Earlier this month, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that revealed one of the possible next chapters for AppleTV. Although Apple continually insists that AppleTV is nothing more than a hobby of theirs, their R&D via patents is showing us another story. It appears that Apple is continually advancing future possibilities for AppleTV on a regular basis. In today's patent report we take a look at Apple's latest vision for AppleTV that will put more relevant data at your fingertips. Let's say that you like a tune that you're hearing on the latest episode of House or Fringe. You'll be able to put the scene on pause and have a new navigational bar appear that will give you the option of finding the data on that tune in one click. Apple's latest AppleTV patent lists eight new possible data options that could make watching TV more fun in the future.  

 
On February 24, 2011, The European Trademarks and Designs Office published Apple's latest trademark application for the word "Places" under application 009760141. Apple has filed their trademark under four distinct International Classes covering all manner of computer hardware, education and entertainment services and more. Yet at the heart of this application, Places is primarily about online social networking services related to a social networking site and will assist in locating people using GPS on Apple's mobile devices. Whether this will be coordinated with Apple's iTunes social networking music service called Ping is unknown at this time.  

 
Apple has been working on utilizing light-transmissive controls for some time now and has actually begun incorporating them into the MacBook Pro. Last week a series of elaborate patents surfaced which provided us with a real in-depth look at some of the advances Apple is making on this front. The most startling design included a keyboard totally comprised of light-transmissive keys; a design that would also be able to reconfigure itself into other user controls such as a key or gaming pad. In today's patent, Apple looks at simpler controls that could be incorporated into the lid of a future MacBook or MacBook Pro to control music.  

 
On January 12, 2011, BGR reported that a source had revealed to them that Apple's Photo Booth was coming to the iPad. The very next day 9 to 5 Mac added to this news by stating that they had discovered two new iOS 4.3 frameworks, mainly "PhotoBooth" and PhotoBoothEffects." And today, Patently Apple presents you with a knock out patent report that all but confirms that Photo Booth is indeed coming to the iPad as well as to the iPhone and iPod touch for that matter. In fact, it appears that there's even a major upgrade of Photo Booth being geared up for this summer's debut of OS X Lion that will make it available for all Mac hardware. And considering that it will debut on Macs with Intel's new powerful Sandy Bridge chipset, I'm sure it'll appear like Photo Booth on Steroids!   

 
In our second granted patent report of the day, we present you with a number of Apple's granted patents relating to Mail, Aperture and iPhoto. Yet perhaps the more important granted patents of the day go to two specific patents covering Apple's e-ink and magnetometer technologies; the latter of which is central to Apple's geo-location services found in all current iPhone and 3G iPad devices.

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 12 newly granted patents plus 4 unique design patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first granted patent report of the day we'll show you Apple's four winning hardware designs in addition to giving you a peek at one of Apple's forthcoming iPhone e-wallet icons.  

 
Earlier this month, Apple filed for a new MacBook Pro trademark. It was busy for us this month and it just seemed to be a run of the mill trademark update not worth mentioning. Then CNET's news surfaced this weekend about the possibility that the updated MacBook's could be adopting Light Peak. So back to the trademark filing we went to see if there were any clues that could support that notion. Lo and behold, there was. While I hate grabbing at straws, there certainly is one feature listed that could fit the bill – if you know how to connect the dots.

 
With OS X nearing its launch this summer, we just might have gotten a glimpse at either a Time Machine or MobileMe upgrade in one of this week's patents. Apple wants to beef up sensitive document security for average consumers and they want to do it in a way that will get consumers used to trusting Apple branded cloud based software and/or services. Even if you don't have sensitive documents like a Living Will or Home Insurance Policy that you want to protect, everyone wants to protect their investment in iTunes! You've invested a lot of money in your music, movies, books and app purchases – and that's reason enough to want to use this upcoming new feature relating to a virtual safe deposit box. While there may not be diamonds in the sky as the Beatles once described, the cloud is where the industry thinks the money is heading in the future. And with that in mind, Apple wants consumers to trust them on this front early on, beginning with a friendly little app called the safe deposit box.  

 
Yesterday we presented you with two of Apple's most detailed patent applications covering Apple's extraordinary research into the notion of live and reconfigurable notebooks. Those patents detailed various scenarios pertaining to a "keyboard-less" notebook in addition to detailing a smart bezel, using hand-wave controls and much more. In today's patent report we cover Apple's third and final installment on this subject matter which pushes the envelope even further this time around by introducing us to acoustic commands. Acoustic commands use unique noise fingerprints of tapping combinations, scratches and/or swirling-motions to control device functionality.  

When you think about the basic logic behind Apple's Magic TrackPad, you could reasonably envision touch controls going well beyond glass. This only makes sense as Apple gains experience with touch technologies on different substrates. In a second patent application published today, Apple discusses a new way of bringing touch to aluminum and other metals. There, new discoveries may very well lead to the development of truly next-generational forms of a MacBook or perhaps just added  magic to their MacBook Air. Considering that Apple also discusses introducing air-wave controls on Apple hardware, it might be the place to kick-start this little wonder of an idea. The Concept also extends to the iPod where we might even see a spiral-styled control UI surface amongst a series of new specialized hardware interfaces. While I think that Apple's new reconfigurable hardware concept sounds a little like their one time chameleon project, the fact remains that Apple now has the technological experience behind them to advance some of these great and wilder ideas. I think that Apple's TrackPad was only an experiment for what lies ahead. And it all sounds like a lot of fun to me.     

 
On February 17, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals the next chapters for both their iPad and MacBook portable devices. Apple first discussed future plans regarding a smart bezel for their iPad and iPod touch a year ago while hinting at new hovering capabilities just last week. The idea is to give Apple's iPad bezel easy yet invisible controls. In today's patent application, Apple really spells out how the smart bezel may not require a Home Button and added controls like volume will simply require a swipe of your finger. If that wasn't enough, Apple kicks everything up a notch by talking about a Live and Reconfigurable touch interface for future MacBooks. This has a lot of potential if Apple's haptic technology advances accordingly. It's the device every OEM on the planet is trying to master and it sure looks like Apple is getting a whole lot closer than most. Go Apple!  

 
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include one that relates to Apple's "Slide to Unlock" iOS GUI function and one for Aperture's "magnifying loupe" feature that assists digital photographers. And being that the iPhone nano is on the front burner again, we once again review Apple's two standing patents on this product which range from a simple design to that of a ground breaking dual-surface mini device that could rock the market. With the iPad's popularity growing, there's a definite need for a smaller smartphone. With HP taking the lead here, Apple has to ramp up their efforts on the iPhone nano or risk falling behind in this hot emerging trend.