While the world really does not care about it, users in India can do with a few more as well. We are talking about the dual SIM feature, one that has now been the norm in the past year when it comes to smartphones. Yes, be it flagship, or budget, almost every smartphone manufacturer out there offers a dual SIM slot. So it seems rather odd as to why Apple stuck to a single one so far. But as per new patent leaks, Apple could soon switch to a dual SIM layout, at least for certain markets.
As
pointed out by
Forbes, a new
patent filed with China’s State Intellectual Property Office indicates that iPhones coming to China in the coming year could feature dual SIM support. The application for the same was submitted in March 2016 and was published in September 2016 by Li Su, who is reportedly a principal architect for cellular software at Apple. To add to this news, there was
another patent for a dual SIM card technology filed earlier this week in the United States as well and this one includes the same name as the previous applicant (along with a few others).
Right now it’s hard to tell whether Apple would go the eSIM way or physically add two SIM card slots to the upcoming iPhones, but there is a growing market for these in China and India. While Apple’s India sales do show progress, its
CHINA SALES
share shows a drop, with competitors like Oppo taking the major slice of the pie. So Apple could add some much needed value to its iPhone 8 lineup by simply switching to a dual SIM setup.
Apart from the above,
Apple Insider reports two patents that were granted to the Cupertino tech giant. The first one involves slimmer speakers that can have applications in Apple’s iPad and
MACBOOKS. The new system, tagged as a mechanically actuated panel acoustic system, works in a manner similar to Apple’s iPad Pro models.
Image: Apple Insider
The panel-style speaker sits above the a back air volume and is divided into smaller sub-panels that act as individual diaphragms. Voice coil motors sitting above those sub-panels move the magnets that move the panels to
GENERATE the sound. So, in all there are three layers, with the sub panel taking up the innermost layer followed by voice coil motors and the magnets that are attached to the mid-plate, which vibrate into the back air volume that is covered by the front panel, which forms the outermost layer.
Image: Apple Insider
Since each sub-panel has its own voice coil and there’s an onboard audio converter, the right signals can’t be sent across to separate pairs to allow for highly accurate acoustics for hi-definition sound.
What is
IMPORTANT here is that the design comes in different configurations that let Apple even remove the mid-plate, placing the magnets directly onto the front panel, letting it vibrate instead to produce the sound.
Image: Apple Insider
Lastly, we see something out-of-the-box in what Apple calls a “Woven” display. So far, Apple has detailed just the method that involves
LIGHT-transmissive materials being interwoven into fabrics. When the same is connected to an LED light source, the fibres can light up and render some low resolution imagery. Apple plans to use these for notifications on its wearables, like the strap of a smartwatch, that can act as a second screen to reflect multicolour symbols and simpler notifications.
