Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have been competing in the ereader and tablet market for over a year now, since the iPad was introduced. On Friday, a report from Bloomberg mentioned that Amazon is now looking to introduce its own smartphone to take on the iPhone and some of the leading Android devices in the market.

A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies. It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets.

Amazon has one of the most popular ereaders out on the market, the Kindle and is also leading the industry with some of its other products, including its cloud services and tablet computer, the Kindle Fire. The report mentions that Amazon is set to acquire a portfolio of patents that would allow the company to take steps in competing directly with some of the top competitors.

The rumored smartphone would likely borrow certain aspects of the Kindle Fire, including features such as purchasing books, magazines, and newspapers from Amazon’s store as well as using Amazon’s Cloud Drive as external storage. Amazon currently operates services that control a considerable portion of the digital content available online. By introducing a smartphone alongside its tablet and pairing with its online content, Amazon could very well present the iPhone with a serious competitor in the smartphone market.

{Via MacRumors}

Apple’s been at the patent pot again, this time showing plans for hardware devices including sensors throughout the device – presumably with the aim of removing the need for physical hardware buttons. Could we be saying goodbye to our beloved home buttons?

The theory is pretty simple. Place multiple sensors under a device’s touch screen, around its bezel or on the back of the device and the area can be used as a button. This opens all sorts of possibilities. Want to increase the volume on an iPhone? Swipe across the speaker. Want to go Home? Swipe backwards on the bottom of the device. Remember the Palm Pre? Yup, just like that.

The sensors could even be used to identify different users, depending on their hand image, common movements and whether they’re left or right handed. They could even remove the need for an orientation lock-switch, linking screen rotation to the way that the tablet or handset is being held.

If this all sounds familiar it’s because it is. Apple has been rumored to be working on this kind of tech for a good while now, and more recently even Sony has been said to want to do something very similar with the next version of its popular(ish) PSP gaming machine.

I can’t help but think this is one of those patents companies put out there just so nobody else can use it, but if I’m wrong, we’re in for some very interesting hardware from the guys in California.