In July of this year a job posting by Apple stated that they were working on a new revolutionary Mac OS X feature. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent that could very well play a part of this revolutionary feature that Apple has in development. It's a cool virtual input device application that works in both 2D and 3D. The technology will somehow allow you to project an input device into the display of the unit that could then be used instead of the physical input device. For instance, a physical touchpad could be created virtually on your display and then used as you would your physical trackpad. That would require the display, in some applications, to be that of a touch display. The patent hints that it could also relate to gaming. That could mean adding virtual gamepad controls to the display if it's used in tablet mode or transferred to a tablet – like the iPad. This is one wild invention that will definitely take some time to fully understand and appreciate. But at the end of the day, we could all get a little buzzed thinking about what's in the works for us: Sweet!  

 
One of the more interesting patents that have surfaced this morning out of a total of fourteen is one that describes a new audio sensory system for the iPhone. The new system uses an acoustic leakage analyzer to determine noise leakage and then compensates for external noise so that the user could receive much clearer audio during a call. The sophisticated system uses a variety of new sensors to achieve this quality.  

 
The United States of America's Department of Justice Antitrust Division has filed a complaint with the District of Columbia District Court outlining a civil antitrust case against Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit and Pixar. The Department of Justice Antitrust Division's case is founded on the Sherman Act, which was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the United States federal government. The complaint outlines each of the alleged unlawful agreements between the aforementioned companies. The case however, appears to emphasize Apple as the main company in violation. This report focuses on the main Apple agreements in question.

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 17 granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Amongst them are several major design patent wins pertaining to the original iPod touch and the all-metallic iMac which has received registered status in both Europe and China. Yet the most notable granted patents issued today in our opinion would have to be one that relates to Apple's notebook trackpad assembly and perhaps more importantly, two strategic patents relating to the notion of a future telephonic MacBook.

 
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Provincial Government of Saskatchewan has announced that their cabinet ministers and senior staff will be provided with iPads from Apple Inc. in an effort to reduce paper consumption.  

 
A new series of iPad designs have surfaced this past week in China that illustrate a number of very interesting possibilities that could be coming to future iPads. The first is the ability to dock in landscape mode as well as portrait. Other features that may be in the works include a new port and a smart bezel. Time will tell if any of these designs pan out but it's a fascinating peek at what could surface in the next several weeks or quarters ahead.  

 
On September 24, 2010, China's Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of new Apple Industrial Designs wins. In this report we cover two things. The first is Apple's iPad Camera Connector and the second is a new iPad design which clearly illustrates that at least one future iPad model will sport a new FaceTime – face side camera. The design surprisingly confirms that there might not be a back side camera as most had anticipated.  

 
On September 24, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for the "Briefing Room" under application 85133045. Apple has filed their trademark under two yet identified International Classes covering retail services and technical consulting. The specimen supplied shows us that this service is currently available at the Apple Store in Minneapolis Minnesota. This new Apple Store Business Class service is likely to now go international.  

 
Apple's engineers are obviously seeking to perfect the Audio Jack for both present and future nano and wearable computer devices. In July an Apple patent pointed to the work being done in respect to a contactless optical sensor centric Audio Jack and again in August we learned of Apple's research and development into an Audio Jack with a built-in Mic. In Apple's third patent of the year, as was revealed by the US Patent and Trademark Office this morning, we can clearly see that Apple is working on a new Audio Jack using pogo pins to provide conductive contacts in an effort to meet the needs of ever shrinking devices.  

 
Apple finally introduced a camera system with their latest iPod touch and they're already preparing for their next wave of advanced camera technology releases. We've already seen a new Apple patent showing us that they're considering a zoom camera accessory for iOS devices and in their latest patent application published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office we see that Apple is considering a new advanced camera flash system. The system covers such matters as a flash redirector, new imaging sensors like one that focuses in on scene conditions and much more. While the new advances may be found in future iOS devices, the patent clearly states that this new flash system could eventually be integrated into the iMac, Apple's MacBook lineup and yes – even a dedicated video camera. I mean, why not take over the world of digital photography, right?  

 
A private New Jersey Corporation by the name of Multi-Format Inc., has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the Northern District of Illinois East District Court. The lawsuit appears to be concerning the sale and enabling of downloaded video content like movies and HDTV programming on iTunes to all of Apple's hardware including the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Multi-Format Inc., is seeking a "reasonable royalty" from Apple and has further asked the court to consider tripling the damages accessed if the damages are not found by a jury – according to the inclusion of sub-section 284 of the U.S. legal Code found in their complaint.  

 
There was a little secret divulged by Apple's CEO Steve Jobs at this year's Wall Street Journal D8 conference, hosted and produced by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. It was that Apple had actually designed and created a tablet device first and then shelved it in favor of going to market with the iPhone first. Well, today the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published one of Apple's classic tablet and handheld patents first filed in 2005. It didn't look like much at the time and the naysayers said that Apple would never ever bring a tablet of any kind to market because of the failed Newton and Tablet PC. Today we celebrate Apple's vision and courage of conviction for bringing us the Revolutionary iPhone.