In the real world, Apple's iPhone and iPad are still king in their respective categories. Nothing has changed except for the press's view of the world. The established press has created this grand consumer mirage that's a true disservice to the overall market. The press is mentally stuck in using a "volume" of cell phones metric as a measurement of technology leadership. They use Samsung's entire fleet of junky phones regardless of their technology worthiness and compare them to Apple's two technologically advanced iPhones, namely the iPhone 4S and 5 models. Seriously, these mainstream writers have decided to dumb down reality to support this mirage that they've created.

There's been all this talk in the press lately about Apple's iPhone being for an older generation while Samsung's Galaxy is for the younger demographic. Ha! The Galaxy S4 event played out like a cheap 60's Vegas show gone awry. It was hip alright, like an old poor soul with a broken hip. Did Samsung's legendary innovation deliver a cutting edge new design tonight? Hell no: It was the Galaxy S3 repainted. In the end, Samsung built their event up to a fever pitch and simply blew it. Samsung can sure follow but they have a real problem leading. On the software side of the equation, Samsung had a few interesting new features such as Smart Scroll and Air Gesture. However, only time will tell if any of these features will provide real consumer value or just end up being nothing more than empty marketing gimmickry. I think Samsung's coolness just died a quick death tonight and the press that have been building them up for months now simply look like fools. If you have an opinion on this, I'd like to hear it.

On March 14, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals the next step in the evolution of the iPad Smart Cover with built-in inductive charging. Simply put, this is a great idea to keep the iPad charged while on the go.

Reuters is reporting that the U.S. International Trade Commission stated today that it would delay a decision on allegations that Apple infringed upon Samsung patents in making the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. An administrative law judge at the ITC had said in a preliminary ruling in September that Apple did not infringe the patents. The full ITC said it would review the matter. If the full ITC reversed its internal judge and found Apple guilty of infringement, the ITC could order its products banned from the U.S. market.

According to a new report, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan granted the Justice Department's request to compel Apple's CEO Tim Cook to testify for four hours in the lawsuit, which accuses Apple of conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices. The government had argued Cook likely had relevant information about Apple's entry into the e-books market. It also said Cook likely had conversations related to e-books with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in 2011. Although Apple fought the request, Judge Cote stated during a teleconference with Apple's legal team that the death of Steve Jobs is one of the key reasons in ordering the deposition.

Some stories are just inspirational and the latest comes our way via Idaho's iSchool. Kent Jackson, the District IT Director stated that "choosing the iPad for every students hand is where we need to be." Jackson recounts how they transformed their school in just a week with super dedicated staff who wanted to make this happen. Colleen Johnson, the iSchool's Principal added that "We've had the iPad's in our school for about two and half months and already we are seeing significant financial savings. We save about $20,000/month on making copies and on paper. We don't need consumables any more. We anticipate not needing textbooks." Take a moment to view this inspirational video and learn more about what next generation iSchool's could be like.

Samsung sure knows how to build excitement leading up to their big Galaxy S4 smartphone event tomorrow evening. On March fourth we reported that the Galaxy S4 could introduce advanced eye-tracking for automatic scrolling based on a UK Telegraph report supported by a trademark that we discovered at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Then this past Monday we discovered that Samsung had filed a new trademark for a logo relating to a 3D Camera. On Tuesday we discovered that Samsung filed for yet another trademark for "Chord" a new Group Sharing App and today, the clues keep pouring in. New Samsung trademark filings were published today by USPTO reveal two new trademarks that are absolutely relevant to tomorrow's event. For more on this see our Patent Bolt report.

Apple is definitely racking up some impressive wins in the sky. Last Friday we reported that 84% of airline travelers are using an iOS device and over the last year we've seen two impressive business profiles that Apple created for Taiwan Air and United Airlines. Apple's iPad story for airlines now continues with an announcement from Qantas. A new report today from India states that passengers flying Australian carrier Qantas will now be provided with individual iPads which can stream more than 200 hours of movies, TV shows and music.

