Apple has been granted eight patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office, involving, among other things, audio data storage (most likely involving iCloud), channel state logic and more.

Patent number 8095375 involves an universal container for audio data. Per the patent, storing audio data encoded in any of a plurality of different audio encoding formats is enabled by parametrically defining the underlying format in which the audio data is encoded, in audio format and packet table chunks.

A flag can be used to manage storage of the size of the audio data portion of the file, such that premature termination of an audio recording session does not result in an unreadable corrupted file. This capability can be enabled by initially setting the flag to a value that does not correspond to a valid audio data size and that indicates that the last chunk in the file contains the audio data.

State information for the audio data, to effectively denote a version of the file, and a dependency indicator for dependent metadata, may be maintained, where the dependency indicator indicates the state of the audio data on which the metadata is dependent. The inventors are William G. Stewart, James E. McCartney and Douglas S. Wyatt.

Patent number 8095506 is for methods and systems for managing data, such as metadata. . 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 Olivier Lemay, Marcel van Os, Imran Chaudhri, Kevin Tiene and Pavel Cisler.

Patent number 8094128 involves channel scan logic. A device that can autonomously scan a sensor panel is disclosed. Autonomous scanning can be performed by implementing channel scan logic. In one embodiment, channel scan logic carries out many of the functions that a processor would normally undertake, including generating timing sequences and obtaining result data; comparing scan result data against a threshold value (e.g., in an auto-scan mode); generating row count; selecting one or more scanning frequency bands; power management control; and performing an auto-scan routine in a low power mode. The inventors are Minh-Dieu Thi Vu, Thomas James Wilson and Christoph Horst Krah.

Patent number 809225 is for active electronic media packaging on iOS devices. Active packaging for supplying power, data, or both power and data to an electronic media device while the device is housed within the active packaging is provided. The active packaging may include one or more electrical traces in-molded or printed onto the packaging that couple to a suitable connector on the device. Power may also be provided via one or more wireless power techniques.

Multiple active packages may be conductively stacked to transmit power, data, or both power and data to a row or stack or devices. POM sensors integrated with or attached to the device (or the active packaging itself) may detect various movement events. Coordinated and synchronized display effects may be presented while the devices are housed within the active packaging. Michael Rosenblatt is the inventor.

Patent number 8094161 involves virtualization of graphics resources. Per the patent, graphics resources are virtualized through an interlace between graphics hardware and graphics clients. The interface allocates the graphics resources across multiple graphics clients, processes commands for access to the graphics resources from the graphics clients, and resolves conflicts for the graphics resources among the clients. John Stauffer, Bob Beretta and Ken Dyke are the inventors.

Patent number 8094724 is for order value for specifying the relationship between video pictures. A method and apparatus for variable accuracy inter-picture timing specification for digital video encoding is disclosed. Specifically, the present invention discloses a system that allows the relative timing of nearby video pictures to be encoded in a very efficient manner. In one embodiment, the display time difference between a current video picture and a nearby video picture is determined. The display time difference is then encoded into a digital representation of the video picture.

In a preferred embodiment, the nearby video picture is the most recently transmitted stored picture. For coding efficiency, the display time difference may be encoded using a variable length coding system or arithmetic coding. In an alternate embodiment, the display time difference is encoded as a power of two to reduce the number of bits transmitted. The inventors are Barin Geoffry Haskell, David William Singer, Adrianna Dumitras and Atul Puri.

Patent number 8094813 involves a system and method for modulus obfuscation. The patent discloses methods for obfuscating data on a client, on a server, and on a client and a server. The method on a client device includes receiving input data, storing an operation value in a secure location, performing a modulus obfuscation on the operation value, performing a modulus operation on the operation value and the input data, performing a modulus transformation on the operation value and the input data to obtain client output data, and checking if the client output data matches corresponding server output data.

The method on a server device includes receiving input data, performing a modulus transformation on the input data to obtain a result, performing a plain operation on the result and an operation value to obtain server output data, and checking if the server output data matches corresponding client output data from a client device that (1) receives input data, (2) stores an operation value in a secure location, (3) performs a modulus obfuscation on the operation value, (4) performs a modulus operation on the operation value and the input data, and (5) performs a modulus transformation on the operation value and the input data to obtain client output data.

In an optional step applicable to both clients and servers, the method further includes authenticating the client input data and the server input data if the server output data matches the client output data. In one aspect, server input data and client input data pertain to a cryptographic key. The inventors are Mathieu Ciet, Augustin J. Farrugia and Nicholas T. Sullivan.

Patent number 8094816 is for a system and method for stream/block cipher with internal random states. Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for performing data encryption and decryption using a stream or block cipher with internal random states. The method includes splitting the input data into a predetermined number of blocks and processing each block.

The processing includes creating sub-blocks, permuting the sub-blocks, replacing bytes using a lookup table, rotating bits, performing expansion and combining sets of bits. The element of randomness employed in this process allows for the same input to yield the same output, with differing internal states. The inventors are Mathieu Ciet, Augustin J. Farrugia and Filip Toma Paun.