Apple seems to be the center of attention for both positive and negative commentary these days, whether it’s about an apparent dwindling of their revenue or the fact that another day means another Apple patent gets revealed. That seems to be pattern here, even if a little far-fetched. But the past half year has been a very mysterious period of time for the tech giant.
The company doesn’t seem to be very prone to openly announcing its new initiatives or products until they are certain they can be delivered in due time. And with the rumors travelling around in the past few months, we should be expecting some great things to be brought by Apple.
Apple Car or CarPlay integration in semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020, Apple’s own take onto virtual reality with the recent acquisition of an entire division of specialists, what appears to look like the second Apple iWatch and now a patent for virtual buttons. In essence, completely contactless controls.
The recent trend seems to depict Apple as always being a little late to the party, and that is in no way an overstatement. Mostly (but not every single one) every technological innovation that is brought to the market by one producer or another will end up in Apple’s products a fair while later. Take VR technology as an example: Facebook has been at it for years, Google and Microsoft are heavy at work with it too and Apple has just started settling a department for it and building their team.
Wireless charging is another example of something that Apple is rumored to be employing in its upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. And yet this is the best example that also depicts the way Apple may be late with applying state of the art features, but also makes sure it does a better job at it. Supposedly, the wireless charging will not involve you placing your phone on a mat to let it charge instead of plugging it in. Instead, it will literally be capable of charging your iPhone from 1 meter away without needing to make contact with anything.
So the latest patent that Apple applied for and won is about devices’ gaining capability of being controlled without contact, by using photodiodes and proximity sensors that would, in theory, allow you to control your devices through nothing more but motions in mid-air. Think Matrix’ Zion gate control center. Without the holograms though. Or who knows what other surprises Apple has up its sleeve?
