Apple has won three design patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office. They involve a power supply, the iPod shuffle and the MacBook Air
Patent number D11,415 is for the ornamental design of a power supply. Patent number D611,470 is for the ornamental design of an electronic device (the Apple remote). Patent number D611,469 is for the ornamental design of another electronic device (the MacBook Air).
The inventors on all the patents are Bartley K. Andrew, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Robert Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas B. Satzger, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whange and Rico Zorkendorfer. Three other patents by Apple have also appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.
Patent number 7,675,529 is for a method and apparatus to scale graphical user interfaces. To scale a view component according to an arbitrary transformation, which may be represented by a scaling factor, a coordinate transformation, or other parameters, at least one embodiment of the present invention determines a new transformation for the view component so that, when the new transformation is used, the boundaries of the view components are aligned with pixel lines (and/or, other conditions are satisfied). In one aspect of the invention, a method to scale a view component of a Graphical User Interface includes: adjusting first layout parameters (e.g., coordinates of an origin, a width, a height, a coordinate of a boundary, and others), which correspond to a first transformation to scale the view component, to generate second layout parameters for the view component; and computing a second transformation from the second layout parameters to scale the view component. In one example according to this aspect, the view component is scaled using the second transformation; and a Current Transformation Matrix (CTM) is set according to the second transformation. According to the second layout parameters, the boundaries of the view component are aligned with pixel lines. The inventors are Ralph T. Brunner and Kristin Webster.
Patent number 7,675,746 involves a docking station for hand held devices. The docking system includes a single docking station and a plurality of inserts that are placed in the docking station so that the docking station can accommodate hand held devices with differing sizes and shapes. The docking system is configured with a docking station and insert that matingly engage with one another via a rotating action. The docking system is also configured with a latching retention mechanism that secures the insert to the docking station when the insert is rotated into engagement with the docking station. The inventors are Wim Crooijmans, Richard P. Howarth and Philip M. Hobson.
Patent number 7,675,746 is for a deep pixel display and data format. A method, graphics card, system, and data stream for generating a deep pixel display on a display device are provided. A first set of data relating to a region associated with a display is provided. The first set of data is processed to define a pixel definition. A second set of data relating to the first pixel is determined. At least one portion of the first set of data is rearranged to form at least a portion of the second set of data. A deep pixel is defined based upon the second set of data. The present invention also includes a system that includes a display controller that is adapted to define a deep pixel based upon rearranging the portion of the first set of data. The inventor is Ian Hendry.