On March 12, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a patent relating to a data management system in context with a social networking service. Apple filed for this patent two months prior to launching iTunes Ping their social networking service for music. Two of Apple's engineers who worked on this project, namely Amol Pattekar and Andrew Vyrros, came to Apple via Yahoo! Whether this patent was solely for Ping or a secondary social networking service for the future is unknown at this time. Two unique attributes of the management system is its ability to identify and react to spammers and stalkers.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 37 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The first ten granted patents were covered in our first patent report of the day relating to newly granted design patents. In this report we cover Apple's granted patents relating to their iOS notification system and others. We close out our report providing you with a list of the remaining granted patents that covers matters such as beacon-based geofencing and more.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of ten Apple design patents today covering the iPad, iPhone, an iDevice component, the iPad's battery and more.

On March sixth we reported that Samsung was likely to introduce a new Galaxy S4 feature involving an advanced eye-tracking feature for automatic scrolling based on both a Telegraph report and a Samsung trademark filing made in February. Early that week we noted that Samsung's promotion was hinting at a 3D feature . Today, Patently Apple has discovered that the 3D feature is likely to be 3D movie and still camera debuting with the Galaxy S4. The US Patent and Trademark Office have published a trademark filing that was made by Samsung last week that shows us the logo for such a feature.

Yesterday we covered a patent filing form Microsoft that clearly demonstrated their intentions of copying Apple's Pinch and Zoom feature. Samsung, who is trying everything in their power to invalidate Apple's Pinch & Zoom, is now trying to patent this all-important touchscreen feature as well. A new patent application published last week by the US Patent Office clearly demonstrates this fact and our cover graphic clearly points that out. More importantly, two of their patent claims spell this out. Claim number five states: "The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the size of the UI is adjusted according to at least one of a pinch-in operation and a pinch-out operation. Their patent claim number twenty-two repeats this under a "method." With published applications from Microsoft and Samsung surfacing at the US Patent Office in the same week claiming that the Pinch & Zoom function is their own original invention is testament to how critical a feature this is for modern day touchscreen devices.

Some have dreamt of Apple's "Pinch to Zoom" patent having been invalidated but that's not really the case. Apple can and will definitely appeal that ruling and the historical statistics are in their favor that the invalidation won't stand. It's understandable why Google, their ecosystem and even Microsoft would love this patent to be invalidated, because it's one of those perfect features that you have to have in order to be a modern day touch-screen computer. Well that doesn't seem to faze Microsoft in the least. A new patent application published by the US Patent Office this week shows that Microsoft's delusional engineers think that they've actually invented Pinch and Zoom as if Apple's technology never existed. If you think I'm kidding you, I assure you I'm not.

The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Google that reveals their intentions to bring backside controls to future android devices that could turn a page of an ebook, article on the web or flip to next or previous views of photos and perhaps music albums in a playlist. Apple first introduced this idea for future tablets back in 2006, so the race is now on. Apple has sat on a number of great ideas over the years and never acted on them. So it just might be Google that's hungry enough to actually bring this feature to market first. In the end, in this specific race: may the best team win.

Yesterday we were first to point out that Apple iPad is annihilating their competition in respect to web traffic and today we have a new report showing how Apple devices are dominating in-air travel stats. According to a new report, tablets and smartphones now make up a whopping 67 percent of the devices being used to connect to the Internet through Gogo's in-air network and a whopping 84% carry Apple iOS devices.

On March 8, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest registered trademarks for "AuthenTec" and "KeepSafe." Apple acquired AuthenTec in July 2012 and is likely to use their fingerprint technology for iDevice security and/or e-Commerce in the future. AuthenTec's website segment for Identify Management is now closed stating that "products are no longer available." This is a likely telltale sign that Apple wants to keep this technology for their future products.

One of the top stories on ABC's World News with Dianne Sawyer tonight was titled "Can Earbuds Lead to Hearing Loss? Here's a story affecting every American family. Sawyer stated: "Here's the question: Are your earphones ruining your hearing, right now, tonight?" The video report noted below fills you in on the full story that points to earphones and earpods used with devices like the iPod and iPhone are damaging young people's hearing dramatically. You could also read a related ABC report titled "Bloomberg, NYC Want to Educate about Loud Music," to get the bigger picture. Note: The video can be viewed on an a Mac or PC but not on an iOS device.   

