Apple has been granted two patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Patent number 7889139 is for a handheld electronic device with cable grounding and involves iOS devices.

According to the patent, the conductive elements may form an antenna ground plane. One or more antennas for the handheld electronic device may be formed from the ground plane and one or more associated antenna resonating elements. Transceiver circuitry may be connected to the resonating elements by transmission lines such as coaxial cables. Ferrules may be crimped to the coaxial cables. A bracket with extending members may be crimped over the ferrules to ground the coaxial cables to the housing and other conductive elements in the ground plane.

The ground plane may contain an antenna slot. A dock connector and flex circuit may overlap the slot in a way that does not affect the resonant frequency of the slot. Electrical components may be isolated from the antenna using isolation elements such as inductors and resistors. The inventors are Phillip M. Hobson, Erik L. Wang, Kenneth A. Jenks, Robert J. Hill, Robert W. Schlub, Richard Hung Minh Dinh, Tang Yew Tan and Adam D. Mittleman.

Patent number 7889184 is for a method, system and graphical user interface for displaying hyperlink information. It also involves iOS devices, pertaining generally to user interfaces for portable electronic devices, and more particularly, to displaying hyperlink information on a portable electronic device.

In one embodiment, a portable electronic device with a touch screen display: displays content on the touch screen display, wherein the content includes a plurality of links to additional content; detects a contact by a finger with the touch screen display, wherein the contact includes an area of contact; determines a point within the area of contact; choosing a first link in the plurality of links based on proximity of the first link to the determined point; and displays information associated with the first link over the displayed content, wherein the information associated with the first link includes information other than anchor text of the first link. The inventors are Chris Blumenberg, Ryan Francisco and Richard Willamson.

-- Dennis Sellers
dsellers@applecentral.com