What is Digg?249 Comments
- musters, on 05/26/2008, -24/+211What, now that Apple has a whole 10% market share they think that they can patent everything? Solar cells on a portable device? Hardly an innovation, my calculator from 1987 has this "technology".
- bincoder, on 05/26/2008, -32/+193huh? patented?? There have been calculators powered by solar for decades now and they don't say 'Apple' on the front. They are portable I presume, because you don't haul a calculator using a truck. A patent for "Solar cells on portable devices" seems just a tad wee bit broad. I don't want to pay apple for anything under 1 ton that happens to have solar cells on it. How about apple just patents apple. Powered by solar, nuke, hamster wheel, or a battery. Same thing.
- carlhudson, on 05/26/2008, -13/+118iPods to be Powered by Sun?
- kevdotbadger, on 05/26/2008, -8/+55Very interesting, but useless here in Britain.
- carpespasm, on 05/26/2008, -8/+46What a crock. Does anyone know how good a job the patent office does of throwing out obviously manipulative and pre-existing patent applications like this?
- bwdd, on 05/26/2008, -9/+46Cool idea, but way to ***** it up by patenting it.
- ralphthemagi, on 05/26/2008, -1/+36Apple patents every idea they come up with. They always have. In fact, any company with investors and even a modest amount of capital patents everything they can think of. It's the only way to monetize IP. If you don't have a working prototype, or a patent, your IP is worthless to your investors.
That's why whenever a company comes up with an idea, they patent it. Even if it's a bad idea, at least it's a bad idea that's now worth a few thousand dollars. They probably have a team of patent attorneys on staff anyway, so it's not really a big deal for them. - SPThom, on 05/26/2008, -3/+38Don't see why some people are digging you down. I thought the same thing.
- DigitAl56K, on 05/26/2008, -3/+34Motorola already patented this last year:
http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/05/21/motorola-patents ... - dericko, on 05/26/2008, -0/+21Stealing their ideas?
I'm sure everyone and their mom has thought about solar powered mobile devices... or at least something close to that. What about kinetic powered? Perhaps I should go patent that and sell it to Microsoft =/ - inactive, on 05/26/2008, -2/+23jPOD
- D14852001neko, on 05/26/2008, -3/+23If that was to be true, the lights would be only a fancy show, while the actual charge would be because of induction. Solar cells are NOT that efficient.
- toritaka, on 05/26/2008, -1/+19Additionally In the late 80's I had a SONY Walkman that was solar powered. (Item info: http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-f107)
So they will have to clean up their patent request for that to hold any water. - TheRedNewt, on 05/26/2008, -2/+20One word: Apple.
That makes the difference in people crying abusive patent and praising the brilliance of such a move. - Yage2006, on 05/26/2008, -5/+22Something really has to be done with the patent system.
In fact it should just be thrown away altogether no good comes from it at all.
- inactive, on 05/26/2008, -0/+16And useless when you put your ipod in your pocket. And I think that's where you put those kind of things
- dannyknight, on 05/26/2008, -11/+26Is it just me, or have calculators been doing this for years?
- Dumbledorito, on 05/26/2008, -3/+18No guarantee of functionality in Seattle, Alaska, and points North.
- blarger, on 05/26/2008, -13/+28I am on the development team for this. A few months ago, Steve asked us, "How can we make our users even more smug?" We all agreed that solar cells were the way to go, since windmills are kinda pointy.
- RoundysSince, on 05/26/2008, -7/+21(Just by looking at the picture) This technology involves putting the solar cells UNDERNEATH the LCD display. I don't know what kind of calculators people are using these days, but this is NOT "the same thing calculators have been doing for years" - it's an existing concept combined with your good ol' Apple R&D, hence the patent.
- emailingRob, on 05/26/2008, -0/+14WHOOSH!
- awesometastic1, on 05/26/2008, -2/+16in other news Apple files patent for putting screens on portable devices
- allengeer, on 05/26/2008, -2/+15Solar Cells are awesome, but I think the real future is the cell phone that charges by the simple movement of it in your pocket.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=powering-cell- ... - inactive, on 05/26/2008, -7/+20This has been used in many applications by the US military for years. Apple is just stealing ideas again.
- inactive, on 05/26/2008, -1/+14javaPod
- Rikkochet, on 05/26/2008, -0/+13Like it or not, he's right. This is exactly how business works.
- thatspsychotic, on 05/26/2008, -6/+17***** Apple, but...
