The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our third and final patent report of the day we primarily focus on two patents. The first covers advanced multi-touch trackpads that may one day track hand gestures. In the second patent, Apple reveals a possible future iPhone headset with a microphone that turns your music off automatically when you remove the headset and continues from where you left off when you put the headset back on. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pretty nifty idea to me. Sometimes the little features are just as great as the big stuff.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. This morning's second report is focused on a single Apple TV patent. It's a patent regarding episodic TV and it's another patent credited to the late, great, Steve Jobs.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. This morning's first report cover's a smart garment patent which describes technology that will be built into future running shoes related to the Nike + iPod product line. The newly described sensors may also one day be integrated into clothing like shirts and sweat pants and extend through to other sporting footwear like skates skis boots. The base technology is already in place via the Nike + iPod program. And finally to round off our first report of the day, we cover a design patent that Apple has received for an iOS icon.
On January 12, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an exciting new 3D GUI for iOS mobile devices. The new UI will work with proximity sensor arrays and will respond to hovering gestures. The Crazy Ones in Cupertino have been working on advanced 3D GUIs for some time now. We first learned of a major 3D GUI project back in 2009 that involved using head tracking technology. Then in early 2010 we learned of Apple's first project relating to a 3D GUI for iOS devices. Later that year Apple 3D multifunctional widgets and over time revealed advanced 3D and hovering based gesturing for CAD users on an iPad. With twenty times the GPU power coming to iOS devices over the next year, Apple appears to paving the way for a new 3D GUI for mobile devices in the not-too-distant future. Update Saturday Jan 14, 2011, 2PM MST: We've added a video to the report.
According to Korea's Electronic Times Internet News, it's been confirmed that Samsung Electronics and LG Display will supply LCD panels for Apple's iPad 3, which is scheduled to be unveiled as early as in Q1 this year. Sharp was originally known to be developing display panels, but reportedly failed in initial supply.
In February 2010 Eastman Kodak Company sued Apple claiming that they were infringing their patents related to digital cameras and certain computer processes. In April of 2010 Apple counter sued by claiming that Kodak had infringed on two of their patents but the US International Trade Commission in July 2011 ruled that Kodak didn't infringe on Apple's patents. So where are we now? Well, Kodak is coming at Apple like a freight train with a new patent infringement case that claims that Apple is infringing on four new patents. Yet an industry analyst believes that Apple may very well end up working with HTC to fight Kodak's claims. Now that would be an interesting possibility to say the least. And lastly, on another legal front, Apple is being sued by Hong Kong's Ho Keung Tse.
On January 10, 2012, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. This morning's patent report covers four of Apple's newly granted design patents covering such things as the MacBook Air and its Solid State Drive. Additionally, our report covers three important patents relating to Apple's original iPhone and associated smart cables. Since late December Apple has been on a roll chalking up original iPhone patents and today's patent wins continue that trend. Considering that there were over 200 patents on the books for protecting the iPhone on the very day that Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, I would suspect that this trend is going to continue for some time to come.
Make no mistake about it. As we move closer to a point in time when the iPhone could double as an iWallet, security will be the killer feature that consumers will demand. Two weeks ago Apple introduced us to one of their future security systems that will handle auto login using advanced facial recognition technology. That'll be great for iDevices not handling important documents and/or financial instruments such as debit and/or credit. For that, Apple has invented a heavy duty second tier of security that is quite ingenious. The key rests in splitting a user's password recovery secret amongst two devices that are never carried together at one time. And you know it's a serious security project at Apple when Bud Tribble, Apple's VP of Software Technology, is the man behind this endeavor.
In a rare move, U.S. electronics giant Apple Inc. held a one-day "Red Friday" sale Jan. 6 on its online store, targeting its fans in several Asian countries in celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Yesterday, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that revealed their intent to reinvent a cooling system that is known in the industry as an ionic wind generator. This type of cooling system doesn't use a fan or heat sink. The problem with the current design however, is that it's only able to cool limited areas within a computer or device. Apple's reinvention of the ionic wind generator will allow the system to use specialty sensors and mechanisms to redirect cool air to various areas within a computer or device, as needed. This means that it could simultaneously cool down the CPU, GPU and other components such as batteries (in the case of iOS devices and the MacBook), transformers, storage devices, and other components. Yet if the GPU or any other component isn't being used, the system won't waste energy trying to cool down what's not necessary. Just think of it as a "smart" cooling system. Apple's killer attention to detail is legendary. Philosophically speaking, it's what separates the wheat from the chaff.
As we kick off 2012, it's time to look back at the top ten Apple inventions that came to light in 2011. If you're wondering which ones made waves in 2011, I think that you'll be as surprised as I was. Many patents that I thought would make the cut didn't, while others that I thought at the time were just average – rose to the top. Beyond raw data, we also saw new trends emerge in 2011 that covered such matters as smart pens, smart bezels, the telephonic MacBook and augmented reality. Another observation that we made this past year through reviewing patent applications was that Apple put a lot of time and energy into crafting future iOS device camera features. Anyways, enough with the talk and on to the top ten patent applications of the year!
Three new patent applications from Apple were published this morning by the USPTO that detail various aspects of Apple's revolutionary I/O technology called Thunderbolt. Apple filed many Thunderbolt trademarks in 2011 which opened the question as to who really owned the trademark and technology. The general line of thinking in the market today is that Thunderbolt was developed by Intel and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple Inc. Yet beyond filing several Thunderbolt trademarks, today's multiple detailed patents from Apple would strongly suggest that they're attempting to secure Thunderbolt related patents. This of course would fly in the face of Apple's involvement in the development of Thunderbolt as being limited to "technical collaboration." The good news that emerged from these patents is that Apple is focused on bringing Thunderbolt to iOS devices in the future so as to provide faster data transfers and more importantly, faster recharging.
