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Apple's next invention: The iPen?

Apple has filed a patent application for an iPen stylus, Draw Something loses players, and Yahoo attempts a new spin on search with the Axis tool.

Bridget Carey Principal Video Producer
Bridget Carey is an award-winning reporter who helps you level-up your life -- while having a good time geeking out. Her exclusive CNET videos get you behind the scenes as she covers new trends, experiences and quirky gadgets. Her weekly video show, "One More Thing," explores what's new in the world of Apple and what's to come. She started as a reporter at The Miami Herald with syndicated newspaper columns for product reviews and social media advice. Now she's a mom who also stays on top of toy industry trends and robots. (Kids love robots.)
Expertise Consumer technology, Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, social media, mobile, robots, future tech, immersive technology, toys, culture Credentials
  • Bridget has spent over 18 years as a consumer tech reporter, hosting daily tech news shows and writing syndicated newspaper columns. She's often a guest on national radio and television stations, including ABC, CBS, CNBC and NBC.
Bridget Carey
3 min read

In today's show, we ponder a world with an iPen, lose our addiction to Draw Something, and tilt our heads to the Axis:

Watch this: Apple's next invention: The iPen?

Yahoo has launched a new tool for searching the Web, called Yahoo Axis. This is not a browser, but rather a plug-in that attaches to your desktop browser, and it's also an app for Apple devices. So why use it? It's supposed to be a faster way to comb through search results. Start typing in your search term, and a horizontal bar will showcase thumbnail previews of websites you can jump to. Also, searches and bookmarks are saved across all your devices that use Axis.

But perhaps Yahoo just launched this too quickly. For starters, a security hole was found in the browser add-on. And I found the desktop version irritating to use. The tool attaches itself to the bottom-left corner and blocked anything in that space. I couldn't access spreadsheet tabs in Google Docs because the Axis bar was in the way.

Regardless of the tweaks they still need to make, Axis proves Yahoo can be innovative in search. (But as for Yahoo's advertising, well, it could use some work. Bro, headbutting the Web doesn't make you more awesome.)

Apple has filed a patent application for the iPen. It would be a stylus that gives feedback with vibration, and it would feel different depending on how the pen was pressed or how quickly it moved across a screen. The site Patently Apple was first to uncover the application, but keep in mind that Apple often files applications for products that never become real. This idea was originally filed with the Patent office at the end of 2010, but it was made public Thursday.

After a month, the case of Oracle versus Google is at its end. The jury found that Google did not infringe on two of Oracle's patents. Now the judge has to make a final call on another question: Can APIs be copyrighted? If the judge says no, that's another win for Google. The trial starts back up on Tuesday to address that question.

The updated Google+ app is now available for Android users. Aside from the snazzy new look, it also lets users edit posts from the app and start a video chat Hangout though the Android phone or tablet. Hangout requests can also ring on the phone like an incoming call.

Have you lost your addiction to Draw Something? There's been a big decline in users for the game, even though just a few weeks ago it was top of the download charts. But Zynga told the Wall Street Journal that the game still has plenty of life.

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