MacBookAir

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The banners are up at MacWorld — and they’re saying “2008 There’s something in the air”

Hrmpf! These banners will obviously make sense come Tuesday but until then we will have to speculate wildly about their meaning. One thing I think is that it doesn’t seem to point to a new Apple SubNoteBook — unless it uses some significantly novel wireless technology… what are the possibilities suggested by Apple’s patent applications this year? Well, obviously there is the refinement of the iPhone- but I can’t see there being any dramatic changes in that regard (perhaps addition of wireless shopping at places like starbucks, and the new Firmware).

Here are some of the patent applications that jumped to mind when I saw the “There’s something in the air” banners.

iPhone / iTablet dock – inductive charging

Induction for charging and data transfer

The patent application suggests a charging and data transfer method that uses induction. Inductive charging doesn’t need physical contact just for the devices to be in close proximity. This is an attractive idea because none of the connections need to be physical and can be hidden within the housing. Thus allowing sleeker designs without the inconvenience and ugliness of lots of charging, firewire, USB etc ports.

The iPhone could be modified to allow it to be charged by inductive charging- imagine tossing your iPhone/SubNoteBook onto a horizontal mat next to your bed and having it happily charging and syncing (and slowly frying your brain!).

Further ideas on this can be found here

Apple suggests RFID to allow ‘easy’ wireless network setup and security
This patent suggests the use of RFID tags in hardware that exchange the vital information to allow setup of new hardware on a wireless network. You bring your new iTV up in close proximity to your wireless base station (which has a RFID receiver) and they exchange information from the RFID tag.
A common problem with wireless networks is that they aren’t secure. Although some of this is due to design flaws in the current encryption used in the wifi standard the most common reason for unsecured networks is that they are not properly configured and security features not enabled.

The exchange of data would be authentication parameters, encryption keys etc and the device could be anything including a ‘remote control’ and other ‘primitive’ devices which don’t have user interfaces and are difficult to configure.
If you’ve even tried to explain over the phone to someone how to secure their network (get you MAC address, no not the ethernet one the wifi one etc etc etc) you’ll understand how difficult it is for hardware providers to “just make it work” and be secure(ish). Embedding RFID tags may allow easy exchange of configuration and security data and easy setup

What do you think they’ll announce?