Apple's key patent graphic example is that of FIG. 21. It's a perspective view of an illustrative antenna having a directly fed slot antenna resonating element and an indirectly fed antenna resonating element in which an inductor is placed across the terminals of the antenna.  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative handheld electronic device with antenna structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 is that of the iPhone.

The antenna structures and wireless communications devices support communications over any suitable wireless communications bands. For example, wireless communications devices may be used to cover communications frequency bands such as the cellular telephone bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz, data service bands such as the 3G data communications band at 2170 MHz (commonly referred to as the UMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System band), the Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz (also sometimes referred to as wireless local area network or WLAN bands), the Bluetooth band at 2.4 GHz, and the global positioning system (GPS) band at 1575 MHz. The 850 MHz band is sometimes referred to as the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications band. The 900 MHz communications band is sometimes referred to as the Extended GSM (EGSM) band. The 1800 MHz band is sometimes referred to as the Digital Cellular System (DCS) band. The 1900 MHz band is sometimes referred to as the Personal Communications Service (PCS) band.

Apple's patent states in typical boilerplate fashion that "the foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention." With that said, Apple covers every imaginable device on the planet including such things as a wrist-watch, pendant, earpiece, gaming device, GPS device, PDA, cell phone, media player etc.

Yet make no mistake about it: The initial product line listed for this patent under "detailed description" is that of the laptop and specifically "small portable computers of the type that are sometimes referred to as ultraportables."

Apple credits Zhijun Zhang (Beijing, CN), Robert J. Hill (Salinas, CA), Robert W. Schlub (Campbell, CA), Juan Zavala (Watsonville, CA) and Ruben Caballero (San Jose, CA) as the inventors of granted patent 7,551,142, originally filed in December 2007. 

Granted Patent: Personal Items Network, and Associated Methods

Apple's patent generally relates to sensing systems monitoring applications in sports, shipping, training, medicine, fitness, wellness and industrial production. The invention specifically relates to sensing and reporting events associated with movement, environmental factors such as temperature, health functions, fitness effects, and changing conditions. The patent is divided into two distinct branches covering Movement Monitoring Devices and Event Monitoring Devices. In this particular patent, the basics of Apple's background are important to read in order to grasp the scope of what is covered by this patent.

Apple's Advances in technology have provided some quantification of movement. For example, GPS products now assist in determining the location of golf carts, vehicles and persons.

However, the detail of movement, minute to minute, second to second, is still not generally determinable in the prior art. For example, the movement of tangible objects typically involves (a) the shipment or carrying of goods and (b) electromechanical or motorized apparatus (e.g., planes, trains, automobiles, robots). The exact movements of such objects, and the conditions that they are subjected to, from point to point, are only qualitatively known. By way of example, a package is moved from location to location through delivery services like FEDERAL EXPRESS or UPS; however what occurred during transportation, and what transpired to the package, is anyone's guess. Occasionally, an object within the package is broken, indicating that the package experienced excessive abuse; but whose fault it is, or how or when it happened - are not known. What environments the package experienced is also not readily known.

The movement of persons, on the other hand, typically involves human-powered transportation, e.g., facilitated by biking, a wheelchair, or a motorized vehicle, e.g., a car. Body movement involved in transportation is subjected to many forces, some of which are dangerous. But the prior art does not provide for this knowledge; there is no effective way, currently, to efficiently quantify human movement. In sports, physical fitness, and training, precise information about movement would assist in many ways. By way of example, how effective a hand strike is in karate or boxing is, today, only qualitatively known. Quantitative feedback would be beneficial.

It is, accordingly, one feature of the invention to provide systems and methods addressing the afore-mentioned difficulties. A further feature of the invention is to provide methods and devices to quantify movement in a number of applications. Another feature of the invention is to monitor and report meaningful environment information such as temperature and humidity.

Apple's Find My iPhone

The patent first describes the technological make-up of a monitoring device which at one point describes port 16 as being that of a transponder that reflects event data to receiver 24. In one preferred embodiment, receiver 24 is part of the circuitry and packaging of a cell phone, which relays events (e.g., a movement event) to a remote storage facility. Think of that as being an essential component of Apple's new "Find My iPhone" service.

In other embodiments, receiver 24 is part of the circuitry and packaging of a MP3 player, pager, watch, or electronic PDA. Receiver 24 may connect with headphones (not shown) to provide information to a user and corresponding to "event" data.