Europe's Trademark Office Confirms iPad's New Landscape Design
This week the European Trademarks and Designs Registration Office confirmed that one of Apple's new iPad designs is displaying an extra left side 30 pin connector to allow it to dock in landscape mode under application 001222905-0001. The first sighting of this design was noted on September 25, 2010. This time around, we see that Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive have signed off on the design. That's always a good sign for things to come, wouldn't you agree?
The iPad's Extra Connector for Landscape Docking Confirmed
Apple's Trademark Application In-Part
Certificate of Registration
Design Credits: CEO Steve Jobs, Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive + team members Jody Akana, Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clark, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer. The noted design above is number 0001.1 of application 001222905-0001. Seven angles in all were presented but only two that show the extra connector.
Click on the Design to See it in Full Size
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I saw a camera on the top...
Posted by: ddc-dock | October 18, 2010 at 07:42 PM
You need a patent for another dock connector?
Maybe it's also the MagSafe version.
Posted by: Technolo | October 18, 2010 at 05:56 AM
What im disappointed about is that I don't see a mini-usb or min-hdmi port. :(
Posted by: Ryley | October 17, 2010 at 02:23 PM
Regardless of AirPlay's slow roll out (it's now there instead of AirTunes for the iTunes 10.x info, but still remains on the Airport Express info) - it does make sense to at least contemplate a horizontal orientation capability via a 2nd 30 pin connector, allowing horizontal docking of an iPad - to be able to display content (like landscape movies) whilst docked and charging. The iPad screen has enough height when put horizontal that using horizontally in a keyboard dock is useful - with enough space for a side by side screen display. It's a bit fiddly at the moment having to use an extra 30 pin USB cable to get power whilst having it balanced horizontally on a dock to do typing.
Portrait still useful in many situations (and it would make the better viewing angles for Facetime via a front facing camera iPad, which would have the camera on the top of the iPad).
With a potential push to have the iPad more easily dockable in either orientations, it'll be interesting to see if AirPlay is a rate limiting step for Apple rolling out the standards to allow more video out functionality - whether having the iPad go dark and push the output to the projector/TV, or be able to use both. (Think iWork using AirPlay for example). Low probability - but imagine if Apple's new partner, Qualcomm, rolled Media FLO into an horizontal iPad dock for next summer? (Or if you're in the UK, a horizontal stand for watching TV Catchup).
You could then theoretically use the iPad to receive the TV, then output it. Or use the iPad to do the downloading and streaming, to the TV (if you didn't have an ATV). Or stream to an ATV, and use the iPad to control.
I wonder if ... the port could be for something other than a 30 pin connector?
Posted by: Tom | October 17, 2010 at 10:50 AM