Apple has won several patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office, including design patents for the iMac and Apple TV.
Patent D620932 is for the ornamental design of a computer (the iMac) and patent D620,953 is for the ornamental design of a media device (the Apple TV). The inventors listed on these patents are Andre K. Bartley, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Duncan Robert Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas B. Satzger, Calvin Q. Seid, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer.
Patent number 7,760,903 is for intelligent interaction between a media player and host computer. Improved techniques for interaction between a host computer (e.g., personal computer) and a media player are disclosed. 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. The inventors are Jeffrey L. Robbin and David Heller.
Patent number 7,770,036 involves power management in a portable media delivery system. A consumer electronic product that includes a media player arranged to process a selected one of a plurality of digital media files stored therein and a media delivery accessory unit detachedly connected to the media player arranged to broadcast the processed digital media file. When the consumer electronic product is in a DC mode, the consumer electronic product controls a transfer of an amount of charge between the media delivery accessory and the media player. In one embodiment, the amount of charge is sufficient to for the consumer electronic product to operate for a predetermined amount of time. In another embodiment, the amount of charge is sufficient for to maximize an amount of time that the media player and media delivery accessory can operate. The inventors are Jesse L. Dorogusker, Donald J. Novotney, Scott Krueger and Jeffrey J. Terlizzi.
Patent number 7,770,123 is for a method for dynamically generating a table of contents. The present invention discloses a method for dynamically generating an HTML-based information help system. The information help system provides a user with a table of contents of the information that is currently available on the system. The table of contents is generated by scanning specific files for meta-tag information. The gathered information is merged with pre-defined HTML template files that control the formatting and presentation of the information. The resulting table of contents which is provided to the user accurately reflects the current content of the information system. By dynamically generating the table of contents for the information help system, the present invention allows authors to add, remove, and change individual components of the system while ensuring that users are presented with an accurate and complete list of the information available for use. The inventors are Gordon R. Meyer, Albert R. Howard Jr., Kevin Knabe and Richard B. Hoiberg.
Patent number 7,770,117 involves morphing between views of data in iMvoie. A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium are provided that in an embodiment morph between two graphical views of related content that share a common frame of reference. In an embodiment, the two views depict the same data at different resolutions. The morphing permits the viewer to visualize the relationship between the two views along a common axis or within a common frame of reference. In another embodiment, the two views may be a clip view and a timeline view. In the clip view, icons representing clips are the same size. In the timeline view, icons representing clips have a size proportional to the time of the clip when played. A virtual playhead icon is maintained in the same relative position in both views, so that a user’s focus is maintained. The inventors are Michael Uy and Timothy E. Wasko.
Patent number 7,769,785 is for a system and method for interfacing index-based and iterator-based application programming interfaces. In general, the disclosed system maintains an iterator cache having multiple iterators. Each active iterator is associated with a most recently used directory entry. Upon receiving an index based request, the iterator closest to the index based request is identified. If the index based request is closer to the top of the directory than it is to the closest active iterator, the directory entries are sequentially examined beginning at the top of the directory with the first entry. Otherwise, the system deternines whether the index based request is located above or below the closest iterator. If the index based request is above the closest iterator, the system steps backward beginning with the directory entry associated with the closest iterator until the directory entry associated with the index based request is located. If the closest iterator is located below the closest iterator, the system steps forward through the directory entries beginning with the directory entry associated with the closest iterator until the requested directory entry is located. The inventors are Mark S. Day, Donald J. Brady and Deric S. Horn.
Patent number 7,768,531 involves a multiband antenna for handheld electronic devices. A handheld electronic device is provided that contain wireless communications circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include antenna structures. A first antenna may handle first and second communications bands. A second antenna may handle additional communications bands. The first and second antennas may be located at opposite ends of the handheld electronic device. Conductive structures in the handheld electronic device may form an antenna ground plane. The antenna ground plane may have portions defining an antenna slot. An L-shaped antenna resonating element may be located adjacent to the slot. In the first communications band, the L-shaped antenna resonating element may serve as a non-radiating coupling stub that excites the antenna slot. In the second communications band, the L-shaped antenna resonating element may transmit and receive radio-frequency signals. The inventors are Zhijun Zhang, Robert W. Schlub, Robert J. Hill and Ruben Caballero.
Patent number 7,768,462 is for a method and system for fast 90 degree rotation of arrays. A method and system to rotate a 2.sup.N by 2.sup.N array are described. Consistent with one embodiment of the present invention, the 2.sup.N elements of the 2.sup.N rows of a 2.sup.N by 2.sup.N array are loaded from memory into the vector registers of a processor’s single instruction multiple data (SIMD) unit. Next, the elements of the rows in the top half of the array are interleaved with corresponding elements from a corresponding row in the bottom half of the array. The loading and interleaving operations are repeated N times before the results, stored in the vector registers, are written back to memory. The inventor is Ian R. Ollman.
Patent number 7,768,535 involves image publication in iPhoto. To better realize the great potential of amateur digital photography, the present invention introduces an integrated system for the acquisition, organization, manipulation, and publication of digital images by amateur digital photography enthusiasts. The system of the present invention first acquires images from a number of different image sources. Images acquired in the same image importing session are marked as coming from the same conceptual film roll. Next, a user is empowered to organize and manipulate the acquired images. The images may be organized by tagging the images with informative keywords and grouping images together into conceptual photo albums. Furthermore, the images may be manipulated by rotating, cropping, and removing red-eye. Finally, the system of the present invention provides simple intuitive image publish systems. A selected group of images may be published in a photobook, published onto the World Wide Web, or published as individual image prints with minimal computer knowledge on the part of the user. The inventors are Glenn Reid, Tim Wasko and Daniel B. Waylonis.