This week Apple's design master Jonathan Ive was interviewed by the New Yorker during their Tech Fest. Noted in the transcript, Ive said at one point that "there are certain ideas that we have and we are waiting for the technology to catch up with the idea." One such invention that has to wait for the technology to catch up is integrating solar cells into devices such as Apple's Magic Mouse and MacBook trackpad. Today Apple was granted their seventh solar cell patent. Beyond that, our report covers Apple's patent win for the iPad Pro's Multitasking, making it another patent fulfilled. Our report also covers and few key design patent wins today for the Apple Watch table and Beats headphone packaging. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Granted Patent: Wireless Devices with Touch Sensors & Solar Cells

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to wireless devices such as keyboards, mice and trackpads that may have a touch sensor that gathers user touch input and a solar cell that converts ambient light into electrical power.

Wireless communications circuitry in the wireless device may transmit the touch input to the external equipment. A power regulator may be used to supply the electrical power from the solar cell to the wireless communications circuitry and to the touch sensor. Energy storage devices such as a capacitor and a battery may be used to store electrical energy using the electrical power from the solar cell.

The wireless device may have a transparent cover layer. The touch sensor may be a transparent touch sensor that is located between the cover layer and the solar cell or the solar cell may be a transparent solar cell that is located between the transparent cover layer and the touch sensor.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 noted above is an overview of devices that could include solar cells and other important internal components; FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative wireless touch-sensitive mouse of the type that may be powered using a solar cell; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative stack-up in a wireless input-output device that includes a touch sensor above a solar cell; and FIG. 20 is a cross-sectional side view of illustrative layers in a wireless input-output device with a touch sensor that is surrounded by an inactive border region containing a solar cell, such as a touchpad.

Patently Apple first covered this invention as a patent application back in July 2015 and you could review more details of that patent here.

Apple's granted patent 9,787,934 was originally filed in Q1 2014 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This is Apple's seventh patent win regarding solar cells. Below are just a few other solar power-centric patents and patent applications to Apple's credit:

One: Apple Wins their Sixth Solar Power Related Patent & More

Two: Apple Wins Big with Two More Solar Energy Related Patents

Three: The Race is on for an iPad with Integrated Solar Panels & More

Four: Apple Invents Solar Cell Ambient Light Sensors for iDevices

Five: Apple Wins Solar, iOS Camera & iPhone Docking Patents

Six: Apple Invents Power Management System with Solar Panel Option

Granted Patent: iPad Pro Multitasking

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to electronic devices with touch-sensitive displays and, more specifically, to systems and methods for efficiently navigating between applications.

Apple's patent FIG. 5H above shows the user interface displayed on touch the screen after the swipe gesture #510. In this way, the swipe gesture allows a user of the device to quickly access a previously-used side application (in this example, application 2); As shown in FIG. 7A, application 1 is displayed in an additional portion of a main application portion of a shared screen view, application 3 is displayed within the main application portion and is overlaying application 1, and application 2 is displayed as in a side application portion of the shared screen view.

Apple's granted patent 9,785,340 was originally filed in Q2 2015 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.This is now considered a patent fulfilled.

Key Design Patents Granted to Apple Today

Although it's not a design patent, Apple was granted another patent relating to their Apple Watch Retail Store table as note below that has built-in charging and more. For more details, check out granted patent 9,787,129.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

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Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.