Archive for February 4th, 2007

Configuration of a computing device in a secure manner

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Title:  Configuration of a computing device in a secure manner

Patent application publication number:  20070028109

Publication date:  February 1, 2007

Filing date:  July 26, 2005 (priority to November 12, 2004)

Link to PDF: 

AIPW Summary:  A computing device (including a media player or a mobile telephone) can be configured by providing configuration data to the device, instead of providing an updated executable program to the device. The configuration data is digitally signed to verify its authenticity. One example given is purchasing songs through the iTunes store.

Posted in iPhone-related patents, iTunes software-related patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »

Secure software updates

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Title:  Secure software updates

Patent application publication number:  20070028120

Publication date:  February 1, 2007

Filing date:  July 26, 2005 (priority to November 12, 2004)

Link to PDF: 

AIPW Summary:  A method for updating software (in either stationary or portable devices) includes authenticating the updated software and determining whether the update is appropriate for the device running the software. A particular example given of a use of the method is for updating DRM software. The update process includes checking the current version of the software running on the device. The device connects to a server and checks to see if the current version running on the device is the most recent version available. If there is a more recent version available, an encrypted update is downloaded and installed on the device. For a mobile device, this can be a wired or a wireless process.

Posted in Mac OS-related software patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »

Dynamic performance evaluation of data storage systems

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Title:  Method and apparatus for dynamic performance evaluation of data storage systems

Patent application publication number:   20070028135

Publication date: February 1, 2007

Filing date:  October 2, 2006 (priority to November 22, 2002)

Link to PDF:

AIPW Summary:  A method for dynamic performance evaluation of data storage systems (either a single disk drive or a RAID) using data throughput as a diagnostic criteria. The performance of the drive is compared to predetermined minimum performance criteria. The drive is considered to be “acceptable” if the measured performance meets the minimum performance criteria. To measure drive performance, a predetermined number of blocks are transferred. The transfer time is measured, and this process is repeated several times to obtain an average transfer time. If the average transfer time is less than a predefined time limit, then the drive is “accepted” (assuming that there have been no hard errors, in which case the drive is rejected).

Posted in Miscellaneous Apple-related software patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »