On May 28, 2009, the US Patent & Trademark Office published an Apple patent application that generally relates to devices utilizing external memories in general, and more specifically to using internal memory instructions for communication with external memories. The external memory emphasized in Apple’s Claims is that of external Flash memory. The patent states that the electronic device of the present invention can be any electronic device that utilizes external memory such as, for example, a personal computer, a notebook computer, another type of portable computer, a digital camera, a digital video recorder, a voice recorder, a portable telephone, a portable music and/or video player, an e-book reader, a video game console, etc.
Advanced Serial Port Interface (SPI)
Apple’s patent FIG. 4 below is a diagram of an exemplary electronic device 400 which can include a modified SPI interface 403. The modified SPI interface can include an advanced SPI controller 408. The advanced SPI controller can provide advanced functionality in accordance to embodiments of the present invention. More specifically, the advanced SPI controller can allow the CPU to treat external Flash memory 220 as an internal memory.
Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below is an illustration of two devices (devices 100 and 110) are connected through a SPI interface. Device 100 can be an electronic device and device 101 can be a memory (such as a FLASH memory).
Apple credits Thomas James Wilson (Pleasanton, CA) and Yutaka Hori (Cupertino, CA) as the inventors of this patent.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. For more information on today’s patent application 20090138673, simply feed the patent number into this search engine.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
On May 28, 2009, the US Patent & Trademark Office published an Apple patent that generally relates to display systems, and more particularly to a desktop display system with a distributed LED backlight. Apple’s iPod, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Cinema Display currently use LED based displays which provide substantial improvements over LCDs in brightness, energy efficiency, color range, life expectancy, durability and robustness. Yet creating the 24″ Cinema Display was no small task, as larger LED display configurations create area-to-perimeter ratio difficulties. Additionally, Apple had to work around conventional printed circuit board problems which had proven to have bad thermal properties for LED production. Apple’s patent greatly details their integrating a plurality of tile LED light sources into a thermally and mechanically structurally integrated distributed LED tile matrix backlight light source. At the end of the patent, Apple states that their new distributed LED backlight system has provided for a straightforward, cost effective and uncomplicated process that is readily suited for efficiently and economically manufacturing large size display devices. That should translate into delivering an LED based display for at least Apple’s higher end iMac – if not for their entire iMac line-up – for this coming holiday season in time to coincide with the debut of OS X Snow Leopard: Sweet.
Apple’s FIG.1 above illustrates their Cinema Display. In patent FIG. 4 below, we see a larger isometric view of the backlight unit 220. The backlight unit 220 is formed of a series of tile bars 402 arranged adjacent and parallel to each other. Each tile bar is formed of a number of tiles 404 attached in a series on top of a tile bar rail 406. This is one the keys to this patent.
Apple’s patent FIG. 25B below illustrates a fragmentary top view of a frame in which has been assembled in interlocked matrix form.
Apple’s patent FIG. 25C illustrated above is that of a partially exploded, fragmentary, isometric view of a display utilizing a structure which has tiles that have been press-fit together to form a three-dimensional structural plate that is then incorporated into the frame of the display.
Apple credits the following engineers for this patent: HILLMAN; Michael D.; (Los Altos, CA); Tice; Gregory L.; (Los Altos, CA) ; Law; William Sauway; (San Francisco, CA) ; Bailey; Sean; (San Francisco, CA) ; Torres; Ann; (San Francisco, CA) ; Alcorta; Efrain; (San Francisco, CA) ; and Anderson; Perry; (Kensington, CA).
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. For more information on today’s patent application 20090135583, simply feed the patent number into this search engine.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of four newly Issued Patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include one relating to Apple’s Macbook Air gesturing touch pad technology which extends to their iPhone, an important design win for the iPhone and two other minor patents relating to the Mac Pro and a windowing system for OS X.
