Apple has been granted 21 new patents including one for integrated touchscreen that could pave the way for thinner and brighter displays which would require less power.
The iPhone maker has also granted the patent of visual voicemail with the help of which users can see the voicemails on screen and thus can keep a tab on them. Apple was earlier sued for a similar technology, which it settled out of court.
The patent application from Apple explains the technology, “At a portable electronic device with a touch screen display: displaying a list of voicemail messages; detecting selection by a user of a respective voicemail message in the list; responding to the user selection of the respective voicemail message by initiating playback of the user-selected voicemail message; detecting a finger contact with a progress bar on the touch screen display, the progress bar configured to slide in a first direction on the touch screen display; detecting continuous movement of the finger contact on the touch screen display from the progress bar to a location other than the progress bar”.
Interestingly, the patents have come at a time when Microsoft and Google are exchanging verbal volleys over patents.