Apple has won patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office for the screen display on the iPhone and iPod touch, a portable computer, the current iMac incarnation, the latching mechanism on Apple laptops, an audio interface and a cable connector assembly.
Patent number D621,849 is for animated graphical user interfaces for a screen display or portion thereof. The inventors are Freddy Anzures, Bas Ording and Marcel Van Os. Patent D621,845 is for a graphical user interface for a display screen or portion thereof. The inventors are Freddy Anzures and Imran Chaudhri. Both involve the iPhone and iPod touch interface.
Patent number D621,825 is for the ornamental design of a portable computer (the MacBook Pro) Patent number D621,841 is for the ornamental design of a computer. 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, Vincent Keane, Eugene Antony Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer.
Patent number 7,775,567 is for a magnetic latching mechanism. It’s for a magnetic latch for a display of a laptop computer uses magnetic attraction to maintain the display closed and uses magnetic repelling forces to pop-up the display when opened. The latch includes one or more magnetic elements in the body of the laptop and at least one magnetic element in the display. When the display is closed, the magnet element in the display is positioned adjacent the magnet element in the body having an opposite polarity so that the magnet elements are attracted to one another. To pop-up the display, the user moves the magnetic element in the display so that it meets the magnetic pole in the body having the same polarity. When these meet, the repelling force between them causes the display to open slightly so that a user can then readily open the display. The inventors are Chris Ligtenberg and Brett Degner.
Patent number 7,779,357 is for an audio user interface for computing devices that generates audio prompts that help a user interact with a user interface of a computing device is disclosed. It’s part of the technology that allows iPods, iPhones and iPads to dock with computers. The audio prompts can provide audio indicators that allow a user to focus his or her visual attention upon other tasks such as driving an automobile, exercising, or crossing a street, yet still enable the user to interact with the user interface.
As examples, the audio prompts provided can audiblize the spoken version of a user interface selection, such as a selected function or a selected (e.g., highlighted) menu item of a display menu. The computing device can be, for example, a media player such as an MP3 player, a mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant. The inventor is Devang K. Naik.
Patent number 7,775,825 is for a cable connector assembly that includes a housing, a terminal, a sleeve and a strain relief member. Jerry Wu is the inventor.
Several other patents have also appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.
Patent number 7,778,015 is for microperforated and backlit displays having alternative display capabilities. It relates generally to visual displays, and more particularly to the use of aesthetically pleasing visual displays that can be backlit.
A visual display having microperforations, backlighting and contrasting surface finishes is disclosed. The visual display includes an opaque base object having a front surface and a plurality of microperforations therethrough from the front surface to a back surface. Each microperforation has a diameter of about 100 microns or less, and numerous microperforations are arranged into an overall pattern, such as a logo, text or advertisement. A light source placed proximate to the back surface passes light through the microperforations to be visible at the front surface, such that the overall pattern can be visibly perceived when the light source is turned on. A contrasting surface finish formed on the front surface includes at least two visibly distinguishable shades, with one shade covering at least a portion of the front surface defined by the overall pattern, such that the overall pattern can be seen when the light source is turned off. The inventors are Douglas Weber and Naoto Matsuyuki.
Patent number 7,778,823 is for pre-processing individual audio items in a media project in order to improve real-time processing of the media project. Some embodiments of the invention provide a method of processing audio data while creating a media presentation. The media presentation includes several audio streams. The method processes a section of a first audio stream and stores the processed section of the first audio stream. The method also processes a section of a second audio stream that overlaps with the processes section of the first audio stream. The method then processes the section of the second audio stream independently of the first audio stream. In some embodiments, the method processes the first audio stream section by applying an effect to the first audio stream section. Also, in some embodiments, the processing of the first audio stream section also entails performing a sample rate conversion on the first audio stream section. The inventor is Kenneth M. Carson.
Patent number 7,778,971 involves synchronization methods and systems. Connection architectures, methods, systems and computer readable media are described. In one exemplary embodiment, a computer readable medium comprises a first software component which is configured to interface, through first software based messages, with synchronization software components during a structured data synchronization process between a host and a device and which is configured to interface, through second software based messages, with a plurality of different stream handlers for a corresponding plurality of physical interfaces. Systems, methods, architectures and other computer readable media are also described. The inventors are Gordon J. Freedman and Jacob Farkas.
Patent number 7,778,971 involves communication between a media player and an accessory using a protocol with multiple lingoes. Examples of accessory lingoes include a microphone lingo, a simple remote lingo, a display remote lingo, an RF transmitter lingo, and an extended interface lingo. The inventors are Emily Clark Schubert, Wang Chun Leung, Gregory T. Lydon, Scott Krueger, Paul Philip Holden, John Archibald, Lawrence G. Bolton, Donald J. Novotney, John Benjamin Filson and David Tupman.
Patent number 7,778,971 is for a clock gater with test features and low setup time. A clock gater circuit comprises a plurality of transistors having source-drain connections forming a stack between a first node and a supply node. A given logical state on the first node causes a corresponding logical state on an output clock of the clock gater circuit. In one embodiment, a first transistor of the plurality of transistors has a gate coupled to receive an enable input signal. A second transistor is connected in parallel with the first transistor, and has a gate controlled responsive to a test input signal to ensure that the output clock is generated even if the enable input signal is not in an enabled state. In another embodiment, the plurality of transistors comprises a first transistor having a gate controlled responsive to a clock input of the clock gater circuit and a second transistor having a gate controlled responsive to an output of a delay circuit. The delay circuit comprises at least one inverter, wherein an input of the delay circuit is the clock input, and wherein a first inverter of the delay circuit is coupled to receive a test input signal and is configured to force a first logical state on an output of the first inverter responsive to an assertion of the test input signal. The inventors are Brian J. Campbell, Shaishav Desai, Edgardo . Klass, Pradeep R. Trivedi and Sridhar Narayanan.
Patent number 7,779,208 involves a prefetch unit. n one embodiment, a processor comprises a prefetch unit coupled to a data cache. The prefetch unit is configured to concurrently maintain a plurality of separate, active prefetch streams. Each prefetch stream is either software initiated via execution by the processor of a dedicated prefetch instruction or hardware initiated via detection of a data cache miss by one or more load/store memory operations. The prefetch unit is further configured to generate prefetch requests responsive to the plurality of prefetch streams to prefetch data in to the data cache. The inventors are Sudarshan Kadambi, Punett Kumar and Po-Yung Chang.