Apple has been granted a patent (number 8269677) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a dual-band cavity backed antenna for an integrated desktop computer -- in other words, the iMac.

Per the patent, an electronic device may have a housing with conductive housing walls. A dielectric antenna window may be formed in an opening in one of the conductive housing walls. A dielectric logo may form the dielectric antenna window. A dielectric support structure may have an outline that matches the dielectric logo. An antenna resonating element for an antenna may be formed on the dielectric support structure.

An antenna cavity for the antenna may be formed by a conductive cavity structure. A pattern of voids in the dielectric support structure may reduce dielectric loading for the antenna. The conductive cavity structure may be formed from solderable plated metal. The conductive cavity structure may have a planar lip that is attached to the conductive housing walls...

By Greg Mills

Americans are being killed in distant places around the world, in effect, due to policies Google reckons to be protective of freedom of expression on the web. In theory, a strict policy of letting content stand makes sense and protects us from highhanded authoritative governments. There are limits to any theory, which, when taken to an extreme, begin to fade in the light of day.

Such light ought to be dawning in Mountain View, about now. Years of work by our State Department to appear even-handed in the Arab sphere of influence is being swiftly undone by access to a fourth rate movie about Mohammad, content that Google insists needs to stay posted on the web. This to satisfy the web's "freedom of the wild west" mentality that also screams of anarchy.  Anarchy might be the opposite of repressiveness, but at the end of the day, is it any better? To much law or too little law. See http://www.debka.com/article/22358/Post-Arab-Spring-%...

Author Michael Levin says he can see the writing on the iPad.

"Unless something changes, books as we know them are doomed, and not simply because people prefer to read on their iPads or Kindles" says Levin, (www.BusinessGhost.com), a "New York Times" best-selling author, as well as editor, publisher, co-writer and ghostwriter. "You’ll see the major publishing houses starting to go away in three to five years. Their business model is in free fall. Already, we’re seeing books becoming shorter, cheaper, and diminishing in quality. You’ll soon see fewer really good authors bothering to write books, because books are no longer a meaningful source of revenue."

Levin points to several developments he says foreshadow a sad ending for books:

° Attention spans are diminishing. Three-fourths of teachers said their students’ attention spans are shorter than ever, according to a poll released in June....

By Hathem Brand

It's mid-September, and for techheads that can only mean one thing: The iPhone 5 is now up for grabs on store shelves. In retrospect, have the cynics (and conversely, the promoters) been proven right? Did the iPhone 5 really deserve the waves of hype it made on the tech front?

Let's go over some of the most prominent promises made and kept.

The A6 chip

Before the release, reports of the iPhone5 incorporating the much hyped quad-core A6 chip were rampant. This, however, seemed to have been fueled by camps from both sides of the fence.

If you'll remember, the excitement over the previously released A5X chip had been quickly silenced by cries of supposed foul play, mainly directed at the chip not turning out to be truly quad-core. While more a marketing "snafu" than anything else (the chip only had a dual-core CPU, although its GPU was quad-core), it nevertheless incensed a lot of consumers who...

An Apple patent (number 20120233569) for managing user interface control panels on the Mac has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Per the patent, a computer-implemented method includes displaying a user interface on a display device, the user interface displaying a content item, in response to receiving input, displaying a user interface control panel including a user interface control, the user interface control configured to enable modifying one or more attributes of the content item, and in response to detecting a first selection of the user interface control, displaying a portion of the user interface control panel and hiding a portion of the user interface control panel, the displayed portion of the user interface control panel including the user interface control.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Software applications can edit content items such as images, video, audio, documents, and the like. Content items, such as...

Yesterday's Apple media event held no major surprises. The iPhone 5, a new iTunes, a new iPod touch and a new iPod nano were revealed -- as everyone expected. There was no iPad mini, 13-inch Retina display MacBook Pro or updated iMac announcements. But they're coming.

With that in mind, here are some random thoughts that occurred to me during the media event:

° No "one more thing." Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't try to emulate Steve Jobs' famous routine of saving the biggest news of all for the end of the event, a la a "one more thing" announcement. In fact, Cook and the gang did the opposite. They started with the biggest news (the iPhone 5) and saved the least earth-shaking news (new iPods) for last. That's less dramatic, but Cook is smart enough not to copy Jobs' act.

