Patent Shows iPhone 8 Will Use Curved Screen Design

The latest news from Nanjing Hua Xun shows that the patent shows that the iPhone may adopt a curved screen design in 2017;

After the Galaxy S7 edge brought up the curved screen craze, Apple seems to have begun to consider a similar design. A few days ago, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) passed an Apple patent, which describes in detail the "side screen" of Apple products and distinguishes them from Samsung's products.

In fact, Apple had already proposed a design patent for a curved screen as early as 2013, nearly two years earlier than Samsung's first-generation curved phone Galaxy S6 edge, but it was not implemented, probably because of the capacity of the supply chain. In Samsung's case, when the Galaxy S6 edge was first launched, it was also plagued by capacity problems, which even seriously affected the sales volume of flagship machine in 2015. However, after two years of running-in, Samsung already has the capacity to make flagship machine fully curved, and even announced that it will cooperate with Xiaomi to supply curved screens.

▲ Curved screen design on the side (sidewall) of the location. (Source:USPTO)

In the latest patent, Apple describes a different design of surface, called "flexible screen" (flexible displays). Unlike Samsung's curved surface, which extends directly from the front to the side, Apple chose to add a "barrier" between the front and side screens, making it actually split into two screens. As for this "estrangement", it may be some special style of shell, printed (printed) on the cover, or purely separated by "pixels.

Similar to the Galaxy S7 edge, Apple has also chosen to add some virtual function keys on the side to replace physical buttons, such as the mute key and the volume key, or to directly use them as a second screen as a complement to the front part. Interestingly, Apple mentioned that these buttons will include several transparent buttons, lenses (lenses), and somatosensory feedback (haptic feedback), similar to the current vibration notification and Force Touch on Apple Watch, but in general, it is not easy to imagine what kind of mobile phone it will be.

The new iPhone styling will be closer to the iPhone SE and even the iPhone 4S. (Source:USPTO)

It is worth mentioning that in addition to being explicitly alleged that this patent will be used in mobile phones, the body design will also be different from the slightly rounded edge shape of the iPhone 6s, which is more like the style of the iPhone SE, making the angle of the "curved surface" closer to vertical. The patent document also points out that the function of the side screen may be able to open different operation modes through different touch modes, such as point, slide or other gestures, suggesting that iOS may have a new UI design.

Although only a handful of Apple's patents will actually be used in products, unlike in the past, Apple has revised the patent three times in just 15 months, showing how active Apple is in this technology. A few days ago, Apple design chief Jony Ive also rarely skipped the iPhone 7 when interviewed, directly claiming that the 2017 10th anniversary iPhone "will be like a piece of thin glass", perhaps implying that the patent will soon use the new iPhone.

Leaving aside the distant 2017 and returning to the iPhone 7 next month, the main rumors at present include that the appearance of the iPhone 6 will be roughly preserved but the 3.5mm earphone hole will be removed, the new Home key will be used, the A10 processor and 3GB memory will be used, and the storage space of the model will be increased to 32GB / 128GB/256GB. According to the current outflow of the case, it can also be found that Apple has significantly increased the size of the camera components, and may be expected to change the iPhone on the camera.

The iPhone 7 is expected to be launched on 9/6 or 9/7 and will be officially launched in about a week. technews

2. Qualcomm won 200 Chinese mobile phone companies to sign licensing agreements and contribute half of Q2's financial results;

According to a report by Nanjing Hua Xun, Qualcomm (Qualcomm), a major mobile phone chip manufacturer, has recently reached patent licensing agreements with Oppo and Vivo, the two fastest-growing smart phone manufacturers in China, which shows that the company has been successfully consolidating piles in the busy period of the Chinese market for one year. So far, Qualcomm has reached patent licensing agreements with more than 200 Chinese companies.

Nanjing Huaxun reported that Qualcomm was investigated by China's anti-monopoly authorities and fined nearly $1 billion in 2015 for suspected market monopoly in the Chinese market. Since then, Qualcomm has started large-scale negotiations with Chinese OEMs on patent licensing and has reached agreements. Recently, Qualcomm and Vivo two companies jointly announced that the two sides reached a new 3G and 4G Chinese patent licensing contract. Last week, Qualcomm reached a similar agreement with Oppo.

Although Oppo and Vivo are not as famous as Apple and Samsung. However, for Qualcomm, the patent licensing contract with Oppo and Vivo is of special significance. Because according to data provided by IDC, a market research organization, in the second quarter of 2016, Oppo shipped 22.6 million smartphones, accounting for 6.6 percent of global smartphone shipments, ranking fourth. Vivo, on the other hand, ranked fifth with 16.4 million units, with a market share of 4.8 per cent. Moreover, Oppo's smartphone shipments increased by 136 compared with the same period in 2015, while Vivo's smartphone shipments increased by 80% compared with the same period in 2015.

Since December 2015, Qualcomm has reached patent licensing contracts with more than six mobile phone manufacturers in the Chinese market, including recent patent licensing agreements with Hisense, Yulong, Lenovo and other companies. Nanjing Huaxun understands that Qualcomm claims that it has reached patent licensing agreements with more than 200 Chinese companies, and one figure does not only include OEM manufacturers.

Of course, not all Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have reached a patent licensing agreement with Qualcomm, such as Meizu, which was previously sued by Qualcomm. In this regard, Qualcomm began to resort to law. Due to long-term infringement and "arrears" of Meizu, after more than a year of negotiations, Qualcomm finally filed a patent lawsuit.

Looking back at Oppo and Vivo, after joining Qualcomm's patent license, it is of great significance to stabilize the patent license. Oppo and Vivo offer smartphones for less than $250 in China and other emerging markets. For users in emerging markets who lack brand loyalty but are price-sensitive, the increase in users in these regions is the main factor that promotes Oppo and Vivo to rank among the top five global smartphone manufacturers.

Moreover, the success of Oppo and Vivo is not limited to emerging markets. In the US market, the two companies are challenging the dominance of Apple and Samsung. At the same time, Oppo and Vivo are also challenging other smart phone manufacturers in the Chinese market.

As a result, Qualcomm's performance in the second quarter of 2016 exceeded analysts' expectations. One of the key factors was the company's full recovery in China. The financial report shows that Qualcomm's net profit in the second quarter was 1.44 billion US dollars, an increase of 22% over 2015. Among the 6 billion US dollars in revenue in the quarter, more than half came from China business. It can be seen that Qualcomm is trying its best to win over its smartphone manufacturers in the Chinese market for a reason. TechNews

3. Active noise reduction new patent allows you to hear the important sound around

Headphones with active noise reduction are great inventions that allow us to focus only on the music we like in a noisy environment. However, sometimes this can also bring certain dangers. For example, if the headset filters out important surrounding sounds, such as someone calling your name, siren or car horn, then it is not safe. Now a new Amazon patent can help us avoid these potential dangers.

At present, the new patent of the online retail giant can turn off the noise reduction function when the earphone starts the noise reduction function, so that more useful information can reach the wearer's ears.

According to Nanjing Hua Xun US patent experts, the earphone in the patent can receive the surrounding sound through the built-in microphone, similar to Amazon Alexa's voice feedback system, which can receive the surrounding environmental sound and then respond in the first place. The inventor of this patent is Benjamin Scott, who has worked on the Alexa team for more than 3 years.

The system can identify the wearer's name or special phrases through a special algorithm, and can also cancel the blocking of warning sounds such as car horns when crossing the road.

Although we still don't know when Amazon's patent will be applied to actual products, if this feature is really used in noise-canceling headphones, it will undoubtedly improve the safety factor of the wearer and is a very useful patent invention.