Apple's "iOS in the Car" project began under Scott Forstall in 2012 and in 2013 Eddy Cue gave Apple's project its official branding while explaining what the system would basically look like. Apple already has 18 car companies signed on and ready to go for late 2014. This is one of Apple's future battlefronts. Apple's project has been seen as a threat to the status quo. Today, others agree with this assessment of the in-vehicle infotainment system market. In fact, one study is predicting that Apple will shockingly grab close to 50% of this market by 2018. Is this one of the new product categories that Apple's CEO Tim Cook forecasted for 2014? Yes, it would appear to the case. Is Wall Street listening? 

In March of this year Apple first introduced a new invention covering a future free fall protection system in great detail. Apple's proposed protective mechanism is configured to selectively alter a center of mass of the electronic device so that it doesn't fall on its glass face. Today's patent application illustrates one of Apple's latest advances in this project that utilizes a sophisticated magnets system used as a form of a guidance system to ensure that the fall protects the device.

On October 31, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to providing techniques for automatically adjusting a telephone numbers when doing a business card or telephone number exchanges. 

On October 31, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new power management system that will work with both a power adapter and seamlessly with a portable solar panel accessory for busy people on the go. Apple's engineers are thinking big with their on-site solar power now creating the energy equivalent to powering 17,600 homes a year. The experience that Apple's engineers are gaining with working with solar panels is filtering through to creating a power management system for future Macs and iDevices. Apple has already been granted seven solar power patents thus far and you could review most of them in our Green Technology Archives. Today's patent goes one step further than most by introducing us to a solar power panel accessory for mobile devices like a MacBook or iPhone that won't require a power converter. Apple's system may be closer to reality than first thought considering that Apple's senior power design engineer noted as the inventor of this system has been snatched by Samsung within the last year.

According to a new IDC report, worldwide tablet shipments grew to 47.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013. While slightly below the firm's forecast, the number still represents 7.0% growth over the previous quarter and 36.7% growth compared to the third quarter of 2012. Android products once again drove much of the shipment growth in the market as iOS growth stalled and Windows tablets continued to struggle to win over consumers.Yet the stats showing Samsung as the one driving Android may not be all that they're cracked up to be.

With absolutely no explanation or reasoning, Apple abandons OS X Mavericks trademark in Canada. Was it a mistake by Apple legal or their Canadian agent Baker & McKenzie LLP? Is it a Canadian issue or is it a sign of things to come for the trademark? The abandonment notice was officially published on October 28, 2013 in regard to trademark filing 1648792.

In a new report published today, Rhoda Alexander, director, tablet research for IHS covered Apple and their tablet competitors by stating that "The growth in cheaply made, inexpensive Android tablets is a key piece of the growing imbalance between shipments and usage measurements in the tablet world." Usage measurements is a metric that we've been emphasizing as an important statistic to note for months now as has Apple's CEO Tim Cook who pointed that out specifically in their recent Special Event. Tim Cook stated during the iPad event that "regardless of what you might hear or read about how many are bought or sold or activated, iPad is used more than any of the rest. And not just a little more, a lot more. The iPad is used more than four times more than all of those other tablets put together." So it's refreshing to read about an analyst who finally promotes the idea that Android's mass shipments of junk tablets distort meaningful tablet statistics and facts.

In a September report titled "Why the 64-bit chip in the iPhone 5s matters," they stated that "While one of the key benefits of moving to 64-bit memory is support for up to 16 exabytes of memory, it'll probably be a few years before Apple actually ships an iPhone or iPad with more than 4GB. In fact, the iPhone 5S has just 1GB of memory (at a time when many high-end Android phones have 2GB or even 3GB). ExtremeTech noted in September that "Apple isn't going to start shipping a phone with more than 4GB of RAM, because RAM takes a significant amount of power to initialize." Yet a new game changing memory chip may be around the corner that could kick the A7 into another orbit.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook made it clear during their recent conference call that there was going to be iPad mini Retina display supply restraints for the fourth quarter of the year. Today we're learning that the problem appears to stem from Sharp who is oddly experiencing low yield rates for its Oxide TFT process.

Patently Apple's new iDevice Home Page Button is now ready for download. I'd like to thank TypePad's service/help desk representative Colleen for going beyond the call of duty in assisting me in getting these new buttons out in record time this week. One of our Patently Apple fans by the name of Alex sent me an email this week showing me his iPhone home screen. When I saw our old Light Bulb Button next to other buttons I simply cringed and knew it had to be replaced immediately (Ha!). Thanks for the push Alex. I'd also like to thank another one of our fans from Norway by the name of Terry who asked us to adopt Disqus for our comment section. Both changes were implemented in the last 48 hours. I greatly appreciate constructive feedback and, when we can make changes, we will. Cheers!

ABI Research reports 438 million handsets and 244 million smartphones shipped during the 3rd quarter of 2013. Samsung retained its lead in handset shipments and grew its share of smartphone shipments to 35%, while Apple share remained flat at 14%. Yet ABI's new report is playing a bit of shell game by narrowly limiting iOS stats to only smartphone's to enhance Android's numbers.  

News out of Asia today states that Taiwan said it had lodged a complaint with Apple over new iPhone and computer operating systems that describe the island as a province of China.