The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 54 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover two of Apple's granted patents. The first relates to Virtual Input Tools and the second covers a cool idea called a "virtual expander" for the iPad which has yet to come to market. ...

Apple has added a new 'download later' prompt to large media purchases made in iTunes or on the mobile iTunes Store, reports Macworld. The new prompt appears when purchasing movies, TV shows, TV Season Passes, full TV seasons, movie bundles, and music box sets. When purchasing any of the above items using iTunes 11 on a Mac or Windows PC, or an iOS device running iOS 6 or later, you’re now presented with Later and Download (or Download All) buttons. Tap Later and the purchased items will be added to your iTunes account and accessible to stream or download in the future via Apple’s iTunes in the Cloud feature. It’s a handy feature if you, say, want to buy a movie on sale while you have a spotty data connection; you can make sure to get the cheaper price, then download the item when you get home—or...

Back in September 2010, our sister site AppShopper launched a dedicated iOS app offering users easy access to app-tracking features such as updates and price changes. But after two years on the App Store, Apple removed AppShopper in late 2012, citing a rule against apps that could be confused with Apple's own App Store app.Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.Since that time, several other developers such as AppGratis have seen their apps removed from the App Store, reportedly as part of a broader crackdown on app discovery apps. Over the past several months, the AppShopper team has been reworking the app to add a...

Mac software developer Delicious Monster has informed MacRumors that a major new version of its popular OS X cataloging app Delicious Library is being released very soon. Delicious Library is a media and gadget cataloging application that hasn't been in the news in recent years, but garnered very positive reviews upon its first release. The first version and its followup both won Apple Design Awards for Best Mac OS X user experience in 2005 and Best OS X Leopard Application in 2007. The flashy design elements were notable at the time, and is likely to have inspired a "generation" of Mac App developers as well as (indirectly) Apple's own iBooks iOS app. One...

Case company Tactus, which last week shared a photo of what was claimed to be the polycarbonate rear shell of Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone, has now posted a new photo allegedly showing the inside of the fifth-generation iPad's rear shell. The photo is of fairly low resolution, but is consistent with the first photos of the shell that leaked in late January. At a minimum, the photo indicates that these parts are continuing to surface from the supply chain some three months after their initial appearance, although there has yet to be any firm indication on when Apple is planning to launch the new full-size iPad that appears set to carry a slimmer design based on the iPad mini. The photo also shows for the...