The Multi-Touch Desktop Experience Begins

Apple's Magic Trackpad features the same sculpted aluminum design as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and side by side the two sit flush at the same angle and height. Go from typing to gesturing in one motion, or do both at the same time. How perfect is that?

Apple states that swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine – And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one. The Magic Trackpad is now available at the incredibly low price of U.S. $69.

Some of the technology used in Apple's new Magic Trackpad is actually supported by one of Apple's newly granted patents today on capacitive sensing. Today's granted patent supports the use of gestures on a variety of larger surfaces while being able to distinguish specific gestures from that of a users hand simply resting on the Magic Trackpad. Better still, today's granted patent could actually provide us with a peek into future features that could be introduced at a later date - a feature such as the "Pen Grip" that the granted patent supports.

The iMac gets a Refresh

Of course to go along with your new Magic Trackpad are the refreshed iMacs that rolled out today. In general, Apple has added the Intel iCore i3 to the iMac so that all iMacs are now on the iCore Series of Intel processors.

New is Apple's optional Solid State Drive. Apple says that if you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come pre-formatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos and other files. Nice – except for the fact that it will set you back a stiff $600 U.S.

New is the 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5750 Graphics card and unfortunately Apple doesn't give other iMac's the option to add that speedier card. Nope – you have to buy Apple's top of the line iMac for that feature - though it's included in the price. 

Shockingly, you'll be forced to buy Apple's top tier iMac just to gain access to an i5 based processor. This isn't very competitive considering that Dell, for example, is currently selling an i5 based Tower desktop for about $999 (Canadian) which includes a 24" LCD display. So it was very disappointing to see that Apple didn't slip the i5 down the iMac line-up into at least the $1699 U.S. price slot. Hopefully we'll see the i5 take the two middle price slots in time for Christmas - where it should be.

Disappointingly Apple didn't get ahead of the curve in respect to USB 3.0 or faster Firewire as was rumored and hoped for. With the iPhone shifting to LTE next year, Apple should have pushed for the faster I/O now. Apple also continues to ignore Blu-ray which should at least be an option on their top iMac by now.  

Is Intel's Sandy Bridge around the Corner?

Like always, if you need a Mac for back to school or your old one has come to the end of its life, then the new iMacs are a decent upgrade. On the other hand if you could wait it out, Apple should be taking the iMac to the next level with Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture sometime between Q4 2010 and the first half of 2011. 

During Intel's financial conference this month, Paul Otellini hinted that Sandy Bridge, the next generation micro architecture could ship in systems in time for Christmas. They were supposed to be shipping the new processors to PC OEM's in Q4 for Q1 2011 systems. But Otellini stated that Intel has accelerated their 32mn Sandy Bridge schedule which would translate to at least shipping them out one quarter earlier.

Here's what Otellini stated: "In closing, I want to mention our upcoming product family codenamed Sandy Bridge. Last quarter I mentioned that we were broadly sampling this product to our customers. I'm more excited about Sandy Bridge than I have been on any product that the company has launched in a number of years.

Due to the very strong reception of Sandy Bridge, we have accelerated our 32nm factory ramp, and have raised our CapEx guidance to enable us to meet the anticipated demand."

Whether Apple will pass on Sandy Bridge based iMacs for this Christmas is unknown at this time. However, we may hear more about the timing of Sandy Bridge at Intel Developer Conference (IDF) starting on September 13, 2010 in San Francisco.

Sandy Bridge is promising to boost all things 3D and HD - with full support for Blu-ray (if that means anything to Apple). Intel provided us with hints during a keynote at CES 2010 that a 3D internet experience and other applications would require a minimum 4-core if not an 8-core Sandy Bridge based system.

If this interests you in any way and you're able to to put off an iMac purchase until then, by all means do so. On the other hand, if you're in need of a new iMac now - then Apple's sexy little iMac will be an excellent choice as always - especially if you venture into buying one with with the new Magic Trackpad.  

Now it's your turn. What's your take on the new iMacs? 

