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.

 
An Apple patent was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 16, 2010 that basically covered the advances in scrolling acceleration for iOS devices like the iPhone and iPod touch. Yet the most interesting aspects to this patent actually went beyond discussing the advances of scrolling acceleration methodologies. In fact, what turned my head was that the patent summary actually begins by pointing to a touchscreen device that has yet to surface: the iMac. The patent then points to the fact that accelerated touchscreen scrolling will also apply to the MacBook. Furthermore, the patent also indirectly confesses to future applications that could be coming to said touch devices. The first is noted as being a "website design" application, which could mean a touch version of iLife's iWeb, and the other is a "drawing" application – which has appeared in other Apple patents and has been a long standing rumor. Oh the little gems that awaits us in Apple's patents.

 
On September 14, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "AirPrint" under application 85129144. Apple has filed their trademark under four distinct International Classes which are covered in this report in full. Apple first introduced AirPrint during their special iPod event on September 15, 2010. AirPrint will be included in Apple's free iOS 4.2 software update available in November. AirPrint automatically finds printers on local networks and can print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi. "AirPrint is Apple's powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.  

On September 10, 2010 Patently Apple initially covered the newly discovered patent infringement lawsuit that Apple launched against Sanho Corporation, the maker of the HyperMac product line. The original filing delayed the release of the complaint from being made public until today. The complaint is a whopper considering that it covers six distinct patents that Sanho Corporation has allegedly infringed. All of the revealed patents relate to, in one way or another, cables and the MagSafe connector specifically. Our report presents you with an overview of the complaint in addition to providing you with hyperlinks to each of the infringed patents that were found in this lawsuit for easy review.

 
On September 17, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark filings for the revised "iTunes" logo under applications 85128276 and 85128460. Apple has filed their trademark under five different and distinct International Classes. The details within each classification are presented in our report and cover a wide range of matters including music, media players, set-top-boxes, retail stores, telecommunications and entertainment. The filing also adds a new social networking classification. The new classification covers Apple's recently added "social network for music" service called Ping. Apple's iTunes is all about buying, playing and syncing your media content in a cool and simple way.

 
A simple translation update in the Canadian Trademark Office appears to have also brought about a new TV classification code update for Apple's figurative iPad Trademark. With TV services like Hulu coming to the iPad, it stands to reason why Apple has begun to update their trademarks to cover television services. Enclosed in this report is Apple's Canadian filing update to application 1490082.  

 
This is one of those patents that are for the super techno-geeks amongst us who love to get under the hood of their machines and tinker with everything. With that said – Apple's patent generally relates to cache memory management and, more particularly, to cache memory management in multi-core central processing units. Apple's patent steps into the area of bus snooping, a technique used in distributed shared memory systems and multiprocessors to achieve cache coherence. Apple's patent is about reducing snoop traffic which will provide Apple's entire line-up of Macs with better power efficiency for quad core systems and future Sandy Bridge configurations and beyond.  

According to Wikipedia, Zhuyin is the first official phonetic system introduced in 1910s for transcribing Chinese, especially Mandarin. With that in mind, the main patent in this report covers Apple's virtual keyboard that accommodates Zhuyin symbols table and more. The second patent touched on today discusses wireless services in respect to advertising, multiplayer games, social networking on services like Facebook or Twitter and more.

At IDF this week Paul Otellini presented us with a broad overview of the multiple ways in which Intel is aggressively acquiring companies as they transform from being primarily a one dimensional chip company for computers and servers into a multi-tiered computing solutions provider. In David Perlmutter's keynote we learned about a great new 3D wand that is in the making that happens to mirror what Apple is working on in their lab. In a third keynote delivered by Intel's Doug Davis, we were given an overview of the rapid changes that are occurring with Intel's Atom Processors which will be entering the embedded space in 2011. Yet once again, the surprise of this keynote came in the form of a presentation by Dell who revealed a new notebook-tablet. It appears that Dell is on cue to beat Apple to market with this new hybrid notebook in time for the all-important Christmas shopping season. This report shows you Dell's device and some of the changes coming to Intel's Atom processor.

 
There were 27 Apple patent applications published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ten of those dealt with accessory functionality such as identification processes, communication techniques, application protocols and all manner of boredom. Yet one stood out from the pack. It's about an accessory transceiver that could provide a mobile device like the iPod touch with access to a mobile telephone network. Did that catch your attention?  

