Apple Patent Application Suggests Camera-Equipped iPod Nano With Situation-Aware Screen Savers

[Just "Vinnie"]

As one example of the technology in practice, Apple describes a screen saver displaying raindrops falling down the screen.


That's it. Show's over. Apple's think tank has officially hit rock bottom. They're tapped out.

 

[pubwvj]

Whether or not

Here's a cool application in the "save the world" category:

If each computer / idevice has temperature, light sensor, humidity sensor, GPS or other location sensor, up down sensor, etc then this data could be gathered (with the user's permission) and analyzed to be used for weather prediction, earthquake prediction and other scientific research. Much like SETI distributed processing but this is distributed data gathering.

Imagine hundreds millions of weather sensors scattered over the planet.

I hope someone does this. Maybe AccuWeather.com

 

[28monkeys]

environmental screen saver !?

 

[HiVolt]

How utterly... useless...

 

[bwillwall]

I agree, it is just too small.

I disagree, I think it sounds like a neat idea, the way I understand it is that if your playing music and leave it alone it will have a screensaver appear, like the water drop thing, and the drops will fall whatever direction is down, just a cool looking low detail screensaver. Probably wouldn't even come on if you weren't playing music.

 

[mrsir2009]

Seriously, who the hell needs a screensaver on an iPod?

Yeah. Its not like it has a Plasma or CRT display that'll burn out.

 

[3goldens]

Does anyone really care about this kind of crap?

 

[caspersoong]

Err... who will notice a nano with that on? Maybe something bigger, like an iPad IMO.

 

[baryon]

Sounds like a lot of effort for not much gain! A screen saver means that the screen would be on and backlit even when you're not using it? That wouldn't save battery life. Maybe this is just a background picture on the home screen or something.

I would not mind a temperature sensor, a camera, and maybe an accelerometer, but not just for screen savers!

 

[SBlue1]

the nano officially jumped the shark!

 

[dustinsc]

I have the nano before the current gen with the camera, and I have never used it once in 1.5 years.

I really don't understand why it's there, I just don't see the point of it.

What I would like to see is making the nano bigger so you are able to watch videos on it again. I have used my nano on many occasions to watch films on - yea it isn't a massive screen but it's just about big enough to be able to still enjoy watching stuff on it. I was really disappointed when they made the screen smaller.

If you were 13 years old you'd use it. But, I find it hard to believe even a 13-year-old would use a camera on the smaller Nano.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Seriously, who the hell needs a screensaver on an iPod?

Are screen savers ever really necessary these days? As I recall, they were needed for CRT displays due to burn in. But that is not an issue with LCD as far as I know.

I think screen savers are just for fun these days, and serve no real purpose.

 

[Zc456]

This reminds me of Live Wallpapers.

the nano officially jumped the shark!

The Nano jumped the shark the minute sixth gen came out.

 

[KingCrimson]

This reminds me of Live Wallpapers.



The Nano jumped the shark the minute sixth gen came out.

really I have no problems with my 6G Nano.

 

[ciTiger]

This may never reach implementation... But everything has to be patented now a days...

 

[ciTiger]

I'm gonna start devoting some of my time on finding something to patent... Maybe in a few years I can make money on it.. lol

 

[tigress666]

really I have no problems with my 6G Nano.

I love mine! It's awesome. The only negative is the tiny battery that can't handle a lot of load (put any load on it that is not playing through basic headphones just music and the battery drains quick).

I'd not mind if they made it a little bigger (but kept the clip) to put in a bigger battery that could handle a little more.

 

[YourHerojb]

I don't really care for all this.

I just want the new nano to have a nice battery and support 32 gb.
I'm really just looking forward to having a sweet ipod watch.

The camera would be acceptable, but the microphone will be nice to have for voice memos.

 

[dannyaml]

nano is becoming more popular in the digital watch area. they should throw out the camera no idea why you would need a camera on the nano unless they are making some type of weird face time thing (explains the mic) but if the screen saver has some type of clock or alarm or anything to do with time that would be great! I'm already planning to purchase 2 bands with the new nano when it releases: a workout nylon band & a casual band (such as the lunatik). a mini app for biking would be great too ie: rpm + timer etc though they may already have that with nike+!

 

[Hepsterdesigns]

What the iPod Nano needs for me to buy it...

I appreciate Nano coming back with a video camera. I loved that function. I don't want to spend $200 on a Touch. The video function was amazing on the Nano. The mic worked well. I was upset that Apple got rid of those functions and went with a touch screen. I think it would take this to get me to buy another iPod.