On April 21, 2008, the European Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark titled iTunes under application 006838461. The main difference between Apple's dual 2007 US filings and the filing made public today,  is that Apple has dramatically expanded their trademark's International Classification coverage from four to a whopping nineteen categories. This would strongly suggest that Apple could be preparing to greatly expand both gadgetry and services relating to their iTunes trademark sometime this year. The most noteworthy entry of all, perhaps, relates to headgear, which is found under classification 25. This directly supports an Apple patent application which was filed last week pertaining to an iPod visual head-display. Such a headset would allow a user to greatly enhance their viewing experience when watching video content such as movies and television shows stored on their iPod and/or iPhone when in a quiet setting.

On April 17, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's patent application titled "Enhancing Online Shopping Atmosphere." Apple's patent generally relates to improving the experiences that online-shoppers may have at an online Apple Store, sometime in the future. While Apple points to the obvious advantages of shopping online, such as being continuously open for business 24/7, allowing consumers to quickly use search functions to find multiple items and of course the best of all, never having to leave the house to shop. However, Apple acknowledges that they have a long way to go before delivering a more interactive experience that could match that found in the real world. Apple's patent points out that "one drawback of online shopping is that the experience can feel sterile and isolating. Customers in such an environment may be less likely to have positive feelings about the online shopping experience, may be less inclined to engage in the online equivalent of window shopping (e.g., will not linger in front of a display), and may ultimately spend less money than their counterparts who shop in physical stores."

On April 17, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's patent application titled "Head Mounted Display System."  Apple's patent generally relates to head-mounted display systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to improved arrangements for processing and displaying images in a head-mounted display system. Many have been calling for such an apparatus and the subject was covered in my 2006 report titled Apple, scrollable displays and iPod Shades. Apple's laser based binocular near eye display system could apply to glasses, goggles, a helmet or other gear not specified. The bottom line is that iPod Shades are on their way!   

On April 10, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's patent application titled Invisible, Light-Transmissive Display System.  Apple's patent generally relates to device display systems, and more particularly to invisible, light-transmissive display systems that become visible when illuminated from behind. The patent illustrates the technology being used in notebooks and the iPod. In the case of the iPod, the technology will allow the Apple logo and brand name "iPod" to be illuminated in future iterations of their popular MP3 player.

One of the first core keynotes delivered at IDF Shanghai 2008 was titled "From Peta FLOPs to Milli Watts."  Intel's Patrick Gelsinger, Senior Vice President Co-General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group covered a rather interesting range of material that was focused on high performance visual computing. This report will primarily focus on both the beginning and end of this keynote which held the most interest for the consumer segment. Visual computing was, at the end of the day, the vision that was most captivating.  And although the details of the Larrabee Project were scant, you couldn't escape Gelsinger's enthusiasm for this project. In fact he stated that he had never been involved with a new program that garnered more enthusiasm from ISV's than the Larrabee Project. If that enthusiasm is as powerful as Gelsinger suggests, then we may very well be on the verge of new paradigm shift in video gaming development that could advance PC video gaming environments to breathe taking new heights within the next couple of years when Sandy Bridge based desktop computers begin to roll out.