MacBook Air & iPhone Touch Pad Patent
This particular touch pad patent is primarily about a combined location and force imaging touch pad that includes two sets of drive traces, one set of sense traces and a spring membrane. One of the key attributes to this patent is that it covers Apple’s MacBook Air trackpad technology. Apple introduced the MacBook Air in January 2008 with a trackpad that introduced multi-touch gesture support.
The patent states that the operation of computer input devices (e.g., touch pads) for touch detection based on the principle of mutual capacitance is described in US patent application entitled “Multipoint Touchscreen” by Steve Hotelling, Joshua A. Strickon and Brian Q. Huppi.
Force Detection Touchpad for MacBook Air and iPhone
Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below, presents the general concept of a force detector as it may be embodied in touch pad device 100. As illustrated, force detector 100 comprises cosmetic layer 105, sense layer 110 (including conductive paths 115 and electrical connector 120), dielectric spring layer 125 (including spatially offset raised structures 130), drive layer 135 (including conductive paths 140 and electrical connector 145) and base or support 150. (It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that connectors 120 and 145 provide unique connections for each conductive trace on layers 110 and 135 respectively.)
Apple’s patent FIG. 3 noted above, is a block diagram of force imaging system 300 utilizing force detector touch pad 100. The force imaging system 300 comprises force detector 100 coupled to touch pad controller 305 through connectors 120 (for sense signals 310) and 145 (for drive signals 315). Touch pad controller 305, in turn, periodically sends signals to host processor 320 that represent the (spatial) distribution of force applied to detector. Host processor 320 may interpret the force information to perform specified command and control actions. .
While Apple’s patent FIG. 8A is another location and force detection device example, it should be noted that the patent also briefly covers multitouch technology pertaining to the iPhone which the patent simply refers to as a “mobile phone.” Patent Fig 12B covers the iPhone application.
Apple credits Steven P. Hotelling (San Jose, CA) and Brian Q. Huppi (San Francisco, CA) for patent 7,538,760 originally filed in March 2006.
Apple Granted iPhone Design Patent
Apple has been granted a design patent for an “Electronic device” which is generally understood to be the iPhone as the illustrations confirm.
Apple credits the following engineers and their CEO for the iPhone design as follows: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Jobs; Steve (Palo Alto, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). Apple’s granted patent D593,087 was originally filed for in July 2007.
Other Granted Patents Issued Today: Apple was granted a patent relating to the Mac Pro in respect to a housing for accommodating one or more riser cards in the Riser card housing patent, and an OS X granted patent was issued for Computer system with graphical user interface including drawer-like windows.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Issued 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.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
As we near the video gaming event of the year, E3 is promising us an advanced peek at some of the most highly anticipated games we’ll be playing this Christmas. “Yeeesss,” games like BioShock 2, Uncharted 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Assassins Creed 2, Gods of War 3 and perhaps even the long-awaited psychological thriller, Alan Wake. And as we get closer to E3, more news leaks will hit the wires daily regarding new games and technologies that will debut at the show or that are in development. In fact Microsoft has been hinting at some new developments that they’ll be rolling out at the conference. Earlier this month during a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer stated that we should “Pay attention to the stuff we’re announcing in the next month on Xbox.” One of the first rumored technologies surfacing prior to Ballmer’s commentary was that of a plausible motion sensing capability for the Xbox and shortly thereafter came the news of a patent concerning a multimedia based Magic Wand in development. Unfortunately the BBC report failed to deliver on any of the juicier details of Microsoft’s patent application and that’s what you’ll learn about in this report along with a few other little interesting patent factoids.
A Scroll Wheel for a Notebook or Xbox Controller
To kick this report off – take a peek at this development from Microsoft. Believe it or not, they’re actually contemplating incorporating a physical scroll wheel into their Xbox game controller and even hope to see this technology eventually spill over to PC notebooks.
In fact, the patent states that the scroll wheel could eventually apply to a plethora of commercial devices ranging from ATMs to cell phones. As for notebooks, it appears that the scroll wheel will actually be sitting on some kind of ring-like rotatable surface mimicking the actions of a mouse for horizontal movements.
