Apple's research and development team houses some of the most brilliant minds in technology today. Even the inventions that don't make it into consumer products are worth dozens of ohs and ahs.
The latest patent uncovered by the folks at Patently Apple is no different. The filing, submitted back in 2009, describes a method of allowing a user to steer light beams in different directions to effectively produce a new private viewing option...
Cloud-talk has become the equivalent of a tacky sitcom; it seems to be on every channel. I suppose it's for a good reason though, especially with Apple's WWDC event coming up in just a few weeks.
The Cupertino company is expected to expose its secret cloud storage service at the developer's conference next month. Though iCloud rumors have only recently began to heat up, Patently Apple is suggesting it's been a work in progress for quite some time ...
There are plenty of applications in the App Store for making your own music on your iDevice. In fact, we reviewed a great one on iDB called djay by Algoriddim earlier this year.
But if you've been looking for a way to use your iPhone to create music in a way that's not quite so conventional, you've got to check out this concept that Stanford Researcher Nick Brian has come up with...
Apple really shocked the world when they unveiled the original iPhone back in 2007. An all touch screen device with no stylus and an on-screen keyboard was certainly not the norm for the wireless industry at that time.
The iPhone's virtual keyboard has generally been at the top of its class, but that hasn't stopped Apple from experimenting. AppleInsider has come across an interesting patent application from the Cupertino company for a new style of compact keyboard...
It's no secret that the iPhone is the most popular camera in the world. The new iPhone 4's 5 MP shooter is pretty solid when it comes to mobile phone cameras, but unlike standalone picture-takers, it doesn't have many options to tweak. There's no white balance or shutter settings, and no interchangeable lenses.
Patrick O'Neil and Chong Pak are looking to change that with their olloclip accessory. The tiny lens just slides on your iPhone 4, instantly giving you the ability to shoot fisheye, wide angle, and macro photos...
With the recent news that Apple is considering Over-The-Air (OTA) updates for iOS 5, people have begun to speculate about how these future firmware updates will work on the iPhone.
If Apple does start pushing software updates over 3G straight to iDevices, a new interface will need to be added to iOS for these in-house updates. A fellow Apple fan has created some mockups of how OTA updates could look in iOS 5...
Twenty years ago, I think most of figured we'd be living like the Jetsons by now. But flying cars are few and far between, and the closest thing we have to our own personal robot maid is the Roomba vacuum.
However, there is some neat stuff on the horizon, and this prototype by Roel Vertegaal is certainly proof of that. He is debuting his "Paper Phone" at the Association for Computing Machinery's Computer Human Interaction conference next week. Folks planning to be in attendance should preset their faces to stunned...
Mac Funamizu is a freelance designer. He has a blog where he posts concept designs and some pretty cool wallpapers. TUAW reported on his latest project this morning and I must say, it's very interesting.
Remember those Polaroid cameras that printed out a photo right after you snapped it? Sure the picture came out white and you had to fan it for a bit, but essentially you had a photograph almost immediately...
This one definitely belongs in the 'cool concepts' category. We've seen a lot of neat ideas involving the use of the iPhone outside its normal spectrum of capabilities. We've seen iPhones used in invisible instruments and 3D modeling, but we've yet to see something like this.
Rockmoon Singapore is a serious mobile game development company based out of... Singapore. While they develop for all major mobile platforms, they have a preference for iOS. What have they been working on lately?
With news regarding iOS 5 starting to pick up, more speculation is being made about what Apple will do with the next iteration of iOS. A new notification system is one of the most requested features for iOS 5. The current system has been highly criticized for years.
Will Apple totally revamp its system for notifications in iOS 5? There's a good chance they might...
A new report from This is my next reveals some interesting rumors about the iPhone 5. According to Joshua Topolsky (the former editor-in-chief of Engadget), the iPhone 5 will in fact be a significant redesign of the current iPhone 4.
Topolsky doesn't cite specific sources, but he claims that the iPhone 5 will have a design very similar to that of the fourth-generation iPod touch. Engadget originally said that the iPhone 5 would be a major evolution of the iPhone 4, and this report from This is my next corroborates that claim.
Let's be honest, passwords are a pain to remember. Once you start racking up multiple online accounts, it can be difficult to keep track of all your logins.
There are several apps out there that act as password managers. iPassword takes things a step farther by acting as a virtual wallet and storehouse for any and all of your private information.
iOS has needed its own password manager for a long time, and hopefully we'll see a system "Keychain" in iOS 5...