Three patents have popped up at the US Patent & Trademark Office showing that Apple is working on better antennas for its laptops.

Patent number 8059039 is for a clutch barrel antenna for wireless electronic devices. Per the patent, wireless portable electronic devices such as laptop computers are provided with antennas. An antenna may be provided within a clutch barrel in a laptop computer. The clutch barrel may have a dielectric cover. Antenna elements may be mounted within the clutch barrel cover on an antenna support structure. There may be two or more antenna elements mounted to the antenna support structure. These antenna elements may be of different types.

A first antenna element for the clutch barrel antenna may be formed from a dual band antenna element having a closed slot and an open slot. A second antenna element for the clutch barrel antenna may be formed from a dual band antenna element of a hybrid type having a planar resonating element arm and a slot resonating element. Flex circuit structures may be used in implanting the first and second antenna elements for the clutch barrel antenna. The inventors are Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hao Xu, Gregory A. Springer, Bing Chiang, Eduarado Lopez Camacho and Douglas B. Kough.

Patent number 8059040 involves wireless electronic devices with clutch barrel transceivers. Per the patent, wireless portable electronic devices such as laptop computers are provided with antennas and radio-frequency transceiver circuitry. Antenna structures and transceiver circuitry may be provided within a clutch barrel in a laptop computer. The clutch barrel may have a dielectric cover. Antenna elements may be mounted within the clutch barrel cover on an antenna support structure.

The antenna support structure may be mounted to a metal housing frame. The metal housing frame may have a tab-shaped extension that serves as a heat sink. The heat sink may draw heat away from the transceiver circuitry. The transceiver circuitry may be coupled to the antenna using a radio-frequency transmission line path that contains microstrip transmission lines or coaxial cable transmission lines. The transceiver circuitry may be coupled to logic circuitry on a laptop computer motherboard using a digital data communications path. The inventors are the same as those for the previous patent.

Patent number 8059570 is for a mobile network device battery conservation system and methods. he battery life of a mobile device operating in a wireless network environment is extended by terminating network communication activities after a specified period of time. Network communication activities may be restored when any one of a specified number of user actions are detected. The inventors are Eric Albert, Nate Begeman, Evan Doll, Charles Dominguez, Scott Herz, Dan Keen, David Myszewski, Mallory Paine and Rob Yepes.

-- Dennis Sellers