Today's Bloomberg's TV report presented above discusses the pros and cons of an Apple smart watch versus a smart TV. The report presents views from Bloomberg's Industries Analyst Anand Srinvasan and Gizmodo's senior writer Sam Biddle. In the end, Apple's smart watch may have a bit of an edge, but time will tell.

In September 2012 Apple's CEO presented a web traffic share chart wherein the iPad commanded a stunning 91% share compared to just 9% for all other tablets. Cook found this quite humorous and stated that he didn't know what these other tablets were doing. "They must be in warehouses or store shelves or maybe in somebody's bottom drawer: he added. Today, Chitika reports that Apple's iPads in February once again crushed all other tablet makers combined with an 80.5% share in US and Canadian web traffic. For Apple fans the Chitika chart is a pure joy to view – so take a look for yourself.

On March 7, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office approved and published Apple's latest registered trademark for "WebKit" under registration number 4,296,939. Apple open-sourced WebKit in 2005 and is now the foundation for browsers found in Amazon's Kindle, RIM's new Z10, Google's Android and will be adopted by Samsung for their future Tizen OS. It was also reported last month that the next generation of Mobile Browser from Opera will be based on WebKit.

On March 7, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office approved and published Apple's latest registered trademark for their AirDrop Logo. Apple's AirDrop is a Wi-Fi ad-hoc service in Apple's OS X operating system, introduced in version Mac OS X 10.7 dubbed "Lion." By using AirDrop, users can share files with other supported Mac computers running OS X 10.7 or later without the need of a Wi-Fi network or the need of USB mass-storage devices. Apple originally filed for their trademark in early December 2011.

According to a new report this morning, Japan-based Nissha Printing, Apple's main supplier of thin-film touch sensors for the iPad mini, may not be able to supply enough of the sensors for Apple's next-generation iPad and iPad mini products due to a lack of production capacity, according to industry sources. The demand for Apple's iPad's is just that hot.

On March 7, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published ten original patent applications from Apple. In this report we focus on Apple's invention that generally relates to advancing facial recognition and detection technology in an application such as iPhoto and/or Aperture. We close out our report with links to a number of other Apple inventions that were published today covering "Managing Access to Digital Content Items," a new "Charge Recycling System," and more.

On March 07, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published ten original patent applications from Apple. In this report we focus on Apple's invention regarding a new speaker system that integrates a sound radiating surface. We covered Apple's original work on this sound system back in 2012 in our report titled "Apple Reinvents Speakerphone System for iOS Devices."

If you happen to love luxury cars and are eyeing the new Ferrari, then you know that the sexy new beasts will come equipped with multiple iPad minis. According to Ferrari's Chairman there's a lot more on the way later this year. And on another note, a new analyst report states that Samsung's margins are going to collapse in the not-too-distant future. I don't know which news I like better.

Two interesting reports have surfaced this morning that are worth checking out. The first report brief is about Nokia filing an Amicus Brief supporting Apple's pursuit of a permanent injunction against Samsung. The second report brief is about a new eye-tracking feature that will offer automatic page scrolling. The new feature is expected to roll out during Samsung's Special Event in New York next week.

Talk of the Devil. Yesterday we posted a report discussing Google's new streaming music services that are in the works and asked the question: "Is Google preparing another run at Apple's iTunes Business?" Well, this morning Reuters Canada claims that Apple's CEO Tim Cook and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have been in discussions over a new iTunes streaming music service.

It's being reported on today that Apple successfully defended itself against the assertion of a standard-essential patent by Samsung in Japan. On a global scale this was Samsung's 22nd SEP assertion to have been dismissed, dropped or stayed. It was the first pro-FRAND ruling by an Asian court that I've ever heard of. And now that Apple has filed a redacted translation of the relevant passages of the Tokyo District Court's ruling, it turns out that it's also the first time in the Apple-Samsung dispute for Samsung to have been found to have abused the standard-setting process through untimely disclosures.

