On the last patent day of 2009, the US Patent & Trademark Office published an important continuation patent from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple TV's remote. Firstly, the remote will implement a new magnetic compass within the remote's casing that will actually float in liquid so as to maintain its position relative to the gravity vector. This will provide the remote with incredible precision movement and fluidity. Secondly, with this new found precision, Apple hints of introducing a new illustration application to showcase this new remote's capabilities which would likely debut as iWork's fourth application. That in itself is great news. In theory, Apple's Keynote application would greatly benefit from such a new tool - in that it could provide the presenter with the ability to mark-up presentation graphics on screen live with this new 3D wand/remote.    

Patently Apple wishes our visitors, friends and industry colleagues from around the world a Healthy and Happy New Year 2010! Cheers!

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a newly granted patent of Apple's that would suggest that they may be considering a push button style antenna for future devices such as their  iPhone, iPod Touch or perhaps even a new tablet. According to Apple such an antenna would "ensure high-quality wireless transmission and reception." Although the antenna could be based on a push button design, it may also be designed to be activated via an icon on your media device UI. There could also be an interesting twist to this patent, in that the antenna may utilize a coaxial cable. Coaxial cable is used as a transmission line for radio frequency signals, in applications such as connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their antennas, computer network (Internet) connections, and distributing cable television signals. It's the latter possibility that may be the secret to this patent and one that I think is worth emphasizing. Then again, if New York City is having trouble with the iPhone now with simple data, how would it ever handle wireless television transmissions? That aside, the ability to drive cable content to Apple's media players and/or future tablet is just too delicious an idea to ignore.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 19 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include a patent for an Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shield that uses a unique Cantilever Spring along with a power series of 11 design patents that covers Apple's MacBook Pro, the iPod Classic's hardware and UI, the iPod nano and OS X features Expose and Stacks. 

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight new patent applications for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group includes a crucial patent relating to Apple's advanced touch screen technology having an array of co-planar single-layer touch sensors fabricated on a single side of a substrate for detecting single or multi-touch events. Other notable patents include one relating to a new higher-end earbud system for Apple's media players, another relating to Cryptography and Key Generation and finally, one that relates to a heat-transfer mechanism that includes liquid-metal thermal coupling.

Every once in a while Apple dreams up new ways of whipping the Mac faithful and the press into a frenzy by introducing a new techno-lust delight out of the blue. They did it with the MacBook Air in January 2008. In 2010, their new techno-toy should be the highly anticipated Apple tablet. Yet the question remains, could Apple have more surprises in store for us in 2010? Could one of them be that of a sleek iMac Air desktop to match their MacBook Air delight? Although I personally believe that we'll see Blu-ray finally come to the Mac platform in 2010, many believe that Apple has no interest in doing so. If that logic were to prevail, then the concept of an iMac Air desktop would be a no-brainer. Although such a unit wouldn't appeal to gamers, such a unit would certainly appeal to most casual web surfers and executives who would love to have one grace their desktop. But that's theoretical. It really boils down to what you think about such a futuristic iMac.  Would an iMac Air desktop tempt you?

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include an important win for Apple's iDVD - an app within their iLife suite, another for a universal USB connector, yet another for a MacBook construction method and finally a minor design win for a dock insert.  

Sometimes, you just need a break from all things tech related

The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple today that introduces us to a very unique music/content playback control form and monitoring system. Finally someone at Apple has figured out a way so that we could take more control of our tunes that makes sense. Some tunes only have a single great riff and that's about it.  With the new iTunes Music Form, you'll be able to set the starting and end points of a tune, set the tune volume and equalizer settings as well. If you like being the DJ at parties, then this could be a very cool tool allowing you to control the length of tunes and how they'll mix and match up with the next tune. The system will apply to all of Apple's media players with a display – including a television. This idea is going to make a lot of music fans happy.