Apple secures 48 new patents, including inductive charging, in-cell touch panel

The United States Patent and Trademark office published 48 newly granted Apple patents on Tuesday, covering technologies ranging from inductive charging to bike-integrated iPods, as well as one property covering the touchscreen technology that enables the latest iOS devices to achieve their current slimness.
The patents granted today involve components and design elements for virtually all of Apple's product offerings. 

Inductive charging using printed coils

This patent, filed for in June of 2012, describes systems "for harnessing power through electromagnetic induction utilizing printed coils." Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,362,751 calls for one or more moveable magnets that, when traveling along the path of the printed coils, can power a device. 

AppleInsider was first to report on the '751 patent's application in September of 2012, noting that the IP could one day lead to "shake to charge" portable devices. The technology is akin to shake to charge flashlights that use induction to produce electric current which is stored in capacitors for later use. This type of system eschews the need for bulky batteries that must be plugged in for charging or replaced when depleted.

A similar technology is used in rival devices — including the Google-LG-produced Nexus 4 and Nokia's Lumia line of Windows Phone 8 handsets — which integrate inductive charging systems that use a wall charger to recharge built-in batteries, thus doing away with pesky electrical cords. Apple has yet to bring a competing technology to market. Prior to the release of the iPhone 5, rumors circulated that Apple would bring wireless charging to bear in that handset, but Apple marketing exec Phil Schiller said after the unveiling that the perceived convenience of such systems was questionable, since charging mats would still need to be plugged into an outlet.

In September, an Apple patent application emerged demonstrating a "realistic and practical approach to wireless power, providing over-the-air electricity to low-power devices within a distance of one meter.

Integrated touchscreen

Apple also was granted a patent on a design for "displays with touch sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup." This is a continuation of the in-cell touchscreen patent, granted in July of 2012, which made an appearance in the iPhone 5. The in-cell touch panel technology allows Apple to make its devices noticeably thinner, but initial yield rates for the panels were problematic, and Apple is said to beevaluating a newer technology using "touch-on" displays, averting some of the problems that came with in-cell touch panels. 

Notably, the patent granted today gives a mobile phone, a media player, and a notebook computer as examples of where the technology could be implemented. Tim Cook famously dismissed touch-enabled PC form factors, saying they were like "[converging] a toaster and a refrigerator."

Integrating a portable electronic device with a bicycle

Also among the patents Apple secured today was a design for interfacing an electronic device with a bicycle. In the filing, the device receives output from sensors coupled to the bicycle, displaying riding characteristics and even communicating with other devices in order to allow cyclists to ride as a team and assist each other. 

The application for the patent originally emerged in 2010. Technology such as that seen in the patent has yet to materialize in any Apple products, but it is in keeping with other fitness-related offerings, such as the Nike+ compatibility seen in iPods and iPhones.

Tuesday's patent haul covers many other technologies, including motion-based payment confirmation, beamforming antenna systems, device cooling mechanisms, and more. Among companies worldwide, Apple in 2012 ranked 21st for the total number of patents granted in 2012. Last year saw the Cupertino company granted 1,135 patents, just behind Google, which secured 1,151 patents.

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This is what it looks like when you defrost an entire building

Have you ever wondered what happened when a company abandons a warehouse that used to house ten stories of cold storage? Okay, you probably haven’t, but since you’re thinking about it now, check out these awesome pictures of the erstwhile Fulton Market Cold Storage Company building in Chicago. Prepare to be dazzled.

In a display that most Hollywood set designers probably couldn’t even fathom, the abandoned building has become something of an indoor winter wonderland. Fortunately, the architects that were tasked with turning the building back into usable office space, Perkins+Will, had the state of mind to think, “We should videotape the transformation of this craziness.”

The thawing out process itself wasn’t anything too exceptional, although when you watch it in action in time-lapse form (see the video below), it’s pretty cool. It would have been neater if they tried to melt the place with a truckfull of lava, but then again that’s already been done.

