Apple is working on an universal power adapter that could simultaneously charge a Mac laptop and an iOS device, per a new patent (number 20110278923) for a multi-output power supply at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Per the patent, an apparatus for providing power to an electronic device may include a power input configured to receive an input voltage from a power supply, and a rectifier operatively connected to the power input and configured to convert the input voltage to a first voltage. The rectifier may further be configured to transmit the first voltage to a first power output operatively connected to the rectifier.

The apparatus may further include a power converter operatively connected to the rectifier and configured to convert the first voltage to a second voltage different than the first voltage and a first relay operatively connected to the rectifier to selectively prevent the first voltage from being transmitted through the first power output....

The popularity of Apple products -- Macs, iPhones and iPads – among consumers has begun to spill over into the enterprise arena. Younger workers in particular are demanding hardware flexibility in the workplace, remote access and the ability to bring their own devices.

New figures from MokaFive (http://www.mokafive.com), which makes a virtual desktop solution that runs corporate Windows on a Mac, shows the incredible market opportunity for Apple. To wit:
 
° About 90 million computers are purchased for the enterprise annually;

° The Mac is in high demand -- let’s say 33% of enterprises ultimately elect to enable Mac in their business;

° That’s 30 million Macs at US$1,500 each, leading to a $45 billion market opportunity for Apple.

That's a huge opportunity for Apple. And it certainly shows that the Mac may not have the flash of the iOS platform at the present, but has a...

Apple has been granted three patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office, one of them involving the iTunes interface.

Patent number 8060375 involves an enhanced visual feedback of interactions with an user interface (the iTunes interface). Per the patent, n item in a user interface is visually enhanced in response to an interaction with the item or in response to a request. In some implementations, the item (e.g., an icon, button, text, etc.) is visually enhanced and displayed in the user interface at a conspicuous location (e.g., the center of the user interface).

Optionally, the user interface can be altered (e.g., darkened) to improve the visibility of the enhanced item. In some implementations, visual enhancement includes displaying enhanced feedback (e.g., text, data, graphical objects or images, etc.) associated with the item in a caption panel. The caption panel can display enhanced feedback associated with any items in the user interface...

The US consumer electronics devices market, defined as the addressable market for computing devices, mobile handsets and AV products, is projected to be worth around US$239.4 billion in 2011, according to new data from Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com). And that's good news for Apple.

What's more, the market is expected to increase to US$276.6 billion by 2015 at a CAGR of 3.0%, driven by premium TV sets, smartphones and notebooks. And that's even better news for Apple.

The research group forecasts US computer hardware sales of US$144.8 billion in 2011. CAGR [compound annual growth rate] for the 2011-2015 period will be about 2.5%, but multimedia and entertainment notebooks are growth areas. Computer sales grew strongly in 2010, boosted by a revival of the business market. And the Mac is outgrowing the computer industry as a whole. By more than six times,...

By Greg Mills

Adobe finally blinked after Steve Jobs didn't. As a young man Jobs actually practiced staring people down without blinking for long periods. He knew it freaked people out and so mastered long blinkless pearcing stares. Figuratively, he did that with Adobe by refusing to pre-load Flash on Macs, and Apple didn't allow Flash to even run on the iOS platform. Wretched whining from various quarters didn't get Apple to change its stand, as there really were technical issues that Adobe wouldn't or couldn't fix.

Apple was of the opinion that HTML5 was the way to do web animation and, finally, Adobe gave up, announced that Flash was dead and fired 750 Flash platform employees. Flash, in addition to being a battery hog also had security issues, kept cookies in a place that made it harder to police what you picked up on the web by simply running a Flash-enabled browser.

You don't have to use an iPhone or iPad on the web very long to run...

An Apple patent (number 20110273464) for a framework for graphics animation and compositing operations has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Apparently, Apple has plans for further animation in the Mac OS X user interface.

Per the patent, a framework for performing graphics animation and compositing operations has a layer tree for interfacing with the application and a render tree for interfacing with a render engine. Layers in the layer tree can be content, windows, views, video, images, text, media, or any other type of object for a user interface of an application. The application commits change to the state of the layers of the layer tree.

