prevailing car equipment, these messages could present an audible alert and an onscreen dialogue. In future, nevertheless, the same roadside beacon could inform an on-board AI of the neighbouring atmosphere warning it to take action when necessary.

The Rise of the Robots — Friend or Foe?

Robots – Friends or Foe

Advancement in technology would mean that robots tend to look and behave like humans and also seem to behave like their human counterparts. Financial Times’ Richard Waters and Kana Inagaki have learned the latest humanoid robots and debate whether these machines could really bring about a change in the society. FT has put forth this question whether robots could be Friend or Foe in their very 21st century YouTube series `Living with Robots', all about man and machine.

Japan seems to have a thing for robots right from aiding the elderly in Japan to humanoid robots being created and the series going ahead in the role of these man-made machines, in our home to our workplace and to the world that surround us.

The series, ‘Man or Machine? Building Robots Like Us takes us to Japan wherein the researcher are making use of the prevailing technological advances by creating robots which look like humans. In the documentary – Man or Machine, Building Robots Like Us, there are two examples and Japanese one tends to focus on creating robots with faces and bodies like human beings. They are android and Kana Inagaki of Financial Times speaks to one of them, Matsukoroid, a popular late-night TV host.

Technology – Interesting Less Machine-Like

Chief executive of A-Lab, co-creator of Matsukoroid, Takeshi Mita had commented that people would find it creepy or scary on seeing an android at first sight, However, human seem to be malleable and hence they can accept the presence of androids with passage of time an occurrence which does not tend to happen with other robots. The Japanese method is to make the technology very interesting to the common people as well as less machine-like.

Senior Manager of Toshiba, Hideo Aruga, state that there are people who are not good with machines such as the elderly, people with disabilities as well as children and for them it is essential to have android who can transmit information for them. The Japanese tend to see android robot as the solution to the altering demographics in their nation and with the biggest rate of elderly on the earth together with a decline in birth-rate, it envisages androids as an appropriate replacement for less human workers. Androids can look after the elderly, work in childcare and can help the disabled. The designer is of the belief that the public feels the link due to the characteristic of human in these machines.

Interesting Prospective, Not Shared by Robotic Researchers

Richard Waters of Financial Times state that it seems to be an interesting perspective which is not shared by robotic researchers in the United States. He goes on to describe that the approach of North America’s Silicon Valley is aimed on emerging technology which is definitely not human but focused on learning to expect what we humans need to do. Robot that has also contested in DARPA’s robotic challenge should not be mistaken for human inspite of being most bipedal and in possession of two upper limbs.

Silvio Savarese, assistant professor at Stanford University has described the kind of androids that are developed in Japan as robots which according to him could create fear in people and debates that robot need to be practical and cute and not anthropomorphic. He together with his colleagues are the creators of the Jackrabbot in the Computational Vision and Geometry Lab at Stanford, which is a self-navigating automated electric delivery cart which tends to operate in the attendance of human without colliding in them.

New Immersion lawsuit adds Apple's iPhone 6s, MacBook to patent infringement row

Immersion Corporation – Prolonged Legal Battle Against Apple

A leader in haptic feedback technology, Immersion Corporation, has prolonged its legal battle against Apple on Thursday with new patent infringement suit directing technology built into iPhone 6s together with numerous MacBook models. The lawsuit that was filed with the United States District Court for the District of Delaware states that Apple had significantly infringed on four owned patents linking to haptic technology defined as physical feedback to user action or UI dealings. Apple had first debuted an accurate haptic engine in Apple Watch and since then had incorporated same technology all through its device line-up. The latest declaration of Immersion comes on the heels of an U.S.

International Trade Commission complaint and the lawsuit that is filed in the same Delaware court in February and all these three case have named AT&T as a co-defendant. In present day’s complaint, Immersion mentions owned U.S. Patent Nos. 8,749,507, 7,808,488, 8,581,710 and 7.336,260, each of which tend to cover a feature of the in-house developed haptic technologies of the company. Three claims seems to go after 3D Touch tech of Apple that combines a force-sensitive display as well as a linear vibratory motor that has been dubbed as the Taptic Engine offering contextual vibratory feedback of z-axis user gestures.

Peek and Pop

Immersion’s 507 and 488 patents, specially covering timing intervals and variable input pressure in haptic systems are being declared against `Peek and Pop’ generation on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The most recent flagship smartphone introduced in Apple, `Peep and Pop’, is a function of 3D Touch pressure-sensitive gesture input which tends to permit users to preview cross-linked content without the need of opening a standalone app. For instance, user can start a light press in order to `peek’ a hyperlink included within an email, while a deeper press tends to `pop’ the content into Safari.

The Quick Actions feature of Apple that portrays a list of app shortcuts on the iOS home screen on a deep press event is said to be in infringement of Immersion’s 710 patent for Systems and Methods for Haptic Confirmation of Commands. `Quick Actions tend to enable a main function of 3D Touch. Lastly, Immersion is leveraging its `260 patent for a Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations’ against the Force Touch track-pad technology of Apple as included in the 12-inch MacBook, 13-inch MacBook Pro and 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Jury Trial to Resolve the Lawsuit

Force Touch has also been included in the Magic Track-pad 2 that is equally open to examination in the case of Immersion who is in search of compensatory as well as supplemental damages which could be tripled if Apple is found to have deliberately infringed the declared intellectual property. Immersion states that as to why AT&T has been included in the lawsuit, is because the carrier sells Apple products and is thereby encouraging and facilitating infringing use by others.

By that logic, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, together with the other carriers should be included also in the lawsuit. Immersion has stated that it would like a jury trial in an attempt of resolving the lawsuit against Apple and AT&T and would like to receive compensatory damages for the same. In its earnings released recently, the company has also asked that progress be made with regards to United States International Trade Commission Complaint over the same problem which seeks a U.S. sales addition on the aforementioned products.

