Stand back. There's no telling how big this iPad thing can get. A new report from Juniper Research (http://www.juniperresearch.com) finds that annual revenues from consumer mobile applications will approach US$52 billion by 2016 as consumer smartphone adoption accelerates in tandem with the emergence of a mass tablet market.

While smartphones will continue to comprise the majority of app revenues over the forecast period, the report noted that tablets -- which currently account for just 7% of global app revenues -- would comprise 25% of such revenues by 2016. And the iPad is far and away the top dog in the tablet market.

Juniper's report observed that the app store model’s pre-eminence faced the prospect of erosion in the longer term as HTML5 -- a markup language which reduces end-user dependence on plug-in app technologies -- facilitates the transition to a browser-based environment....

I think cloud computing has a great deal of potential. However, I'm not ready to trust all -- or even most -- of my data to the "cloud."

However, members of IEEE (http://www.ieee.org) -- a technical professional association -- are working to deliver on the promise of cloud computing by helping enterprises of all sizes address the barriers that can potentially reduce the adoption rates of this game-changing technology.

IEEE says prospective benefits of cloud-based systems are hard to ignore: significant cost reductions in the operations and maintenance of the IT infrastructure; extreme scalability and accessibility; fewer concerns about overloading servers or lack of storage space; and rapid deployment. Of course, challenges and perceived risks prevail, with lingering concerns about cloud security and privacy, performance unpredictability, and if the ultimate return on investment makes cloud adoption a fit...

According to patent number 20120046780, Apple is working on ways to improve the microphones in its various devices. The invention involves a composite microphone boot has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. It relates to consumer electronic devices and more particularly, methods and apparatus for providing microphone capabilities for consumer electronic devices.

A microphone assembly for an electronic device is described. The microphone assembly can include a microphone, a microphone boot and a printed circuit board. The microphone boot can be a composite microphone boot that is formed from multiple materials. A hardness of the each of the materials used in the microphone boot can be selected to improve sealing integrity and reduce shock transmission. In one embodiment, the composite microphone boot can be formed using a double-shot injection molding process. The inventors are Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Phillip M. Hobson, Adam Mittleman and Anna-Katrina Shedlesky...

"9to5Mac" (http://macte.ch/dXs6P) says Apple is preparing its first iTunes Store redesign in nearly three years. The new design will purportedly be simpler and more user-friendly than the current design.

Apple is working on ways to enhance the speed and efficiency of finding new content, such as songs, videos, and applications, according to "9to5Mac." iTunes itself could also use some overhauling. Perhaps Apple will offer a new version that reflects the OS X counterparts in iOS, which do make more sense.

Last year MobileTrax (http://www.mobiletrax.com) analyst Gerry Purdy wrote an open letter to new Apple CEO Tim Cook, recommending that Apple change the name of iTunes to iMedia since they sell TV shows, movies and more, not only music.

That makes sense. But I think an even better idea would be to break iTunes into...

Two Apple patents have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office that hint that Apple is at least investigating touch screen Macs. For example, patent number 8118274 is a support mechanism for supporting an object on a surface is disclosed.

The support mechanism includes a joint connected to the object; and a stand connected to the joint. The joint may selectively rotate to allow the stand to support the object on the surface in: a first position comprising a landscape orientation at a first angle between the object and the surface, a second position comprising a landscape orientation at a second angle between the object and the surface, a third position comprising a portrait orientation at a third angle between the object and the surface, and a fourth position comprising a portrait orientation at a fourth angle between the object and the surface. The inventors are Stephen R. McClure and Joshua D. Banko.

Here's Apple's summary of the...

Cozi (http://www.cozi.com/), an online and mobile family calendar and organizer, recently surveyed American families on smartphone usage and must-have apps. The entire family agrees on their most-loved smartphone apps: Facebook, Pandora and Angry Birds were in the top five for moms, dads and children alike.

That may be the one similarity they share, as they differ in many of the ways they use their phones. When it comes to choosing apps and smartphones, moms tend to be more social. Cozi’s survey of nearly 2,000 parents showed that moms are more likely than dads (65% vs. 58%) to get app information from their friends, and twice as likely as dads (10% vs. 5%) to say a friend’s recommendation was the most important factor in choosing a smartphone.

