Apple wants to turn the iPhone's home button into a gaming joystick

[MUSIC] What's good? Brian Tong here and welcome to the Apple Byte for all the bits and bites, good and bad, inside the world of Apple. Now, you all know that today we are shooting this on national hugging day so if there is someone near, yes I'm talking to you. You have to give them a hug. I'm waiting. Aw. Okay, good job. Now, as for me, I just have to hug myself. But it still feels nice. Aw. Alright, let's get to the show and one of the new products we expect to see this year is the unconfirmed 12-inch iPad Pro. According to a report from KGI analyst Ming Shi Kwo who makes sure he gets Apple rumor news at least once a month well he says that an Apple stylus will be available as an optional accessory to the iPad Pro and not bundled to keep the total price down. There's no word if the stylus will be compatible with other i devices. But it better be some special magic wand if it actually ends up costing too much to bundle it. Now we all know how Steve Jobs felt about a stylus. Who wants a stylus? You have to get them and out them away. You lose them, yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. And yes, I know he was talking about a phone in 2007, but the Galaxy Note pretty much squashed that thinking. Now the rumored iPad Pro is still expected sometime in the second quarter of 2015. Alright. IPhone sales have surged in Asia according to Counterpoint Research. Where Apple made gains in China, Japan, and South Korea for the month of December. Now obviously the new big screen iPhones were the reason why. But the biggest surprise happened in Samsung's own back yard in South Korea. Where Apple's market share exploded to 33%. More than doubling its 15% market share prior to the launch of the iPhone 6 plus. Now, even bigger, no foreign brand has gone beyond the 20% mark in the history of Korea's smartphone industry. And Apple certainly fits in the number two spot ahead of LG but behind Samsung. Whose market share dropped from 60% to 46 in the same period. Ouch. So, what else can Apple do to keep their iPhone line relevant? Well, patently Apple recently posted a patent application from the big A that revealed Apple is hoping to have their current home button on iDevices to double as a gaming joy stick. So check this out in the first mode, the home button would act like it always has. But in the second mode the home button would transform into a pure gaming stick and the transition would be simple by pressing hard enough on the home button with the help of a pressure sensor to pop it up. Who wants this? Anybody? Yeah, I do. And if you wanna control your MAC or iPhone or iPad with your eyes. That could be coming in the future as well. The US Patent and Trademark Office recently granted Apple a patent for a specific eye tracking technology that can be used to control a user interface on a computer or smartphone. Now, it's different from Samsung that tracks eye movement to pause a video or scroll through webpages. This invention makes sure that users would not lose their cursor. While controlling the devices with eye tracking movements. Again, all of these patents aren't guarantees but it's a peek inside the minds of the smarty pants in Cupertino. All right, some quick bytes. Apple posted a new photo of its spaceship Campus 2 that's still currently under construction. Just a. You know, keep us in the loop. You get it? One infinite loop is the, their address, okay. Never mind. And for all of you that wanna make your own Blythe or Barbie dolls all fitted with Apple products. Check out etsy.com and the good people from Lilu miniature. They've created a 1/8 scale set of Apple devices that include an iMac, Mac Book Pro, iPads and iPhones for just 45 bucks so. You know, maybe you're just a collector, or someone really loves playing with dolls. Hey Brian. Hey, what's up Charlie? I found a John Lenin doll in the mail. What are you talking about? Is this yours? Umm, yeah, no, this is Jobs, Steve Jobs. You can go. You can go now, thanks. Steve Jobs. Okay. A good amount of you have been writing in asking what happened to Apple's free single of the week on iTunes? Well, I'm sorry, but Apple has quietly decided to end that promo. I thought downloading them after a while, cause really, they did add some value to the service but I don't really care about all the songs. But really. We'd like to take a moment to remember the iTunes Free Single of the Week. [MUSIC] Now Apple also went a little cheapie by discontinuing the 12 Days of Gifts promo as well and yeah, for all of you who weren't happy about it, I'm giving them a bad apple for you. But do you know who really deserves the bad apple? These people. From a recent episode of the Price is Right. [INAUDIBLE] If it's closest to the actual retail price without going over and [INAUDIBLE] 7,500. What? $7000 with a one year contract. Are you kidding me? But wait, it gets better. What was hers? $7,500. $7,501. No! No! Come on, you dum dums. You guys have failed humanity. And I get it. You're in the heat of the moment on the Price Is Right. [MUSIC] But you know what I'm throwing out at you? Bad apples. All right, that's gonna do it for this week's show. Keep emailing me at the theapplebyte@cnet.com or tweet me @briantong and I'll answer when I can. Thanks so much for watching. We'll catch you all next time for another bite of the apple. [MUSIC] [LAUGH] There you go, little Stevie. Yep. I'm getting all those hard to reach places. I know it's a little cold, but. Whoa! Is that a little lint in your belly button? Here let me get that out. Okay. Oh. No. No, no. Did we get soap in your eyes again? No, stop struggling with me, okay? Huh? [MUSIC] And now Stevie. We have one more thing to clean. [MUSIC]