Originally published at: Apple just patented a modular display system with a record player connected to it | Boing Boing
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Seems that they’ve really run out of ideas for new inventions.
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I’m no hardened patent examiner; but I’m baffled as to what Apple is claiming to have invented here.
As best I could tell they’ve invented a computer you can plug things into, so long as a capacitive touchscreen is involved in some way. Seems like the sort of thing that their generally high production values would lend itself to implementing (if they can keep the design guys’ fanatical need for thinness and hatred of real buttons at bay) more reliably than some of the stuff that hits kickstarter; but the novelty eludes me.
(edit; by way of example, I don’t doubt that their sensor-surface-wot-you-can-put-things-on will probably be more elegant than an Ergodex DX1 and probably better supported(though no less self-satisfied) than something like this screen you can put mechanical input modules on; but I wasn’t able to discern anything in the filing that hasn’t at least already been done to some degree; with most of the heavy lifting in terms of the actual outcome being good being the stuff that’s just glossed over by mentioning that “the base can include a hinge rotatably attached to the base and configured to removably retain an electronic device”, which could go almost anywhere judging by the mixed history of laptop hinges.)
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Same - Equally baffled.
All I can take from this is that something (probably inexpensive) just became exponentially more expensive for someone. I’m guessing $2999.
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Of course the odds are quite slim that this patent means an actual product is on the horizon.
Of course the odds are quite slim that there is anything remotely original / patentable here, as @fuzzyfungus and @Neville_Holland have noted.
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That cheap? Remember the price of Ive’s record player.
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Sheeet… do you think this could be a power play by Apple
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a fucking masterclass in “how not to publish a public document”. Why do I need to make an account to download the PDF? Why must text and line drawings be published as if the boundary between black and white must dissolve into blurry gray?
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There’s probably a fascinating story of some combination of failures by document-producing entities, garbage PDF support in older browsers, and overweening desire to become a transaction cost that explains how scribd managed to become the pinterest of print; but it’s atrocious that they ended up there.
For anyone who doesn’t want to endure such innovations in monetization; here’s the document straight from the utilitarian hands of the feds. (edit: the line art also looks fine; I think scribd’s PDF-brutalizer adds compression artifacts during the flensing and rasterization process.)
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Deep inside this patent, there’s a sudden shift
Any of the features or aspects of the computing devices discussed herein can be combined or included in any combination. For example, a computing device can include a coupling mechanism and one or more displays and/or keyboard attached thereto. The one or more displays and/or keyboard can be rotatable relative to the coupling mechanism and removably attached to one or more retaining portions. Further, the components of the computing devices described herein, including components that can be fully or partially removable, can be housed entirely within an internal volume. For example, an internal volume defined by the intermediate portion of the coupling mechanism.
To the extent applicable to the present technology, gathering and use of data available from various sources can be used to improve the delivery to users of invitational content or any other content that may be of interest to them. The present disclosure contemplates that in some instances, this gathered data can include personal information data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specific person. Such personal information data can include demographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, TWITTER® ID’s, home addresses, data or records relating to a user’s health or level of fitness (e.g., vital signs measurements, medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or any other identifying or personal information.
Patent lawyers love their boilerplate copypasta.
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