Hidden within the latest Mac OS X update (version 10.7.4, released last week) is a Retina-display-caliber icon for Apple's built-in TextEdit application, reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). This makes the possibility of Retina display Macs in the near future even more likely.

In OS X 10.7.3, the highest-quality version of the application's icon was 512-by-512 pixels, but after updating to 10.7.4, its resolution has been doubled, notes "AppleInsider." The doubling of pixels in application icons suggest that Apple is planning to introduce new Macs with ultra-high-resolution screens, much like the Retina displays currently found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch lineup, the article adds.

Retina display laptops seem very likely. Although current MacBooks are known for their high-quality displays, the largest (17-inch) MacBook Pro sports a 1920 x 1200 resolution. Compare that...

An Apple patent (number 8180895) for managing podcasts has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Improved techniques that facilitate the use of podcasts are disclosed. The improved techniques can pertain to publishing, hosting, accessing, subscribing, managing, organizing, searching, browsing, transferring, and/or playing podcasts.

According to one aspect, tags are embedded into syndication feeds (e.g., RSS feeds) that may be made available for distribution by an online media store to facilitate the management of podcasts. Such tags can include a block tag that may be embedded into a syndication feed to indicate whether the feed is to be blocked from being included in the online media store.

According to another aspect, management of podcasts may be facilitated by other mechanisms. In accordance with one embodiment, a user may challenge the ownership of a podcast to block or remove a podcast from the online media store. In accordance with another...

Market Research company Newzoo (http://www.newzoo.com) says Apple is dominating the mobile gaming market with 84% of the revenue coming from iOS devices, rather than Android. Now I'd love to see Apple lavish some real gaming love on the Mac.

Of all American mobile gamers, 19 million play on an iPhone, which is 28% of all smartphone gamers, according to NewZoo. An additional 18 million plays games on an iPod Touch. In the tablet gaming space, the iPad is dominant with a share of 60%, or 12.7 million Americans.

Apple’s position is strongest when it comes to revenues. In March 2012, all iOS devices combined earned 84% of mobile revenues generated by the top 200 grossing games in the three stores combined: iPad, iPhone/iPod App Store and Google PlayStore.

With the "halo effect" of the iPad and iPhone, Mac sales are increasing. But I think an Apple push for gaming on the Mac would spur them on more...

A new Apple patent (number 20120115414) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows that the company is working on wireless transmission of media from a media player.

Per the patent, a handheld media player includes a storage medium for storing a plurality of media items, a user interface for selecting one or more of the media items, a playback device for playing a selected media item for a user of the handheld media player, and a wireless transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit the selected media item to one or more media devices. The wireless transmitter can be configured to wirelessly transmit the selected media item while the playback device plays the selected media item for the user of the handheld media player.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "The hand held consumer electronics market is exploding, and an increasing number of those products are including mechanism for expanding connections thereto. By way of example, hand held...

According to "DigiTimes" (http://macte.ch/uxNwD), Apple is considering responding to the upcoming second-generation ultrabooks by launching an US$799 MacBook Air in the third quarter of 2012. This has some folks speculating that a new Air model may be in the works. Perhaps a 9-inch or 10-inch version.

Sorry, but no way. Tablets are putting the hurt on ultrabook sales as it is. Apple has no good reason to introduce a new model of the Air.

What MAY happen is a price cut on the entry level, 11-inch 64GB MacBook Air. Currently, it's priced at US$999 with a 128GB version selling for $1,199. The 13-inch 128GB model costs $1,299 with a 256GB version offered for $1,599. Perhaps the prices will drop to $799 for the entry level model, with the other models seeing a $100-$200 price drop. Along with this we'll see a 15-inch MacBook Air arrive.

But a new Air to do combat with ultrabooks? Not needed, and it...

Several Apple patents has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 8174452 is for a cavity antenna for wireless electronic devices (top graphic). Wireless portable electronic devices such as laptop computers are provided with cavity-backed monopole antennas.

A wireless device may have a housing. Conductive portions of the housing such as a conductive outer metal layer and internal frame structures may form a cavity having conductive walls. An antenna resonating element structure may be formed from monopole antenna resonating element arms of dissimilar lengths. One of the arms may be straight and another of the arms may be implemented using a meandering path. The antenna resonating element may be mounted over the cavity to form a cavity-backed monopole antenna.

A display within the device may be covered by a cover glass. An opaque bezel region around the periphery of the cover glass may...

There's still a big divide among employers and employees on the whole concept of bring your own device (BYOD.

Mimecast (http://www.mimecast.com), supplier of cloud-based email archiving, continuity and security for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, has released findings from a survey of 500 IT professionals and administrators from the 2012 DevConnections conference held in Las Vegas. The survey highlights that BYOD is still a hotly debated enterprise issue and unveiled a divide between employees and the business.

While 47% of respondents find consumerization of IT important to highly important to the enterprise, when asked about the risk BYOD is perceived to bring to the enterprise, 21% said BYOD has been a risk to the business. A separate 26% say their business doesn't allow employees to use their own device for corporate tasks.

These results shows a significant disconnect; while employees...

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20120107654) for a rechargeable battery with a jelly roll having multiple thicknesses.

This battery cell includes a jelly roll enclosed in a pouch, wherein the jelly roll includes layers which are wound together, including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating. The jelly roll also includes a first conductive tab coupled to the cathode and a second conductive tab coupled to the anode.

The jelly roll is enclosed in a flexible pouch, and the first and second conductive tabs are extended through seals in the pouch to provide terminals for the battery cell. Furthermore, the battery cell has two or more thicknesses, wherein the different thicknesses are created by removing material from one or more of the layers before winding the layers together.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "Rechargeable batteries are presently used to provide power to a wide variety of portable...

An Apple patent (number 20120109349) for media management and routing within an electronic device has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

The invention relates to routing audio within an electronic device using a variety of sources and outputs. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

"Computing devices can often handle playback of multiple types of media. The media that may be played back by computing devices often includes numerous forms/formats of video, and...

One thing I hope to see in the upcoming Mountain Lion is better keychain synchronization.

Sure, there are solutions such as Dropbox and 1Password, but it would be nice to have a solution built into the operating system. This would let me sync my desktop Mac with my laptop and my iPad without resorting to a third party solution. And that seems more in tune with the Apple way.

According to a new study by the NPD research group (http://www.npd.com), one in four iPad purchasers say it's their first Apple product. The study also shows that there's lots of room for growth for Apple products.

NPD's "Apple Ecosystem Study" found that just 33% of U.S. homes own Apple products. But that number is growing well past the 37 million American households Apple devices are currently found in, thanks in large part to the iPad.

"iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch," says Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. "In fact, one-in-five Apple owner households has one -- nearly equivalent to the number that own an Apple computer. This demonstrates the appeal of both the new form factor and Apple’s app ecosystem."

A majority of the U.S. households that do have Apple products (67%) own an iPod, and 82% of iPod owners polled said the...

Apple has been granted a handful of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office involving communications and information sharing.

Patent number 817216 involves techniques for validating and sharing secrets. Per the patent, a secret is divided into a plurality of parts. Each part is represented by a unique value. Each value is distributed to a unique user that shares in the secret. The secret is recreated when each user presents each user's unique value. Each unique value is then used to recreate its corresponding part of the key and when all parts are present and validated, the secret is reproduced. The inventors are Vardhan Itta Vishnu and H.B. Puthali.

Patent number 8170588 is for contact information updating via SMS. Per the patent, a source mobile telephone detects that a telephone number of the telephone has changed to a new number, and in response, sends a text or short message service (SMS) notice message to contacts...