It’s too bad that there aren’t many companies that would have been interested in taking over the space as-is. Heck, with the right attitude and vision, it could have been transformed into a marvel oftouchscreen ice blocks, frozen clocks, and glacial USB drives.

Yes, it’s true — for being nothing more than a bunch of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, ice can be a pretty cool thing, even in the world of technology. The new tenant of the building, by the way, is a bicycle parts company called SRAM. Its employees are among the few who will be able to say, “I work in an office that used to be a giant freezer.”

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How do I improve my CTR (Click Through Rate)?

Improving your CTR is a great way of increasing your advertising revenue with CTR-based campaigns and making your advertiser happy. Below are some suggestions on how this can be accomplished along with some fundamental information about CTR.

What is CTR?

Before we go into how to improve CTR, let’s be sure that we understand exactly what it is. CTR is defined as the ratio between the number of clicks an advertisement gets and the number of times the advertisement is shown (impressions). If an ad is clicked 1 time for every 100 times it is shown, it has a CTR of 1/100 = 1%.

What is considered a good CTR?

What is considered a good CTR depends on many factors, of which, two are worth discussing. First, your website’s industry plays a significant role in the expected CTR. For example, CTRs are known to be low in the technology industry and high in the travel industry. Second, the format of the advertisement can drastically change the expected CTR. For example, data shows that email campaigns have the highest CTR (between 2% and 20%) while display banners have the lowest CTR (an average of 0.25%). Since many websites use the Google AdSense/AdWords Pay-Per-Click program, it is worth mentioning that the average CTR for AdSense ads is around 2%. Lastly, a typical CTR for a video ad is between 1% and 2%. At any rate, no matter what your current CTR is and how it compares to the averages, you will want to improve it with the tips below.

Targeting

To have any chance of having a high CTR, your advertising campaign must target your website’s visitor demographics. If you display barbie doll advertisements on a hunting page, you will never get a reasonable CTR. Make sure you understand your audience and what their interests are. Moreover, using a powerful ad server like AdSpeed, you can target visitors by country, time of day, language, demographics such as sex or age, among many other things. You can even target certain ads to visitors that have arrived to your website using specific keywords during their search engine query. Ad targeting is very powerful and necessary if you want to see a significant improvement in your CTR.

Placement

The location of the ad places a large role in its chances of getting clicked. We recently wrote an article on the best locations to place an ad and you can view it here. As a quick summary, advertisements above the fold and close to navigational aids tend to be more successful. Also, advertisements close to rich content or at the end of articles typically get clicked more.

Size

Yes, in this case, bigger is better. The bigger the ad is, the better chance that it will be seen and hence clicked. Yet, never forget about esthetics. Do not compromise the look of your website for a higher CTR. This could cause a decrease in your traffic. Although your CTR may go up, less visitors coming to your website will ultimately mean a decline in your overall advertising revenue.

Repetition

Showing an advertisement multiple times to a visitor can increase its CTR. Although most studies and experts do not provide an exact frequency for which an advertisement should be shown for optimal performance, statistics show that displaying an ad more than five times increases its CTR. It is also important to consider “banner burnout”. Showing an ad too many times can cause a visitor to ignore the advertisement altogether resulting a decrease in its CTR. An ad server can solve this problem withfrequency capping allowing you to maximize your advertising revenue.

In summary

A powerful ad server can help you experiment with different setups to see which one increases your CTR and overall advertising revenue the most. Use the ad server to do the following:

• Target your visitors with appropriate advertising campaigns
• Place your ads in the optimal locations
• Consider bigger ads and see what effect that gives
• Try different frequency caps ensuring the ad is shown at least five time

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Stock sale puts Twitter’s valuation at an estimated $9B

Several early employees of Twitter are participating in a deal to sell their stock to BlackRock group at a valuation of over $9 billion, according to a Financial Times report published today.

BlackRock, an investment management firm that’s known as one of the world’s largest asset managers, is making an $80 million to the early employee using capital from a fund it manages, according to FT’s report.

With over $1.16 billion already invested in Twitter, the social network’s investors are undoubtedly eager to have the company show a transparent path to long-term profitability in preparation of going public. Twitter’s management team, however, may want to delay an initial public offering a little longer until it’s satisfied that the business strategy is strong enough to ensure Twitter stock doesn’t end up like Zynga or Groupon.

If BlackRock deal does go through as FT’s report indicates, it could be a win-win situation. As TheNextWeb points out, early investors would be able to cash out, while Twitter would have a better chance of delaying an IPO until its ready.

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Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable company

As of this morning, Apple is no longer the most valuable company in the world. Oil, apparently, is worth more than iPhones.

Apple’s shares are down to $441.33 as of 9:09 a.m. Pacific time, giving the company a market valuation of $414.36 billion — a couple hundred billion down from its top value last year. Exxon Mobil, on the other hand, has seen a nice little jump in its stock price in the last month, and it now sits at $91.50, making it worth $417 billion.

 Source: Google Finance

Can you guess which is Apple and which is Exxon?

These valuations are fairly likely to grow and dip over the next few days, making Exxon and Apple trade positions as the world’s most valuable company, but the psychological barrier has been crossed, and the shine — if it wasn’t already — is really off the Apple.

Apparently, record revenue and more profit than any company has ever reported in a single year just isn’t enough for Wall Street. Nor is having not just one, not just three, but six separate billion-dollar businesses. And even a cash hoard of $137 billion isn’t enough either, which is causing some to call investors “idiots.”

My guess is that with Apple now at at price-earnings ratio of 10 — and a staggeringly low seven after you take Apple’s cash out of its stock market valuation — investors will now start to see Apple as a value stock, and the price will start to rise again.

But Apple will have to prove itself with several solid quarters before investors will consider buying it back up to its mid-2012 heights.

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Twitter ordered to identify French racists

n a landmark ruling, a French court has ordered Twitter to hand over details of users who posted racist and anti-semitic content.

Last October, #UnBonJuif - a good Jew - started trending in the country, along with #SiMonFilsEstGay (if my son is gay), and #SiMaFilleRamèneUnNoir (if my daughter brings home a black guy).

Twitter removed the majority of the offending content from the site, but refused to hand over details of the groups making the posts, who were writing under pseudonyms.

Its refusal prompted the lawsuit from the Association of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) that led to today's ruling.

Twitter has been attempting to tread a fine line on censorship, saying only that it's prepared to remove posts in countries where they violate the law. In October last year, it put this policy into practice for the first time, blocking access to a neo-Nazi site in Germany.

However, it maintains that as its data is stored on servers in the US, it doesn't have to divulge the identity of users unless it's served with a court order in the US. It's been ordered to do so in the past, perhaps most notably in relation to Occupy protestors last year, on which occasion it resisted strongly.

The French decision puts this policy squarely under the spotlight. Twitter has said it's considering its options - although it'll need to think quickly. The company faces fines of $1,300 per day until it complies.

"This is a historic decision, that has delivered French justice today," says UEJF president Jonathan Hayoun. "It tells the victims of racism and antisemitism that they are not alone, and that the French law that defends them applies everywhere."

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Nokia is hooked on Windows Phone, now has to pay for it

When Microsoft and Nokia married at the temple of Windows Phone last year, the dowry was nothing if not complicated. Nokia had to pay a minimum amount in software royalties to Microsoft each quarter, regardless of how many Lumia smartphones it sold, but the financial hit was more than cancelled out by Microsoft's "platform support payments" coming back the other way. At some point, however, the net flow of cash was always bound to switch direction, as the cost of the software royalties grew to exceed Redmond's $250 million quarterly support payments, effectively bringing the whole thing closer to being a zero-sum transaction. According to Nokia's latest financial report, that turning point has now been reached and the company's accountants will have to start writing a minus where there used to be a plus. The extra expense makes it doubly fortunate that Nokia has justreturned to profitability -- at least if future quarters prove it really has.

