News.com covers some recently published patent applications from Apple.
The list includes technologies related to Expose, Video conferencing, music submissions and iPod technology.
The "Media player with acceleration protection" patent (applied in June 2003) covers fall protection for the iPod:
The portable computing device protects its disk drive by monitoring for such accelerations and operating to avoid usage of the disk drive during periods of acceleration. Through such protection, the likelihood of damage to the disk drive or loss of data stored on the disk drive is able to be substantially reduced. According to another aspect, a user of a portable computing device can be alerted when the portable computing device is being subjected to undesirable levels of acceleration.
Of note, IBM introduced similar technology in their ThinkPad notebooks in late 2003.
[UPDATE] - Another patent has surfaced today - "Apparatus for remotely controlling a digital processing system" - otherwise known as a mouse with a touch-sensitive scroll mechanism. Since its inception, Apple has not directly offered a mouse with a scroll wheel except from third parties.
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Apple is developing an all-new operating system that is essentially a mix of tvOS, watchOS, and iOS, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In a report this week, he said the operating system will feature a grid of icons, widgets, and apps, along with customizable clock faces.
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Apple this year acquired Israeli startup Q.ai for close to $2 billion, according to the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone maker Beats in 2014.
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Q.ai...
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