The world's first Multi-Touch mouse happens to be Apple's new Magic Mouse. It swipes, scrolls, accepts gestures and clicks – even to the tune of offering 3 and 4 click programmable action options. Interestingly, two of Apple's Magic Mouse patents that painstakingly detail this revolutionary mouse just happened to magically appear in the European Patent Office recently with references made to two US filings which were never published on the USPTO's public database listing for some reason. With that said, the two patents presented here today will be of interest to engineering students and those who simply love to understand the magic behind breakthrough products. It should also be noted that Apple's Magic Mouse webpage makes a specific reference to a laser-tracking engine that's more sensitive than traditional optical tracking. The two noted patents presented here today only reference optical tracking. So the switch to laser must have been a last minute implementation prior to launch.

 
Let's be honest here. Finding a sales person in a department store these days is getting harder and harder to find, let alone finding one that's well informed or product savvy. So what's the next best thing? Well, according to a new Apple patent, the answer will likely come in the form of a new e-Wallet companion application that will act as your very own private shopping guide. Apple's future e-wallet companion application is simply identified as "Shopping" for now. The app is designed to read RFID tag on products and then on-demand - send you to the manufacturer's web site to get a fuller explanation of what product xyz is all about. It could come in the form of a brochure, presentation or video. Apple introduces us to the concept of creating active shopping lists and will eventually offer us the ability to get in-store maps which is a great idea when you're shopping at mega stores such as IKEA. Yet, it must be said that this application could be mildly controversial in that it taps into the whole privacy debate that is front and center in technology news cycles these days. Although Apple is only one of a few companies that I still trust in the marketplace today, there's still cause to be a little cautious.

 
On May 27, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple's QuickTime Player interface. The new player will offer new features like skip-over content, restart a scene, return to a critical point and recap. The new interface will also contain an optional secondary window that will offer closed-captioning text and more. Yet there could be a twist to the new QuickTime player when used in conjunction with a web browser on a computer or your internet connected television. Today, we could go to Apple's Movie Trailer site and review any number of great films that are on tap for release. In the future, it appears that you'll be able to go from watching a trailer to actually watching a film right from your browser without iTunes. That concept holds a lot of potential and it might be signaling that Apple is thinking beyond Apple TV, the device. Time will tell.

On May 27, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two distinct Apple patent applications. The first covers a new wireless earphone-microphone device for use with an iPhone and/or the 3G based iPad. The second patent covers advancing iPhone's audio quality by using audio beamforming with input from a microphone array. This will greatly enhance voice clarity and voice recording of events, for example.

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of four newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include one relating to Apple's MacBook display housing, another for Final Cut Pro's speed effects in relation to video presentations, another relating to wireless transactions made on an iPhone and/or iPod and finally the surprise of the day perhaps. What first appeared as a seemingly simple iPod nano patent, quickly turned into a wild revelation. Apple, as far back as 2006, intended to eventually evolve their iPod nano into that of a nano-phone. Don't take my word for it, read what the patent actually reveals. This isn't the first time that this subject matter has popped up in a patent and begs the question: is a Nano-Phone still a relevant concept?

 
In the first two chapters of this series describing Apple's forthcoming e-wallet functionality, we covered such matters as Apple's iPhone transaction system, the overview of various transactions, the NFC-iPhone tap operation, credit cards, smart/debit cards, check handling and split-billing. In the third part of our series we present you with an overview of Apple's financial patent which focuses on a future iPhone interacting with Automatic Teller Machines or ATMs. Our report walks you through the basics of Apple's Transaction Application interface while exploring some of the more interesting security features it will be offering, such as advanced gestural and voice signature capabilities and a very unique ever-changing numeric pad interface for PINs. There's no doubt that the e-Wallet revolution is on the horizon and with every Apple patent that we are privileged to explore on this subject, we are actually peering through the peep hole of Apple's engineering lab and seeing but a glimpse of the grandeur of Apple's vision of the e-wallet of tomorrow.

On May 23, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "Webkit" under application 85041789 which was officially filed for on May 18, 2010. Apple has filed their trademark under International Class 009 covering "Computer software for use in developing internet browser software." Apple's trademark specimen directly presents the WebKit Nightly Builds webpage. In Steve Jobs' recently published "Thoughts on Flash" he stated that "WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android's browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft's, uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers."

On May 23, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark for the iTunes icon in relation to the iTunes Store under application 85041463. Apple has filed their trademark under the single International Class 009 covering "Computer software for use in searching, browsing, reviewing, sampling, playing, purchasing, and downloading pre-recorded audio and video content" according to their filing. Apple's website promotes the iTunes Store by simply stating: "Shop the iTunes Store — the world's largest online music store — from your iPhone. Download songs, movies, TV shows, and more.

On May 21, 2010 the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for a figurative iPhone design under application 85040770. Apple has filed their trademark under International Class 009 which covers a "Full line of electronic and mechanical parts and fittings for mobile phones and portable and handheld digital electronic devices" according to their filing. The full classification description is laid forth in our report. Apple's trademark will be primarily used on iPhone related retail packaging from Apple and third party developers.

On May 20, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced targeting advertising system that is likely associated with Apple's forthcoming iAd service. Apple's patent generally relates to providing dynamically priced advertisements to all manner of electronic devices. The new targeting ad system describes relationships between advertisers, an infrastructure owner and a user that may be the target of advertisements from the advertisers. The heart of the patent details the system itself and then provides us with examples of how it will be implemented. Many of the scenarios involved in the patent are based on a future iPhone with built-in NFC capabilities.

On May 20, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple TV. While Apple TV is considered to be a hobby device for Apple, the fact is that they continue to evolve the device in their labs. This particular patent covers Apple TV's proposed function simply called "Learn Remote." Apple TV will be able to be controlled by future HDTVs from Sony, Samsung and Hitachi or even a DVR from DirecTV. Yet for the most part, these functions are already found and explained on Apple's website. The second aspect of this patent involves a possible winning marketing twist that could involve Apple TV being able to present a "Simulated iPhone" on a future HDTV so as to allow users to make a phone call or perhaps better yet, interact with one of a Gazillion iPhone Apps or even access one of their new iBooks. Apple tries to hide this feature by illustrating its presence on an illustration yet refusing to elaborate on this point. That's fine, I just did and I'm sure that your imagination could think of other interesting spin-off possibilities for this powerful marketing twist.

 
On May 19, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office officially published Apple's latest figurative trademark application covering MobileMe iDisk under application 85037005. Apple has filed their trademark under two International Classes covering computer services and software. Apple's MobileMe iDisk Quick Tour video states that "with MobileMe you get an iDisk where you could keep all of your important files. It's like having your own personal hard drive on the web." Apple's figurative trademark tries to capture that marketing imagery.