The application doesn't need to include explicit code for animating the changes to the layers. Instead, an animation is determined for animating the change in state. In determining the animation, the framework can define a set of predetermined animations based on motion, visibility, and transition. The...

Here's a good sign for NewsStand, a feature Apple introduced with iOS 5: publisher Condé Nast saw a significant increase in both digital subscriptions and single copy sales since the launch of Newsstand. Now let's see Newsstand on the Mac.

iOS 5 organizes your magazine and newspaper app subscriptions in Newsstand: a folder that lets you access your favorite publications. It also offers a place on the App Store just for newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

You can get to it straight from Newsstand. New purchases go directly to your Newsstand folder. Then, as new issues become available, Newsstand automatically updates them in the background -- complete with the latest covers.

Monica Ray, Condé Nast’s executive vice president consumer marketing, says i the two weeks since Newsstand was introduced, new subscription sales, per week, across all nine digital editions, rose 268%, with single copy sales up 142% compared to the previous eight weeks.

"We couldn...

As evidenced by a new patent (number 8054221) at the US Patent & Trademark Office that shows Apple is working on satellite navigation system for portable devices.

Per the patent, a portable user device may provide Global Positioning System (GPS) services. The device may include a GPS receiver. The GPS receiver may provide accurate information about the current location of the device. A user may use the device to perform tasks. Certain tasks may generate excess heat or de-generate heat that causes the GPS receiver to perform unsatisfactorily. Methods are provided that can test GPS receiver performance during acquisition mode and during tracking mode.

During testing, the GPS receiver may be given a predetermined amount of time to acquire a GPS fix. The GPS receiver may be tested repeatedly to acquire successive GPS fixes. After a desired number of tests are performed, a success rate may be calculated. If the success rate is satisfactory, the GPS receiver satisfies...

Apple has won several patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office. Two are for the design of the MacBook Pro line.

The inventors include Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive, Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer.

Patent 8054299 is for a digital controller for a true multi-touch surface useable in a computer system (the iPad's Multi-Touch control, in other words). Invented by Christoph H. Krah, it embodies an improved touch surface controller for controlling a multi-point touch surface such as a touch screen or a touch pad in a computer system is disclosed.

The improved touch system controller detects signal capacitance from the pixels in the touch surface digitally, and therefore is easier and simpler to implement then previous approaches relying on analog detection and...

By Greg Mills

Since I live in Kansas City, Kansas, site of the coming Google 1 Gig Internet service, I have tried to keep my ear to the ground on developments. Getting information from Google about what they plan reminds me of the black hole at Apple R&D. "The Wall Street Journal" reports Google plans to offer phone and cable TV as well as super fast Internet when they finally get around to launching the project.

In Kansas City we see nothing on the ground to indicate they are actually doing anything but talking about it. The plan was to turn on locations with close connections to hubs by early January and then to finish the project fairly fast.

Then they added Kansas City, MO, to the project which is a much larger city than KCK. That they intent to offer phone and TV service isn't too surprising, but apparently they intend to involve Time Warner, who owns the soon to be obsolete wired cable system in town. "The Wall Street Journal"...

An Apple patent (number 20110267359) for systems and methods for hot plug GPU power control has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. It shows that Apple is working on ways for Macs and iOS devices to more efficiently manage multiple graphics processors.

Per the patent, systems and methods include an electronic device having multiple GPUs and a GPU power control process that controls switching between a first GPU and a second GPU, such as a high performance GPU. The electronic device may be coupled to an external display by a passive adapter or an active adapter. The GPU power control process may determine if the second GPU is active and switch to the second GPU upon connection of the external display through either the passive adapter or the active adapter.

Upon connection of an active adapter, the GPU power control process may use hot plug functionality to determine connection of the external display to the active adapter and provide appropriate...

An Apple patent (number 20110269463) for methods and an apparatus for preserving battery resources in a mobile communication device has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. It hints that Apple is working on a future iPhone with "virtual" SIM card.

The patent involves preserving battery resources in a wireless device in communication with a wireless network by dynamically aligning a RRC connection status of a mobile wireless communication device in communication with a wireless network with a data traffic profile. The data traffic profile indicating a pattern of data transfer between the mobile wireless communication device and the wireless network. The inventors are Shiehlie Wang and Ben-Heng Juang.

