A new patent filed by Apple was discovered today that demonstrates a new idea in charging mobile devices.
The patent basically describes that a notebook with it's “Power Smart†technology would not power down while a mobile device is plugged in and charging. This seems like a fairly basic concept, it's a wonder no one thought of this before.
The interesting part is that in the patent it listed that "if a television set were to have the appropriate port, it could be used to charge a connected device, such as a music player. The television set could determine that it is being used as a charging source for the music device and not turn off that port." Does that mean that Apple is going to start licensing this technology to TV manufacturers? I don't really see Apple entering the TV market, but you just never know.
Apple's mobile device charging patent [via macnn]
not sure how new this idea is.
my Sony Vaio does that with at least one of the USB ports which means I can charge my SE phone in the hotel room and night and only need to take one small USB sync/charge cable rather than lug around another powerbrick and plug converter…
Always thought it was cool, but didn’t think mch more about it.