Samsung patent reveals how its curved, 3-sided smartphone could work

 Drag and drop to the edge

If LG's decision to put buttons on the back of the LG G2 was already a little baffling to you, then Samsung's three-sided phone may just blow your mind.

A new patent spotted by Gizmodo reveals a design from the Korean company for a phone with a curved screen that also wraps around three sides of the device.

The patent, originally filed in May, became public this month, and it details a "method of operating functions of a portable terminal having a bended display."

Unlike other smartphones with curved screens such as the Samsung Galaxy Round and LG G Flex, the patented prototype has a convex shaped display. The screen essentially spills over the sides, giving users an interactive display on the right and left edges of the phone.

Unlock your Samsung phone from the side

According to the patent, the extra screen space will be used to display the charging meter, a place for bookmarks, and other information usually relegated to the edge of an app.

What's more, the extra space will be touch sensitive, letting users assign multitouch quick actions and reimagining the slide-to-unlock gesture as a side-mounted experience. The patent also documents a few new interesting interactions that will let phone users drag items off the edge to a visual clipboard.

In some ways a smartphone with an extended display seems like an ingenious idea. The curved display will give users more vertical screen real estate by moving the phone's status bar and placing menus off the normal edges.

However, it creates a natural problem in that holding the phone could trigger any number of unwanted actions, though we're sure Samsung would develop some sort of fix for this.

Contacts up front, alphabet on the side

Today's patent find follows a Bloomberg report from last week that a forthcoming Samsung Galaxy phone may feature a curved, three-sided wraparound display. According to the publication's sources, the new phone may show its multiple faces in the second half of next year.

With CES 2014 right around the corner, Samsung may decide the Vegas tech show is the perfect place to take this concept from patent to product.

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In Depth: How Skype could help Xbox One edge the PS4 out of the living room

Xbox One "is about being a complete story," according to Todd Roshak, Lead Program Manager of Skype for Xbox. The story he's referring to is one we've heard a lot during the console's pre-launch campaign - the promise of an all-in-one living room device - and we're finally seeing it realised.

"I'd heard a lot of the possible names," he tells us. "But I loved the name when I heard it because it did encompass the vision that it is this all-in-one solution for your living room, and I do fundamentally believe - and this does go back to the very beginnings of Xbox - it's still a gaming machine."

Xbox One might still have games at its heart but it's bringing Skype into our living rooms in a way that's never been done before. Skype will ship on every Xbox One and will be raring to go from day zero. This isn't being treated as just some add-on app.

At Skype's office in Stockholm, Sweden, we were able to take it for a proper spin and get a feel for which features we will and won't be using when it arrives.

Skype takes full advantage of Kinect's 1080p camera while the console is the first device to have its own hardware-accelerated version of the Skype Silk codec. The entire thing has been designed with an awareness of both the platform itself and how differently we'll be using Skype in the living room.

More interesting though is how Skype on Xbox One uses skeletal tracking to automatically zoom and pan the camera around the room. This keeps everyone in the frame even when they're moving about. It also helps Skype on Xbox One to adapt to spatial constraints.

The skeletal tracking is fast and fluid

Handily, Skype can be addressed from anywhere on the Xbox One, so you can tell it to make or answer a call no matter what you're doing. It certainly gives the Xbox experience much more open and sociable feel.

"Communications is a fundamental human thing," says Roshak. "The ability to sort of make it much more personal and much more intimate, and create that place-to-place experience, that's why I wake up every day."

To contact someone over Skype you just need to say "Xbox, call [person's name]", although they'll have to be added to your Favorites list (limited to a maximum of 10 people right now) for you to do so. This also work to PSTN phones as you'd expect.

That said, Microsoft told us that you won't be able to have a Skype video call running alongside a game in snap mode from day one, which is disappointing to hear.

This means that right now the only way to have a Skype call while gaming is with it happening in the background as audio only. "It's something we've heard feedback on and it's something we'll be looking at," Roshak told us when we asked about the omission of this feature.

Like making calls from the Xbox One dashboard, bringing up the Skype app is possible at any time with a simple "Xbox, go to Skype."

When you're in the Skype app itself you can choose to interact using either the controller, your own voice or SmartGlass. If you're in a text-based chat with someone, you (annoyingly) can't yell words at Kinect to type out your message, however you can tap on your phone or tablet with SmartGlass instead, which is a darned sight less fiddly than entering letters with the controller.

