iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPad 5, iPad Mini 2 are Powerful Traveling Tools, Smart Car-Controller in New Set of Patents
Driving a car and traveling would be more enjoyable following the rumoured 2013 release dates of the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 6 and the two iPad sizes from Apple, new approved patents of the tech giant showed.
In one of the fresh Apple inventions, it was revealed that the company is working to enhance its mapping services even when cellular signals become unreliable, Apple Insider said on its report.
While the iPhone itself is depended upon by users for GPS-backed driving routes, this function is rendered useless when radio signals are hard to come by. The solution, Apple said, is mapping printouts that include "a listing of turns, a map overview, and notes that a user may have wished to include in the printout."
The technology would employ "proper scaling techniques, transparencies and other details that would make the printout more user friendly than current solutions," Apple Insider quoted the patent filing as saying.
This new navigational approach is expected to debut on the new devices that will be powered by Apple's upcoming iOS 7, which experts said should be released and fully-functional by the last months of 2013.
In two other patents, car manipulation and parking location would be made easier thanks to new iOS features that potentially Apple will introduce with the iPhone 5S and the big-screen iPhone 6.
Future iPhones, the patent said, can be paired to a car via Bluetooth, for instance, that would allow a user to easily locate his parked vehicle in a given parking complex, aided by "current positioning data."
But for the service to behave correctly, the invention "calls for the parking structure to hold an array of wireless sensors that are deployed in such a way as to determine the location of a car and a mobile device," Apple Insider reported.
The other new technology takes page from the customisations options already offered by a number of high-end automobile brands such as starting the car, unlocking the doors and many more in-vehicle functions.
Yet instead of using a third-party controller, these remotely-controlled features are embedded on owners' iPhones or iPads, which then will communicate with a subject car using near-field communication or NFC.