A handful of Apple patents have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Here's a summary of each.

Patent number 2010053450 is for a system and method for authentication using a shared table and sorting exponentiation. Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for authentication using a shared table. The method receives an authentication challenge from a first entity including an accumulator with an initial value, lists of elements in a shared table, and a list of sorting algorithms, each sorting algorithm is associated with one of the lists of elements and modified to include embedded instructions operating on the accumulator. The method then generates a temporary table for each list of elements in the shared table by copying elements from the shared table as indicated in each respective list of elements, each temporary table being associated with one sorting algorithm in the list of sorting algorithms. The method sorts each generated temporary table with the associated sorting algorithm, thereby updating the accumulator with the embedded instructions. Finally, the method transmits the updated accumulator to the first entity for verification. The inventors are Pierre Betouin, Mathieu Ciet and Augustin J. Farrugia.

Patent number 20100153912 is for variable type knowledge based cell specialization. An indication is received that a variable that is an argument of a function or operation the behavior of which depends at least in part on a data type of the argument is of a first data type. Machine code that implements a first behavior that corresponds to the first data type, but not a second behavior that corresponds to a second data type other than the first data type, is generated for the function or operation. The inventors are Victor Leonel Hernandez Porras, Roger Scott Hoover, Eric Marshall Christopher, Christopher Arthur Lattner, Thomas John O'Brien, Patrik Solanki and Jia-Hong Chen.

Patent number 20100153929 involves converting javascript into a device-independent representation. A device-independent intermediate representation of a source code is generated and stored, e.g., in a memory or other storage mechanism. The stored intermediate representation of the source code is used to generate a device-specific machine code corresponding to the source code. The stored intermediate representation may be updated, e.g., periodically, for example by obtaining an updated version of the source code and compiling the updated source code to generate an updated intermediate representation. The stored intermediate representation may be based on source code received from a device that is synchronized with which a compiling device that generates the device-specific machine code. In some cases, the stored intermediate representation may be used to generate for each of a plurality of devices a corresponding device-specific machine code. The inventors are Victor Leonel Hernandez Porras, Roger Scott Hoover, Eric Marshall Christopher, Christopher Arthur Lattner, Thomas John O'Brien, Patrik Solanki, Jia-Hong Chen and Michael Adam Kahl.