It’s well known that Apple likes to throw as many patent applications at the wall as possible, with the belief that at least some will stick. The latest to receive the seal of approval from the powers that be is patent number US8358273, or “Portable media device with power-managed display,” as its friends know it.
The patent features a new technology that will control the screen brightness of a piece of equipment such as an iPhone or iPad based on the type of content being displayed. Currently, devices set the screen brightness based on the amount of ambient light. Apple’s recently approved patent changes all that.
As far as screen brightness technology goes, this is actually rather interesting…
See, according to the patent itself, Apple’s new technology would monitor what type of content is being displayed and then set the brightness of the screen accordingly. Viewing a bright white PDF page? Then the device would theoretically reduce the screen brightness in order to conserve power. Saving power, as we all know, is something that will always get the thumbs up from  any iPhone user.
As for video, the device would automatically take a sample frame every so often and then base the screen brightness on that, with the aim of providing a nice, uniform experience.
We’ve said this about countless patents before, but it’s worth repeating once again: just because Apple applies for, or indeed is granted a patent does not in fact mean that it will be implemented in any way. You never know, the next iPhone may have some fancy pants way of making sure you can read it whilst also saving power, but the chances are it won’t. We just never really know.
We can hope, though.
[TUAW]