May 15 - 11:25am EDT   The iPhone and iPod touch may eventually have custom applications tailored to merchants they visit, a published Apple patent filing hints. As detailed by AppleInsider, the proposed concept calls for a local wired or wireless network at a business, with one or more routers such as an AirPort Extreme. Somewhere on site would be a central server, offering custom information and applications for Apple "media devices" that enter wireless range. "For example, assuming the establishment is a restaurant, local server may provide a menu to media device," the filing reads. [full story]

May 8 - 12:05pm EDT   An Apple patent application, just published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, depicts a new 3D remote technology. Similar in basic concept to the controller for Nintendo's Wii console, the remote would have a photosensor, accelerometer or gyroscope, and detect absolute and/or relative position to an image. Distinguishing it would be the ability to zoom in on part of an image at will by pushing a button. [full story]

May 6 - 11:55am EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office today granted several patents to Apple, among them a collection of iPod technologies. Predominant among these is the design of the iPod nano, despite it being on sale in the US since September of 2005. More than a dozen people are credited with the invention, including key designer Jonathan Ive and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The patent may however apply specifically to the second-generation Nano, as it was originally applied for in September of 2006. [full story]

May 1 - 3:15pm EDT   Three Apple patent applications have surfaced at the US Patent and Trademark Office, addressing two drastically different technologies: conference calling and hardware cooling. In regards to the first Apple suggests that most cellphones have unnecessarily complex key sequences for establishing conference calls, and instead proposes a simpler, more graphically heavy interface. Notably though the patent does not depict the iPhone and its current conferencing scheme, but rather something based on the traditional iPod clickwheel. [full story]

April 29 - 11:15pm EDT   Apple today was granted four patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office, pertaining to the dock for the new iPod shuffle, QuickTime, measuring bandwidth, and media serving. Simply filed as "Stand", Apple wrote that "the stand, which can be utilized as a dock, is used to support an electronic device, such as a media player, media storage device, cellular phone, PDA and/or the like." The stand was later revealed to be the syncing mechanism for the now USB-less Shuffle. [full story]

April 29 - 12:10am EDT  Apple has been sued by yet another company claiming that it infringed on a patent through components found in the immensely popular iPod media player. Filed last week in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of inventor Henry Milan by Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long, it claims that Apple violated a hardware-based patent in its connecting mechanism in the two different media players. The firm argues a violation of U.S. patent No. 6,991,483, which was filed on Nov, 12, 2004, and issued on Jan. 31, 2006, almost five months after launched the iPod nano and six weeks after Apple was contacted about alleged infringement. The patent describes a connector that combines ... [full story]

April 25 - 12:20pm EDT   A Nike patent application, recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, appears to detail some of the company's plans for new Nike+iPod gear. Key to the technology is an expansion beyond the single sensor offered today, which slips into a person's shoe and only tracks pacing and distance. Future sensors may monitor many different factors, including EKG, heartrate, body temperature and even hydration. GPS data may also be present, enabling users to track exactly which routes they have taken. [full story]

April 24 - 5:25pm EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office today published several of Apple's patent approvals, all of which relate to different aspects of the iPhone's functionality. The first deals with organization of the iPhone's interface as to reduce the clutter of adding too many visual elements to a document. The patent seems to indicate the use of nested interface elements, such as clicking a button to summon a menu detailing operations that the user can perform. [full story]

April 22 - 7:10pm EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office today published three patents that it approved for Apple, relating to real-time collaboration, time-based user interface object interaction, and element number tables. The first patent, Method and Apparatus for Supporting Real-Time Collaboration, demonstrates synchronicity on a single application between multiple remote users. The patent illustrates users operating a local software application over the internet or a network, with the goal of sharing a common workflow between users. [full story]

April 18 - 9:35am EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office has published an Apple application for a new digital audio processor, specifically geared towards live music events. As the patent defines it, several members of a band -- including guitarists, vocalists, drummers and keyboardists -- would be able to connect their inputs directly into an on-stage set-top box, which would also have various output jacks as well. Of these the most critical is a connection to some sort of remote control device, whether a notebook, a handheld computer, or a traditional mixer. [full story]

April 17 - 12:05pm EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office today published several applications by Apple, two of which are connected to a concept unusual for the company, that of a head-mounted display (HMD). The first describes the HMD itself, which unlike most such displays, would use a laser light engine to render the images displayed in front of the user's eyes. Furthermore, this engine would actually be separate from the necessary glasses, thus reducing their size and weight as well as the effect of heat. To project the laser light, a fiber-optic cable and special wedge optics would be be used. Images could be full-color, and presented with a stereoscopic effect. [full story]

April 15 - 7:00pm EDT   The US Patent and Trademark Office today published five Apple patents that have been granted: one for the Mighty Mouse, an iPod lanyard, a Digital-to-Analogue Converter, an Exceptional Situation Manager, as well as one for a device which has yet to be seen in an Apple product. According to the report, the device could be a media player, storage device, or other mobile device. Other theories could indicate the device to be a "smart" media remote, an updated design of the iPod nano or Shuffle, among others. [full story]

April 11 - 4:15pm EDT   The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has once again denied an appeal by the Dish Network in light of a legal victory by TiVo, filings show. TiVo contends that Dish DVRs violate a software patent it holds, connected to split recording and viewing; the latter company has protested this however, and fought not only the initial verdict of a lower court, but also the outcome of its first federal appeal. In the wake of this second appeal, the Federal Circuit's decision is final and Dish has little to no legal recourse. [full story]

April 10 - 10:30am EDT   An Apple patent application from 2006, recently disclosed by the US Patent and Trademark Office, suggests that Apple at least once contemplated letting users pick from multiple carriers on an iPhone. The current American iPhone is tethered by default to AT&T and affiliates, forcing users to hack it if they want to operate on a choice of networks; under the scheme described by the patent however, network addresses for multiple carriers could be stored on a mobile device, and selected as necessary for the purposes of roaming. This somewhat reflects the way iPhone users can now choose Wi-Fi hotspots. [full story]

April 8 - 11:55am EDT   The US Patent & Trademark Office has officially granted three new patents to Apple, two of which are connected to visual effects. The first, Methods and apparatuses for the automated display of visual effects, describes a means of generating real-time graphics on a data processing system. The patent does not list many specifics, but suggests that game developers may find it saves time. The patent was originally submitted in April of last year. [full story]