Over the years there have been some really dynamic opening IDF keynotes from Intel's CEO Paul Otellini. While this wasn't one of them, there was certainly a very important message for the whole industry to hear loud and clear. Why? Because while companies like Apple are changing their business model by stepping into the chip business, Intel is likewise stepping out of their traditional chip-centric role in the marketplace to become a total "Solutions Provider." Yet Intel isn't just changing, they're aggressively changing as they rapidly acquire new companies that will help them shape their new emerging business model. Last year's big news was their acquisition of Wind River. This year the train is picking up steam as they acquired McAfee for security software, Infineon for 3G and LTE technology and lastly acquiring the Texas Instruments cable modem business so as to fast-track their Smart TV initiatives. Beyond acquisitions, Otellini provided us with a peek at Sandy Bridge and provided us with an overview of what that powerful architecture will bring to the desktop in 2011. Yet it was a little segment at the end of the Perlmutter keynote that struck home the hardest. We were presented with a demo of a 3D Wand that could only come to life thanks to Sandy Bridge's powerful CPU/GPU architecture; a wand that resembled the outline of a recent Apple patent. Yet there was a twist to this wand that Apple could definitely adopt that would open the door to some rather interesting video gameplay. So tune in and we'll show you what all the fuss is all about. 

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 15 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today which included design patents for the iPod armband and MacBook Pro. The other notables within this group include one relating to updating playlists, another relating to connector receptacle housings and one relating to GarageBand. While there are a number of other interesting granted patents today, perhaps the most important is one relating to the iPod's Hybrid Button: a patent that Apple may be able to enforce on copy cat iPod OEMs going forward.

 
Apple is at it again. They've apparently acquired yet another target marketing patent and now that they're rolling iAd out aggressively, there's no turning back. Some believe that iAd could eat up half the mobile ad market in the future while most think that Apple is really out to challenge Google. More importantly perhaps is that actual paying customers of iAd's services, like Nissan, have seen their ad time-traffic soar ten-fold. All the more reason why Apple is seeking to further fine-tune their target marketing capabilities - and in today's patent report we'll take you on a short trek through the mindset of the ad industry as it schemes to further burrow their tracking technology into Apple's iOS devices like only Mad Men could.

According to documents filed yesterday with the California Northern District Court, Apple has launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Sanho Corporation the maker of the HyperMac product line of products. The details are very sketchy at the moment as the documents are non-specific as you'll see in the filing documents in this report. The actual "Complaint" has yet to be made public even though it's listed as being filed. An update will be provided for when and/or if further details are made available.

 
It's no secret that Steve Jobs has had a serious cube fetish over the years. So he's decided to shake things up a bit this year and shift his passion to all things spiral and/or cylindrical. A case in point would be his finger in the design of their latest awe-inspiring Apple Store in Shanghai China which is an incredible forty-foot high glass cylinder structure. The inspiration for all things spiral has evidently spilled over to one of Apple's software teams who have come up with an all new music menu feature that could be coming to a future iteration of the iTunes UI. The new spiral-centric menu option is a radical shift from a textual list-based menu that has been standard on iPods from the very beginning. Then again, Apple appears to have a radical mindset of late.

Apple just finished introducing their new Social Network for Music called Ping on the first of September and we're already seeing in one of Apple's latest patent applications that they're thinking about the next great thing which we'll call Social iTunes for the time being. Apple's thinking of a new kind of music service that could work at your own house party or perhaps at your local community hall, bar, restaurant or pub (Cheers!). The system is unique in that it lets your party guests vote on what music that they want to hear and the system tabulates the votes to generate a playlist. You could vote with your iPod touch, iPad, iPhone or any other Apple computer. It sure sounds like Apple wants you to join Ping and then get down and P-A-R-T-Y the night away!

Apple has just introduced their new iPod touch with an HD cam for both video and point and shoot style stills and according to a new patent application published this morning by the US Patent and Trademark Office, they're already working on a new zoom lens accessory. While the patent presents several methods of attaching a zoom lens to a media player like the iPod touch, the main focus is on utilizing an advanced magnet array coupling approach that could actually be personalized to reduce the risk of theft. Other accessories using this technique could include mini speakers or another kind of microphone. Just the mere idea of Apple introducing advanced zoom lenses for their leading world class media players has got to have competing camera OEMs choking on their morning coffee.

