Apple's patent attack: light-up touchpads, iPod booters
Apple, a funky little start-up based in Cupertino, has recently filed a couple of patents which will have hairs standing on end and eyebrows rising incredulously across the globe. Patent one describes a technology the company is working on called the "illuminated touchpad" -- a kind of input device which could track your movements and provide visual feedback via a lighted surface. The application suggests that the optic effects will be linked to input on the device's facade, and that the display might be capable of glowing, ambiguous color effects, as well as direct and specific reaction to motion. Patent two is something of a historical filing. With the launch of Panther (10.3, for you youngsters), Apple had plans to turn your iPod into a take-anywhere home folder, one which you could simply boot into using whatever OS X box you happened to have around. Clearly it never happened, but the company has re-filed for a variant of that system, so don't be surprised if you see this technology rearing its head again -- of course, who really knows what The Wizard is doing behind the silicon curtain?
[Via AppleInsider]
Read - Illuminated touchpad
Read - Method and apparatus rendering user accounts portable
