Apple Patent Hints at Inductive Charging for iPhone 5

Apple’s iPhone 5 might not need wires for charging when it comes out later this year.According to Patently Apple, today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent the company applied for back in 2008. The patent is for inductive charging: using a specially designed dock to charge a device without the need for a wire. The dock still needs a wire connecting it to the power source, but the iPhone just needs to sit in the dock without any sort of attachment.

Inductive charging is nothing new, Palm included it in the original Pre, and every WebOS deviceafter, and other devices feature the same technology. Devices like the Duracell Powermat even bring the technology to the iPhone through cases. Inductive charging built into an iPhone 5 would be a first for Apple, however.

If Apple does include inductive charging in the iPhone 5, it could be another reason for the smaller dock connector in the device. Apple will need some more space inside the iPhone to put the inductive charging components.

Knowing Apple, if it does include the technology, users will need to buy a separate dock in order to use it, and the dock will likely be expensive. The dock won’t sync the iPhone to a computer directly, though Apple did recently introduce WiFi syncing which would solve that problem. There might even be a small argument that Apple added WiFi syncing in iOS 5 in anticipation of a future device with inductive charging.

There were rumors of inductive charging in the iPhone last year, thought they obviously never came true. Maybe this year they might.


This article comes from:http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/06/26/apple-patent-hints-inductive-charging-iphone-5/

Apple updates Aperture for Retina display

Aperture, now at version 3.3, also offers better performance, a unified photo library that lets you seamlessly switch back and forth between images stored in iPhoto (version 9.3 or later) and Aperture, and new adjustment tools.

Retina vision
First and foremost, the new version of Aperture is optimized for the new Retina-display 15-inch MacBook Pro. The update allows you to see more of your image when it's zoomed in at 100 percent. For pros dealing with 30-plus megapixel images, this will make a huge operational difference on the laptop's small screen. The effect on small thumbnails is also a big deal. Aperture 3.3's thumbnails are greatly improved, and will likely save you time in your imaging decisionmaking, Apple says.

iPhoto integration
Many users take advantage of multiple programs when it comes to managing photos. Before Aperture, there was iPhoto, and even after switching, many people continued to maintain their iPhoto libraries and their edits in iPhoto. With Aperture 3.3, you can move images back and forth from your iPhoto library without having to import and export between them. Just open your iPhoto library in Aperture, and you're ready to work. Faces, Places, slideshows, albums, and Web sharing work across both applications.

White balance
Aperture 3.3 introduces a new way to correct white balance in your images. Very much like in iPhoto for iOS, this new Aperture version offers specialized white balance options for skin tones and landscapes. With modes like Skin Tone and Neutral Gray added to the standard Temperature and Tint controls, the program will provide better and more accurate color correction without a lot of distortion and tweaking.

Shadows and highlights

Aperture 3.3 has improved the Highlights and Shadows tool to work with even a wider range of images. The Highlights tool can recover even the most blown-out highlights, while the Shadows control is faster and easier to use and works with fewer sliders. A new mid-contrast control combines several advanced tools for single-slider control of flat-looking photos.

A newly updated and more intelligent Auto Enhance algorithm can act as a starting point for correcting photos. The control evaluates images and determines whether to correct white balance, adjust exposure, or add vibrancy, curves, or highlights and shadows. If you shot a perfect still, then the control knows enough not to make any changes.

Faster browsing of Raw images

Aperture 3.3 makes greater use of camera-generated embedded previews within Raw images to produce quicker, high-resolution thumbnails from your shoot. With the new version, there's no waiting around for previews to be processed before browsing, according to Apple.

More improvements

In addition to specific new features, Aperture 3.3 offers improved stability and performance. Smart image pre-cache improves the speed of browsing, while the application has been optimized to handle photo libraries of over 1 million photos and support for Raw images up to 30 megapixels.

A newly designed monochrome source list and toolbar icons remove interface distractions, so you can better focus on your images. And because so many photos are now shared online, Aperture 3.3 introduces a new unified Web Sharing view for all photos and albums that are published to Facebook and Flickr.

