Apple and its patents in 2021: Here’s what the tech giant could bring to you in the future

• Apple has been granted multiple patents by the USPTO this year.
• These patents give us an insight into what the company might be working on.
• There are plenty of new inventions anticipated in the coming years, let’s take a look at them.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a report granting multiple patents to Apple this year. While the patents don’t exactly reveal the devices or technology Apple will launch in the future, they do drop a hint on what the company might be working on or envisioning to work on.

The suggestions from the published patents help up understand and anticipate any new inventions the tech giant might be looking to launch. In this article we take a look at the patents filed by Apple and what each of them may suggest.

Smart Fabric
According to $4, Apple is working on a fabric invention that may help develop textile-based touch-sensitive devices that can be used to control various electronic devices that are touch-sensitive The fabric will feature conductive threads interwoven across two directions. It may also have a sensing circuit. The touch-sensitive textile may be incorporated into clothing, textile-based accessories and other electronic devices.

Foldable iPhone
Apple was granted a patent for foldable iPhone displays having touch capabilities on the front, back and sidewalls. The device might have a flip phone form factor and feature curved sides that will be sensitive to touch.

Apple Electric Car
Apple is working on an electric car that we may see in 2024. The renders made out of the patent suggest that the car may look like Tesla’s Cybertruck with a sleeker build. But take this with a grain of salt as it’s mostly an imaginary render.

Macbooks with retractable keyboard
In the future, we may see thinner MacBooks that will include a retractable keyboard when the cover is closed. The keys will raise above the base surface whenever the lid of the MacBook is opened.

Expandable displays
Another patent suggests that the future iPhones and iPad could come with an expandable display that will be rollable. It will allow users to expand the display whenever they want to use a larger screen and roll it back whenever required.

iPhone built-in AirPods charger
The $4 relates to a MagSafe accessory attached at the back of an iPhone providing a power supply using an inductive charging module that could accommodate and charge AirPods.

MacBook with removable key
A patent $4 that Apple may develop MacBooks having a removable key that can work as a mouse. The removable key could work as a normal keyboard key when not removed. It will also feature a battery to function its precision pointing function.

Mixed Reality Headset with hand-tracking
It relates to a future head-mounted display (HMD) used for AR/VR headsets that can take input from users’ hand gestures. According to the $4, it will also allow users to interact with the virtual world using hand gestures.

Binaural audio in AirPods and HMD devices
Apple has designed head-tracking binaural audio and spatial audio for AirPods and HMD devices that could make users experience the virtual reality environment more realistically. Gaming and entertainment would become more immersive with the addition of binaural audio.

All-glass iPhone and Apple Watch
Apple is $4 all-glass enclosures for iPhone and Apple Watch. The research focuses on six-sided glass enclosure and casing that could be found in a future Apple device.

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