I don’t know – is it just me or does this seem to be a little antiquated? In light of Apple’s advanced multi-touch applications for both handhelds and notebooks, I have to question whether the Microsoft engineers working on this patent still live in Pleasantville. But who knows – maybe it’ll actually make sense once we see it implemented. For now, however, I’m finding it very hard not to laugh. For more information on patent 20090122012 or any patent mentioned in this report, simply feed the patent number into this search engine.
Microsoft’s Magic Wand
Thanks to Nintendo’s Wii, I don’t think it necessary to endlessly detail the virtues of what a gaming wand is capable of. Suffice to say that Nintendo is the current champ in respect to the gaming wand – but could run into some serious competition from Microsoft if their patent pending Magic Wand ever comes to market.
Microsoft’s Magic Wand is shown here in FIG.1 beneath the clutter of the contextual boxes. It’s seen to be both a very sophisticated remote control that may work with future PCs, yet specifically designed for the Xbox. The Magic Wand can facilitate rich interaction with management environmental components shown here to cover I/O, Sensors, Communications, Presence, Command and an Advisory component that is interrelated with an Avatar component. This is the key to this wand and why Microsoft really plays up the notion of Magic being associated with the wand. The engineers and marketers of this patent superficially play up the angle that they were inspired to call the remote a “Magic Wand” due to the “Harry Potter phenomenon.” Yes, that’s why these clever Microsoft executives get paid the really big bucks – Ha!
The Magic Wand won’t require users to chant Abracadabra when using the unit, but it might just make you laugh it up even more as you create crazy incarnations of yourself. If you thought that Apple’s Photo Booth was goofy fun, then creating avatars of yourself is like that experience on steroids. Yet be rest assured that Apple is keeping that option open for the future.
Welcome to the World of Avatars
The Avatar component, shown in patent FIG.1 above as feature 136, will likely appear on the wand as a simple interactive button. The user will simply click on this button to call up the wands avatar UI assisting you with the creation of a personalized Avatar. This service will allow the user to control the creation of a distinct persona in terms of appearance, personality, behavior and even distinct speech-related aspects such as inflection, accent, brogue, choice of dialogue and so forth. Where will this apply you might ask?
For starters, let it be known that Microsoft launched the Xbox LIVE beta version of its new g ame show 1 vs. 100 exclusively in Canada. The beta began on May 8 and will end this coming Sunday – May 24, 2009. As you could clearly see for yourself, the show consisted of end users participating in a game show as an Avatar of their own creation. The end of the beta program coincides with a likely launch for the rest of Xbox users at E3.
Microsoft notes in their patent that the wand’s advisor component that relates to Avatar creation will be updateable online automatically or periodically depending on the user’s preferences.
Avatar Creation via 3D Modeling or Holographic Display
Going one step further, it appears that Microsoft will eventually add a 3D modeling and/or Holographic component to assist users in creating their Avatar. The Holographic unit described in the patent, in theory, is a very cool idea if they ever realistically get it off the drawing board. The thinking is that you’ll be able to not only interact with your Avatar in this holographic environment but also interact with specific gaming components that you might come across during a game.
According to the patent, the modeling component shown here in FIG. 6 could employ at least two cameras and a set of sensors in order to determine a 3-D position. In some cases 3-D modeling could be accomplished on-the-fly.
Yet at this point in the game, I wouldn’t get too excited about any individual claim about this holographic unit. It sounds like a whiz-bang concept on paper but it’s a little too out-there to be taken seriously at this point in time. But if they could pull this off, I think the Xbox would have a game changing platform experience they could take to the bank. For now, however, it’s just wishful thinking.
Magic Wand Components
Lastly, users will be able to personalize avatars and/or interact with gaming components via voice commands using the wands built-in speaker/microphone component. The actual make up of the magic wand will consist of a complex series of components as noted in Figures 2-5 below.
