Tap iPhones to transfer data could help Apple eliminate the Lightning port

The method may be old, but for Apple’s iPhones, it could be a new way to transfer data wirelessly. The Cupertino tech giant has recently been awarded a patent that allows iPhones to talk to each other and transfer data wirelessly by simply bumping the two phones together. Third-party apps such as Bump had the option to do so, which uses proximity and tapping to enable the wireless system transfer data between the two devices.

Bump, a similar app, uses the method for detecting the proximity of signal sources using the onboard wireless systems. The device wirelessly receives packets from a signal source and determines the received signal strength for each packet being transferred.

‘The wireless device may store information based upon the received signal strength for each packet, and calculate from the information stored for all the packets, a current path loss value corresponding to a current distance from the wireless mobile device to the signal source. The wireless mobile device may then determine whether the current distance is sufficient to be an enabling condition such as tap, for example, for a data transfer or a transaction between the wireless mobile device and the signal source,’ reported Softpedia. Bump was released in 2008 and was available for Android and iOS platforms till Google took over the company a year later.

If this method is implemented on iPhones within the core operating system itself, we could look at Apple trying hard to eradicate the physical Lightning port for data transfer. Wireless charging and wireless data transfer when achieved at the best could see the iPhone go entirely waterproof and hackproof. Using physical cables for data transfer is presently the biggest risk that smartphones have today. Eliminating the physical connections can keep hackers at bay and make the device highly secure towards hacking and data theft.