Apple has won 16 new patents published by the the US Patent and Trademark Office today (via PatentlyApple) that cover everything from possible methods of charging future Apple products via solar power, to key multi-touch technology and iOS camera related patents. Certainly more fuel for the ongoing patent wars between Apple and the rest of the smartphone industry.
We already know Apple is experimenting with solar power from past patents, even going as far as considering which company would produce panels for future products. We also heard reports in March of a superthin solar panel layer from French company Wysips that could be rolling out to handset manufactures within a year. Today one of the 16 newly granted patents gets us a step closer by detailing “methods and apparatuses for operating devices with solar power”.
PatentlyApple explains:
Apple will without doubt use everything they have to fend off litigation, so a patent described by the report as a “key multi-touch related patent” detailing innovation in the performance and manufacturing of multi-touch displays may come in handy in the courtroom.
The report explains:
Other patents granted to Apple today would add functionality to the iOS device Camera app by “rotating the display orientation of a captured image” depending on the orientation (portrait or landscape) of your device, as well as a 3D “cover-flow like interface for iMovie.”
