Apple has been filing and earning patents for the past few weeks giving people a peak on what to expect on its next product releases. The US Patent and Trademark Office released 46 newly granted patents to the company last April 8. According to the patents, Apple has been working on new slide-to-unlock and push-to-talk technologies. These features should come soon to devices like the iPhone 6 and the iPad Air 2.

Apple has been working on a range of patents including done describing a new -to-Talk iPhone and/or iDevice feature. The company has also reportedly filed for the patents describing new Push-to-Talk technology, social networking editing, avatar creation, video gaming and conferencing. The patents hint at what people can expect from the tech giant's upcoming releases later this year.

Slide-to-Unlock Patent

Apple has changed the way smartphones work through its famous slide-to-unlock feature. The new patent published under the US Patent Office describes a touch-sensitive display featuring an unlock image though the device is under a user-interface lock state. A user can use a predefined gesture to access the panel. The system can detect the pattern and respond accordingly.

According to Patently Apple, the patent is related to the legal conflict with Samsung. Apple filed 30 patent claims relating to this. The patent credits Scott Forstall, Imran Chaudhri, Bas Ording, Marcel van OS, Greg Christie and Freddy Anzures as investors. The patent goes by the number 8,694,923.

Then patent provides a more complex of using the slide-to-unlock feature. Nonetheless, there are still doubts whether Apple can execute this along with the TouchID feature. The dual-slider method may not be possible. Apple has filed an infringement case against Samsung including the "slide to unlock" mechanism.

Push-to-Talk and Avatar Creation

As mentioned, the tech giant has also been granted a patent relating to avatar creation. The avatar creation feature offers a reflection of the user's state. The system describes use of methods, systems including computer-readable media for development and customization of avatar.

Push to Talk over Cellular (PoC) refers to a service option for mobile phone networks allowing people to use smartphones as walkie-talkies without range limit. Apple has yet to release official announcement on which devices these technologies will be included initially.