Earlier today we posted a major report titled "Today the Myth of Apple Never Delivering a Smartpen Died with the Introduction of the 'Apple Pencil' Although the smartpen was long in development, the naysayers just wouldn't let go of the myth that Apple would never, ever deliver a smartpen despite Apple having more than 35 patents on record extended over many years. The introduction of the Apple Pencil today will be appreciated by many. Whether Apple will extend it to a future iPhone with a new kind of display is still unknown. With that big myth out of the way and finally resolved, we celebrated many other Apple patents that came to life today and our report will tell you about a great number of them.

Quad iPad Speakers

Today, Apple introduced 4 speaker audio. Apple notes that "With four new high‑fidelity speakers built directly into its unibody, iPad Pro creates an audio experience as big as its display. The new design produces an engaging soundstage with three times the acoustic output of iPad Air. But it goes even further than that. iPad Pro automatically adjusts the orientation of the high frequencies according to how you're holding it. So whether you're playing a game or watching a movie, the sound of iPad Pro is more immersive than ever."

We pointed out that Apple's iPad could one day deliver Quad Speakers in a 2010 report titled "Apple: The Tablet Prophecies – Part 2." We covered a second patent application on this in January 2011. Today another of Apple's came to life. Whether 'Surround Sound' is applicable now or in the future is unknown at this time.

The iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard Cover

Another patent that came to life today involved Apple's soft cover Keyboard that Apple simply calls the 'Smart Keyboard." Apple covered this in a patent that we covered back in 2014 titled "Apple Reveals a New iPad Smart Cover that Includes a Unique Multi-Touch Gesture Keyboard." The good news is that the patent shows us that Apple could upgrade this keyboard in the future with unique Multitouch and gesture controls.

Apple's patent also discussed a new magnet system that included a new electrical contact dynamic which was revealed today and illustrated below. Apple calls it the Smart Connector. Apple's patent dubbed it the Smart Cover Magnets.

Patently Apple covered the first rumor from Korean sources that described a 12.9" iPad back in May 2013 for education. Almost two and half years later the Monster iPad display has come to life.

It was first reported back in October 2014 that Apple was set to donate $100 million in grants to schools and just weeks ago Tim Cook was on ABC's Good Morning America talking about the White House's ConnectED program. Will Apple eventually work with Educational Publishers about future electronic books for the iPad Pro? Yes, more than likely.

Another point about the iPad Pro with its Smart Keyboard is that it will now meet the requirements for schools that have adopted the standards set out by the Common Core.The feature the iPad was missing was a physical keyboard. Common Core doesn't recognize the use of virtual keyboards.

Today Apple has introduced the Smart Keyboard. Time will tell if Apple will ever decide to take the iPad Pro to the next level.

3D Touch

The Force Touch patent specifically for the new iPhone 6s first surfaced in Europe on July 16, 2015. Then came the 9to5Mac report specifically pointing to Apple preparing to introduce 3D Force Touch. When reviewing the European patent a second time, we learned that indeed Apple had described a 3 layer system for Force Touch and posted a follow up report on September 6. This is now another patent fulfilled and one that Apple tried to hide before the Apple Event today.

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Apple TV Remote with Siri

Back in November 2014 I posted a report titled "Amazon's Echo Driven by Alexa needs a Big Sister Called Siri." In that report I stated that "I'd love to see something like this for Apple TV so I can direct Siri to open movie trailers, change channels, go directly to specific settings, play iTunes and eventually bring up Maps, Safari, and anything you can imagine. One Siri related patent partly takes us there by working with iTunes and Apple's Master Siri patent tells that something like this is very possible."

Today Apple delivered exactly what I described, backed by a patent. More importantly, Apple introduced Apple TV's next-gen remote controller today with Siri and a new touchpad. Patently Apple published a patent report regarding an Apple TV remote with such a touchpad back in April of this year.

Interestingly Apple's patent also revealed possible future gestures that they specifically designed for the new Apple TV touchpad.

Will Apple introduce Touch ID for a future upgrade? Another patent says that's definitely a possibility. One of the features not ready for Prime Time was Home Automation through Apple TV. But as Tim Cook stated today, the new Apple TV marks a new foundation for the device that now will be running the new tvOS.

Today a great number of patents came to life and that's always satisfying to see. It also showed us that Apple's talent bench is deep covering a wide spectrum of technologies over a wide range of products.

In the end, everything new that was introduced today has a patent behind it, whether it was missed by us, was filed overseas or is yet to surface at the U.S. Patent and trademark Office. Tomorrow, another round of new patent applications will be published and the discovery cycle begins anew.

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