It's more exciting than he's making it look

When not in the app, you'll be notified of any incoming Skype calls or messages. However, we're reassured that you can turn yourself invisible to make sure you're not interrupted by a call from dad at a crucial moment during gameplay.

And if you're in in-game chat you'll be notified of an incoming Skype call and be able to jump into that and return to the game chat when you're done. Skype has also been built so it won't affect framerates when you're moving between Skype and the game - or running both together.

"I think that there's something about Skype that is very different than just game chat," says Roshak. "It's that thing that you use to keep in touch with people you care about and people you know. And they don't have to be on an Xbox - they can be on a PC, they can be on a phone."

Group chat is available on Xbox One with a maximum of four participants, although frustratingly you can't favorite groups which means you won't be able to command the Xbox One to call a specific group by voice. But this is something else that Roshak says is on its way.

It feels like TV and Skype are truly helping Xbox One prepare for the future. Gamers will be squabbling over resolutions and framerates for a while longer, but Microsoft believes that it's the software, not the hardware, that will satisfy users in the long term. Skype is a big part of that picture.

Annoyingly, you won't be able to snap Skype video calls with your games right away

"I think that when Microsoft started on Xbox, we got into this whole business because we believe that hardware is an enabling technology, but it's not what people really interact with," says Roshak.

"It was all about software and services and we delivered that as quickly as we could with Xbox Live and we've continued to deliver that with things like message integration originally and now Skype.

That's our wheelhouse as Microsoft. Our wheelhouse is that we can continue to innovate and iterate on these software and services."

This is just the beginning for Skype, then. "Xbox One, it's a 10-year thing," says Roshack. "We built it knowing that its going to evolve over 10 years. The hardware can't just magically change so its really super important to get the hardware right"

There are a few niggling omissions right now - most noticeably the option to have a Skype video call in snap mode when you're playing a game - but can Skype persuade gamers to choose the Xbox One over the PS4? "I think it's a key differentiator, absolutely," says Roshak.

"I do think that no matter what, we can do the best job on Xbox because we have the ability to integrate with pieces across the whole chain, we have the ability to tie [together] all the Microsoft services, whether it's Skydrive or a Microsoft account or Xbox Live. There's something beautiful we can build by owning the end-to-end experience".

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In Depth: How Skype could help Xbox One edge the PS4 out of the living room

Xbox One "is about being a complete story," according to Todd Roshak, Lead Program Manager of Skype for Xbox. The story he's referring to is one we've heard a lot during the console's pre-launch campaign - the promise of an all-in-one living room device - and we're finally seeing it realised.

"I'd heard a lot of the possible names," he tells us. "But I loved the name when I heard it because it did encompass the vision that it is this all-in-one solution for your living room, and I do fundamentally believe - and this does go back to the very beginnings of Xbox - it's still a gaming machine."

Xbox One might still have games at its heart but it's bringing Skype into our living rooms in a way that's never been done before. Skype will ship on every Xbox One and will be raring to go from day zero. This isn't being treated as just some add-on app.

At Skype's office in Stockholm, Sweden, we were able to take it for a proper spin and get a feel for which features we will and won't be using when it arrives.

Skype takes full advantage of Kinect's 1080p camera while the console is the first device to have its own hardware-accelerated version of the Skype Silk codec. The entire thing has been designed with an awareness of both the platform itself and how differently we'll be using Skype in the living room.

More interesting though is how Skype on Xbox One uses skeletal tracking to automatically zoom and pan the camera around the room. This keeps everyone in the frame even when they're moving about. It also helps Skype on Xbox One to adapt to spatial constraints.

The skeletal tracking is fast and fluid

Handily, Skype can be addressed from anywhere on the Xbox One, so you can tell it to make or answer a call no matter what you're doing. It certainly gives the Xbox experience much more open and sociable feel.

"Communications is a fundamental human thing," says Roshak. "The ability to sort of make it much more personal and much more intimate, and create that place-to-place experience, that's why I wake up every day."

To contact someone over Skype you just need to say "Xbox, call [person's name]", although they'll have to be added to your Favorites list (limited to a maximum of 10 people right now) for you to do so. This also work to PSTN phones as you'd expect.

That said, Microsoft told us that you won't be able to have a Skype video call running alongside a game in snap mode from day one, which is disappointing to hear.

This means that right now the only way to have a Skype call while gaming is with it happening in the background as audio only. "It's something we've heard feedback on and it's something we'll be looking at," Roshak told us when we asked about the omission of this feature.

