Apple’s new cell phone/PDA sync patent
updated 10:45 am EST, Thu December 21, 2006
Two Apple patents surface
Apple today filed for one new patent and one continuation patent, with the new application describing peer-to-peer N-way synchronization between devices that include a PDA and a cellular phone. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office today published apple's patent application titled 'Apparatus and method for peer-to-peer N-way synchronization in a decentralized environment,' which relates to an apparatus and method for synchronizing data between a plurality of peer-to-peer devices in a decentralized environment where no one device stores the most 'recent' or 'true' version of the data. Apple states that most of the illustrations discussed in the patent "relate to PIM data and the synchronization of same, whether or not associated with specific applications." the new patent, which was originally filed in 2005, offers photos which include a laptop, PDA, cellular handset, home computer, and work computer all communicating with peer-to-peer technology.
Apple's continuation patent, which was published today, is titled 'Resolution Independent User Interface Design,' relating to a means for specifying a graphical user interface object in a procedural and largely display resolution-independent manner.
