MacRumors

An Apple patent application published yesterday (via Patently Apple) by the United States Patent and Trademark office details the creation of a flexible battery shape, suggesting that the company is exploring solutions for future products that may take on a unique shape, such as the rumored iWatch.

The patent, which was filed in December of 2011, covers a flexible battery pack that consists of several different cells connected through a laminate layer, designed to "allow the battery to be shaped to fit a form factor of the electronic device."

Electronic devices are ubiquitous in society and can be found in everything from portable cell phones to wristwatches. Many of these electronic devices require some type of portable power source. Many of these electronic devices also have unique form factors. Because of this, the portable power source of any one electronic device may not fit within any other electronic device.

Furthermore, these unique form factors often require flexible battery arrangements, whereas conventional battery packs are often too rigid to flexibly conform to these form factors. For example, lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium polymer battery cells, are quite rigid and bending them repeatedly may cause damage to the battery cells and battery failure. As a result of attempting to accommodate inflexible battery packs, the packaging of portable electronic devices may not be optimally sized.

Apple's patent also suggests that a flexible battery pack could have certain cells removed to incorporate thermoelectric coolers, flashes, or a camera, allowing the battery to fit more snugly into a small space. The company points out that an isolated flexible cell arrangement increases device reliability as well, preventing multiple connected cells from failing at once due to environmental factors like moisture or dust.

According to Apple, its flexible battery solution could be used in a number of devices, including "wristwatches, calculators, laptop computers, tablet computers, and/or music players."

A patent application published in March and a job listing in April suggested that Apple was researching iPhones constructed with flexible wraparound displays, and such designs would likely incorporate the flexible battery detailed in yesterday's patent.

Apple's much rumored "iWatch" could also take advantage of a flexible battery, as a February patent revealed that the company was experimenting with a potential wraparound touch-sensitive display.

In recent weeks, Apple has filed for a number of trademarks on the iWatch name around the world. According to rumors, Apple has 100 product designers working on the watch, which is likely to launch in 2014.

Reuters reports on difficulties being faced by NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier with 60 million customers, as it has yet to reach a deal with Apple to offer the iPhone. The major hurdle to a deal has been DoCoMo's insistence on allowing its own services to be preloaded on devices it carries.

It is paying heavily for that obstinacy - with a net 3.2 million users jumping ship to its two domestic rivals over the last 4-1/2 years - but is determined to protect the walled garden of services it has built around its own smartphones.

"We're trying to develop a lifestyle system," NTT DoCoMo CEO Kaoru Kato told Reuters in an interview this week.

The report notes that while DoCoMo pioneered a number of smartphone services, those services have been surpassed in popularity and ease of use by third-party offerings. Combining that reduced consumer reliance on DoCoMo's own services with Apple's equally obstinate position that carriers can not preload apps and services on the iPhone may leave DoCoMo in an increasingly difficult position with its customers.

DoCoMo appears to be banking on iPhone saturation at rival carriers Softbank and KDDI to force Apple to relent as it seeks to drive further sales growth of the popular device, but DoCoMo's list of demands, which also includes carrier branding on handsets themselves, clashes so strongly with Apple's philosophy for the iPhone that an imminent deal appears unlikely.

Little appears to have changed in the stalemate between Apple and DoCoMo, as a November 2011 report highlighted many of the same sticking points. And with the iPhone continuing to lead the Japanese smartphone market even without DoCoMo on board, it appears that Apple may be able to continue negotiating from a position of strength.

Still, Samsung's dramatic rise in most of the rest of the world has enabled it to surpass the iPhone in many markets, and Apple may be feeling some pressure to make its best effort to ensure that a similar scenario does not play out in Japan.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has published an Apple patent application that pertains to expanded mapping features, including real-time crowd-sourced traffic information and user-based route ratings and reporting, reports AppleInsider.

