In a recent patent filing detailing smart watch band swapping mechanisms, Samsung appears to have cut some corners and borrowed a few familiar looking images from Apple.
The South Korean company’s patent application for a “Wearable Device” features several design drawings of the Apple Watch that appear to be based on Apple Watch marketing materials and images, as was discovered by Patently Apple and Business Insider.
Samsung uses Apple Watch drawings alongside its own product drawings as examples of methods for attaching a band to a smart watch. The Apple Watch’s lug attachment site is clearly depicted along with bands like the Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop, and Leather Loop, suggesting Samsung’s product designers and engineers are drawing inspiration from Apple’s wearable device.
Figures 10A to 10F and 11A to 11F are views illustrating diverse shapes, structures, and materials of a first strap portion or second strap portion in a wearable device according to am embodiment of the present disclosure.
Samsung has a long history of copying Apple designs and is often ridiculed for its tendencies to emulate Apple, so the use of Apple Watch design images for its patent examples is a curious choice.
One of Samsung's images (right) compared to a marketing image of the Apple Watch (left). Via BusinessInsider.
Apple and Samsung continue to be embroiled in a long-running lawsuit that found Samsung guilty of infringing on iPhone design patents, and Samsung has already paid Apple $548 million as a result. Just today, more than 100 designers wrote an amicus brief supporting Apple in its ongoing battle with Samsung, describing how the visual design of a product has “powerful effects on the human mind and decision making processes.”
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by Juli Clover
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models.
...
Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch.
In each of the past four years, ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year.
Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...
It's used for reference purposes. Just about every patent submitted lists prior patents and images to give the examiner a frame of reference. Samsung is not making any claim to the design in the application.
And as expected, the masses who know nothing about the filing process are already offended for Apple.
It's used for reference purposes. Just about every patent submitted lists prior patents and images to give the examiner a frame of reference. Samsung is not making any claim to the design in the application.
And as expected, the masses who know nothing about the filing process are already offended for Apple.
Where's the popcorn when you need it?
Why didn't they just sketch the Galaxy Gear then? :confused:
