Alright, so you know the drill by now. A patent application doesn't necessarily mean an actual product is on the way -- but it's always fun to speculate, right? And this latest trio of applications from Apple certainly provides plenty of speculation fodder. The most notable of the lot is an application for a "multi-touch display screen with localized tactile feedback," which Apple seems to be at least considering as a possibility for the iPhone (or iPod touch). Like some similar systems, Apple's application covers a screen that uses a grid of piezoelectric actuators that can be activated at will to provide vibrational feedback when you touch the screen. Apple even goes so far as to use a virtual click wheel on an iPhone as an example. Other patent applications include a fairly self-explanatory RFID reader embedded in a touch screen, and a fingerprint identification system that could not only be used for security, but to identify individual fingers as an input method -- for instance, letting you use your index finger for play/stop and your middle finger to fast forward.

As you know, it wouldn't be a typical day in the blog mines without some revolutionary battery news, and for today's fuel cell fix we'd like to present the Thinergy Micro Energy Cell. Developed by Infinite Power Solutions and consisting of "a new class of electronic component that bridges the performance gap between batteries and supercapacitors," the battery is downright lilliputian: about the thickness of a postage stamp, and half the area at its smallest. Since the battery requires a minimum of four volts to charge (with the ability to hold its charge for years) these guys are perfect for RFID cards and Big Brother-style thought-control implants. Tinfoil helmet squad: You've been warned!

[Via Red Ferret]

RFID technology has turned up in plenty of surprising places, but there hasn't exactly been the explosion of iPhone-related development that you may have expected. The lack of an easily accessible RFID reader may have something to do with that, but that doesn't seem to have stopped the folks behind the Touch research project, who rigged up a not-so-discreet RFID reader and put it to some fairly inventive tasks. That includes assigning various media to different objects, like a Bob the Builder video clip that's linked to a Bob the Builder toy, a clip of Chuck Norris kicking a car in the face that's linked to a Chuck Norris action figure (which doesn't even have an RFID chip), and a dynamically-updated MAKE podcast that's linked to a slightly nerdy fellow. Of course, all of this is primarily a proof of concept, and the researchers behind the project see plenty of potential for other applications, including everything from gaming to marketing. Head on past the break to check it out in action.

[Thanks, Thorleif]

Adding to an exclusive -- but growing -- list of things that were just as well off before running headlong into RFID technology, the next issue of France's Amusement Magazine is billing itself as the "first ever connected to the Internet!" The PR we received for this bad boy asks some questions: "What if a magazine... could consist of paper, ink, electronic components and digital content all at the same time? What if the contents of a magazine could go on living forever in cyberspace? What if the difference between written and digital text finally becomes one in the same?" May we add one more question to the list? How about, "why can't you just throw in a CD-ROM / DVD-ROM like everybody else?" Or maybe, "What am I supposed to do with this?" If you're a Francophone with a Violet Mir:ror laying around, hit that read link. PR after the break.