 
Apple TV is just a hobby. Apple TV is just a hobby. Apple TV is just a hobby. Okay, I get it – but these nasty little patents keep popping up that show that Apple has an obsession with display technology which happens to include, well … television. Apple's patent thinks that LCD TVs should run in two modes so that still photos could be better presented. The patent describes the two modes as being CPU mode and Streaming Mode. The patent mentions display technologies like plasma which of course has nothing to do with an iOS display. Yet for now we'll simply archive this patent in our not-TV-file while chuckling, because we all know that Apple TV is just a hobby.

Every week we get to peek inside a little corner of Apple's R&D labs in some capacity. This week we're privy to seeing one of Apple's R&D teams thinking of of using a new material that could end up in any number of future Apple products. The material is basically regarded as a composite laminate that could consist of a wide range of materials including glass, synthetics, metals (such as aluminum or titanium) – or even epoxy. Apple's patent is as secretive as they are. It provides absolutely no guidance whatsoever as to how they intend on utilizing this new kind of material – though it's commonly used in real-world products today ranging from an iPad cover to all manner of sporting equipment such as golf clubs, baseball bats, canoes, bikes, skate boards and more. Yet all we know for certain at this point in time is that Apple has been granted a patent for supposedly improving the cosmetic surface of this material.

   
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 14 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our second granted patent report of the day, we mainly cover four patents. The first one relates to a pre-iPhone patent that details the usage of a click wheel for text entry. The second patent covers a plug mechanism for devices like the iPod and perhaps more importantly, miniature devices like Apple's latest iPod nano. The third patent topic actually covers two related patents covering Apple's OS X Dashboard feature. The fourth and last patent of the day is perhaps the most important of the lot. This all important patent covers both touch and gesturing on touch based products like Apple's iPhone and iPad. This adds another Power-Arrow for Apple's legal quiver.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 14 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this first of two reports cover two main patents. The first covers a key QuickTime related patent covering "One-Click Full Screen Video" used in QuickTime movie trailers and live news reports online. The second patent of interest today covers a never seen before handheld device tester that incorporates a dock. Whether the latter will ever come to market is unknown at this time.

An interesting surprise was revealed by the US Patent & Trademark Office over the Labor-Day weekend. They revealed that Apple filed two new major service extensions to their most recognized logos. The filings were originally filed on the day prior to Apple's Special Event under applications 85120231 and 85120250. Both applications were filed under a single International Class which covers "online social networking and introduction services" as well as "security services." The latter is for protecting privacy data collected. The newly extended trademark coverage legally covers Apple's new venture into Ping: A Social Network for Music.

 
For those of you who can't wait to get their hands on Apple's iPod touch User Guide for iOS 4.1 for the new Game Center and FaceTime segments, wait no more. Enclosed are the two most important sections of the new User Guide with easy to see Exploded Graphics. Enjoy.  

Every once in awhile an engineer describing a product will in some form or another reveal an application or a new device that the patent is intended to legally cover and in doing so allows us to at least understand what future devices that Apple may have in store for us. Today, a simple patent covering an iTunes 9 feature for arranging and rearranging iApps on your desktop points to this feature applying to a PDA (iPod touch), smartphone (iPhone) and watch. Oh really? And to top off today's report we cover new patents that discuss GarageBand's "loops" feature and advanced syncing which is likely associated with yesterday's release of iTunes 10.  

 
Apple's Special Music Event presented us with one of the largest caches of new iPod related products in a single event. Apple updated Apple TV with the A4 processor and the click-wheel returned to the iPod Shuffle. The iPod nano was dramatically redesigned and it it's not too difficult to envision the iPod nano one day morphing into a futuristic iWatch. Yet it was the refreshed iPod Touch that came through to fulfill a number of major patents covering video-telephony, a video camera and LED display technologies which this report presents.  

 
Well, Apple did it again in typical Apple style. One of the big surprises at today's big event was an all new redesigned iPod nano. The redesigned iPod Nano just happens to fit one of the ideas that we presented in our August 14, 2010 report that described a "one sensing touch element." As you could see above, that aspect of the patent came to life. Yet far more important is the fact that Apple is now one step closer to delivering the ultimate consumer product: The iWatch. In fact I'm surprised that they didn't sell a watch strap accessory to hold the new redesigned iPod nano. Perhaps that's in the works.