Some new patents were filed by Apple that seem to be trying to beef up iOS’s printing capabilities. The first one is quite, different. Discovered by AppleInsider, the patent is titled “Systems and Methods for Defining Print Settings Using Device Movements.”
What is this patent exactly? Well, as you can see in the picture above and can imply from the name, you would shake the device in order to access the printing settings for a particular application. Other examples show where you could shake your iPad to cancel a printing operation.
The “shake” for an action feature is already present in iOS in the forms of “shake to undo” and “shake to shuffle,” so this would just be adding to the list. Apple also has a built in feature named AirPrint (a play of the name AirPlay) which allows wireless printing, so this would presumably just be added under that “umbrella term,” if you will.
What do you think? Is this very usable? Would you like this to be able to print quickly? Let us know in the comments.