Moms were also more than twice as likely as dads (19% vs. 8%) to say Facebook was the activity they do most on their smartphones. This doesn’t mean dads aren’t...

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20120042174) for a remote container. Apparently, it involves the company's iCloud service.

Methods, program products, and systems implementing remote container techniques are disclosed. A relational database can include a container data field, which can be a data field for storing multimedia data. In one aspect, when the multimedia data are inserted into the container field, the multimedia data can be stored in one or more remote database files. The remote database files can be located separately from other data of the relational database and remotely from a client computer accessing the relational database. Corresponding data structures, or remote containers, can be configured to store metadata of the database files.

References to the remote containers can be stored as values of the container data field. Using various encryption techniques, the remote database files can be given same access restrictions as access restrictions...

A handful of Apple patents involving population segmentation have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. They relate to electronic content delivery and, more specifically, to intelligent targeting of invitational content to a user based on user characteristics.

Patent number 20120042253 involves population segmentation. Per the invention, segments used to select content to be targeted to a user are recursively refined based on continuously derived user characteristics. Based on information gathered from new requests for targeted content and/or user interaction with previously delivered content the user is assigned to one or additional candidate segments.

The candidate segments can be used to select content to be delivered to the user based on the user's assignment to the targeted segments. Accordingly, each user is grouped into one or more targeted segments and based on the user's inclusion in those segments, requests for targeted...

John Gruber at "Daring Fireball" (http://www.daringfireball.net) points out that Safari’s "hovering-over-a-link pointing-finger" cursor looks a little different in Mac OS X 10.7.3 and could hint at "retina display" Macs in the near future. I'd love to see that happen, though I'm a bit dubious.

Noting that several icons and images have gotten the "high-DPI treatment in 10.7.3," Gruber says that "the simplest explanation is that Apple only just now got around to increasing the resolution of these elements for the benefit of users who use the cursor-zooming Universal Access feature."

True, but, as he notes, "combined with the fact that some people with Mac minis connected to TVs via HDMI are reporting that after upgrading to 10.7.3, their system rebooted in HiDPI mode, I can’t help but wonder whether we may be on the cusp of Apple releasing HiDPI Mac displays and/or HiDPI MacBooks. I.e.:...

A patent (number 8117038) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple continues to work on an universal container for audio data. It relates generally to digital audio and, more specifically, to a universal container for audio data.

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...

Note to guys: it's Valentine's Day. Don't forget your sweetie.

Note to assorted guys and gals: if your main squeeze is a piece of technology, please re-evaluate your life.

Apparently, some of us have waaaaaay too much affection for gadgets such as the iPhone and iPad. Asurion (http://www.asurion.com), which specializes in technology protection services, says its national survey results show that nearly 30% of survey participants believe their cell phone is more helpful to them than their significant other. 

Reasons frequently given by the 3,000 survey respondents include that the cell phone is more entertaining than their significant other, they appreciate that the cell phone has an off button and that the device never talks back.

"While the content of the communications might vary wildly among users, there's no doubt mobile devices are now the primary way people stay in touch with...

The IT Employee Confidence Index, a measure of overall confidence among U.S. technology workers, showed a positive uptick in confidence from 47.3 to 52.0 in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a recent online survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Technisource. 

Showing some much needed signs of recovery, the survey of 3,721 U.S. adults, among which 246 are employed in information technology, denotes the return of positive confidence levels (above 50) amongst IT professionals. The increase in IT professionals' confidence in the economy was largely led by a perception of more jobs being available and an increased ability to get those new jobs. 

Mirroring this increase in confidence is a decreased belief that IT pros will lose their jobs within the next 12 months. Results from the Q4 IT Employment Report include:

° In this survey, IT professionals demonstrated a spike in confidence in the overall economy, with 22% now believing the economy is...

A patent (number 20120036433) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple is looking into three-dimensional interfaces for at least some of its products. The patent is for 3D user interface effects on a display by using properties of motion.

