Apple has filed many SIM Card related patents over the last three years with the last one surfacing in October 2013. Yesterday, the US Patent & Trademark Office published yet another SIM Card Tray redesign with an emphasis this time on a thinner design form factor for future devices such as an iPhone, a MacBook and/or one that is wearable.

The US Patent & Trademark Office officially published Apple's latest trademark filing for "Touch ID," which was filed earlier in the week. For those unfamiliar with Apple's Touch ID, it's a fingerprint recognition feature, that's currently available on the seventh generation of iPhone, the iPhone 5S. Touch ID is heavily integrated into iOS 7 allowing users to unlock their phone, as well as make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores. Apple's Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller announced the new Touch ID feature at Apple's iPhone media event on September 10, 2013. It's fully expected that Apple's Touch ID security feature will be integrated into additional hardware beyond the iPhone 5S sometime later this year. Report Updated at 1:15 PM PST.

Last April Apple revealed a patent pending application for indoor mobile location as it related to finding a vehicle in a parking structure. Today, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals another parking related invention, except this time it's about finding your vehicle outdoors via a locked-in GPS feature. I had an incident of temporarily forgetting where I parked my car while Christmas shopping at a mega mall this year. I went out the wrong mall door and wasted 30 minutes before realizing my error. A simple app like Apple is proposing would have been great to have – even if you only use it once in a blue moon.

Texas base patent troll Hilltop Technology LLC has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns Apple's iPad Air and other Apple devices using a capacitive touch display.

On January 30, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a major patent application from Apple that reveals a new financial Systems Integration System. Apple's invention relates to financing integration with an e-commerce marketplace, and more specifically, the present technology relates to a Financing Systems Integration system that allows customers to shop-and-checkout using a Loan ID. Apple currently has a treasure trove of inventions relating to a future iWallet system but this is a new beast all together. The patent filing illustrates that Apple is investigating the whole financial matrix and not just the electronic wallet side of the equation. Apple's patent dives into creating a system to handle all sorts of loans, from student loans to Business-to-Business loans and everything in between. Our report provides you with an overview of this massive system along with a wide array of patent figures presenting multiple flowcharts for varying loan scenarios. In one part, Apple's financial system almost hints of one day bypassing the credit card system entirely.

On January 30, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Transparent Fiber Composite." Apple's invention relates to transparent composite materials, and more particularly to relatively transparent composites formed with fibers encapsulated in a resin. Apple has been experimenting with composite materials since 2007 as we detailed in a 2010 patent report. We reported on Apple working on nano-silica fiber coatings in 2013 as well. This is all part in parcel of research that Apple is heavily investing in so as to find new materials for future devices. The wearable computer is one such category that will be able to take advantage of composite materials such as the one found in today's patent filing. Composite materials could be lighter and bend more easily than traditional plastic or metal which is ideal for clothing, smartwatches or other devices like ski boards. While today's invention provides us with no knock our revelation, it does provide us with a view into the research that Apple is currently engaged in.

On Tuesday we were surprised to see that Apple was granted a new iPen patent pertaining to orientation detection. While the late Steve Jobs wasn't a big fan of the "dumb stylus" of yesteryear that was basically a tiny plastic pencil, he knew that one day the technology would give rise to an advanced iPen. Apple has invested heavily in the modern iPen with over 20 patents to their credit thus far. Today, three new iPen related patent applications were published by the US Patent and Trademark Office that cover many new aspects of this invention including a unique eraser function.

On January 30, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a possible future iPad bezel that will allow for gesture and touch input detection through Force Sensing. This will allow for virtual buttons to be incorporated right into the iPad's bezel. Apple first revealed their initial work on force sensors back in July 2013 and various aspects of smart bezels in April and December 2011.

We first reported on Apple's possible leap to using sapphire crystal glass for future displays in March 2013. In June of that year we published Apple's patent application for a sapphire laminate fusion process. Then in late December we published a killer patent for a flexible sapphire display created with liquid-metal. Last week we reported on new techniques for using sapphire on iDevice displays and today, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest sapphire related patent application covering methods for manufacturing sapphire windows.

