Another patent from Apple. Another exciting news for us. The next iPhone may be completely waterproof!!
The credit for unearthing this latest innovation goes to Patently Apple, which, as the name suggests, is a site dedicated to following patents filed by Apple! (Talk about specialisations!!)
The patent, reports Quartz, “outlines a system for color-balancing photos shot underwater.” What this means is that it’s a patent for a camera technology that digitally preserves and enhances photos shot underwater.
Yeah, I know it isn’t a direct patent for waterproofing the phone, but its implications are no less. And that’s exactly what the Quartz report concludes as well:
Presumably if Apple is working on technology to make sure photos taken underwater come out looking good, the company would also be ensuring that the phones themselves are waterproof.
Here’s a look at one of the images from the original patent file:
By their very nature, patents future proof any innovation that the company might want to undertake. So, such technologies usually take years before seeing the light of the day. However, right now, it’s the direction we’re more interested in rather than the destination.
Think about it. Apple is patenting a technology that enhances underwater shots. So, rationally speaking, the phone has to be completely submerged while taking these photos. How else would you take underwater shots, duh!
Also, you don’t have to look any further than Apple’s biggest rival — Samsung — to understand what’s channeling Apple’s innovation in this direction.
The smartphone market is a cut-throat market. The margin of error is extremely small and customer loyalty as fleeting as your attention span. So when the arch-rival is already offering waterproof, fast charming, RAM-guzzling behemoths of market squashers (read: Galaxy S7 and Note 7), it’s a no-brainer that you’d step up your game as well. It’s either that or be crushed under the competition.
Now, while the patent may have come too late for the technology to appear on the upcoming iPhone 7, we can safely assume that the new phone will at least be partially waterproof. So that your phone doesn’t go all cuckoo even if you just cross the street with it while it’s raining.
Coming to think of it, the move to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 makes so much more sense now! No headphone jack meant that it’s one less hole in the phone that Apple needs to waterproof!
Be that as it may, we’re certainly excited about this new development. And while we know that we’re not going to be scuba diving with our iPhones anytime soon, and that consequently, the underwater camera is nothing more than an ornamental detail, it still doesn’t hurt to know that we could, if we wish to!