The Bottom line
In the short term, it appears that Microsoft is going to put a lot of energy into creating a highly interactive virtual world for their Xbox Live service. They’ll likely play this up big time at E3 in the coming days ahead and officially launch a universal game show as noted in the 1 vs.100 game example above. But even on this front Microsoft is still playing catch up with Sony’s Virtual World called Playstation Home that was launched in 2006. The official PlayStation Home site is extremely well developed. So Microsoft may appease their current base of users with a new virtual world and game component, but it remains to be seen if this will be enough to win over new converts and win badly needed marketshare away from Nintendo or Sony.
So could Microsoft’s Magic Wand pull a digital rabbit out of their hat? Not bloody likely.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. For more information on today’s Magic Wand patent application 20090121894, simply feed the patent number into this search engine.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
Jerome R. Bellegarda is one of Apple’s leading Spoken Language Group engineers. He’s been involved in writing many of Apple’s patents over the years relating to Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech Synthesis. He’s written a book on Latent Semantic Mapping and has spoken at the Human Language Technology Conference on comparative analysis of semantic inference, a presentation partly sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Suffice to say that Mr. Bellegarda is a leader in his field and adds incredible weight to today’s patent application titled Context-aware unit selection . What’s so exciting about another speech recognition related patent? Well, simply put, it’s the first patent in a long stretch of such patents that finally provides us with a glance or glimmer of where Apple might be going with this technology in terms of a commercial application. Although the heart of this technology is being woven right into the very fabric of OSX, we might be seeing this technology work itself into a future iteration of Apple TV and more directly, into an HDTV system from Apple. According to Apple, one of the systems that their current patent relates to is a network computer which is specifically described as a “Web TV” system. According to Apple’s patent, their context-aware technology would also be associated with a “pointing device.” In context with a Web TV system, that could only translate to being that of an Apple TV remote. The remote would have to include a microphone to receive the users command, such as “open iTunes” or “open menu.” This of course is a speech recognition related patent and therefore is implied by inference that such a relation would be incorporated. Microsoft is planning a similar device approach according to their recently published patent pertaining to a “Magic Wand” (which is a subject for another day). The good news is that this is the second recently published patent illustrating Apple’s intentions of advancing Apple TV. Earlier this week, a secretive patent relating to camera technology being hidden within an HDTV display was presented. In Apple’s claim #14, Apple pointed to that patent relating to “a computer monitor or a television,” and specifically provided an example of the Pioneer deep encased cell structure that was available in Pioneer’s plasma high-definition television (HDTV) displays. Apple is playing a game of “cloak and dagger” with their future Apple TV technologies and rightfully so. Why alert the competition that Apple is about to re-invent the television: Shhhh!
Here are five additional patents that Jerome Bellegarda has been associated with over the last few years: Data-Driven Global Boundary Optimization, Representation of Orthography in a Continuous Vector Space, Method and apparatus for assigning word prominence to new or previous information in speech synthesis, Extended Finite State Grammar for Speech Recognition Systems and Multi-unit approach to text-to-speech synthesis.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. For more information on today’s patent application 20090132253, simply feed the patent number into this search engine.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of seven newly Issued Patents for Apple Inc. today, including two design wins. The notables within this group include a patent and design win for Apple’s multi-button Might Mouse along with another design win for their now defunct iPod Hi-Fi. Yet the most important granted patent published today is, without a doubt, Apple’s powerful and secretive patent relating to integrated sensing display technology. This never released technology will one day introduce natural eye-to-eye video conferencing and eliminate the need for separate integrate cameras in computers and mobile devices like the iPhone.
Issued Patent: Mighty Mouse
Apple has been granted patents for their Mighty Mouse and its design . Apple introduced their first multi-button mouse to consumers in August 2005.
The Mighty Mouse is made of white plastic and has a recessed Apple logo on the mouse’s face. The mouse has four functional “buttons”: a left capacitive sensor, a right capacitive sensor, a clickable scroll ball and side squeeze sensors. The scroll ball enables users to scroll a page or document in every direction by rolling the ball in the desired direction. It should be noted that two of the above-mentioned inputs are not physical buttons. Rather, the touch-sensitive top-shell (mentioned below) allows the mouse to detect which side is being touched.
