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.