According to a new IDC report published this afternoon, worldwide tablet shipments totaled 217.1 million units for the full calendar year 2013, which is up from 144.2 million units for the full year 2012 and represents a year-over-year growth rate of 50.6%. And despite gains made by Apple's competitors this year, they were still unable to unseat the king tablets: the iPad.

On January twentieth we reported that the Korea Communications Commission suspected Google of having collected personal information without authorization in the process of preparing the 'Street View' service and scheduled an administrative measure against Google. The Korean press now reports that Google was fined $US198,000.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 31 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we focus on a single invention that covers future devices that could incorporate several integrated technologies including smart glass or electrochromic glass, backside display cover touch controls and photovoltaic cells that could add a power boost to many devices such as a MacBook or iPad. According to a new research report published today, notebooks and Ultrabooks with built-in LTE connectivity will be a new product category that will gain a lot of traction over the next few years as LTE expands into China and other markets around the globe.

During Apple's Q1 Financial Conference Call yesterday afternoon Apple's CEO Tim Cook noted that iPhone sales had doubled year-over-year in mainland China. Yet the bigger news was yet to come. Cook noted that iPhone activations so far in the past week since the China Mobile launch had been the highest ever in the country. He further noted that the iPhone only launched in 16 cities and that they should see the iPhone in more than 300 cities by the end of the year as China Mobile continues to upgrade to 4G. Supporting Cook's enthusiasm for dynamic growth for iPhone sales in China is a new study published today that states that 4G sales in China are going to experience an explosive 1500% uptick in 2014.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 31 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Yesterday Apple announced their Q1 results which included an all-time quarterly record for iPhone sales of 51 million. Today the US Patent Office granted Apple a design patent for their original iPhone crediting the late Steve Jobs as one of the original inventors/designers. Our final granted patent report of the day also includes a full list of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 31 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we focus on one patent related to stylus orientation detection. While the late Steve Jobs wasn't a big fan of the "dumb stylus" of yesteryear that was basically a tiny plastic pencil, he knew that one day the technology would give rise to an advanced iPen. Apple has invested heavily in the modern iPen with over 20 patents to their credit thus far.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 31 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a new camera related patent. In 2010 Apple introduced a clip-on accessory designed to provide iDevices with zooming capabilities. Today's granted patent goes far beyond that simple concept and introduces us to a vastly superior add-on camera lens system for iDevices that will use a magnetic mechanism. According to Apple, the movement of the lens assembly by the voice coil motor may provide various optical functions such as autofocus, lens zoom, anti-shake, or a combination of such functions.

On Friday we reported that Apple's new iPhones hit Samsung's Q4 Badly. On January 07, Businessweek estimated that Samsung had shipped 13 million units of their Galaxy S4 for Q4. Yet when the real numbers came in days later, Bloomberg reported that it was actually much, much worse at a measly 9 million units, down from selling 17 million in Q3. Today, Apple announced a record-breaking 51 million iPhones were sold in the holiday Quarter which clearly demonstrates that the new iPhone 5S was a smash hit this holiday season with consumers over rival products from Samsung and others. Report Updated with Conference Call Highlights 5:15 PST

The Penn State Research Foundation has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, and Samsung Display Co., Ltd.).

Prior to Apple announcing their financials for calendar Q4 2013 later today, Chitika published a new tablet usage chart. Despite a quarterly and year-over-year share dip, Apple's iPad share rebounded to a level slightly ahead of its pre-Christmas figure of 77.3%, and its users still generate more than three quarters of all tablet-based Web traffic within the U.S. and Canada.

According to Euroset, Apple only holds 9 percent of the smartphone market in Russia. In October Apple signed on Vimpelcom, the first Russian carrier to sign a new direct contract to sell the iPhone 5s and 5c. Today a second mobile phone operator is back on with Apple after a four year break.

Supply chain news out of Taiwan today states that Amkor Technology and STATS ChipPAC have each obtained 40% of the total packaging orders placed by Apple for its next-generation A8 processor, with the remaining 20% will be taken over by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE).

I thought I was reading the funny papers when I read about Google and Samsung having reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement today. The official Samsung blog announced that they reached a cross licensing deal with Google. The deal covers patents currently owned by the companies, as well as any filed in the next 10 years. 

In March 2013 we reported on news out of Taiwan that Hon Hai's Chairman Terry Gou secretly met with Apple executives earlier that month to discuss HDTV displays for Apple's future iTV. Flash forward, and today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hon Hai celebrated their fortieth anniversary today and Terry Gou told reporters on Sunday that they plan to relocate capital-intensive and high-tech manufacturing to the U.S., its largest market. More specifically, they're evaluating a plan to build an advanced TV display manufacturing plant.

It was just a week ago that we reported on Apple's latest iWallet patent application that was published by the US Patent Office. It revealed a little more about a new security system being considered along with using iBeacon in iPhones to make in-store transactions easier with retailers. Apple's first true iWallet patent application surfaced in May 2010 discussing digital transactions made with future iPhones. Since that time Apple has filed many other iWallet patent filings that can you could explore in our extensive iWallet Archives. Apple's iWallet patents cover everything from shopping, parental iWallet controls, billing systems and much, much more. Late yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is expanding their iWallet team while discussing their future iWallet services with industry executives.

Yesterday Patently Apple reported on a new patent application from Apple covering new techniques for using sapphire on iDevice displays. Today, it's being report that Apple OEM partner Foxconn has begun testing the assembly of sapphire substrate display covers for the iPhone in their Lunhua factory in Shenzhen. According to Chinese-language Apple Daily report, Foxconn has packaged 100 sapphire substrate display cover phones. Despite the small number assembled, the report claims that it's is a huge development for Foxconn.

On January 07 we reported that Samsung was going to miss their Q4 numbers by 18%. Late yesterday Samsung reported their profits for Q4 and confirmed that they were down 18.2%. A Samsung official told the Korean Herald that "This is caused by a base effect of the high growth of smartphones in the third quarter and inventory adjustment at the end of last year." No-no-no, that's the sugar coated answer. In reality, it was caused by the successful launch of Apple's iPhone 5S with Touch ID along with their all new iPhone 5C driving their sales down. Who are they kidding?

It was 30 years ago today that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak introduced the Macintosh – the personal computer with a graphical user interface, a mouse and a personality that gave birth to the desk top publishing revolution. On January 24, 1984, Steve Jobs proudly introduced the Macintosh. Today, Apple's homepage is dedicated to celebrating the Macintosh's Thirtieth birthday with special segments and videos.

On January 23, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of nine patent applications from Apple. Earlier today we posted reports covering techniques for using sapphire on iDevice displays and another covering the mad science behind iAd's future ability of matching content to moods. In our final patent report of the day we briefly cover two new Apple inventions covering an in-focus camera lens system and a new iPhone interface for mobile recoding of conversations between two or more individuals. We conclude our report with a list of the remaining five patent applications that were published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

It was reported yesterday that GT Advanced, Apple's manufacturing partner for its new sapphire glass plant in Mesa, Arizona, began advertising job openings at the new plant that will produce sapphire materials that will cover iDevice cameras and Apple's Touch ID Home Button feature. In March we were first to note that Apple may shift to sapphire crystal for future iDevice display covers. Then in September 2013 we posted a report about a new fusion process for adding a sapphire laminate layer to future iDevice cover glass as well as wearables. In December 2013 Apple revealed future iDevices could use flexible sapphire displays created with a sophisticated liquid-metal process. In today's published patent application, Apple once again confirms that iDevices will use sapphire for future iPhone displays and beyond.

On January 23, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to iAd. Apple states that an individual's responsiveness to targeted content delivery can be affected by a number of factors, such as an interest in the content, other content the user is currently interacting with, the user's current location, or even the time of day. A way of improving targeted content delivery can be to infer a user's current mood and then deliver content that is selected, at least in part, based on the inferred mood. The present technology analyzes mood-associated characteristic data collected over a period of time to produce at least one baseline mood profile for a user. The user's current mood can then be inferred by applying one or more mood rules to compare current mood-associated data to at least one baseline mood profile for the user.

Texas based Innovative Display Technologies (IDT) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns all Apple products with an LCD display.

LG Electronics has revealed that they'll be integrating fingerprint recognition functionality into their premium smartphones such as G2 Pro and G3 later this year as we've been reporting on for some time now. As it had lost the initiative to Apple, LG Electronics mapped up a plan to ensure the delivery of new security in addition to a new user interface experience.

Stories of international espionage appeal to the masses and movies like the famed James Bond series have always done well at the box office. The story of American computer specialist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee Edward Snowden who was a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor shocked the world with his disclosures of top secret NSA documents of spying on citizens and governments. Today we're getting word from a Taiwanese report that six Foxconn employees have been detained by the Prosecutors Office. Most interesting is the fact that one of the executives detained in this case was in charge of Apple's iPad production.

In case you didn't know, there's a new war front between Apple and Samsung for digital textbooks in the educational market kicking into higher gear. Apple has had the lead with a comprehensive program with iBooks Textbooks and the iTunes U Course Manager and they're expanding it today into markets across Asia, Latin America and Europe. The timing of this announcement is interesting as it comes one day after Samsung announced that they would be showcasing new authoring tools at an educational fair in Korea with which teachers could personally create digital educational contents together with digital Korean and social studies teaching manuals for middle school teachers. Samsung will be launching the service through their "Learning Hub" during the first half of the year. Google and Samsung are planning to catch up with Apple in this market and are thinking of new ways to get ahead of Apple. Yes, a new war is brewing and it's going to get very interesting over the next few years.

Late yesterday, Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over two Apple v. Samsung patent cases in the Northern District of California, issued a summary judgment order which found Samsung's Android-based devices to infringe an Apple patent on word recommendations (autocomplete) and declared a Samsung patent on multimedia synchronization invalid. 

In June 2013 there was a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Cellular Communications Equipment LLC against HTC, LG, ZTE, BlackBerry and Pantech. The patents in that suit which originated with Nokia and Siemens Networks were noted as being owned by Acacia, a patent licensing firm. Cellular Communications Equipment (CCE), a subsidiary of Acacia, is now setting their legal eyes squarely on Apple in a new lawsuit that includes the wireless carriers who redistribute Apple's iPhones (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and others.). Interestingly, four out of the five patents in this lawsuit are associated with essential patents used by the 3GPP member organization. In today's report we provide you with an overview of the lawsuit while providing you with all of the important links back to each of the patents noted in this case for the legal minds amongst us who wish to delve into each of the patent claims that are noted in all five counts against Apple. 

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a design patent for the iPhone 4S which credits the late CEO Steve Jobs as one of the designers/inventors. Our report also covers a key patent dating back to the original multitouch iPhone display and another that relates to the original work behind the integrated touch display that finally surfaced with the iPhone 5.

In North America, those that appreciate the finer toys in life are sometimes called the tech elite or consumer snobs depending on your point of view. They're the ones that usually choose the iPhone as their preferred smartphone. In China, this particular class of elite consumer likewise chose the iPhone in 2013 as the must have device to own, according to China Daily's new top toy list.

Recently Google's collection of a wide range of user information for customized advertising has been criticized both at home and abroad. The Korea Communications Commission believes that Google is suspected of having collected personal information without authorization in the process of preparing the 'Street View' service, and is scheduled to take an administrative measure against Google at the plenary session next month. Last November Google was fined $17 million on charges of having used Apple's Safari browser to collect personal information in 37 state governments in the United States.

Tizen OS is earmarked to officially debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona late next month. NTT Docomo was to be the first carrier to sell Samsung's new Tizen based smartphones but cancelled their plans unexpectedly late last week. While all eyes are on Tizen to make an impact against Android in 2014, another operating system is about to enter the market and make huge waves in China over time. As Chinese smartphone users continue to debate the relative merits of Apple's iOS and Google's Android, the new operating system will offer a Chinese-developed alternative to software of foreign origin.