Apple's patently obvious moves

Yet another Apple filing has surfaced. This one seemingly describing a means for providing global phone, or as Engadget put it, "one phone to rule them all". At the very least it allows for a "customized user experience" allowing users to seamlessly switch carriers without the need for a new phone or a new SIM card. The latter would require a global SIM card.

The patent in question, entitled: Method and apparatus for using a wireless communication device with multiple service providers, describes using "a set of one or more identifier values stored in the mobile wireless communication device" in order to allow for the automatic configuration of that device to any carrier service profile. Simply put, you could put your SIM card into any iPhone (or sim bearing product) and configure for the correct carrier. This part in itself is nothing new and may well be patented already.  Unique identifiers that most handset manufacturers grab over the network from your SIM and phone during first-run would be:

MNC (Mobile Network Code)  your primary carrier)

MCC (Mobile Country Code) Country issue of the SIM

SNC (Secondary Network Code) the one you're roaming on

SCC (Secondary Country Code) If you're traveling internationally

IMEI Number (Unique identifier for each handset lie a VIN on your car)

MSISDN (your unique carrier subscription number, typically phone number)

With this info most handset manufacturers have automated first-run wizards which send this info to their own databases of carrier settings to then configure all of your SMS, MMS, Internet, etc. and get you hooked up. Most handsets will have a limited number of these configurations onboard to match the software versions by territory. What Apple is proposing, apparently, is to have everything onboard the product so that each product is a global release. And then to take it one step further by ranking carriers based on pricing and subscription models and matching that to your user profile (how much you call, text, surf, and so on).

This last bit is what is new, challenges the market as we know it today, and points to Apple truly looking for the Global SIM and removing the carrier as gatekeeper to the customer. They have previously met with stiff resistance and I would be surprised if that attitude softens. I am also of the opinion that Apple is once again trying to patent the obvious by taking existing patents and years-old standard telco practices and submitting them with very small changes as revolutionary new ideas worthy of a patent. Just like their submission for streaming music optimization. A technology that Spotify has been doing since its inception - only better. 

Frankly, with all of the patent suits flying around the mobile industry right now it's becoming comical and Apple is more than beginning to look like Microsoft in the 90's, scooping up every good idea that's already out there and pitching it as their own.

Source: Apple Insider 

GLMPS is cool but it's been done before

All Things D had a story on a new startup, Glmps (pronounced "glimpse"), which has created a new iPhone app that captures the moments just before taking a still image on your iPhone. It achieves this by recording video from the moment the camera is engaged. Once everything is captured you can save it to their website and share via Twitter or Facebook. They even have Foursquare check-in.

Now, the social aspects of this are sort of hygiene at this point and the concept, while appearing innovative, has been done already and patented. Ina Fried actually mentions this in the article referencing Sony who had a simliar feature integrated into their Cybershot cameras. Here's where Glmps may be on the verge of some IP difficulties.

The patent for the technology that Sony used is actually held by Sony Ericsson who debuted it in the K800i cameraphone in 2006 under the name "Best Pic"(video below the break). The technology was to record/buffer a series of frames before and after shutter activation by - you guessed it - beginning to buffer still frames once the camera was activated (video below). The user could then select the best picture from any one of the recorded frames. Sony Ericsson then licensed this over to the Cybershot team at Sony.

Apple Patenting Music Caching? C'mon!

So apparently our friends at my favorite fruit company are out after "revolutionary" patents and marketing headlines. Over on Geeky Gadgets and other sites they have reported that, in advance of an iCloud announcement, Apple has filed for a patent optimizing track buffering performance over streaming services by caching portions of the songs to your internal memory (schematic below). The idea being that if the first few seconds of everything in your cloud library is cached locally (maybe cleverly managed by play count statistics) then when you jump to the next track there will be no streaming lag. Apple, when they finally launch a cloud streaming service, will tout this as the coolest, newest, most revolutionary thing to hit streaming music since, well, streaming music. Problem is they are about 4 years behind on this point if not more.

Spotify does this today and has been using this methodology, albeit better, since their inception. I remember being in a meeting with Spotify reps early on when they were pitching this new concept to our team in order to ingrate it into our handsets. Groundbreaking then. Proven success now. Spotify's version, however, uses a structure similar to torrents where not only do they cache a large portion of your cloud playlists locally - but what  is not available locally on your device is cloud-sourced among other Spotify users that are online, thus accelerating the startup time for every track.

So I have a hard time seeing how Apple can legitimately get a patent for this but stranger things have occurred in patent land. All in all, for me, it seems yet another indicator that Apple, despite its immense success, is struggling with the disruption of other services to their long, tired, ecosystem. I love Apple, and Steve is God in the tech world, but I wonder how much his illness is beginning to ripple into operations and visions. Let's keep an open eye on that one.