Patents issued on August 7, 2007.
RE39,763 Isochronous channel having a linked list of buffers 
(11 pages)
A reissue of a patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,940,600) originally issued on August 17, 1999. The changes were made to the claims, narrowing them a bit. Plus, some new claims were added.
7,253,542 Quiet fan speed control (8 pages)
A circuit for driving a fan.
Applications published on August 2, 2007.
20070180391 User-interface design (15 pages)
Resolution independent GUI objects.
20070180383 Audio user interface for computing devices (19 pages)
Audio prompts for iPod user interface.
20070178891 Remote control of electronic devices (11 pages)
Using an iPhone to control tasks on a remote computer.
20070177804 Multi-touch gesture dictionary (14 pages)
Gesture dictionary, including chords, for multi-touch UI. Claims are directed to displaying a gesture dictionary upon receiving a trigger. There are claims that are particularly directed to a mobile telephone having a multi-touch interface and a GUI (e.g., the iPhone).
20070177803 Multi-touch gesture dictionary (16 pages)
The claims for this application are directed to displaying a gesture dictionary entry based on an input chord. There are also iPhone-specific claims for this first concept. The user can also define their own gestures for inclusion in the dictionary.
20070177367 Thermal interface apparatus (23 pages)
Conducting heat from a computer component to a heat sink.
20070176820 Apparatus and method to facilitate universal remote control (9 pages)
Using an iPod (Touch or Classic) or an iPhone as a universal remote control.
See Figure 3.
Applications published on July 19, 2007.
20070169115 Portable media player as a low power remote control and method thereof (17 pages)
Using an iPod as a remote control for a media server, the media server wirelessly streaming the selecting item to a stereo, for example.
20070169087 Remote content updates for portable media devices (19 pages)
Wireless iPod synchronization.
20070166687 Graphical user interface with improved media presentation (22 pages)
Displaying remotely stored media content that is related to currently displayed local media content. This is the iTunes Store recommendations feature.
20070166683 Dynamic lyrics display for portable media devices (21 pages)
20070165373 Computer component protection (21 pages)
Shock mount assembly in a laptop to provide impact absorption. Designed to protect the optical drive and the screen of the laptop.
20070165105 Multimedia conference recording and manipulation interface (12 pages)
Recording an iChat session.
20070165035 Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor having advanced features (415 pages)
D546,277 Battery pack (7 pages)
Design for first gen iPod Shuffle battery back.
7,242,576 Quick release structures for a computer (42 pages)
Release mechanism for the access door on pro-level towers.
7,242,411 Adjustment of color values for optimized image processing (13 pages)
Color space conversion from YCrCb to RGB.
7,242,169 Method and apparatus for voltage compensation for parasitic impedance (14 pages)
20070157268 Portable media device with improved video acceleration capabilities (16 pages)
20070157094 Application user interface with navigation bar showing current and prior application contexts (24 pages)
iPhone GUI with navigation bar.
20070157089 Portable electronic device with interface reconfiguration mode (17 pages)
iPhone GUI where users can reposition icons on the display.
20070157041 Conserving power by reducing voltage supplied to an instruction-processing portion of a processor (8 pages)
20070156962 Media device with intelligent cache utilization (22 pages)
Reducing disk access during playback on an iPod, using a cache. Includes loading parts of files adjacent on a list to the selected item.
7,237,135 Cyclemaster synchronization in a distributed bridge (11 pages)
Synchronizing devices over a FireWire connection.
7,236,528 System and method for processing time-based media (16 pages)
7,236,154 Computer light adjustment (25 pages)
Adjust the light level output of a computer based on the measured ambient light around the computer. For example, used with lighting a laptop keyboard.
20070143762 Assigning tasks in a distributed system based on ranking (12 pages)
Performing distributed computing on an Xgrid. A utility program is sent to several systems, which run the utility and report back a value. A coordinating process selects the system that returned the highest value to perform a task.
20070140505 Method and apparatus for masking acoustic keyboard emanations (8 pages)
Mask typing noises from a keyboard to provide security, such that what a user types cannot be determined based on the typing sounds. Apparently, the sound generated by typing can be analyzed to determine what keys on a keyboard were pressed and in what order. See the researchers’ Web site (not much there) and the paper (a PDF) on which this is all based. Claims are directed to outputting a masking signal to cover the typing sounds.
20070140504 Method and apparatus for masking acoustic keyboard emanations (8 pages)
Same as the previous publication. There don’t appear to be many differences in the claims, just that this publication has fewer claims than the previous one. Not really sure why that was done; I may have missed something on my review.
20070138999 Protecting electronic devices from extended unauthorized use (13 pages)
Disables the recharging circuit of a device if its use is unauthorized.
20070138806 Magnetic latching mechanism (17 pages)
Magnetic latch for a laptop display. Opens (magnets repel) and closes (magnets attract) by magnet positioning.
7,234,067 Autonomous thermal management (9 pages)
Managing the temperature of peripherals by regulating power consumption.
7,234,026 Media player with instant play capability (13 pages)
Playing a media file before it is fully loaded into memory, using caching.
7,233,985 Providing a reliable operating system for clients of a net-booted environment (23 pages)
One example is a network computer booting from a boot image stored on a server. See Figure 3.
Claims priority back to October 1999.
7,233,972 Method and apparatus for coordination of client/server processes (16 pages)
Making sure that processes, including I/O requests, are completed. Claims priority back to September 1998.
7,233,832 Method and apparatus for expanding audio data (19 pages)
Time stretching methods for audio. Useful for creating sound effects in movies, for example.
7,233,318 Multi-button mouse (24 pages)
Structure for providing multi-button mouse functionality in a unibody mouse. For example, the Mighty Mouse (but without the track nub). Various button arrangements are possible; see Figure 6.
The claims are all directed to a unibody mouse.
RE39,692 Socket connector having a flexible internal barrier to prevent incorrect insertion of smaller sized plugs (6 pages)
7,231,632 System for reducing the number of programs necessary to render an image (120 pages)
7,230,633 Method and apparatus for image blending (143 pages)
7,230,563 Apparatus and method to facilitate universal remote control (8 pages)
Universal remote control with a touch screen, capable of displaying XML or HTTP information.
20070124680 Graphical user interface and methods of use thereof in a multimedia player (15 pages)
About the iPod user interface.
20070123207 Accessory detection to minimize interference with wireless communication (11 pages)
Checking whether an accessory connected to a mobile device will interfere with the wireless communication capabilities of the mobile device. If interference will occur, the user is alerted or the mobile device adjusts its communication settings to counter any interference created by the connected accessory.
20070121102 Positioning a first surface in a pre-determined position relative to a second surface (12 pages)
A method for testing LCD displays during production by accounting for possible differences in the viewing angle of the display being tested relative to the testing equipment.
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