RTFA - Your ancient calculator did not have solar cells behind it's touchscreen LCD panel. That's not exactly the easiest thing to do. - piesforyou, on 05/26/2008, -2/+13I don't get it :(
- DamnMan, on 05/27/2008, -0/+11a piss poor one?
- WaveRunningNakd, on 05/26/2008, -0/+10i see what you did there... play on words.
- D4rkDrago0n, on 05/27/2008, -0/+10Do we get a yahoo toolbar bundled with it?
- inactive, on 05/26/2008, -16/+25Looks like APpple is up to its usual underhanded methods of stealing ideas.
- logandurand, on 05/26/2008, -2/+11Why does it matter where the solar cells are located? Repositioning them hardly seems like something worthy of a patent.
- insomniac8400, on 05/26/2008, -0/+9All they are is putting a solar cell behind an already clear surface. It is not an invention at all. Now if they develop technologies and materials to make a solar cell behind an lcd more efficient, than they can patent those individual methods and techniques. But patenting the general act of putting a solar cell behind something clear is ridiculous.
- wildmXranat, on 05/26/2008, -9/+18@tboutcher
here's your revolutionary argument explained:
"...ambient light that passes through the LCD screen of the device, the aforementioned source notes, while the technique would completely eliminate additional footprints typically required by the solar panels..."
WOW, a solar panel behind a piece of fu**ing glass. Does that sound like a fair patent ? No , it doesn't. It solves their problem of placing an unsightly solar panel behind the LCD , but that is it. Glass enclosures are not copyrightable . Bulova watches already do this. Apple can go fu*k themselves ! - Suzilla, on 05/26/2008, -5/+13I have a Cassio calculator that is powered soley (no pun intended) by photovoltaic cells. Does all the (up-to-32-bit) CS functions I've ever needed. Purchased it in 1989 and it still works great to this day. I'm happy to provide this as an exhibit of prior art, should the need arise.
- dig1x, on 05/26/2008, -7/+15Apple == Epic patent trolls.
- scotticus, on 05/26/2008, -0/+8I think that falls under prior art and obvious to someone skilled in the art.
They're allowed to file... lets just hope it doesn't get granted. - intregus, on 05/26/2008, -4/+12Are people even reading the article? "In other words, Apple is looking to cover the entire device, including the transparent display, with a layer of solar cells". So, your calculator already has this, huh?
Looks like a case of everyone in column A digging cause it had Apple in the title, and everyone from column B flaming cause it has Apple in the title. - InetRoadkill, on 05/26/2008, -0/+8Ummm, prior art (solar powered calculators and watches) plus patents are supposed to be limited to inventions which are non-obvious.
- grovest4life, on 05/26/2008, -1/+9excellent solution to the over abundance of jobs fans blowing hot air all the time.
- Johnny1337h4x0r, on 05/26/2008, -3/+10What you're talking about is the "idea" of solar cells in an object. An idea can not be patented. Most likely what's going on is that they have patented a special technique or a specialized way of integrating the solar panels into the device.
- cboj, on 05/26/2008, -4/+11My PowerBook 1400C had a Apple built solar panel on it. It clipped on the back and was as wide as the entire machine. It wouldn't run the laptop, the battery but would recharge it after several long hours.
Over all pretty worthless. - zspeed78, on 05/26/2008, -3/+10Thats lame.. products have done this before.. I knew someone that had a cell phone with a expanded battery pack that had a solar panel on the battery pack so when driving he would leave it battery side up to charge slightly.
- diggless, on 05/26/2008, -6/+13looks from the diagram to be a system to reclaim wasted back light energy or energy transmitted through the LCD.
i see people saying its not innovating, but I cant think of an application like this. - DaffyDuck, on 05/27/2008, -0/+7"Is it just me, or have calculators been doing this for years?"
No, they have not had the solar cells behind the LCD before. - Barackalypse, on 05/27/2008, -0/+7That will rob me of kinetic energy and make me work (a tiny bit) harder to move! Also, the burning of food to produce motion to be converted into electricity is a horribly inefficient process.
- iBenzin, on 05/26/2008, -20/+27people you are missing the point. Apple isnt patenting solar cells on a portable device.. like calculators.. they are patenting putting the solar cells under the screen in order to have it charge the device. now if you people read maybe you wouldnt be misinformed.
- sockpuppets, on 05/27/2008, -0/+6The joke's on them, I patented the production of energy through the fusion of hydrogen and helium last week.
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