Like making calls from the Xbox One dashboard, bringing up the Skype app is possible at any time with a simple "Xbox, go to Skype."

When you're in the Skype app itself you can choose to interact using either the controller, your own voice or SmartGlass. If you're in a text-based chat with someone, you (annoyingly) can't yell words at Kinect to type out your message, however you can tap on your phone or tablet with SmartGlass instead, which is a darned sight less fiddly than entering letters with the controller.

It's more exciting than he's making it look

When not in the app, you'll be notified of any incoming Skype calls or messages. However, we're reassured that you can turn yourself invisible to make sure you're not interrupted by a call from dad at a crucial moment during gameplay.

And if you're in in-game chat you'll be notified of an incoming Skype call and be able to jump into that and return to the game chat when you're done. Skype has also been built so it won't affect framerates when you're moving between Skype and the game - or running both together.

"I think that there's something about Skype that is very different than just game chat," says Roshak. "It's that thing that you use to keep in touch with people you care about and people you know. And they don't have to be on an Xbox - they can be on a PC, they can be on a phone."

Group chat is available on Xbox One with a maximum of four participants, although frustratingly you can't favorite groups which means you won't be able to command the Xbox One to call a specific group by voice. But this is something else that Roshak says is on its way.

It feels like TV and Skype are truly helping Xbox One prepare for the future. Gamers will be squabbling over resolutions and framerates for a while longer, but Microsoft believes that it's the software, not the hardware, that will satisfy users in the long term. Skype is a big part of that picture.

Annoyingly, you won't be able to snap Skype video calls with your games right away

"I think that when Microsoft started on Xbox, we got into this whole business because we believe that hardware is an enabling technology, but it's not what people really interact with," says Roshak.

"It was all about software and services and we delivered that as quickly as we could with Xbox Live and we've continued to deliver that with things like message integration originally and now Skype.

That's our wheelhouse as Microsoft. Our wheelhouse is that we can continue to innovate and iterate on these software and services."

This is just the beginning for Skype, then. "Xbox One, it's a 10-year thing," says Roshack. "We built it knowing that its going to evolve over 10 years. The hardware can't just magically change so its really super important to get the hardware right"

There are a few niggling omissions right now - most noticeably the option to have a Skype video call in snap mode when you're playing a game - but can Skype persuade gamers to choose the Xbox One over the PS4? "I think it's a key differentiator, absolutely," says Roshak.

"I do think that no matter what, we can do the best job on Xbox because we have the ability to integrate with pieces across the whole chain, we have the ability to tie [together] all the Microsoft services, whether it's Skydrive or a Microsoft account or Xbox Live. There's something beautiful we can build by owning the end-to-end experience".

View the original article here

Read more »

iTunes: About the "A secure network connection could not be established" alert

iTunes: About the "A secure network connection could not be established" alertIf you are unable to sign in or purchase content from the iTunes Store, you may see the following alert:

"iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Store. A secure network connection could not be established.
Make sure SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 is enabled in the Internet Options control panel, then try again."

">ACUtil.setPOD('us~en'); var articleId = "TS1470"; var ACStaticText = { 'more': '…more', 'less': 'less' };KmLoader.akamaiUrl = 'http://km.support.apple.com';//function sendRead()var locale = 'en_US';Event.observe(window, 'load', function() {ACHistory.addKbView('TS1470', 'iTunes: About the \"A secure network connection could not be established\" alert', 'en_US', 'unknown');ACUtil.getMultipleOffers('131629,PL302,PF4,PL303,PL321', 'TROUBLESHOOTING_ARTICLES', 'en_US', 'false');ACUtil.reportView('TS1470', 'en_US');// Apple Instant Feed statistics code if(enableAppleInstant == "yes"){var store = new Persist.Store('FeedStats');if (store.get('resultActivity')=='true'){var time = new Date();// Fix for /*setReadTimer = setTimeout(function(){var feedStats = new ACFeedStatistics();feedStats.updateRead('TS1470', store.get('position'));store.remove('TS1470');store.remove('position');}, 3000);*///store.set('TS1470', time.getTime());store.set('timeStart', time.getTime());}} });Event.observe(window, 'beforeunload', function(){// Apple Instant Feed statistics code if(enableAppleInstant == "yes"){ var store = new Persist.Store('FeedStats'); if (store.get('resultActivity')=='true' && store.get('timeStart') !== null){ var time = new Date();//var timeDiff = time.getTime() - store.get('TS1470');var timeDiff = time.getTime() - store.get('timeStart');var timeSpent = Math.floor(timeDiff/1000);var feedStats = new ACFeedStatistics();// Fix for if (timeDiff iTunes: About the "A secure network connection could not be established" alert Products Affected

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, iTunes, iTunes Store, Windows, Internet Explorer

Symptoms

If you are unable to sign in or purchase content from the iTunes Store, you may see the following alert:

"iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Store. A secure network connection could not be established.
Make sure SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 is enabled in the Internet Options control panel, then try again."

