Apple has been granted a patent (20120281344) for the original, click wheel iPod. The patent is for a "media player with a machined window undercut and transparent wall disposed therein."

Per the patent, the media player can include a housing having an opening and an area of reduced thickness around the opening. The media player can also include a transparent wall having a flange. Alternatively, the transparent wall may not require a flange but rather can be a flat, substantially transparent piece of material such as plexiglass or glass. The flange can be adhered to a surface of the area of reduced thickness in order to form a transparent protective cover for the display screen.

The inventors are Douglas J. Weber, Pinida Jan Moolsintong and Stephen P. Zadesky.

Also appearing today at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office are:

° Patent number 20120284688 for systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for obfuscating a computer program;

° Patent number 20120284337 for invitation to bind to a device. A server device sends a list of account holders together with an invitation to bind to the server. A client device can decide to present the invitation to a user for decision only if the client device finds a match between the list and the user.

° Patent number 20120280957 for display edge seal improvement;

° Patent number 20120280934 for an apparatus for testing a touch panel is disclosed;

° Patent number 20120279877 with packaging with multiple function after opening;

° Patent number 20120280563 for time-domain multiplexing of power and data;

° Patent number 20120280934 for simulating single and multi-touch events for testing a touch panel;

° Patent number 20120280965 for techniques for controlling the slew rate of a signal independently of RC time constants are disclosed;

° Patent number 20120281312 for a method and device for hard drive shock event detection;

° Patent number 20120281346 for the assembly of a handheld electronic device;

° Patent number 20120281354 for a cooling system for mobile handheld devices;

° Patent number 20120281561 for adaptive fast dormancy in a mobile device;

° Patent number 20120281917 for an architecture for exporting digital images;

° Patent number 20120284560 for dynamic compass calibration in a portable device;

° Patent number 20120281312 for reading XF instructions for processing vectors;

° Patent number 20120284774 for techniques for remotely viewing a presentation;

° Patent number 20120284779 for electronic devices having adaptive security profiles and methods for selecting the same.