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Apple patent filings detail methods of keeping your devices cool
Apple is a pretty innovative company, and here at TUAW we receive a lot of tips about new patents that have been filed by the company. While not all of the patents make it into products, Apple is assiduous about filing for patent protection on their intellectual property. This week featured 4 patent applications from Apple that are all about keeping your devices cool. The first, titled "Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Flow Sensors," talks about using tiny sensors to determine the air velocity in a device and then adjusting fan speeds and/or computing power to keep the device cool. The second application seems so obvious it's surprising nobody has filed it before. Titled "Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Through User Interfaces," the patent filing describes how to use input/output ports (FireWire, USB, and Ethernet) to increase airflow through a device. In particular, the application details how ports can be positioned to provide the best possible cooling of components. The third patent filing, "Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Conductive Hinge Assemblies," is specifically focused on notebook type devices. Here, the hinges on a notebook's screen are effectively used as heat exchangers to cool certain heat-producing components. The last filing, "Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices using Thermoelectric Cooling Components," describes using the Peltier Effect to actively cool components. This can be also described as "solid-state cooling." While it's uncertain when or if we'll see any of these patents come to life in a future Apple product, it is great to see that they're trying to figure out a way to keep MacBooks from being used as frying pans. [via AppleInsider]
Apple patent filing shows off activity monitor for skiers, bikers
Fans of more extreme sports will probably be stoked to hear that Apple just might be developing a device with them in mind. Apple Insider's discovered a recent patent filing that could possibly signal the development of a monitoring device (much like Nike+) which can detect, track, and display a visual and quantitative measure, for instance, of a skier's speed and air time. The device looks like it would contain one or more loft sensors (in one photo it is shown installed in a snowboard) and a microprocessor subsystem to determine loft time. There are of course, no guarantees that a product like this will ever see the light of day, but we sure hope so: runner favoritism must end. One more page of the filing after the break.
Recent Apple patent filing speaks of stealth biometric security on iPhone, other insane insanity
Recent patent fillings by Apple that AppleInsider has dug up point to the company adding several new methods of insuring the security of its devices for users. The new filings cite biometric authentication methods that would excite Ethan Hunt -- including installation of a hidden sensor behind the screen that would recognize the user's fingerprint when touched, and / or a front-facing camera for retinal recognition. The filing also suggests further possibilities, such as the device being capable of recognizing the user's voice, or collecting DNA samples for recognition via genetic code. We've heard plenty of semi-speculative tech tales in the past, so we always take this stuff with a grain of salt, but Apple seems to be moving forward at least into the research phase of such endeavors. To the future we go! There's one more fantastic scribble after the break, hit the read link for more details.
Nintendo files Wii accessory patent for everything, includes the kitchen sink
Some folks in the UK happened upon a set of British patents submitted by Nintendo recently for a whole slew of crazy Wiimote accessories, and you might be surprised to know what the company wants dibs on. Included in this large collection of sometimes bizarre add-ons is a Wiimote-cradling teddy bear, skateboard, helmet (with goggles), golf club, baseball bat, and of course... a bicycle. We're not sure what the big N was thinking when they assembled this list -- perhaps they just wanted to cover all the bases as those filing patents are wont to do. However, we suggest they scramble for these gems that have been unfairly left off: Wii-chocolate bar, Wii-sofa, Wii-Terminator, and of course, the Wii-Wii -- a larger Wiimote which the regular Wiimote gets slotted into.[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy and The Register]
Apple updates patent for touchscreen device
Remember that Apple patent that we eyed back in early September? You know, the one that patented the merging of various electronic devices into a single gadget? Well, it's back and better than ever before -- it's an update to U.S. patent application Serial No. 11/367,749, and is entitled "Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device." So how's this patent different from the last time? It's not, really, but it provides a fair bit more detail written in that cryptic legalistic prose that we've come to know and love; it describes and displays the new interface, which may include various triggers along the edge of the bezel: "By way of example, the visual guides 180 in FIG. 4 include 'Menu,' 'Power,' 'Left,' 'Select,' 'Right,' etc. It will be appreciated that the visual guides 180 and their arrangement depicted in FIG. 4 are only exemplary. More or fewer visual guides 180 may be provided, and the size of the visual guides 180 can be larger or smaller than the scale depicted in FIG. 4." Further, there's a new portrait and landscape option described, handy for viewing photos or watching episodes of "Lost" while on the bus. But even the music-playing core of the iPod will get a makeover, coming in with an on-screen time slider, volume control, and other options that seem to be user-defined and customizable. We've still got questions as we did last time concerning prior art, but perhaps these newer details fill in the gaps. All in all, it would appear that the true video iPod (with possible cell phone or GPS add-ons) is still on the drawing board at this point, and it remains to be seen how these illustrations translate into reality. We've got some more patent diagrams of that portrait/landscape view and of the new "now playing" interface on the flip side, hot off the patent filing presses.[Via MacNN]
Second Apple patent filing du jour
Just in case one Apple patent filing wasn't enough for you, another one has just hit the internets -- filed April 26, 2005, and published on the US Patent & Trademark Office's site today. As always, the patent lays out in explicit and excruciating detail what Apple has in the pipeline. This time, it's a "hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devices." Not clear enough for you? If you scroll down far enough, you'll find reference to the possibility of merging of many electronic devices into a single device: "Each device 102 includes both hardware and software components 104 and 106, which are integrated into multi-functional hand-held device 100. It should be pointed out that the multi-functional hand-held device 100 is not limited to only two devices, and may in fact integrate any number of devices." The patent filing goes on to say: "By way of example, the portable electronic device may correspond to tablet PCs, PDAs, media players (music, images, video), game players, telephones, cellular phones, mobile radios, cameras, GPS modules, remote controls, and/or the like." So, in short, it'll be something between anything and everything. Now, invoking the WANL ("we are not lawyers") clause here, we're really scratching our heads at this one -- because if our scant knowledge of patent law is correct, it would seem that prior art would apply. That is to say that surely there are millions of devices out there that have a touchscreen and have multiple functions. Surely one of these patent lawyers has a Treo or a BlackBerry, no? Assuming that those brainiac Apple attorneys know what they're doing, this patent potentially paves the way for an an even awesomer touchscreen-based iPhone than the rumors we've already heard about, or other devices that may or may not have something to do with products to be unveiled next week -- so until then, run along now.[Via CrunchGear and MacNN]
A new Apple Cube on the horizon?
Every Apple fan knows that his Steveness is into cubes, even more than Picasso was. The original NeXTcube (1988-1993) was, you guessed it, a cube -- as were the G4 Cube (2000-2001), and the new Apple cubealicious store in New York City (2006-?). Earlier this year we wrote about the possibility of the new Apple Media Cube, the ultimate Mac Mini meets truely awesome DVR/media center box which hasn't (yet) come to fruition. Well, here's another one to add to the flurry of rumors and speculations about what Stevie J. will unveil at next week's special event: a new Apple Cube? A US Patent filed today by our friends in Cupertino explains: "A cubical computer housing assembly comprises first and second ends and four sides, which define an interior compartment for housing the various computer components." Of course, we're still waiting on those thousands of embedded cameras in an LCD and an iPod dock in a PowerBook MacBook Pro. [Via Unwired View, thanks Staska]
