Apple to release new iPhone/iPod touch dock?
Apple does, however, file patents that it might not ever use -- as do most other companies. What do you think? Could this be a new dock design, or is it the patent for the included iPod touch stand?
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Electronista reports on a patent filing for an iPhone/iPod touch dock that could allow you to both charge and play video in landscape...
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Ahh, so thats what that little thing does. I looked everywhere for instructions on what it was for, could find nothing so I threw it in the box. Question, why does the iPhone not have a similar hunk of plastic?
August 06 2008 at 4:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI've got a Ped from thoughtout.biz for my Treo, and will be getting one of their stands when I get hold of my iPod Touch. I really hate stands, like the Apple one, that dont give me some flexibility in moving/angling the handheld I'm using.
Good to know, though, that Apple is making something available for to provide some basic holding functionality.
This is evidently based on technology salvaged from the crash at Roswell.
August 06 2008 at 5:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI agree that it is just the standard plastic stand, but the connector on the end of the cable isn't the one shipped with my ipod touch - this is the cable that came with my 5th gen ipod (quick a bit longer with buttons to release). My ipod touch came with a much smaller connector with no buttons.
August 06 2008 at 2:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replywhat if it charges it through whatever it's called where it doesn't actually have to be inside it? like, the way a lot of electric toothbrushes work.
August 06 2008 at 12:06 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt's called inductive charging and as others have said. Reading the freaking patent, there is nothing in there about it being a dock or charging device, let alone utilizing inductive charging.
This is the crap that gives "news" blogs a bad name.
wth..
This IS the current one that ships with the ipod touch.
It's the landscape stand thingy.
Besides, apple will never make a dock like that because it's unstable and there is no syncing screen in landscape, and there is no way the stand can connect with the touch.. and many more
It works as the picture shows. The dock connector fits in the hole; it is there to make it easier to tidy up..
Molehill --> Mountain.
August 05 2008 at 10:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWow, I figured out that the stand held the end of the cable the day I bought my Touch. TUAW now has this breaking news...
If you read the patent, it even explicitly states that the part indicated by the dotted lines (the dock connector) is merely illustrative of its likely use (keeping the stand handy by leaving it on your dock connector) and is no part of the patent claim.
August 05 2008 at 7:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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