There's a new trend emerging in computing that could breathe new life and some badly needed excitement back to the Desktop once again. The trend involves integrating advanced 3D scanners and projectors into the desktop so that artists of every stripe could unleash their creativity in ways once thought unimaginable. HP just released a next-gen desktop computer that incorporates these technologies and they call it Sprout. This week we discovered a Sony patent filing at the U.S. Patent Office that takes this HP-like concept but applies it to a next-generation video conferencing system experience. It uses a similar tower camera/scanner approach as HP's Sprout does to allow users to share documents, graphics and more in real time with a colleague having a similar system. Sony's system also differs from the HP system in that it utilizes large transparent desktop displays that  add a measure of realism to the whole conferencing experience so that you'll swear that the person you're conferencing with is in the same room as you. While today's report covers the basics of Sony's patent, it's really about seeing the bigger picture of where this new trend may be going. Some really refreshing ideas are beginning to surface about the future of the desktop – and it's certainly about time.

In October Apple filed for the trademark "Swift" in the U.S., Europe and China. This week, Apple has filed for the alternative trademark "Apple Swift" in the U.S, Europe and China. Swift or "Apple Swift" is a multi-paradigm, compiled programming language created by Apple for iOS and OS X development. It was first introduced during Apple's 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple states that "Swift is an innovative new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch. Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast." UPDATE Dec. 01, 2014. Apple adds filing for Swift logo/icon.

Yesterday we reported that Apple iOS users won the Thanksgiving Day spending battle by spending about 25% more than Android owners on their Turkey Day purchases, with an average of $118.57 per order compared to $95.25, according to the most recent data from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Today, new stats have emerged about online holiday shopping. New York City was the leading city for online shopping over the two-day period, followed by Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago. New York City shoppers spend an average of $121.91 on Black Friday. Did Apple iOS users win the battle again? Yes, of course.

Apple took top spot in tablet sales in China in Q3 by a wide margin against the tide of all the analysts and critics that are rumbling that the iPad is bound for a hard landing in 2015. Today we learn that Apple will increase their iPad distribution in Korea beginning next week and that's just the beginning for Apple's big moves in the tablet market in 2015.

In a report that we posted a month ago we covered CEO of Cheezburger Ben Huh talking about how Apple owns the market's mind share because they've become the platform for the creative class. This flies in the face of the fact that the Android operating system dwarfs iOS in pure market stats. But it's not just about "mind share" it's also about Apple customers spending more money on Apps and hardware than your average Androider does. A new report published today confirms this as fact.

Yesterday we reported that Apple's iPad crushed all of their tablet competitors in China in Q3. In that report we presented a chart illustrating China's Xiaomi ranking fourth with 5.3% market share. News out of China today reveals that Xiaomi is planning a massive attack on the low-end tablet market in 2015 against the iPad mini, though it's bound to hurt Samsung even more considering that they're already struggling to get their mobile house in order.

The iPhone 6 will power into 2015: As Apple is set to ship 50 million iPhone 6's for Q4, IC design houses are reporting that Apple has started scaling back on chip orders for Q1 2015 as would be expected – Though the drop isn't as drastic as one would think after the busy holiday season.

Today the EU Parliament voted for the break-up of Google even though they don't have the power to do any such thing. While it's grandstanding, they want to put pressure on the European Commission to force measures on Google that will diminish their stranglehold on search engine traffic in Europe that's now standing at about 90%.

Not So Fast! There was a rumor that surfaced just yesterday claiming that the iPhone 5C was destined for the dustbin of tech toy history and today we see a completely different story emerging that would tank that initial rumor.

The iPad Champion Stands Alone: According to new report published in Taiwan today there were 5.445 million branded consumer tablets sold in the China market during the third quarter of 2014. While that marked a 1% decrease on quarter it marketed a 25.1% increase on the year. The data was provided by China-based Analysys International. Apple's iPads took top position in this category and our chart shows you how Apple crushed all of their competitors combined.

Apple's Master Siri patent that we covered back in January 2012 listed Apple TV (the set top box) as one of devices that Siri could one day work with. Last month Amazon surprised the market with a device that they've branded as "Echo." It was like Siri out of iDevices and into your home via a standalone device doubling as a wireless speaker. I noted at the end of that report that having Siri voice controls for our Apple TV would be a dream machine. Well, start dreaming because Apple's European patent filing presents such a scenario and much more. There's no cryptic language in this patent about their intentions of using voice commands for Apple TV. Now it's just a matter of when. Apple's patent application focuses on the communications system that will use a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) framework.

Today the European Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark filing for their "Metal" icon as noted in our cover graphic (without the text). Apple's Metal is a low-level, low-overhead hardware-accelerated graphics API that debuted in iOS 8. It is intended to bring to iOS some of the performance benefits of similar APIs on other platforms, such as AMD's Mantle and Microsoft's DirectX 12. Apple states that Metal "lets developers create highly immersive console-style games on iPhone. Metal is optimized to allow the CPU and GPU to work together to deliver detailed graphics and complex visual effects."