Currently Mac OS X is the only operating system that fully supports the mouse. When used with Mac OS X the sensors can be set to launch applications or trigger features of the Apple operating system, such as Dashboard and Exposé. If not used with Mac OS X, the mouse behaves as a four “button” mouse with a vertical and horizontal scroll wheel.
Apple’s original Multi-button patent was filed for on Mar. 13, 2002. Their continuation patent of the same name was filed in 2007 and it is this patent which has received granted status. Apple credits Abraham Farag (East Palo Alto, CA) and Brian Huppi (San Carlos, CA) as the inventors of this patent. In respect to their design win for the multi-button mouse, Apple credits their Senior Design VP Jonathan Ive along with the following engineers: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and, Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). For the latest information on Apple’s Mighty Mouse, click here.
Issued Patent: Integrated sensing display
Apple has won a very important patent for a technology that they have yet to release; a technology that could have a huge impact on the consumer and enterprise markets. Apple’s patent pertains to an integrated sensing display. The integrated sensing display includes both display elements and image sensing elements (image elements). As a result, the integrated sensing device can not only output images (e.g., as a display) but also input images (e.g., as a camera).
Apple’s future use of integrated sensing display technology could apply to their iMac, MacBook, higher end iPods such as the iPod touch and/or iPhone and perhaps even a future Apple-HDTV. These units would have a camera built right into the very fabric of the display itself rather than sporting a traditional iSight camera. The technology would allow for a more natural form of video conferencing without consumers having to look at a particular physical camera. It would allow for a natural face to face experience. To date, Apple has yet to execute on this technology. Apple may have just been waiting for this patent to receive granted status before launching such a display.
Apple’s patent FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system 500 that could use the present invention. The system includes an array of image elements 505 (sensing array), an amplifier 510, and analog-to-digital converter 515, a clock 520, a controller 525, a processor 530 (e.g., CPU), a memory 535, a digital signal processor (DSP) 540, and a discrete cosine transform (DCT) unit 545. Each component is an abstraction, and certain components may be combined or excluded as is well known in the art. The invention is suitable for use for capturing images. The images can pertain to still pictures or videos.
Apple’s patent FIG. 3B depicts an exemplary shadow mask with integrated image elements and the alternative patent figure FIG. 3C depicts an exemplary aperture grill that has image elements dispersed over a display.
Apple credits Michael Uy (Santa Clara, CA) as the sole inventor of this patent which was originally filed in June 2004.
Other Issued Patents Apple Received Today
Three other granted patents issued today include Scale-adaptive fonts and graphics, Method and apparatus for searching metadata, and Techniques for improved playlist processing on media devices.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Issued 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.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
Apple has officially filed for the iWork.com trademark in Europe and the US under applications 008296031 and 77735423 respectfully. This could be an indication that Apple is preparing to end their Beta version and introduce a final version during their developer conference (WWDC) this coming June. Apple first introduced iWork.com at MacWorld in January. Apple describes iWork.com as a “web-based service that lets you share your iWork ’09 documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in a way that’s both simple and smart.” Apple has filed their trademark under three distinct International Classes which are fully detailed below for your review. For brevity sake, Apple’s basic coverage states that iWork.com provides “temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for viewing, annotating, storing, downloading and distributing electronic files, images, audio, video, data, and documents, and for audio and video conferencing, and for communication and collaboration via computer networks…”
International Classes Apple’s latest trademark filling covers the following International Classification details.
International Class 35 (EU), 39 (US): Electronic storage of files, images audio, video, data and documents. [Note: For some reason, the same verbiage found in International Class 35 in Apple's European application is listed as International Class 39 in Apple's US application. Whether one of these applications is in error can not be confirmed at this time.]
International Class 38: Electronic transmission of electronic files, images, audio, video, data, and documents among users of computers and wireless communication networks; audio and video conferencing services; communication via computer networks.