Here's Apple's summary of the invention: "A method of conserving battery power in a wireless device in communication with a wireless network is carried out by performing at least the following operations. An operating state and an associated data traffic...

By Greg Mills

There has been a lot of speculation in the press regarding the direction Apple will go under new leadership. New CEO Tim Cook, while presenting a firm hand on the day to day operations of Apple must rely upon the product instincts of his management team. The late Steve Jobs had the genius to see markets that begged to be fixed and had the gaul to revolutionize entire industries. Despite being a micromanager, Jobs' attention span was too short to follow up on minute details like Cook does. Apple needs Mr. Cook, but it also needs to boldly go where thinking different will lead Apple.

That it takes a team to replace Steve Jobs isn't a problem or even a liability; it will be a strength. The decision to encompass a new industry or market is a decision that has to be made crisply and timely to keep Apple relevant and growing. Apple has made some mistakes in the past; mistakes are survivable if not so major they take the company down due to...

By Rick Sutcliffe

Prescience was not foreseen by the Spy when he titled last month's column, but said monicker now seems faintly evocative of a sad prophecy. The iCEO has not merely stepped down, he's left us altogether. 


Steve Jobs' legacy sees us all materially wealthier, for he had a unique talent for putting his finger on the pulse of the market two or three years down the road, then inventing the product to create the market his mind's eye saw. When the history of our time is written, Steve Jobs' name will be far more prominent than any of the politicians whose images and dulcet tones saturate the daily media, more lasting than any entertainment idol, have more footnotes and records than any athlete. Jobs was unique. He passes to the next life to no one's benefit and everyone's regret.

Meanwhile, back at the iCompany, business carries on and will carry on for years to come much as it has in the past. The workaholic culture of excellence...

Apple has won several patents applications by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Two involve authentication and indium tin oxide layer forming, while several others are for iPod designs. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 8051097 involves a system and method for authentication using a shared table and sorting exponentiation. Disclosed 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...

By Greg Mills

People were still standing in lines around the block when iPhone 4S firmware was hacked to work with iOS 5 to allow Siri to run on iPhone 4. The first attempts were a proof of concept but the hacked iPhone had trouble connecting with Apple's servers that were configured to only allow Siri to work on the newest iPhone.

I speculated at the time, that restricting Siri to iPhone 4S was likely a marketing ploy to push people into trading up to the new iPhone. Apple indicated that the dual A5 chipset was required to process speech at the speed required for Siri to work properly. It appears now that just about any iOS device that can run iOS 5 can also run Siri.

There might be a slight hit on the processing speed and some problems also might be due to the quality of the microphones on early iOS devices. See...

Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors may portend the coming of "retinan display" Macs -- in other words, Macs with ultra high resolution (4096 x 4096 displays).

"VR-Zone" (http://macte.ch/xfvzb) says that Intel recently revealed that they'll be able to support 4K resolutions and process video at that resolution."It's the vastly improved display capability, and associated ultra high resolution video processing, of the new chip -- in fact, so high it stands on an equal footing with the fastest high end discrete GPUs in this particular measurement: the 4K display resolution," the article adds.

Not only can the MFX engine display up to 4096 x 4096 pixels on a single monitor, but it can also handle video processing for 4K QuadHD video as well. Imagine a 27-inch iMac (my model of choice) with 4096 x 4096 resolution -- or perhaps "just" 3840 x 2160.

The current high-end model has "only" 2560 x 1440...

Apple is eyeing ways to interact with video capture devices though means such as hand gestures, as evidenced by a patent (number 20110261213) at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

A method and apparatus of interaction with and control of a video capture device are described. In the described embodiments, video are presented at a display, the display having contact or proximity sensing capabilities. A gesture can be sensed at or near the display in accordance with the video presented on the display, the gesture being associated with a first video processing operation. The video are modified in accordance with the first video processing operation in real time. The inventors are Benjamin A. Rottlier and Michael J. Ingrassia.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "The embodiments described herein relate generally to real time interactive control of image processing by a video capture device. More particularly, gestures can be applied in real time to...