The techniques disclosed use a compass, MEMS accelerometer, GPS module, and MEMS gyrometer to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device. This can provide a true Frenet frame, i.e., X- and Y-vectors for the display, and also a Z-vector that points perpendicularly to the display. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, gyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track the Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide a continuous 3D frame-of-reference.

Once this continuous frame of reference is known, the position of a user's eyes may either be inferred or calculated directly by using a device's front-facing camera. With the position of the...

"AppAdvice" (http://macte.ch/0ghLi) and various other sites have reported that, back in 2010, Tristan Schaap -- a student who had spent a 12 week internship with Apple -- wrote a thesis that detailed his time spent with Apple’s Platform Technologies Group. They conducted experiments regarding Mac OS X and ARM processors. Could this mean an iPad running Mac OS X? I doubt it.

"The project was only made public several months ago. While iOS also uses the Darwin kernel, this project involved Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and was left for the CoreOS teams to continue," says "AppAdvice." "Since Mac OX X 10.7 Lion has since shipped, as have newer generations of iPad and MacBook Air, without any sign of Mac OS X on ARM, it’s unknown if this project is still ongoing or has since been put on the shelf. However, the author of the paper is now a full-time employee at Apple, working as a CoreOS Engineer."

Apple may have...

After meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner told clients in a note -- as reported by "V3" (http://macte.ch/zf70V) -- that Apple may be redesigning the iPad. I beg to differ. It won't happen -- at least in the way Gardner hints.

The analyst thinks Apple may redesign its tablet to meet the needs of those wanting an ARM-based hybrid device with, say, a keyboard. "We have wondered whether Apple might offer an ARM-based version of the MacBook Air at some point; we walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels the iPad satisfies -- or will soon satisfy -- the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product."

There's no way Apple will introduce an iPad with a keyboard other than a virtual one. It goes against the entire "post-PC' aesthetic of the tablet. Want to use a physical keyboard with your iPad? Apple expects you to spring for one of the...

Apple is working on ways to control power provided to an accessory, per a patent (number 8112567) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. A method for a portable media player to control power provided an accessory is disclosed.

The method includes requesting information about the power capabilities of the accessory by the portable media player. The method further includes providing information about the power capabilities of the accessory by the accessory to the portable media player, and utilizing the information to set the power of the accessory.

A method and system in accordance with the present invention provides a system that allows a portable media player to obtain information from an accessory concerning its power requirements. A portable media player can then utilize the power requirements information to allow for the powering of the accessory when connected to the portable media player. The inventors are Gregory T. Lydon, Scott Kureger, Donald J....

Apple has won several patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 8111751 is for encoding video. Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for encoding a video signal that is formed by a series of successive images. Each image includes several sections, and each section has a set of image values. To encode a particular section of a particular image, the method initially partitions the particular section into several sub-sections. For each of at least two particular sub-sections, the method then computes a statistical parameter regarding the image values of the particular sub-section.

The method compares the computed statistical parameters, and based on the comparison, selects an encoding technique from a set of encoding techniques to encode the particular section. In some embodiments, the set of encoding schemes includes a first scheme that encodes the selected section without reference to...

I always enjoy the annual article "Mac/Life" on products Apple should/could develop. In their latest feature, I was particularly intrigued by the iDesk.

The iDesk is a conceptual re-imagining of the desk. Not the Mac OS X Desktop, but an actual, physical desktop.

Here's how "Mac/Life" describes it: "Imagine an entirely adaptable workspace that doesn’t just hold your equipment, but enhances and interacts with it. As with Microsoft’s Surface technology, the entire desk would be a touch-sensitive display capable of running several simultaneous apps, some of which--such as a calendar, phone, and digital Post-It notes—would replace their physical counterparts entirely. Notifications, to-do lists, video conferencing, Adobe tool palettes, and countless widgets such as calculators and weather reports would all appear right on the surface of your desk, literally putting your entire working world at your fingertips."

The article says that the iDesk would sync with your...