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Google Images gets redesigned, focuses on speed and metadata

Page and Co. have just unveiled a new look for Google Images that places a premium on metadata visibility, speed and slick looks. After gathering feedback from both users and webmasters, Google redesigned its image search to feature relevant information right next to images and speed load times by no longer loading source pages behind selected graphics. Mountain View also designed the new layout with keyboard surfing in mind, to boot. The new UI isn't available across the board quite yet, but the search titan says folks will start to see the refreshed UI in the next few days.

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Pope blesses Twitter, Facebook to spread Church teachings

Pope Benedict XIV urges Catholics to go forth on social networks and multiply the church's messages of faith.

The pope endorses online social networking as a means for spreading the message of faith.

(Credit: Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

The pope has friended the online social networks in a big way.

Pope Benedict XIV, who only recently joined Twitter himself, is calling on his followers to use social-networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest to spread their faith to nonbelievers.

"The challenge facing social networks is how to be truly inclusive: thus they will benefit from the full participation of believers who desire to share the message of Jesus and the values of human dignity which his teaching promotes," the pontiff said in a message delivered on the 47th World Communications Day. "Believers are increasingly aware that, unless the Good News is made known also in the digital world, it may be absent in the experience of many people for whom this existential space is important."

In an address titled "Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization," the pope said online social networking was creating a public forum that fosters discussion and debate that "can reinforce the bonds of unity between individuals and effectively promote the harmony of the human family."

However, the pope cautioned that the "culture of social networks" posed a challenge to those who want to discuss "truth and values," warning that the din of celebrities and marketing threatened to drown out the message.

 At times the gentle voice of reason can be overwhelmed by the din of excessive information and it fails to attract attention which is given instead to those who express themselves in a more persuasive manner. The social media thus need the commitment of all who are conscious of the value of dialogue, reasoned debate, and logical argumentation; of people who strive to cultivate forms of discourse and expression which appeal to the noblest aspirations of those engaged in the communication process.

The pope joined Twitter on December 3 and quickly had a following of more 187,000 people the first day -- more than a week before his first scheduled tweet. About a month and half later, he counts 1.4 million followers, well behind the 33 million following Justin Bieber, perhaps one of the celebrities the pontiff was speaking about.

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Kodak plans to leave bankruptcy in six months

 

BANKRUPT IMAGING FIRM Kodak announced it has received approval to borrow $844m and forecast emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid 2013.

Kodak has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy while it sold off parts of its business and reorganised. Now the firm said it has received court approval to borrow $844m, saying the money will be put to finalising its restructuring plan.

The company tried to get billions for its patent portfolio but only managed to receive bids in the $500m range, and its reorganisation plan included slashing jobs and cutting other costs. However Kodak said the loan comes with the condition that it has to complete the sale of all or at least a part of its Document Imaging and Personalisation Imaging businesses.

Kodak chairman and CEO Antonio Perez said, "The Court's approval of this financing commitment puts Kodak in a strong position to emerge from Chapter 11.

"This agreement, in conjunction with the recently approved sale and licensing of our digital imaging patent portfolio, lays the financial foundation for our Plan of Reorganization and a successful emergence from Chapter 11 as a profitable and sustainable company.

"Taken together, these accomplishments, along with other recent developments, such as the resolution of certain of our legacy liabilities, demonstrate the tangible and meaningful progress Kodak is making as it moves through the final phase of its restructuring."

Kodak reiterated that its patent portfolio won't be sold for less than $500m, however given that the firm had previously claimed it would extract billions from its patents, its valuation might be taken with a dash of salt, especially since no details on the $500m bid have been made public.

Nevertheless the company said that the $844m loan will help it emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the middle of this year.

  

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