Apple Patents: Universal Remote, Glass Gadgets

We have covered plenty of Apple patents in the past. Apple has some very exciting ideas for future products. Unfortunately, not all these ideas become actual products. A new patent discovered by Patently Apple shows Apple may be interested in designing a killer universal remote control. The idea is quite neat. You would have to take a picture of your equipment and send it to iCloud for Apple toe determine the type of device you want to control. Once the device is identified, Apple would obtain the IR codes you need to set up your universal remote.

Once you have the appropriate codes, you will have a digital remote control capable of controlling your entertainment system and its components (presumably on your iPhone and  iPad). The patent application was originally filed in Q3 2010. The patent does suggest that the remote control will be able to control more than just TVs and DVD players.

Universal remote controls are useful but we are more intrigued with the idea of iGadgets made out of glass.. A recent patent by Apple suggests that the company may be considering crafting portable computing devices out of glass. The patent describes a computing device with ” an enclosure having structural walls formed from a glass material that can be radio-transparent.” We are talking about a water resistant device here.

There is no guarantee that we will see any of these products. The first idea seems easier to pull off. But iDevices made out of glass won’t be here any time soon.