In addition, Aperture 3.3 supports AVCHD for videos, the Set Photo as Desktop feature (long available in iPhoto and elsewhere), and drag-and-drop functionality for the Faces feature. Facebook, Flickr, and MobileMe albums are now displayed as thumbnails in the main window when those accounts are selected in the source list.

There's also some minor terminology tweaks, a new preference that allows you to set the background brightness of the full screen browser, and a new manual option allows you to drag and drop projects to customize sort order in the Projects view.

The version 3.3 update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.
iPhoto gets an updateNot surprisingly, along with the Aperture update, which references iPhoto, Apple has also updated iPhoto to open libraries from Aperture 3.3 or later (among other things).

Like Aperture, the new version of iPhoto supports AVCHD video. Other improvements include a tweak to the Description field, which now automatically expands as you enter text; the ability to flag a photo in Magnify (1-up) view by clicking a Flag icon in the upper left corner of the photo; a new Export option allows you to automatically organize exported photos into subfolders according to event, and Keywords and titles are now preserved when exporting files with embedded GPS location data.

This article comes from:http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/3363308/apple-updates-aperture-for-retina-display/

Apple iPhone 5: What We Know So Far

There has been no dearth of rumors and speculation about this upcoming device. Possibly the main reason for this is because the iPhone 4S was not a huge change from its immediate predecessor, so many iPhone 4 users did not feel a strong need to upgrade. This group is now looking ahead toward the sixth-generation phone from Apple to see whether it will be what they have been waiting for.

What to Expect
One aspect of the iPhone 5 that there's little room for doubt about is that it will include 4G LTE, giving it a cellular-wireless data connection significantly faster than any earlier version. There have been numerous reports to support this, but the best evidence is a statement from Verizon that every smartphone it introduces this year will have LTE, and this carrier will certainly offer the next handset from Apple. This would bring the iPhone into parity with many models running the rival Android OS, which have had this 4G technology since last year.
Apple's next smartphone is expected to run a quad-core processor, likely to be the Apple A6 chip. This would give it better performance for many tasks, and, again, would bring Apple into parity with Android. The iPhone 5 almost certainly won't have the A5X processor that debuted on the new iPad earlier this month. This CPU is no faster than the A5 CPU in Apple's current smartphone, but it adds a quad-core graphical processing unit for that tablet's large, high-resolution screen.

T-Mobile has pointed out that virtually all the wireless chips available today come with built-in support for its uncommon 4G frequencies, raising the possibility that Apple could add a fourth U.S. carrier to its list of partners. With the technology problem out of the way, the only hurdle would be these two companies coming to a business agreement, and T-Mobile is definitely interested.
The smartphone might not be called the iPhone 5. The third-generation iPad is called simply "iPad", and if Apple continues this practice its next smartphone will be just "iPhone".

A Mystery Wrapped in a Conundrum
Aside from these, however, there is contradictory evidence about every other aspect of this device. A topic of hot debate is whether it will have a larger display or not. An unconfirmed report that the iPhone 5 will have a 4.6 inch screen made headlines last week, but this was followed by a contrary report that indicated that Apple intends to stick with the 3.5-inch display that has been in all its previous models.

Some are predicting the iPhone 5 will have a bigger screen because of competitive pressure. Virtually all Android smartphones have displays larger than 3.5-inches, with some approaching 5 inches.

A related issue is the overall size of the handset. A significantly larger display would require a bigger device, though Apple would likely keep it thin. The issue with this is it goes against Steve Jobs' original vision for the iPhone as an easily-pocketable device. On the other hand, LTE can be a drain on the battery life, and a larger handset would have room for a bigger battery.
Another aspect that has been the topic of contradictory reports is the release date -- some are saying this product will be out this summer, others that it won't be introduced until the fall. From the original iPhone in 2007 until the iPhone 4, every Apple smartphone came out in the summer. That schedule was changed last year, however, as the current model debuted last October. At this point, there has been no definitive answer to what the schedule will be this time.

This article comes from:http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=18744&news=Apple+iPhone+5