Apple's patent, titled "User-Specified Route Rating and Alerts," shares some distinct similarities with Waze, a company that Apple was rumored to be purchasing at one point, though it was ultimately acquired by Google. The patent, which was originally filed in 2011, details a system in which Maps users offer "ratings for routes, streets and/or locations," improving the company's mapping capabilities through user feedback.

A system comprising: one or more processors; and a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes: presenting a map display and a route on a mobile device; determining when the mobile device has reached a destination associated with the route; when the mobile device has reached the destination, displaying a prompt for input rating the route; and receiving user input comprising rating information for the route.

Waze incorporates user feedback as well, using crowd sourced data to determine route details and travel times. Waze users can utiize the app's feedback system to provide the company with reports on traffic accidents, road closures, location accuracy, and more. With a similar system in place, Apple could allow its users to provide feedback and ratings on route choices, which could then be used to optimize travel.

Apple's patent also details a process that would see the company collecting real-time traffic alerts and then distributing it to other Maps users, providing on-the-fly updates to routing information.

A method comprising: presenting a map on a display of a mobile device; receiving a first user input identifying a location on the map; receiving a second user input providing information about an event occurring at the location; and transmitting the event information to a navigation service, where the navigation service is configured to broadcast the event information to other mobile devices.

After a disastrous Maps debut alongside iOS 6 that saw a slew of complaints about inaccuracy and missing information, Apple has worked hard to improve the application. Tim Cook issued an apology and the company went through a restructuring that included the termination of several people involved with the Maps project, including SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall and Maps manager Richard Williamson.

Apple has since posted a number of job listings in order to add to its Maps teams, and has improved 3D flyover coverage in a number of cities. Both of Apple's upcoming operating system updates for Mac and iOS will include a number of mapping improvements, including a new app in OS X Mavericks.

After introducing iWork for iCloud during its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple began sending beta invites for the service to registered developers on June 13.

Since then, Apple has continued to send out beta invites on a rolling basis to both paid and free developer accounts. It appears the company has sent out a large batch of invites today, inviting a number of new people to participate in the beta.

iWork for iCloud offers in-browser versions of Apple's iWork software suite, including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The software can be accessed from both PC and Mac computers as well as a number of mobile devices.

Developers with both free and paid accounts that have received an email from Apple can access the beta by visiting beta.icloud.com. iWork for iCloud is expected to be released to the public later this year.

Update: Some reports today indicated that the iWork for iCloud beta had been extended to non-developers. The Next Web contacted Apple, and the company confirmed that reports of beta access for non-developers were inaccurate.

Apple executives Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi spoke to Apple Retail Store leaders about upcoming changes to Apple's iPhone marketing tactics during a summit at San Francisco's Fort Mason on June 27, reports 9to5Mac.

During the meeting, CEO Tim Cook noted 80% of iPhones are sold at third party locations, a figure that he would like to improve in the future with new iPhone promotional tactics.

The iPhone is Apple's central "gateway product" to other devices like iPads and Macs, so it is critical that the Apple smartphone is sold via an Apple Store so new customers are immediately exposed to iPads, Macs and other devices on the showroom floor. Even though 80% of iPhones are not sold at Apple Stores, 50% of all serviced iPhones are troubleshooted, repaired, or replaced at Apple Store Genius Bars. Cook reportedly hinted that he would like those numbers to be more in line.

Apple is planning to boost iPhone sales with various incentive programs, including the recently launched Back to School promotion that includes the iPhone for the first time and an upcoming in-store trade-in program. The company may also extend its price matching policies, which debuted in the U.S. last summer, internationally.

Along with new iPhone discount and sales strategies, Apple also plans to heavily market iOS 7 when it is released in the fall and introduce new retail locations in Europe.

According to store leaders who were at the summit, Apple has an "army of new products" in the works, which may include the upcoming iPhone 5S, a redesigned fifth generation iPad, a low cost iPhone, and a refreshed line of MacBook Pros, among other products.

