Apple has been granted several patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Design patent D640,695 is for a keyboard -- more specifically, Apple's keyboard with a numeric pad. The inventors are Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Vincent Keane, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer.

Patent number 7,969,453 is for partial display updates in a windowing system using a programmable graphics processing unit. Techniques to generate partial display updates in a buffered window system in which arbitrary visual effects are permitted to any one or more windows (e.g., application-specific window buffers) are described. Once a display output region is identified for updating, the buffered window system is interrogated to determine which regions within each window, if any, may effect the identified output region. Such determination considers the consequences any filters associated with a window impose on the region needed to make the output update. Ralph Brunner and John Harper are the inventors.

Patent number 7,969,478 is for a method and apparatus for color correction of color devices for various operating conditions. In at least one embodiment of the present invention, operating under a current condition, a color correction operation that is derived from color correction operations defined for other conditions is performed on the color data. In another embodiment, a device profile for managing colors for a color device operating under one condition is interpolated from the device profiles for the color device operating under other conditions (e.g., based on the input received from a user interface according to the perception of the user or based on the measurement of a sensor). The interpolation can be based on the input received from a user interface according to the perception of the user or it can be based on the measurement of a sensor or a set of sensors. Various operating conditions for a color device (e.g., a scanner, a camera, a video camera, a printer, a display device such as a CRT monitor or an LCD display panel, a television set, or others) include chromaticity and illumination of ambient light, background color for a display device, characteristics of print media for a printer, humidity, temperature, pressure and ink level for an ink jet printer, the age of a light source for a scanner, and others. Kok Chen, Gabriel G. Marcu, Wei Chen and John Z. Z. Zhong are the inventors.

Patent number 7,966,785 is for a laminated display window and device incorporating the same and involves the iPhone. Stephen Zadesky, Tang Tan, John Filson and Stephen Lynch are the inventors.

Patent number 7,967,610 is for a connector assembly. It involves methods and apparatus are provided for manufacturing a portable electronic device that does not cause yield loss or premature failure due a connector shell contacting the housing or its attached components during assembly. One example provides a connector shell that is split in at least two separate pieces or portions. A first piece of the connector shell is attached to a subassembly. A second piece of the connector shell is attached to or included as part of an endcap. During assembly, the subassembly and first connector shell piece is inserted into a housing from a first end. The endcap and the second piece of the connector shell can then be inserted into, or attached to, a second end of the housing. The inventors are Stephen Brian Lynch and Fletchr Rothkopf.

Patent number 7,969,333 involves complexity-aware encoding. Techniques for encoding data based at least in part upon an awareness of the decoding complexity of the encoded data and the ability of a target decoder to decode the encoded data are disclosed. In some embodiments, a set of data is encoded based at least in part upon a state of a target decoder to which the encoded set of data is to be provided. In some embodiments, a set of data is encoded based at least in part upon the states of multiple decoders to which the encoded set of data is to be provided. The inventors are James Normille, Thomas Pun, Xiaojin Shi, Xin Tong, His-Jung Wu.

Patent number 7,970,799 involves methods and systems for managing data. In one exemplary method, metadata from files created by several different software applications are captured, and the captured metadata is searched. The type of information in metadata for one type of file differs from the type of information in metadata for another type of file. Other methods are described and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described. The inventors are Yan Arrouye, Dominic Giampaolo, Bas Ording, Gregory Christie, Stephen Oliver Lemay, Marcel van Os, Imran Chaudhri, Kevin Tiene and Pavel Cisler.

Patent number 7,970,926 involves synchronized transmission of audio and video data from a computer to a client via an interface. More specifically, the patent is for a method for controlling data transmission between a computer and a video client via an interface, the method comprising: the computer polling the interface a first time to determine the size of the buffer on the interface; receiving a first buffer size value from the interface; sending a plurality of frames of video and audio data to the buffer on the interface such that a delay period exists between the sending of each frame; the computer polling the interface a second time to determine buffer size after the frames are sent to the interface; receiving a second buffer size value from the interface; and modifying the amount of time between the transmission of frames. The inventors are Giovanni M. Agnoli, Andrew Yanowitz, John O. Abt, Samuel R. Bowman, James A. Delwiche and Jeffrey C. Dillion.

Patent number 7,970,970 is for a non-blocking address switch with shallow per agent queues. In one embodiment, a switch is configured to be coupled to an interconnect. The switch comprises a plurality of storage locations and an arbiter control circuit coupled to the plurality of storage locations. The plurality of storage locations are configured to store a plurality of requests transmitted by a plurality of agents. The arbiter control circuit is configured to arbitrate among the plurality of requests stored in the plurality of storage locations. A selected request is the winner of the arbitration, and the switch is configured to transmit the selected request from one of the plurality of storage locations onto the interconnect. In another embodiment, a system comprises a plurality of agents, an interconnect, and the switch coupled to the plurality of agents and the interconnect. In another embodiment, a method is contemplated. The inventors are Sridhar P. Subramanian, James B. Keller, Ruchi Wadhawan, George Kong Yiu and Ramesh Gunna.

Patent number 7,971,186 involves automatic execution flow ordering. A computer-implemented method and apparatus for programming a computing apparatus are disclosed. The method is a computer-implemented method for use in a computer programming environment, and comprises invoking a script; and determining an execution order for the invoked script predicated on the passing of parameters between scripted actions. The apparatus, in a first aspect, includes a program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, performs the method. In a second aspect, the apparatus includes a computing apparatus programmed to perform the method. Eric S. Peyton is the inventor.

-- Dennis Sellers