By Greg Mills

I have purchased the book "Steve Jobs" and have read the first fourth of it so far. There are interesting insights into the black hole of information that describes what most of us know about the life and dealings of Steve Jobs. I downloaded it onto my iPad, a fitting tribute to the digital downloaded book concept he pioneered.

Two relevant stock issues are in the news: Sprint is rebounding somewhat from almost historic lows but still floundering without the vision and steady hand they need. I am still of the opinion Apple ought to buy Sprint and own a national cellular network they could fix. The profit alone on the iPhones Sprint has ordered over the next four years is enough to buy the company outright. Apple needs to think differently and just buy the company.

NetFlix also is in the news as it is being punished for its marketing stupidity and incredibly poorly thought-out moves. NetFlix has shed one-third its...

A new Apple patent (number 8044873) for antennas with periodic shunt inductors has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. It's for a cellular antenna that could be used in future laptops and iPhones.

Per the patent, an antenna may be formed from conductive regions that define a gap that is bridged by shunt inductors. The inductors may have equal inductances and may be located equidistant from each other to form a scatter-type antenna structure. The inductors may also have unequal inductances and may be located along the length of the gap with unequal inductor-to-inductor spacings, thereby creating a decreasing shunt inductance at increasing distances from a feed for the antenna.

This type of antenna structure functions as a horn-type antenna. One or more scatter-type antenna structures may be cascaded to form a multiband antenna. Antenna gaps may be formed in conductive device housings. The inventors are Bing Chiang, Gregory Spring, Douglas Kough, Enrique...

Apple patents involving key generation and power functions have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 8045708 involves a discrete key generation method and apparatus. It involves a computer enabled secure method and apparatus for generating a cryptographic key, to be used in a subsequent cryptographic process, where the key is to be valid only for example during a specified time period. The method uses a polynomial function which is a function of an input variable such as time, and dynamically computes the key from the polynomial.

This is useful for generating decryption keys used for distribution of encrypted content, where the decryption is to be allowed only during a specified time period. The inventors are Pierre Betouin, Mathieu Ciet and Augustin J. Farrugia.

Patent number 8046397 is for computations of power functions using polynomial approximations. Per the...

By Greg Mills

Let me first make it very clear: Apple getting serious about TV does not mean they are going to try to compete with the always cheaper, large flat screen HDTV TV manufacturers. There is just no money in throwing low margin TV sets out the door to flood an already saturated retail TV market. I have read the stories in the press and still doubt Apple plans to launch Apple branded Flatscreen TV set. Something more like a more advanced Apple TV device with DVR features yes, expensive, low margine TVs, no this is why:

Apple is way too smart to do that. It is hard to imagine anything short of a projected, 3D, HD, full color hologram projector system that would be revolutionary enough to allow Apple to make money on TV sets. While a hologram projector system is the sort of thing Apple would work on, I don't think technology is there yet to make such a system ready for consumer sales.

With current known display technology it is hard...

In a recent "iDownload.blog" (http://macte.ch/NTMev), Oliver Haslam asked a relevant question: will Siri be another FaceTime?

In case you're not familiar with Siri, it's "the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking" that Apple introduced along with iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more.

According to Apple, Siri -- which is currently in beta testing -- isn’t like traditional voice recognition software that requires you to remember keywords and speak specific commands. Siri understands your natural speech, and it asks you questions if it needs more information to complete a task.

Siri uses the processing power of the dual-core A5 chip in the iPhone 4S, and it uses 3G and Wi-Fi networks to communicate with Apple’s data centers. So it can quickly understand what you say and what...

Two new Apple patents involving a PWM and a data transformation system have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Patent number 20110254464 involves a pulse width modulation (PWM) closed loop LED current driver in an embedded system. Methods and systems for providing stable and accurate low noise DC reference voltage are described. In the described embodiments, a feedback controlled DC reference voltage supply provides a stable and well controlled sense current. The sense current is in turn used to produce a stable and well controlled light output from a light emitting diode (LED). The inventors are Li-Quan Tan, Wing Kong Low and Thai La.

Patent number 20110255687 is for a data transformation system using cyclic groups. It in asymmetric (dual key) data obfuscation process, based on the well known ElGamal cryptosystem algorithm, and which uses multiplicative cyclic groups to transform (obfuscate) digital data for security purposes. In the present system the...