On October 10, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s newly granted patents which included the following: ‘Method and apparatus rendering user accounts portable,’ and ‘Cursor control device having an integral top member.’
Method and apparatus rendering user accounts portable
Apple’s Abstract: Improved approaches for enabling user accounts to be portable across different multi-user computer systems are disclosed. A user account created at a multi-user computer can be stored to an external, portable data store, thereby rendering the user account portable. The multi-user computer system, e.g., through its operating system, locates user accounts on not only in local storage of the multi-user computer system, but also in any removable data storage attached to the multi-user computer system. Hence, by coupling the external, portable data store to another multi-user computer, a user is able to login to any supporting multi-user computer and be presented with their user configuration and user directory. Since the data store that stores the user account is not only external but also portable, a user can simply tote the data store to the location of different multi-user computers. In one embodiment, the external, portable data store can not only store the user account but can also provide general data storage. In another embodiment, the external, portable data store can be a portion of a portable computing device (e.g., media player) that provides other functionality besides data storage.
One advantage of the invention is that a user is able to carry an external storage device to any multi-user computer system that supports the external storage device and then log into to the system in an ordinary manner to gain access to general and user-specific resources as if it were the user’s personal system.
The inventors associated with granted patent number 7,120,785 are Robert T. Bowers and Steve Ko.
Cursor control device having an integral top member
Apple’s Abstract: The present invention provides an improved computer mouse that has a mouse housing having a base member and a top member. The base member is configured primarily to make moving contact with the surface of a computer pad or a table. The top member is an integrated piece having no separate mechanical button disposed thereon. For data selection and command execution, the top member and the base member of the mouse are coupled and engaged in a manner that the entire top member via simple wrist action serves as a button for activating an internal switch to register palm clicking input.
The inventors associated with granted patent number 7,119,792 are Bartley K. Andre, Adam S. Faraq and Abraham S. Faraq.
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Written and researched by Neo.
