Apple just filed a patent for “identifying fingerprint signature” gestures. The patent describes how a future device will be able to detect which finger is touching the screen. This can be handy in for example screen gestures, where when more fingers are enabled, countless more gestures become available.

Many people believe this patent will be used in the iPhone, but they are wrong. When do you use more than two fingers on an iPhone? The device size is too small for that. You got it right…We are talking about a patent made for the Apple tablet here.

In addition the patent includes haptic feedback technology. When you touch the screen, you can feel where the on screen buttons are without actually seeing them. This will be useful for both the iPhone and the MacBook tablet.

The fingerprint ID can theoretically act as a security device so that only you can activate your phone.

Via MacRumors.com

Apple is sure to launch a media tablet soon. New evidence is based on Apple’s SD card adoption with new MacBook Pro models. Seems like a long throw? Apple adopts SD because it wants to build a MID or media tablet. The evidence is actually quite convincing says SanDisk blogger Savolainen.

PCMCIA cards

Laptop computers since history have been supporting PCMCIA slots. These slots made it possible to extend your sometimes limited laptop computer with extra functionality, like soundcards, GPS radios, hard drives or add-on solid-state memory. The PCMCIA slot has advanced in the past years into the faster 2.5GBit variant called ExpressCard. The card uses a 26-pin 34mm wide connector. There are two ExpressCard sizes: 75mm by 34mm and 75mm by 54mm.

From ExpressCard….to SD.

Technology devices like smart phones, cameras, media players and even laptops (in the form of netbooks) have increasingly become smaller and smaller. The majority of devices are simply smaller than the ExpressCard itself. Thus, they are not able to support card. Thus, for extending your device with extra memory many of these devices now use the smaller SD card. Its size is 32mm x 24mm. It has a micro variant which is only 11mm x 15mm. A standard SD card can hold up to 4 Gb, however SDXC (extended capacity) cards have been released which move the maximum up to 2 Tb (that’s 2000 Gb). The format has become highly popular and is widely suppported.

So Apple adopted SD in their MacBook Pro’s

Finally, Apple has started to add SD card support into their MacBook Pro line up. The MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ laptops have an SD card slot.  The MacBook Pro 17″ still has an ExpressCard slot. What is the reason for Apple changing their mind all of a sudden and abandoning ExpressCard’s? Because Apple thinks the SD card adoption in mobile internet devices (MIDs) and netbooks is so ubiquitous and its advances in memory are going so fast, that this is going to make it the only standard for removable storage in these devices. Did you hear that? The only one in. No hard drive, but just a removable solid state drive (SSD) in the form of a high-capacity SD card.

So why is this important?

The reason they are implementing SD is because of its high adoption in tablets and MIDs! But Apple does not have any tablets or MIDs right now! It seems highly likely according to Savolainen, that within the next 12 months, Apple will be announcing an Apple media tablet or MID and a netbook. A tablet is supposed to be as thin as possible, thus they will not have CD, DVD or Blu-Ray drives at all. These devices will all solely rely on SD cards for storage.

SanDisk is well-positioned to benefit from greater adoption of the standard. If other laptop manufacturers, envious of the internal dimensions taken up by an ExpressCard slots, move over to the SD Card standard so that they can make their laptopsthinner and lighter, then SanDisk, Toshiba and Panasonic should all benefit.

Apple will announce the MacBook Tablet next month. The tablet will be added to its highly-successful MacBook line. A representative for Apple US told AppleTablet.net. However she could already give us some technical specifications.This model is the first to sport an 15.4″ touchscreen and a suite of touch-optimized software that enables users to get the most out of finger or stylus input—thus transcending the capabilities of previous generations of devices in its class.

“Yesterday, during the first day of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple did something that really surprised a lot of people, myself included. They re-branded their line up of laptops. What they did was, they took their 13 inch aluminum Macbook, upped the specs, and are now callig it the 13 inch Macbook Pro. So really, any laptop from Apple that’s aluminum, and is not a Macbook Air, is now a Macbook Pro, meaning that the only surviving Macbook is the old plastic model.”

Gather has posted up an interesting take on the Apple tablet or Macbook tablet rumors. Apple has changed its nomenclature for its laptops to fit a new segment of possibly touchscreen tablets called Macbook:

Hi! My name is Heather Richardson. In my daily life I am a marketing director for a medium enterprise consultancy firm. Apart from that I am a huge Apple fanboy…eh, well fangirl is the right word! I have an Apple PowerPC workstation at my office, a MacBook Pro when I am working in from home, my iPhone synced to my office when I am on the go and an iPod Nano to listen to my favourite music. But it feels something is missing…

An Apple tablet PC! Yes! And that is what my blog is about. There are rumors one is being released soon. In the coming months, I will update you on all the nitty gritty details on the situation until the launch. And after that I will continue to keep you up to date on any news about the Apple tablet. Keep checking, subscribe to the feed by email or with your RSS reader and enjoy!

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