Resolution

Collapse All Sections | Expand All Sections

In an effort to protect your privacy, iTunes uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol when you sign in to the iTunes Store. The SSL protocol uses port 443, the date and time, and other information from your computer to function as expected. The troubleshooting steps below will address the most commonly incorrect information that SSL and the iTunes Store require; this should resolve the issue and the alert should no longer appear.

Set your date and time

Check your computer's date, time, and time zone. If they are not correct, set the correct date, time, and time zone.

On Windows Click Start and then click Control Panel. Click "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options" (Windows XP) or "Clock, Language, and Region" (Windows Vista & Windows 7). Click Date and Time. Click the Date & Time tab.
Make sure that the date and time settings are configured to use the current date and time and then click OK. On Mac OS X From the Apple (?) menu, choose System Preferences. In System Preferences, click Date & Time. Enable the option to "Set date and time automatically" if it is not.
Click the Time Zone tab and adjust the time zone to match your current location. Further troubleshooting steps (for Windows only)Correctly configure Internet Options Open Internet Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. Select the Advanced tab. Under the Security section, look for Use SSL 3.0 and Use TLS 1.0. Make sure at least one of those two checkboxes is selected and click OK. (You can select both checkboxes).

Update, configure, disable, or remove security software If you are able to sign in to secure websites in your web browser but iTunes is unable to do so, security software may be interfering with the normal operation of iTunes. If this is the case, follow the steps in iTunes for Windows: Troubleshooting security software issues. If you are also unable to sign in to secure websites in your web browser, follow the steps in Microsoft's article You cannot log in to or connect to secured Web sites in Internet Explorer.

 

Additional Information

If the issue is still unresolved, or you found this article looking for assistance with another alert, please see the following articles:

Can't connect to the iTunes Store iTunes for Windows: Network Connectivity Tests iTunes: Troubleshooting iTunes Store on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or iPod iTunes Store: "An unknown error occurred (-9808)" $('articlecontent').select('img').each(function(element) { if(element.width > 640 ){ var imageDiv = document.createElement('div'); imageDiv.setStyle({ 'display':'block', 'width':'660px', 'overflow':'auto', 'border':'1px solid #dedede','margin-right': '15px'}); element.parentNode.replaceChild(imageDiv, element); imageDiv.appendChild(element); } }); $('articlecontent').select('table').each(function(element) { if(element.width > 660 || element.offsetWidth>660){ var tableDiv = document.createElement('div'); tableDiv.setAttribute("class","kbtablecontainer"); element.setAttribute("style","margin-bottom:0px !important"); element.parentNode.replaceChild(tableDiv, element); tableDiv.appendChild(element); } }); Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information. Rate this article:Not helpfulSomewhat helpfulHelpfulVery helpfulSolved my problemOne Moment PleaseThanks for rating this article Not helpful Somewhat helpful Helpful Very helpful Solved my problem Share this article Twitter Facebook Last Modified: May 20, 2013 Article: TS1470 Views: 1955508 Rating: 2.0/5 Stars
(7164 Responses) LanguagesCeštinaDanskDeutschEnglishEspañolSuomiFrançaisMagyarBahasa IndonesiaItaliano??????NederlandsNorsk BokmålPolskiPortuguês (Brasil)PortuguêsP??????Svenska???Türkçe???????? KmLoader.isOmnitureSupported='true'; Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { new KmLoader('2', 0, 0, 'iTunes: About the "A secure network connection could not be established" alert', 0, 0, 'en_US', 0, 0, 'support_site.related_articles.TS1470',undefined,undefined,'TS1470');}); Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { new KmLoader('1', 0, 0, 'iTunes: About the "A secure network connection could not be established" alert', 0, 0, 'en_US', 0, 0, 'support_site.related_discussions.TS1470'); }); Related Discussions More discussions Related Articles Ask other users about this articlein Apple Support Communities Wait... See all questions on this articleSee all questions I have asked

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