International Class 42: Providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for viewing, annotating, storing, downloading and distributing electronic files, images, audio, video, data, and documents, and for audio and video conferencing, and for communication and collaboration via computer networks; computer services, namely, hosting on-line web facilities for viewing, annotating, storing, downloading and distributing electronic files, images, audio, video, data, and documents, and for audio and video conferencing, and for communication and collaboration via computer networks.
Both of Apple’s applications asserts a claim of priority based on Trinidad and Tobago application number 40505, filed in November 2008.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
It looks official. European documentation discovered this morning confirms that Apple has gained registered status for a new armband design. By itself it’s no big deal. However, the armband design appears to be sporting an all new iPod form factor that could very well be that of a next generation iPod Classic. The iPod in question contains a much larger display, appears to be extremely thin and sports a unique indented Click Wheel. The ultrathin design is further supported by another recent Apple Patent. This current design, if it’s to be taken at face value, would all but confirm that Apple’s next generation iPod Classic will debut with a Solid State Drive (SSD). A trio of relevant design angles found in Apple’s filing are noted below. For the record, Apple’s Senior Design VP Jonathan Ives is a contributor to this design win – which adds a measure of credibility to the iPod designs we’re seeing as being the real deal.
Is Apple trying to throw observers off course with these iPod concepts or are we seeing the real thing? Yes, that’s the question of the day.
Apple credits the following engineers for the new iPod armband design: Bartley K. Andre, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Duncan Robert Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas B. Satzger, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang a and Rico Zorkendorfer. Apple filed their designs in the US and Germany. The US priority filing document number is noted as being 29/324,134.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
Several newly registered iPhone icon designs from Apple have surfaced in Europe that are shown here on your right. The designs generically symbolize a road, a flame, a target, a stop watch and a circle. The one representing the symbol of a road may in fact relate to an upcoming in-vehicle navigation system from Apple that surfaced in a patent this past March. The new navigational system icon would have to be accompanied by an upgraded iPhone that integrates a series of new sensory capabilities such as an infrared sensor, several biometric sensors and others, according to the patent. The target icon my also relate to a GPS mapping target service. Yet the most mysterious symbol in this group would have to be the one represented by a flame. This unique symbol could very well represent some kind of new AT&T internet PowerBoost feature like one being offered by Shaw in Western Canada. That would be a very interesting development, though one that is highly speculative at this point in time.
Apple credits Imran Chaudhri as the designer of the new series of iPhone and/or iPod touch icons published last week in Europe.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. or other foreign Patent & Trademark Offices. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark application and/or grant should be read in its entirety for further details.
Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor
Microsoft is trying a new twist in their latest ad campaign against Apple’s iPod: The cost of ownership. What might have been a no brainer for their attack on Apple’s high priced notebooks, doesn’t translate all that well against Apple’s iPod and iTunes. If Seinfeld would have spearheaded this latest ad campaign, instead of the failed series with Bill Gates, then they might have actually pulled off a measure of comedic genius here. But Microsoft being Microsoft – chose to abandon humor and run with a new whiz-bang Zune calculator illusion that backfired on them in real-world practice.
Microsoft went all out to support their latest ad campaign by hiring Wes Moss, a certified financial planner who was once an Apprentice contestant. Microsoft’s big message is that they could save teens a fictitious thirty-thousand dollars if they’re smart enough to walk down the yellow brick road and purchase a monthly Zune Pass to music paradise. Heck, they even had their engineers work on a cool calculator that surpasses any new feature that will appear in their upcoming Windows 7 this fall.
It was so cool that I had to test it out myself. According to their whiz-bang calculator, my current iTunes library holding 1,700 tunes and music videos would have cost me $1,698 using Apple’s iTunes Store. And being that it’s a collection of tunes compiled over twenty years, it’s actually at half the cost of owning a Zune Pass at today’s pricing. The math is $15/month x 12 months = $180/year x 20 years = $3,600. Hmm, it seems that I actually saved money and got to own my tunes at the same time using iTunes. Microsoft got so caught up in their $30,000 illusion that they forgot that the calculator on their Zune site actually works. So thanks Microsoft, I feel so much better now having chosen iTunes.