A new Apple patent (number 20120028480) has appeared at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Among other things it would facilitate the assembly of Apple devices via programmable magnetic devices.

The patent involves alignment and connection for devices. relate generally to programmable magnetic devices, and more particularly to multi-part devices that may be joined or separated through programmable magnets. A plug or connector including a coded magnet and an electrical contact is disclosed.

As the plug approaches a corresponding port, the coded magnet interacts with a magnet within the port. The interaction between the plug coded magnet and the port coded magnet provides a force to connect and/or align the plug with the port. Once the plug is received within the port, if a process is completed, the coded magnets polarities are altered to eject the plug from the port.

“Correlated magnets” or “coded magnets” are magnetic structures formed of multiple...

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

Patent number 20120026403 is for facilitating audio playback during display sleep mode. The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for managing power for a display. During operation, the system receives a video-blank command, which specifies that the display is to enter a video-blank mode wherein the display outputs a blank screen. In response to the video-blank command, the system causes the display to output a blank screen, and powers down display components associated with outputting a display signal to the display.

In some embodiments, the display additionally comprises audio components including an audio-output device, and powering down the display components involves maintaining an existing power state for the audio components, so that the audio components can continue to output an audio signal while the display components are...

If you think Apple had a great year in 2011, you ain't see nothing yet. While still firing on all cylinders in the consumer market, the company is also making great gains in the enterprise arena.

Forrester Research's (http://www.forrester.com) latest "Global Tech Market Outlook" states that enterprises will spend US$19 billion on Apple hardware in 2012 -- which is 68% more iPads and 45% more Macs than purchased in 2011.

"Apple's products are much more visible in business environments than they used to be," writes analyst Frank E. Gillet. "To quantify Apple's business presence, Forrester surveyed almost 10,000 information workers -- workers that use a computer for work an hour or more per day -- across 17 countries globally and more than 3,350 IT hardware decision-makers in North America and Western Europe. We analyzed the data to profile how information workers use Apple products for work, how...

Last week I asked (http://macte.ch/rxr8P) if Apple should be doing more to help the U.S. economy. Some readers, including my long-time friend, J. Scott Anderson, asked the flip side of the question: should the U.S. government be doing more to help companies like Apple move jobs back to this country.

"I think it is the other way around," says Scott. "The US should do more that would attract companies to bring more manufacturing and other business functions back to the US. This is a complicated issue that has a lot of components. However, the bottom line is that Apple should do what is best for them and their customers."

President Obama touched on this subject last week in his State of the Union address. he recommended proposals for tax breaks benefiting companies that keep jobs in the United States, and eliminating tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

-- Dennis Sellers

Apple will almost certainly never support Blu-ray on the Mac -- though I'd love to be surprised with, say, a "Super" SuperDrive with an accompanying Mac OS X update that supports playback of Blu-ray movies.

I won't be at all surprised if the next iMac and MacBook Pro upgrades lack an optical drive entirely a la the MacBook Air and Mac mini. After all, Apple is determined to encourage (force?) you into using iTunes to rent/buy movies as well as purchase music.

That's a mistake. The day may come when buying films online is feasible, but, with bandwidth considerations, that day hasn't come.

Compare the online market for music purchases with that of movie purchases. Digital sales accounted for 32%of global music revenues in 2011, compared with just 1% for films (and, just so you'll know, 5% for newspapers and 4% for books).

Clearly, there's great growth potential for movies on iTunes, books at the iBookstore and newspapers at Newsstand (the latter two...

How would you like access to certain media based on your current location? According to a new patent (number 20120021773) at the U.S. Patent & Trade Association, Apple is working on such technology.

Per the patent, media can be presented based on location associated with presentation of media (e.g., physical location of a device that is to present media). Presentation of media can be effectively controlled in order to automatically present a first media content (e.g., a list of songs, an album) in accordance with a first set of media presentation attributes or parameters (e.g., volume associated with presentation of audible media) at a first location, while a second media content is automatically presented in accordance with a second set of media presentation attributes or parameters when the current location is changed to a second location. Michael M. Lee is the inventor.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Traditional electronic devices (e...