(Apple Patently)

Granted Patent: Capacitive Sensing Arrangement

Apple has been granted a very strategic touch related patent that will assist their ongoing patent battles with all of their cell phone rivals. Today's granted patent covers apparatus and methods for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

Apple credits Wayne Carl Westerman and John Elias as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,764,274, originally filed in Q3 2006. For more details see the noted patent or review our November 2009 report which covers related subject matter.

Apple may have fluked out on the timing of their granted patent in light of Apple's new Magic Trackpad unveiled today. Some of the technology from this patent would have had to be implemented in the new Magic Trackpad. The new trackpad will have to distinguish between a palm resting on the trackpad and an actual user initiated gesture and so forth.  In addition, Apple's patent would actually give us a peek into the other possibilities that the new Magic Trackpad could take on over time - such as the pen grip that this patent reveals. For simple signatures, the pen grip will allow to sign electronic documents without a stylus - even though the patent also supports a future stylus.  

Granted Patent: The Original iPhone Broadband Antenna

Apple has been granted a patent for the iPhone's original broadband antenna and while it may not be the design that caused all the recent commotion lately relating to the iPhone 4, those interested in this field may still wish to review and/or judge Apple's technology presented in this patent.

Broadband antennas and handheld electronic devices with broadband antennas are provided. A handheld electronic device has integrated circuits, a display, and a battery mounted within its housing. The housing has a planar inner surface. A broadband antenna for the handheld electronic device has a ground element and a resonating element. The ground element and resonating element may have the same shape and may have the same size. The ground element and resonating element may lie in a common plane and be separated by a gap that lies in the common plane. The plane in which the ground element and resonating element lie may be parallel to the planar inner surface of the housing. Electronic components such as the integrated circuits, display, and battery can be mounted in the handheld device so that they do not overlap the gap between the ground element and the resonating element.

Apple's patent figure 1 is presenting a cell phone/iPhone. Yet the patent makes it clear that broadband antennas apply to all portable devices which may also be somewhat smaller devices. Examples of smaller portable devices include wrist-watch devices, pendant devices, headphone and earpiece devices, and other wearable and miniature devices.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of illustrative wireless circuitry for a handheld device such as the iPhone. In Apple's patent FIG. 5 we see a graph of their broadband antenna covering a potential frequency range of about 800 MHz to about 3000 MHz.

The patent's key graphic, according to the patent, is patent FIG. 22 which illustrates an overview of the antenna system. A battery (198 - which may include one or more individual battery cells), may be located so that it lies above resonating element 68 without extending beyond the edges of resonating element. An advantage of placing battery 188 in the location shown in FIG. 22 is that the FIG. 22 arrangement may allow the iPhone to be formed from a thinner case.

Apple credits Robert Hill and Rubenas Caballero the inventors of Granted Patent 7,764,236 originally filed in Q1 2007.

Granted Patent: Automatic Power Management for Airport Devices

Apple has been granted a patent relating to their Airport devices that is officially titled "Automatic power management of a network powered device."

Apple's patent abstract describes it this way: "A system delivers power to a powered device through a local area network using a power sourcing equipment to process data of an interconnected network and to receive power from a first power source coupled to the power sourcing equipment. The system may include a powered device coupled at a distance away from the power sourcing equipment through a local area network (LAN) to process the data of the interconnected network through the power sourcing equipment. The powered device may include a modular power over LAN circuit to enable power to the powered device through the LAN when the modular power over LAN circuit is coupled to the powered device. "

Apple credits Stephen Fenwick as the sole inventor of Granted Patent 7,765,421, originally filed in Q2 2008.

Other Granted Patents (GP) Published Today

GP - 7,764,289 - Methods and Systems for Processing Objects in Memory

Embodiments of Apple's invention relate to computer graphics. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to objects in a video memory.

Aspects of Apple's patent cover OpenGL in addition to methods and apparatuses for creating and managing volatile graphics objects in video memory. An object is created and marked as volatile. The volatile object is stored in a video memory of a graphics subsystem. A volatile marking indicates that data for an object is not to be paged out from the video memory to make room for other data. The video memory space occupied by the volatile object is indicated as a volatile storage, in a data structure. Another object is written into at least a portion of the video memory space, which is occupied by the volatile object, without paging out data for the volatile object. In one embodiment, at least a portion of the volatile object is referenced or used while another object is formed. The volatile object may be discarded after being referenced or used to form another object.