Secondly, unless you’re a professional DJ or world class hacker, filling a 120 GB iPod with only tunes is never going to happen. But in Microsoft’s illusionary land of FUD, everything is possible – especially when a certified financial planner confirms it. No wonder Wall Street is in trouble today – Ha!
Microsoft Scores Half a Point
Beyond Microsoft’s $30,000 illusion, they’re marketing team actually found a single weakness in iTunes armor that scored them half a point. It’s Reason #2: Buyer’s Remorse. I may be a little bias on this one because it just happens to be my long standing pet peeve with Apple’s iTunes Store. It’s a point that I know Apple could vastly approve upon with the littlest of effort. The solution is rather simple: Let iPod owners listen to full tracks of any particular tune at least twice before reverting back to the restrictive 30 second sound bite. I’ve been burnt a few times chancing a purchase of a tune based solely on a 30 second sound bite. Once burnt, you’re appetite for taking the time to hunt down some new songs on iTunes diminishes greatly. Yet, at the end of the day, is that enough of a negative to stop anyone from ever buying a cool iPod or iPod touch? Get real – Of course not. It’s simply a sales point that Apple could eliminate in their next upgrade if they so chose to. One could always hope, can’t they?
The iPod: More Than Just Tunes
The reason that Apple could sell a 120 GB iPod to begin with has nothing to do with music alone. That’s something that Microsoft’s marketing team couldn’t get their collective heads around. Apple delivered iPhoto and iMovie consumer software a year after releasing their first iPod in 2001. Those owning a Mac have access to this great software that makes creating photo albums and home movies easy, and sharing those memories a breeze with a classic iPod, iPod touch or iPhone. That’s how you could fill a 120 GB iPod without spending $30,000.
The Apple Challenge
Apple’s iPod touch and iPhone now have access to the App Store where users could add handy and goofy apps and games. Many are free. In the not too distant future, Apple will be entering the eBook/iBook market covering books, magazines, newspapers and more. Apple’s iTunes Store will become a 24/7 mobile money making machine: Ka-Ching! “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as Seinfeld would say. But it sure would be a breakthrough if Apple could get back to basics and extend a simplified version of their iLife suite covering iPhoto and iMovie for PC users owning iPods. And yes – there are tens of millions of them! At $99 a pop for a two-app suite, Apple is missing an opportunity to make PC iPod owners happier. And going forward, it’s the PC base of iPod and iPhone-users that will be in the majority here – Not the other way around. Giving PC iPod and iPhone owners a chance to create great photo albums and home movies for their iPod’s is in Apple’s best interest. Let’s hope that Apple doesn’t drop the ball here. Not everyone, Mr. Jobs, is going to switch to the Mac. Will Apple take up this challenge? I rather doubt it – and that’s unfortunate. Then again, you never know. Hell could freeze over, again.
The Bottom Line
Apple’s ongoing ad campaign delivers a deliberate and consistent message wrapped in humor. Some may say tongue in-cheek. But they sure get Macites laughing, the public talking and die hard PC’ers angrier than hell. Microsoft tried matching Apple’s wit by using the hilarious Seinfeld and failed. So now they’re going with educated buffoonery. Imagine no one listening to a bean counter or a certified financial planner on matters of music. What a concept. Even their illusionary Zune Calculator backfired on them by proving that owning your music over time beats out subscribing to a music service.
The bottom line is that Microsoft’s music service called Zune Pass doesn’t beat Apple’s iTunes today and nor will it in the future if it remains to be a subscription-only based service. However, I’ll only laugh so loud. Microsoft may have the ability to entice mobile users in the future with cool high end X-Box games for Zune that could change everything in the blink of an eye. I may like some of the games for the iPod touch, but they`re no match for the likes of such games as BioShock or Fallout 3. So serious competition between the Zune and iPod is only going to get crazier as time goes on.
Stay tuned and may the best platform win.
Jack Purcher