The Main Reason Apple Just Invested $1 Billion in the Uber of China

Apple’s $1 Billion Investment in Didi Chuxing Technology

Apple Inc. has confirmed that it has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-sharing company, Didi Chuxing Technology Co, which rivals Uber in China. With this investment Didi will have the rights in the Middle Kingdom where it can claim to be one of the few companies to be receiving funding from Apple.

The competition in building and providing autonomous vehicles tends to pit the two most valuable companies in the world, namely Apple and Google parent Alphabet Inc. besides others, against one another as well as against the worlds’ most valuable private venture-capital backed company, the rival of Didi – Uber Technologies Inc.

Apples’ investment lines up with Chinese Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd together with Tencent Holdings Ltd who are investors for Didi and Lyft Inc., the biggest U.S. rival of Uber who had taken an investment from Didi last year. The high profile venture capital firms such as Coatue Management, Global, GGV, Softbank and Tiger have supported Didi and their support had set the foundation for a global anti-Uber alliance which comprise of Lyft in the US, Grab in Southeast Asia and Ola in India.

Apple the Outlier in the Mix of Tech Heavyweights

In spite of its influence and brand name, Apple seems to be the outlier in this mix of tech heavyweights, a smartphone company among a mass of global investors and Chinese media giants. The assets in mapping as well as artificial intelligence of Apple would definitely help Didi in the future, the emerging self-driving car industry overlaps with the ride-hailing industry.

As of now, it is difficult to imagine what Apple could bring to Didi which Alibaba as well as Tencent cannot. Apple had enjoyed success in the Middle Kingdom due to its popularity of the iPhone and now makes almost a quarter of its revenue from sales to China, though its glorious day seem to be diminishing. Other indications of stress in China have emerged recently.

A high profile Apple investor, Carl Icahn has confirmed that he sold off all his shares in the company two weeks ago, since he was worried about the possibility of reducing sales by the Chinese’s government. Coordinated reports had been published by Chinese state media outlets that Huawei, the Chinese maker of Telco equipment and smartphones, had started charging Apple patent fees linked to wireless communication technologies.

Apple True Beneficiary of Deal

However, in spite of how the $1 billion would be placed in Didi’s reserves, Apple would be the true beneficiary of the deal. It would be a cause for celebration for any tech company to be receiving an investment from Apple but Didi has such an enviable position in China that the funding would be bringing little more than cash at least in the short term, for the company.

If funding seems the gasoline for ride-hailing company, then Didi seems to be leading Uber in China. The company had raised $4 billion in secured funding after a merger last year valued at $15 billion. Meanwhile, Uber China has been reportedly valued at around $8 billion after a $1.2 billion funding somewhere in January. Strong reliable data contrasting the popularity of the services of the company tends to remain scarce.

However, company numbers suggest broadly that Didi seems to occupy around 90% of the ride-hailing market in China. Apple has not confirmed publicly regarding its interest in automobile, though Mr Cook had stated that the automobile industry is on the threshold of a massive change with software and self-driving technology having a huge role in future cars.

iPhone App can alert you if Your Device Gets Hacked

An App to Alert User if Device is Hacked

An app has been developed to alert the user if their device tends to get hacked. Systems and Security Info that debuted in Apple’s App Store over the weekend, offers a multitude of details regarding your iPhone. The app displays your CPU, memory as well as the disk usage together with a list of all running processes. With regards to security, it can also tell if your device has been compromised or probably affected by any malware. Considerable amount of information in the app seems to be basic and easy to understand.

A green light near a specific item is good since it means that you are in the clear while a red light would indicate that there could be a likely security problem. The app also makes you aware if the device has been jailbroken, which is important if one has bought a used phone or had lent it to someone.

 Jailbroken devices however are more vulnerable to malware since their owners can install app which bypass the intense scrutiny of Apple. Jailbreaking an iOS device enables users to gain more control over their device, interfering with the operating system, tweaking the iOS user interface as well as enabling apps to be installed from third party app stores, like Cydia.

Apple Making Jailbreaking Difficult for Device Owners

At the same time it is disapprove by Apple since it rips out most of the security which Apple had built in iOS, designed to protect users from malicious attacks and un-vetted apps. Due to this Apple is keen on making jailbreaking as hard as possible for device owners. By comparison, it is much easier to install unauthorised code on an Android device. Apple, Google as well as other software makers have been continually fighting to avert malware-ridden apps from attacking their respective app stores and devices.

The iOS operating system of Apple has mostly been considered more secure than the Android of Google since Apple provides a tighter vetting process to approve apps. However certain malware strains seem to have infected the devices of Apple, even those that have not been jailbroken. System and Security Info had been developed by Stefan Esser, a German security researcher as well as an iOS hacker who had cooked up jailbreaks for different versions of iOS in the past.

Provide Public with Low Cost Solution

Esser stated that with the new app, he wanted to provide the public with low cost solution which would enable them to find out if someone used one of the public jailbreak or a customized version to hack and backdoor the device. Moreover, the app also fixes if the programming code in iOS is digitally signed by Apple to check that it is not altered by an outside party.

Esser assured a series forthcoming blog posts to explain further on how the app tends to work and what it means when it notices any issues on the iPhone. Protecting one’s iPhone is important since your smartphone possibly knows more about you, than your closest friend or partner.

A smartphone tends to carry all the photographs, together with your private messages, your location, your contacts, your online searches as well as the phone conversations. If the new iOS app tends to help iPhone and iPad owners in informing them when their devices have been secretly jailbroken, then it is certainly a good option for security.