Patently Apple

Apple Wins Patents for Wild 3D Gesturing, Autofocus & More

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Two of the noteworthy granted patents issued today include one that details Apple's advanced autofocus features for iOS cameras while a second patent covers wild new 3D gestures coming to a future iPad.

Samsung Struggles to Match Apple's Retina Display Quality

If you own Apple's latest iPad that incorporates their brilliant Retina Display technology, you know just how stunning it is to behold. The technology behind the Retina Display is obviously harder to copy than most thought. A recent report out Korea states that Samsung is struggling to come up with a matching resolution solution.

Apple Invents a New Audio-Sharing Network Feature for iPhone

Last week Apple filed a detailed patent application relating to a new iPhone audio-sharing network concept. While the filing touches on hearing aid technology, it is by no means limited to that narrow definition. Another application applies to teleconferencing, for example. In fact, one of the benefits of this technology relates to a "conference telephone." The technology is designed to cut out background murmurs and general noise while executives discuss business with distant colleagues and/or potential clients. At the end of the day, the patent relates to both students and the enterprise. Yes, the Devil is in the details. 

Taiwan University Sues Apple over Siri on iDevices

The National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple claiming that Apple's use of Siri on the iPhone and (future) iPad, infringe on two of their patents relating to speech recognition.

Apple Reveals New Annotation App & Back-Sensitive iPad

On July 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an exciting new annotation application that's in the works. If you consider that ten extremely detailed applications were published on this one project alone today, I'd have to say that it's likely a priority project. The applications cover new navigation and annotation modes that will assist readers working with electronic documents, digital books, newspapers and magazines. While it would take days to comb through these applications to list all of the coming features, our report focuses on just a few of them including a new annotation toolbar. At the end of the day, it was quite the surprise to find these patent gems and for students and professionals who need to use annotation tools, this is going to be a huge leap forward for the iPad. It's the kind of tool that will help the iPad push further into the enterprise and beyond.

Apple Working on Advanced Display for Future Video Glasses

Apple has been toying with a heads-up display or video glasses since 2006 and they've already been granted a patent for their invention. Then earlier this month Apple's video glasses project won a surprising second patent which we covered in our report titled "Apple's Special Project for a Video Telephonic Headset Wins a Second Patent." Today, the US Patent Office published a new patent application from Apple regarding a future heads-up display that focuses on delivering Retina Display like quality to a smaller display that's powered by a much smaller battery than an iPhone. While today's patent fills a need in Apple's video glasses project it has to be one of the driest reads of the year. For those interested in the finer details of this invention, check out Apple's latest patent application titled " Display Resolution Increase with Mechanical Actuation."

Apple Further Details iPhone-NFC Apps for TV, Games & More

On July 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published yet another extraordinary patent application from Apple that reveals new details regarding Apple's future iPhone-NFC controls system. Our report mainly focuses on the new system as it relates to an iDevice controlling and interacting with a possible standalone television in addition to an expanded version of Apple's current Apple TV styled device. The updated Apple TV could one day control cable or satellite television programming and video game play via a video game controller. This would really be a boost for Apple if users were able to play high end RPG video styled games with a standard styled controller. Further, Apple's invention runs deep and they envision NFC ready iDevices being able to control standalone cameras, projectors, in-home security systems, lawn sprinkler systems, your thermostat, garage door and more. One of these fine days, future iDevices will finally support NFC; and when they do – watch out, because Apple will open the floodgates and release a new generation of applications noted in this report and others like their forthcoming iWallet. Will Apple's next generation iPhone 5 finally be the one that will introduce NFC? Only time will tell.

Apple's 25 Granted Patents Include Apple TV & Future ID App

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-five newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first report of the day we covered a wild patent that detailed a wide variety of technologies ranging from a future TV system right through to a signature touch pad that could start a vehicle. In our second report of the day we cover the vast majority of Apple's utility patents that touch on everything from camera to smartphone technologies and in between we cover the user interface for Apple TV and a future ID App that will identify objects found in museums and guided tours.

Apple's Wild New Patent Covers TV & Advanced 5D Technology

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-five newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. This particular report covers a single, wild and crazy patent that touches on advancing television, advanced 5D technology, interactive gaming, teleconferencing, advanced tactile feedback technology, virtual reality data gloves and even a unique touch signature for starting a future vehicle. Is that wild enough for you? 

Production of new iPhone Begins & LG Gains iPad Orders

News out of Asia this morning states that Apple's new iPhone has now gone into production at the Pegatron plant in Shanghai, China. Volume production will begin in August. On another front, sources point to LG gaining iPad display orders and may land the vast majority of panel shipments for the rumored 7.85 inch iPad debuting in time for Christmas. LG entered Apple's iPad supply chain in March of this year.  

Apple Granted Patent for Final Cut Pro Collaborative Editing

In a review of Apple's Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 in February, StudioDaily noted that "two nice things in the 10.0.1 update were the ability to apply a custom sequence starting timecode and XSAN support, which lets you support an XSAN volume for media and event storage." They concluded by stating that it didn't mean true collaborative editing was here yet but that it was a start. The interesting thing about this is that Apple was just granted a patent for Final Cut Pro this week and its total focus was on this very point: collaborative editing in real-time. Final Cut Pro fans tell me that this would be a major feature that many of them have dreamed of and hoped for. Well, let it be known, it's a feature on Apple's roadmap via this week's granted patent.

Apple Seeks to Trademark their Classic Startup Chime for Macs

Over the years Apple has filed for a wide variety of trademarks so as to protect their distinct imagery and/or marketing strategies. Beyond the normal trademarks such as the iMac or iPhone, they also trademarked some pretty odd ones too. They trademarked their famous marketing line "There's an App for that," along with covering store designs and even store fixtures of one sort or another. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Apple has now filed for the Mac's classic startup chime. The Mac's startup chime is made up of a single chord played when a Mac is turned on. According to Wikipedia, the chime indicates that diagnostic tests running immediately at startup have found no hardware or fundamental software problems.

Apple Patents Show Tweaks Coming to OS X Dock & Finder

On July 19, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent applications from Apple that reveal coming tweaks to OS X and possibly iOS. The first patent covers changes coming to the OS X Finder while the other patent is a little more ambitious. We find Apple introducing us to "virtual boundaries" associated with an upgrade to the docking system that will accommodate multiple docks for apps, operating system components and more. It's also believed that the Finder tweaks found in today's patent may actually be associated with Apple's upcoming OS X Mountain Lion.

Apple Patents Beef up iDevice Security against Malicious Code

Back in January Peter Oppenheimer stated that the iPad was continuing "its unprecedented adoption in business. And as more businesses adopt iPads, Apple needs to ensure corporate IT departments that their security meets higher standards. Last week four new security patents came to light and were captured in our report titled "Apple Advances Security System Technology for the Enterprise." Today, four additional security patents have been published by the US Patent and Trademark Office that cover systems and methods for tamper-resistant booting, fighting against malicious code aimed at portable devices and more.

Apple Wins Patents Relating to OpenCL & Unreleased Dock

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-five newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our second granted patent report of the day we cover Apple's OpenCL patent and one that relates to a yet unreleased docking station that provides a moveable connector that is designed to better protect iDevices from damage. We conclude our report with a list of fourteen utility patents covering such things as a data synchronization protocol and a multisector parallel plate antenna for iDevices.