GP - 7,765,326 - Intelligent Interaction between Media Player and Host Computer

Apple's patent covers improved techniques for interaction between a host computer (e.g., personal computer) and a media player. According to one aspect, interaction between a host computer and a media player, such as automatic synchronization of media contents stored on a media player with media contents stored on a host computer, can be restricted. According to another aspect, management of media items residing on a media player can be performed at and by a host computer for the media player. According to still another aspect, media content can be played by a media player in accordance with quality settings established for the media content at the host computer.

GP - 7,764,493 - Systems and Methods for Cooling Electronic Devices using Airflow Dividers

Apple's patent relates to systems and methods for cooling an electronic device such as the MacBook using airflow dividers.

GP - 7,765,213 - Ordered index

GP - 7,765,263 - Method and Apparatus for Processing Electronic Messages

GP - 7,765,277 - Method and Apparatus for Dynamically Locating Resources

GP - 7,765,315 - Time Synchronization of Multiple Time-Based Data Streams with Independent Clocks

GP - 7,765,491 - User Interface Widget for Selecting a Point or Range

Granted Patent: iPod Media Players & Nano Phone

Apple has been granted a patent for a series of eight unique iPods or "Media Players" – with one of them being considered for multi-purposes such as a storage device and/or a cellular phone. The exact patent verbiage states the following: "FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a handheld portable computing device in accordance with the present design. The handheld portable computing device can for example be a media player, media storage device, cellular phone." Apple's FIG 1 is noted below in another angle displayed in the patent as FIG. 2. The design has no hardware interface which is closer to today's iPhone. In contrast, Apple also presented a second iPhone Nano design as seen below in FIG. 22. Apple provides no explanation for the other versions of the iPod Nano designs.

The additional designs may simply have been provided so as to protect a spectrum of designs for future applications. Apple does state that the range of sizes cover the full spectrum from nano to what appears to be the iPod Classic. Apple has been working on a nano phone for some time now. Whether any of these nano-phones will ever surface in the marketplace is another matter.

Apple credits CEO Steve Jobs, Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Jonathan Ive, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D620,488. It should be noted that while today's patent is claiming that the original filing date was January 2009, that is likely relating to their U.S. filing. The reality is that these designs were first published by the European Trademark Office in January 2006 and made public in the U.S. in July 5 2006.

Apple has also been granted Design Patents for the Apple Remote (D620,456) which was first granted a patent in April 2010, the iPhone's "shutter effect" (D620,496) and the Magsafe connector (D620,450) which may be extended to other Apple products as presented in another patent below.

Apple Considers Adding MagSafe to iOS Devices

Interestingly we find this morning that Apple has won a patent titled "System for coupling interfacing parts" which illustrates how Apple is considering adding a MagSafe Connector to iOS based devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) as noted below.

Apple's patent FIG. 7 is a simplified diagram of at least a portion of an electronic device 50, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 50 may, for example, be a portable device such as a laptop, tablet computer, cell phone, media player, or the like.

To clarify, the patent states that "The movable connector base also may include a connector region that contains a protruding member having one or more electrical contacts. In the illustrated embodiment, there are 5 contacts situated in a line. The pin layout may correspond to the pin layout of the MagSafe Power connector manufactured by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif."

This is repeated further into the patent: "In one particular embodiment, the connector may be a power connector such as the MagSafe power connector manufactured by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. The MagSafe power connector utilizes a magnetic attraction to help retain a corresponding connector thereto."

MagSafe is currently found on Apple's MacBook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air notebook computers and also on Apple's LED Cinema Display. LEDs on both sides of MagSafe show green if the computer batteries are fully charged and amber if they are charging. Adding MagSafe to iOS devices

Apple credits Chris Ligtenberg, John DiFonzo, Brett Degner and John Brock as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,762,817 originally filed in Q3 2008.