News Apple patents multi-function solar laptop casing

How do they give a patent based on a document that keeps repeating the word "may"?

 

So, how long before Samsung or another companies develops something similar? Or, Another small unheard of company speaks up and claims they did it first??

Sam

 

"By charging the battery with battery charging power"...for the hard-of-thinking, fair enough. And for the people who buy anything Apple: "The iBright iLight in the iSky iSends iMagical iInvisible iEnergy iFairies to make your i(Enter product here) switch on and make iSounds and flash iLights"

 

OK so I have never heard of the solar cells being incorporated into a display screen before. So I give apple that. But solar charging portable devices is nothing new. I hope apple don't try and say they have the exclusive patent to solar charge any laptop.
Remember apple, you have patented the specific technology, but you HAVE NOT patented the idea, so please don't try to bully everyone else into paying you silly amounts of money.

 

It's a gimmick until solar tech is vastly improved. I'd love to see solar-powered consumer laptops, but the fact is that good solar panels are expensive, fragile and still not good enough.

 

if they don't produce this themselves within 5 yrs it should be null and void

 

Hmm, seems like the Sol Laptop is doing a similar thing, though currently looks like vaourware as nothing's been released to Market yet : http://solaptop.com/en/

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of USA patents.

On a different note Samsung and Apple patent 1000s of things a year are we gonna get updates on each and everyone these days?

 

Agreed 100%

I've been saying they should add solar tech to portable devices to extend battery life for years. Not a question of how practical the charge would be in everyday life , more to do with people in areas/situations where they can't get to a power supply for whatever reason in an emergency situation having an alternative method of getting some power into a device to call for aid.
If it were added it would also drive manufacturers to invest in producing more efficient photovoltaic cells which could benefit everyone in the longer term.

 

I don't think it is doing anything as anyone can see from that website it's nothing but a rendering of a product that has never and never will reach even prototype stages.

Plus Apple's patent is not for a laptop with a solar panel bolted to it, it's for a crazy gestalt screen combining every bit of tech they have access to at the moment.

They're not going to build this, I don't think they want to even build it. They're just patenting the idea to cover their bases.

Tech companies do this all the damn time. Apple files a lot of 'just in case' patents.

And Apple haters... Apple isn't alone in this! Just because the entire interweb is OBSESSED with Apple and the patents it files and owns, that doesn't mean they are the worst offenders.

 

Sounds good Gareth.

 

i'm not an apple hater, I think all patents should have a maximum 5yr development stage, after which if no product is forthcoming, the patent is null and void.

 

Good idea in principle but who is going to check up on it? What if the product is still in development, and if so, how do you prove progression?

 

Thats the fundamental difference between patents granted in USA vs Europe. USA- you can patent a concept whereas here the claim needs to be backed up by physical evidence.

 

Yes I can see laptop users sitting outside in the sun in order to get a little extra battery life...

 

Putting Solar panels in the casing of anything isn't an original idea, they've been doing it with Solar powered cars and boats for years. You can hardly patent that as everyone has been doing it. Another idea that apple claims to have invented and will sue anyone to the nth degree to protect.

That company is less about innovation and more about litigation these days. If they spent as much money on R&D as they do on lawyers they might have something more original and inventive to show us.