° Naming schemes. Okay, the newest iPad is the "new iPad," the newest version of iTunes is the "new iTunes" the latest iPod touch is the "new iPod touch," the reinvented iPod nano is the "new iPad...

Today at 10 am (Pacific) Apple will hold a special media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The invite sent to the media says simply that, "It's almost here." Here's what I see being announced:

The next gen iPhone, of course, is a no-brainer. The only shock will be if Apple doesn't announce a new version of its smartphone. I've long doubted that it would be dubbed the "iPhone 5," but now it seems obvious that it will be. Why? Look carefully at the graphic from the media invitation ...

The iPhone 5 will sport a slimmer form factor wrapped around a 4-inch Retina display; that's up from the iPhone 4S’s current 3.5-inch offering. It will pack iOS 6, a quad-core A6 processor and a 9-pin dock connector that -- for better or worse -- replaces the current 30-pin standard. I also expect the iPhone 5 to support compatibility with LTE networks in the U.S., Europe and Asia. I'm not anticipating it, but I'd love to see an iPhone with...

Apple has won a patent (number 8264820) for a handheld computing device and handheld music player. It's for the iPod nano.

The handheld computing device includes a seamless enclosure formed from an extruded tube. The extruded tube includes open ends and internal rails which serve as a guide for slidably assembling an operational assembly through the open ends of the extruded tube, a reference surface for positioning the operational assembly relative to an access opening in the seamless enclosure, and a support structure for supporting the operational assembly during use. The handheld music player includes an elongated extruded tube extending along a longitudinal axis.

The elongated extruded tube has a first open end and a second open end opposite the first open end, and defines an internal lumen which is sized and dimensioned for slidable receipt of operational components of the handheld music player. The lumen includes rails for guiding the operational components to...

Apple has been granted a patent (number 8264310) for its Smart Cover for the iPad. The patent is for an accessory device for peek mode.

A magnetic attachment mechanism and method is described. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach at least two objects together in a preferred configuration without fasteners and without external intervention. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach an accessory device to an electronic device. The accessory device can be used to augment the functionality of usefulness of the electronic device.

The inventors are Andrew Lauder, Matthew D. Rohrbach, Daniel J. Coster, Christopher Stringer, Florence W. Ow, Jiang Ai, Jonathan P. Ive, Elvis M. Kibiti, John P. Ternus and Sean D. Lubner.

Apple has also been granted:

° Patent number 8265017 for methods and an apparatus for network capacity enhancement for wireless device coexistence.

° Patent...

Global connected automotive infotainment system shipments are expected to grow from 5.7 million in 2012 to 50.9 million in 2017, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). While the US is currently the leading market, it will be overtaken by both Europe and Asia-Pacific by 2017, says the research group. This could be good news for Apple and its Siri technology.

"Infotainment remains a strong driver for the connected car market with both connected navigation and multimedia streaming about to become standard features, especially in the US market," says ABI Vice President and Practice Director Dominique Bonte. "In Europe the TomTom-powered embedded Renault Carminat Live solution has seen stellar success.”

However, convergence is clearly the biggest dynamic in this nascent market with OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] such as Honda recently launching solutions based on smartphone integration...

An Apple patent (number 20120226774) for "display snooping" has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. It's designed to provide displays that may be used as secondary display devices.

Per the patent, circuitry may be placed in a communication pathway between a host computer and a second display device external to the host computer. One example provides an interface circuit that receives communication signals from a host computer. These signals may be AUX signals sent over a DisplayPort or Thunderbolt connection. The interface circuit may pass these signals to the second display device directly, it may modify them before passing them on, it may ignore them, or the interface circuit may pass them to a processor associated with the second display device.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "Computing environments continue to evolve. One of the latest evolutionary steps is the use of more than one display screen to view data generated by a computer...

Apple has filed a patent (number 20120225677) with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for synchronizing mobile and vehicle devices -- especially in regard to mapping features.

Per the patent, location information is received at a mobile device from the memory of a vehicle device. The mobile device is updated based on the location information. Sensor data is received from at least one sensor measuring movement of the mobile device, and an estimated location of the mobile device is calculated based at least in part on the location information and the sensor data.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "The role of traditional printed maps is being supplanted by modern devices capable of rendering dynamic map displays. Devices that include mapping or navigation applications provide information regarding an area selected by a user by recalling map data from local memory or networked services.

"Mapping devices include appropriately configured...