Photo: USPTO
If you’re a tech watcher, you probably know that Apple’s marketing power is insane, and this company can sell pretty much everything at a premium price.
And while Apple doesn’t always invent new stuff, it certainly makes it look like it does, and this is how everybody applauds the company for features like wireless charging on smartphones despite this feature actually debuting on rival devices many years before.
And now Apple might be planning to do the same thing with a car phone holder, as per a patent the company received earlier this year.
Describing a technology called “system for holding devices in a passenger vehicle,” the patent is dated July 2020, with Apple actually filing it back in August 2017.
While the name of this invention makes it sound like a new-generation device, it really isn’t, and what Apple has described here is just a regular car phone holder using magnets to keep the device in place and coming with a dedicated cable port to allow for wireless charging.
That’s right, it’s a typical car phone holder with wireless charging, pretty much like the other thousands that are already available online and which don’t cost more than $10 on the likes of eBay and AliExpress.
The abstract section of the patent provides a closer look at the technology Apple has “envisioned”:
“A system for securing a user device in a vehicle includes a magnet and an attraction plate. One of the magnet or attraction plate is mechanically coupled to the vehicle, and the other of the magnet or the attraction plate is mechanically coupled to the user device. The magnet is selectively activated to hold the attraction plate and, thereby, secure the user device to the vehicle.”
The only big news here could be Apple integrating some magnets into the body of the iPhone to make it easier to use the device with such a phone holder. But of course, this is quite a challenge for many reasons, including the limited space inside and which can be used for other purposes like a larger battery.
And now Apple might be planning to do the same thing with a car phone holder, as per a patent the company received earlier this year.
Describing a technology called “system for holding devices in a passenger vehicle,” the patent is dated July 2020, with Apple actually filing it back in August 2017.
While the name of this invention makes it sound like a new-generation device, it really isn’t, and what Apple has described here is just a regular car phone holder using magnets to keep the device in place and coming with a dedicated cable port to allow for wireless charging.
That’s right, it’s a typical car phone holder with wireless charging, pretty much like the other thousands that are already available online and which don’t cost more than $10 on the likes of eBay and AliExpress.
The abstract section of the patent provides a closer look at the technology Apple has “envisioned”:
“A system for securing a user device in a vehicle includes a magnet and an attraction plate. One of the magnet or attraction plate is mechanically coupled to the vehicle, and the other of the magnet or the attraction plate is mechanically coupled to the user device. The magnet is selectively activated to hold the attraction plate and, thereby, secure the user device to the vehicle.”
The only big news here could be Apple integrating some magnets into the body of the iPhone to make it easier to use the device with such a phone holder. But of course, this is quite a challenge for many reasons, including the limited space inside and which can be used for other purposes like a larger battery.
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