Apple has been awarded another two patents that might just see the light of day in current as well as future iPhone handsets in ways that are different, be they big or small. One of the patents will formalize a method of wireless activation which would enable consumers to activate handsets that are tied down to different carriers in addition to reducing the need for SIM cards, while the other would imbue the iPhone’s already famous touchscreen display with a radio-frequency identifier (RFID) key – making it more than possible for the iPhone to start acting as your personal butler, literally opening up locks of “smart” doors ahead of you, or perhaps initiate data transfers with a particular movement.
Where patent number 7,929,959 is concerned, it is a cardless method of activating a cell phone that is attached to a carrier with or sans SIM cards, hence furthering the cause of Apple’s vision that customers will be able to enjoy the freedom associated with the ability to switch carriers in a jiffy regardless of while they’re traveling or not. At the momet, GMS-compatible phones tend to rely on SIM cards in order to identify a subscriber to a given network, whereas carriers impose “locks” on the devices more often than not so that only SIM cards from that carrier will be able to see action on that particular handset. As for patent number 7,928,965, this would throw in RFID reader capability to iOS devices, letting them read RFID tags which are widely used in retail and service industries. Expect to see the RFID antenna be part of the touchscreen display, turning it into a full transponder on the spot. This would in turn, let phones be used as an RFID transponder while lowering the cost of RFID when applied to other uses.
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