Patently Apple

Merrill Lynch: Hon Hai may Produce Fewer Next-Gen iPhone's than Expected in the Coming Months

A new report out of Taipei today reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch stated on Wednesday that Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. may produce fewer units of Apple Inc.'s next-generation iPhone than expected in the coming months because of supply constraints faced by the device's display. This Report was Updated Aug. 23, 2012

Promoting Tony Scott Films on iTunes 48 hours after his Death: Really?

Tony Scott was behind many great Hollywood films that entertained me over the years and I was very sad to hear of his passing this past Sunday. If anyone would have tried to sell coffee mugs with Steve Jobs' image on it less than 48 hours after his death I would have been outraged. If Apple would have tried to sell a bundle of Steve Jobs' keynotes in that same time frame I would have flipped. To me, the fact that iTunes is now promoting Tony Scott films at this time, is distasteful. The man isn't even buried yet. There'll be a time to celebrate Anthony David Scott's life, but this is a form of exploitation and I'm greatly disappointed in Apple for their move. Don't blame the studios. Apple could have said no at the timing of this promotion and didn't. As a fan, my heartfelt condolences go out to the Scott Family. 

Apple Wins Patents for an Inter-Mesh Communication System for Vehicles & iPhone Interactive Gaming

Earlier this month, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller took the stand in their ongoing case with Samsung. During his testimony, he revealed that before exploring a smartphone, Apple actually considered inventing a car. While that seemed like an off-the-wall piece of testimony at the time, a newly granted patent revealed today by the U.S. Patent Office confirms that Apple was indeed working on a car and an inter-mesh communications system that would work with vehicles in general back in 2003. Our report points you to that granted patent and another one relating to iPhone interactive gaming.

Apple Finally Wins Patent for Podcasting

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first granted patent report of the day we cover Apple's granted patents for Podcasting and three iPod designs. Apple added their podcast-subscription feature in June 2005. In 2006, Steve Jobs demonstrated creating a podcast during his Macworld Conference & Expos keynote using the new podcast studio feature in GarageBand 3. In 2005, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared Podcasting the 'Word of the Year.' 

Is Apple Thinking of Challenging Google's Picasa?

The US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application relating to their figurative, non-textual "iPhoto for iOS" logo. The trademark filing 85700010 includes the International Classification 9 which covers computer software used for image editing and image processing. Apple had also filed their trademark in China and Europe this past week which added International Classifications 41 and 42 which covers photography and digital imaging services in addition to a fascinating entry that might be an eye opener. In fact, there's specific verbiage in one of the trademark classifications that would strongly suggest that Apple may be secretly working on a service to challenge Google's Picasa and similar types of online services like Flickr. I don't know about you, but such a service offering for iOS users would only make sense. Note: This report was updated on August 19, 2012  

Apple Sued over Playback Technology used in QuickTime and iPhone

EPL Holdings, a Delaware company run out of Palo Alto has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The official filing with the court states that Enounce had entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Apple back in early 2002. The actual offer for their technology came in the following month at a low ball price that Enounce refused. EPL claims that Apple went ahead anyways and used the technology used in QuickTime and the iPhone. 

Apple Must Remain a Moving Target to Win in China

Reading China's tech news lately has been like watching a wacked out Ping-Pong tournament when it comes to attacking Apple directly and indirectly. The smart device revolution brought on by Apple's iPhone and continuing with their iPad is pumping up China's local OEMs to take aim at Apple on every front. The saying goes: If you can't beat them at first, then try, try again. Well, it's pretty obvious that the Chinese take that saying to heart – if not to extremes. The "shanzai" or "copycat," culture is thriving in China even to the point of trying to copy the cool style of the late, great, Steve Jobs. No kidding!

Huge Patent Day for Apple's iMovie and Final Cut Pro Apps

On August 16, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of video related patent applications from Apple mainly covering iMovie and Final Cut Pro. If you're a video buff, then today is going to be a feast for you. The patent applications cover topics such as live dragging and editing, new novel editing and masking tools and so much more. There's far too much information for us to properly cover in this report and so we've provided you with Apple's patent abstract for each application along with a direct link to each of them so that you could explore them at will. One thing is for sure, Apple's Randy Ubillos and his engineer teams have definitely been burning the midnight oil so as to keep Apple's video applications on the cutting edge. 

Boom! Apple Invents Next-Gen Virtual Drawing App to Take on Adobe's Photoshop & Illustrator

In June, Macworld reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email to an Apple customer that the company is working on "something really great" to address the professional market. Earlier this week we posted a report on Apple's surprising patent win for a radical radial menus patent that illustrated the new system would apply to the iMac, Mac Pro and yes, the iPad. Today, the U.S. Patent Office published a jaw dropping Apple patent that reveals that they're working on a new advanced graphics app to take on Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator. The new app will also be aimed at Macs and the iPad. The system is being designed to work with both the mouse and touchscreen gestures. Apple's two detailed patent applications cover the basics of the graphics app and their new simplified object layering system. It's clear that Tim Cook's email message about something really great is on the way for the professional market is starting to really take shape indeed.

Apple Granted Two Original 2007 Multi-Touch Display Patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our fourth granted patent report of the day we focus on two patents relating to Apple's original 2007 multi-touch technology. The patents go into great detail about display technology that even includes In-Plane Switching that is used in Apple's current iMac. Just last week Apple gained another granted patent related to multi-touch technology – and so it's beginning to appear that the hard work that Apple's engineers put into the revolutionary iPhone and iDevice revolution in general are beginning to pay off.  And finally, our report closes out with a listing of seventeen utility patents covering such things as the face recognition feature found on iDevice cameras, the button assembly for the iPhone as well as the electronic sighting compass for iDevices and much more. All in all, today has been a granted patent bonanza for Apple. 

Apple Granted a Major Radial Menus Patent for iOS and OS X

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we focus entirely on Apple's first granted patent for Radial Menus. The first two patent filings were discovered by Patently Apple, not in the US, but rather in filings found in Europe and Korea. Even the granted patent published today in the US was a surprise, as it too came out of nowhere. In this granted patent, Apple notes that radial menus will be both for the desktop and portable devices. Radial menus will work with a mouse and/or touch commands on multi-touch displays using a finger, stylus and/or iPen. The timing of this granted patent comes on the heels of Google's radial patent filing coming to light in this current quarter. Obviously there's a race to get radial menus on portables and beyond – and Apple's in-depth trio of patents now give them a definite edge.

Apple Wins Major Apple TV Patent Relating to Cable TV

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. One of the key patents published today covers a major patent win for Apple TV, the set-top-box. Apple's patent clearly shows that Apple TV was and/or is going to work with cable TV and provide PVR like features. Whether Apple TV will ever make the leap to being a fully advanced iOS based Smart TV is unknown at this time – though it certainly would be a way to get under Samsung's skin. That's reason alone for Apple to move into this market. Only time will tell. Read this report's important update that just came in (August 15, 2012 at 8:22PM).