Tim Bradshaw, a tech reporter with the Financial Times, received this poster from Apple celebrating the upcoming 5-year anniversary of the App Store.

The App Store, which originally launched on July 10, 2008, has seen more than 50 billion app downloads across nearly a million individual apps.

Apple sent a similar promotional item to reporters to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iTunes Store, though that version included a gift card redeemable for 100 songs hand-picked by the iTunes staff.

Apple has been sued by Boston University over a patent for gallium nitride films that the University alleges is used in the iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air, amongst other products. The Boston Herald first reported on the lawsuit.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, is for a patent awarded to a BU professor for which the university owns the rights.

U.S. Patent 5,686,738, titled "Highly Insulating Monocrystalline Gallium Nitride Thin Film" is related to a particular manufacturing process for LEDs and other semiconductor devices.

The lawsuit does not specify what inside Apple's products is alleged to be infringing, just noting Apple products in general. Boston University has sued a number of other companies over the same patent in recent months, including Samsung [PDF].

The initial filing is embedded below.

Moviefone has shared a new movie poster for the Ashton Kutcher's Jobs film. The poster features the tagline "Some see what's possible, others change what's possible."

"Some see what's possible, others change what's possible" are the words sprawled across this exclusive poster for "Jobs," which features a nearly unrecognizable Ashton Kutcher.

Kutcher is utterly transformed into late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the colorful new poster (below). Sporting Jobs's signature round-framed glasses and beard, the actor certainly looks the role.

Jobs is set for an August 16th wide release.

Update: Open Road Films has also released several new stills from the film showing Kutcher as Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak.

Thanks, samcraig!

This past weekend, Nowhereelse.fr shared photos of what could be the rear shell of Apple's rumored low-cost plastic iPhone in the colors green, red and yellow. While the site still acknowledges that the shells could be Chinese copies, certain features are still consistent with previous leaks and claims. Now the site shares [Google translation] a new photo that includes a blue rear plastic shell.

In mid-June, Reuters ran a report that stated that the low-cost iPhone would come in multiple bright colors, with Mac Otakara claiming that one of the colors would be blue. And while we have seen the possible shells for the green, red, yellow and white plastic iPhones we had not seen the blue one until now.

While the photo does not show the full exterior of the blue rear shell, it does show enough of the sides and the inside of the rear shell to imagine what a blue plastic iPhone could look like.

The blue shell is pictured alongside red, yellow, and green ones seen over the weekend, with a white shell also included. The white shell appears very similar to one leaked through a different source back in April.

The lower-cost plastic iPhone is likely to launch later this year in either September or October, presumably alongside Apple's flagship iPhone 5S. The plastic iPhone will offer consumers a more affordable iPhone choice, especially in markets where carrier subsidies are rare.

Yesterday, MacRumors published high-resolution mockups based on the previously leaked rear shell photos and other information, offering a look at the complete device's potential size, shape and texture.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple and Time Warner Cable are close to completing a deal that will bring a TWC app to the Apple TV.

A potential partnership between the two companies was first announced in early June, when Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt told investors that the company was in talks with Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft over streaming video deals that mirror the Time Warner Cable's existing partnership with Roku.

The TWC TV app available on the Roku set-top box allows Time Warner Cable subscribers to watch up to 300 live TV channels with any TV connected to a Roku. An Apple TV app would likely operate in the same way, providing cable access and live television channels to Time Warner subscribers without the need for a cable box.

Apple has been slowly expanding the content available on its Apple TV as rumors of a potential revamped set-top box or Apple-branded television set continue to gain traction. Earlier this month, the company debuted several new Apple TV channels including WatchESPN and HBO GO, both of which offer content on the Apple TV to existing cable subscribers. Apple is also said to be in talks with CW about a potential Apple TV app.

To complete the current negotiations with Time Warner Cable, Apple is said to be hiring Pete Distad, Hulu's former senior vice president of marketing and distribution. While no specific timeline is available for the release of the TWC content, a deal is expected to be announced "within a few months."