New iPad Design Variant to Support Landscape Docking

Update May 29, 2012: News.com Australia reports that a picture of one of the original iPad prototype's recently surfaced on eBay. The unit uniquely sported a landscape connector as our report had revealed back in 2010.    

 
Alternate Views of the new Docking Option 

A New iPad Design Patent shows what could be a Smart Bezel Feature

In February 2010 an Apple patent surfaced describing a smart bezel for a future iPad. Could the design illustrated below represent that feature - or is it simply something yet to be explained? The design patents out of China provide us with no insight whatsoever. The feature, whatever it is, is found in three distinct graphics to impress upon us that it is a distinct feature consistently found in the left bottom corner of the iPad. Is it an auto page turner? Time will tell.

Apple Wins iPad Dock Designs in China

Apple's Standing Design Team

Most of Apple's new industrial designs come from a core team of designers which includes Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Jonathan Ive, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer.

Update: Also see our report posted earlier today about the new FaceTime Camera design found in China's Patent Office. While there was some debate this morning about whether the design was a camera or light sensor, I'm convinced even more now that it is indeed a camera. See our updated report for a new graphic illustration that helps to make that point clearer.

Notice: Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application and/or Issued Patent should be read in its entirety for further details. For additional information on any granted patent noted above, simply feed the individual patent number(s) into this search engine.

Community Sites Covering this Report

MacSurfer, Google Reader, Techmeme, blogrunner, the Houston Chronicle, Gizmodo, MacRumors, tweetmeme, The Next Web, 9 to 5 Mac, igeneration France, MacBidouille France, MacPlus France, Mac Life Germany, Dutch Cowboys Netherlands, Electronista, The Wall Street Journal, MobileBeat (Venturre Beat), Erictric, TiPb, tabletworld Netherlands, iPhones Russia, iPadPlanet Netherlands, BlogdoiPhone Spanish, everythingiCafe, iClarified, TechnoBuffalo, Edible Apple, der Standard Austria, The New York Times (section, Headlines from Around the Web, Sept 26th), Pad Gadget, ApfelTouch Germany, I4U News, iPhone Hacks, taranFX, Apple Magazin German, MacSlice, Pad Gadget, San Jose Business Journal, HK Silicon China, iPhonezine France, 20 minuten Switzerland, Gizmodo-Germany, ShortNews Germany, Menclusive Germany, Paperblog France, CNET-France, iPader Italy, SlashGear, The-APPera, San Francisco Business Times, MacTechNews Germany, iFanr China, iPad Watcher, Cult of Mac, CNET-UK, TUAW, iPhone Mobilen Norway, Nettavisen Norway, PCMag, Macworld-UK, RakunaMac China, and more. 

A special thanks goes out to MacDailyNews who carried part one of our report as well as Jim Cramer who tweeted about our report (on Sept 26, 2010 - see the graphic below). Jim Cramer is co-founder of the Street.com and could be seen on CNBC's "Mad Money" segment (Booyah!).