Each week, there are dozens of Apple rumors, reports, and patent filings that hint at what's coming out of Cupertino next. Some are legit, but most are totally bogus. While the rumor mill has been fairly slow lately, Apple's intellectual property filings continue to offer interesting insights. As always, we've parsed the week's rumors, ranking them in order from 'utterly ridiculous' to 'duh, of course.' First up...
ASK AGAIN LATER: Future Apple Wearables Could Feature a Sapphire Flexible Transparent Display A gem of a patent application published in Europe Thursday shows that Apple could be working on a flexible, transparent, wraparound display. The display would be made of sapphire or another crystalline material, and created using a liquid metal-like process. A flexible OLED display would wrap around part of the device, and it could also include sensors like an accelerometer, gyroscope, or touch sensor. Using data from these sensors, information on the display could be shown on a fixed location relative to the user, even if they are rotating their wrist around. Based on all these patent filings, it sure does seem like Apple is looking at new and innovative ways to implement a wearable device, and we're pretty excited about that.
ASK AGAIN LATER: Apple Could Use Quantum Dots for Next-Gen Displays Another patent application published Thursday, ' Quantum dot-enhanced display having dichroic filter,' provides a deep dive into how quantum dots could be used to improve the iPhone's display. For those that aren't familiar, a quantum dot is a semiconductor-based nanocrystal that is 90 percent effective at absorbing light. They are suspended in fluid, and manufacturers have a great amount over the control of their conductivity (and what spectrum of light they emit). Apple's patent describes how a dichroic filter could be used on an RGB LED display. It also talks about how brightness from the display could be enhanced using prisms and other techniques. Maybe quantum dots are the next frontier for the Retina Display.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: Apple Building Real-Time Bidding Platform for iTunes Radio Ads Monetization! According to a report from Adweek, Apple is focused on getting more dough out of iTunes Radio by using a real-time bidding exchange to sell ads on the platform. iTunes Radio is a Pandora-like, station-based streaming music player Apple introduced at WWDC and debuted this fall. The directive for the real-time ad platform, which would lower the cost of iAds and open them up to more advertisers, came direct from VP Eddy Cue.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: Apple Eyeing Improved Maps App It's no secret that Apple's Maps app has needed a little TLC since its debut with iOS 6. But a newly published patent filing shows that Apple could make Maps more interactive with layered maps. The patent, 'Interactive Map,' allows users to dynamically manipulate maps into different layers of data, with layers being things like tourism, weather, or commuting patterns. It would source this real-time information from the internet. You'd be able to search for specific information, but results would be catered to what type of layer you're in (AppleInsider gives the example of food - in an Outdoor Recreation mode, it might pull up camping supply shops, while in a Tourist layer it'd pull up popular restaurants). The maps patent application also shows how you could build a route in the app by just touching two points on the map.
WITHOUT A DOUBT: FaceTime Audio Coming to OS X Mavericks Apple seeded an OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 beta to developers Thursday, and apparently FaceTime audio has been quietly and seamlessly integrated into Messages and FaceTime. Currently, you can use FaceTime audio, Apple's VoIP product, on iOS to make better quality calls than over your cellular network. The feature could appear in the public release of 10.9.2.
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