It's been rumored for months now that Apple has been working on a "radio" feature in its iTunes program that would deliver streaming music based upon a user's tastes – a service something like Pandora – that further merges the experience of being in a "store" to purchase music, and then listening to it in a "player." With Apple likely to move in that direction, Fortune has just learned that Google is likewise working on a new music subscription service for later this year that will overlap with Google's Android music platform, Google Play.

According to Canada's National Post, Bear Spray wielding thieves stormed into a Vancouver Canada Apple Store hitting 40 people with caustic spray before taking off with an unknown quantity of iPods, iPad's and laptops. While the robbery pales in comparison with the $1.3 million robbery in Paris during New Year celebrations, it does mark a trend that's on the rise.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover an exception to the rule. We present a granted patent that has yet to surface but is a wild one to acknowledge. Welcome to a view of a futuristic MacBook where the keyboard could appear or disappear with a single wave of the user's hand. Now that's cool.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our second and final granted patent report of the day we cover patents relating to the iPad's Smart Cover and a capacitive sensor panel that is dynamically reconfigurable to accommodate a feature such as pinch and zoom. We conclude our report listing the remaining 32 patents that were granted to Apple today.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Our first granted patent report focuses on the iPhone 5's integrated touch technology being granted a patent as well as their 2011 Cinema Display. Apple's new integrated touch technology allowed the iPhone 5 to be much lighter and brighter than previous versions as well as requiring less power.

ABI Research's London Office has just released their forecasts for 2013 in respect to winners in the mobile device applications space. Their research predicts that mobile users will download around 14 billion tablet apps during the year and that Apple's iPad running iOS will lead as a development platform with a formidable 75% market share. But it's not all smooth sailing for iOS. ABI now forecasts that smartphone-focused developers will adopt an Android-first strategy by years' end and that Android will account for 58% of the app market for smartphones.

On February twelfth, Apple's CEO Tim Cook, speaking at an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs in San Francisco, called the color saturation of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays "awful." Tim Cook added that "If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what the color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display." That was clearly a shot at Samsung's OLED Display quality. Rumor now has it that Samsung may have decided to make last minute changes to the Galaxy S4's display and processor prior to its launch on March fourteenth. The question is why?

Apple is a cutting edge technology company that turned the music industry on its head and reinvented both the smartphone and information tablet. When it comes to energy, Apple is looking at how to harness solar power for both large and small scale projects like powering next generation iPhones or the iPad's Smart Cover. Just like Apple was ahead of the curve by introducing in-cell technology into the iPhone 5 which Phil Schiller introduced as "integrated touch," we now know that Apple is working on this same principle except this time around it's for integrating special solar technology right into future touch displays. They've been working on this project since 2008. A new breakthrough in solar cell technology appears to be around the corner based on a new report revealed this week. The report pointed to a new material called graphene that will be able to greatly advance products such as night vision glasses, cameras and yes, eventually solar cells. It won't happen tomorrow, but you could be sure that Apple's advanced R&D teams will be considering this new material if it could bring their integrated solar panel technology to the iPhone quicker.

Earlier this week Bloomberg reported that Corning the maker of Apple's iPhone glass stated that it would probably take at least three years before companies start making flexible displays using its new Willow material. That led to speculation that Apple's iWatch would have to wait three years. While that was nice of Corning to provide us with their view of Apple's world, don't forget that LG made an announcement way back in August 2012 that they would be able to supply Apple with flexible OLED displays by the end of 2013.

In the last few days I've heard more people weighing in on whether Apple should license iOS than I've ever before. Although hell froze over once, I doubt that Apple will ever see their way in doing that. Even if there are good reasons to licence, it's not going to happen. On another front, I wonder aloud, is it time for Apple's iOS to undergo a facelift to reinvigorate the iPhone's user interface.

Apple was granted a whopping sixteen design wins in Hong Kong China late this afternoon. Fourteen out of the sixteen designs relate to elements found in iPhoto for iOS. The designs include high profile images such as the iPhoto icon, as noted in our cover graphic, along with "Brushes" and "Swatches" but to name a few. The remaining wins covered Siri and Apple TVs UI. All of Apple's designs were originally filed for in Hong Kong in September of 2012 and official published as granted today. Our report covers a number of Apple's supplied Jumbo graphics and more.