The United States Patent and Trademark Office has flat out denied Apple the trademark for multi-touch technology. Apple detailed its revolutionary multi-touch display to the world with the original iPhone back in 2007. Apple’s trademark request was also filed at that time.

Apple wanted to trademark Multi-Touch. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has finally ruled that Multi-Touch has a too much of a generic meaning now, not to mention the fact that nearly every smartphone and tablet on the market uses the technology.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a jacket that lets you store your iPhone, iPad, sync cables, and maybe even a MacBook Air? The folks at AyeGear think so.

The AyeGear jacket lets you take your Apple devices with you wherever you go.

A retirement center in Florida says an iPad pilot program started in July is helping keep residents young at heart.

The iPad’s large touch screen and light weight are helping healthy residents socialize more — as they play with puzzles and games — and it’s been “pretty amazing,” the home director says with re-educating stroke and dementia patients.

Los Angeles-based TRTL BOT turned to Kickstarter for the latest project: A massive, multi-use iPad 2 case/stand called The Shell, with a nod to keeping an iPad safe during brutal use. Like when it’s in the hands of kids.

That Facebook engineer who quit for Google after his bosses refused to release his feature-complete app? Turns out they might have been holding it back for a reason: Apple’s going to feature it at next week’s iPhone event, and they’ll show off new Facebook iOS 5 integration alongside it, just like Apple’s already rolled out in the iOS 5 betas for Twitter.

Moving swiftly to take advantage of a rapidly changing debacle – err, situation – Scoopertino reports today that HP has just launched a new CEO Swapper app for the iPad. Using proprietary CEO Seeker™ technology, the app allows desperate HR Departments and Boards of Directors to search for possible CEOs by category and compare results right at your fingertips.

Apple has announced the date for its Q4 2011 earnings call to investors. The Cupertino company will hold its financial conference call on October 18th for the fourth fiscal quarter.

Q4 of 2011 ended on Saturday, September 24th. After stellar results in Q3 of 2011, Apple is expected to do just as well, if not better, in its results for the fourth quarter.

Initially after the release of Mac OS X Lion it looked like Apple had removed the tap-to-drag functionality in Mac OS X. Tap-to-drag activates when you tap your trackpad, release, tap again and then hold to drag items around on the screen.

Well Apple didn’t remove it, but they sure did find a good place to hide it and I’ll show you where in today’s tip.

Australian carrier Vodafone has erected a teaser page on its website for the rumored iPhone 5. The webpage features says “End the rumors” and presents a form for customers to receive updates about “this year’s biggest smartphone release.”

Apple has responded to concerns from environmental activist groups in China by meeting with The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) in Beijing. IPE has called the gesture a “positive sign” that Apple is attentive to environmental concerns regarding its suppliers overseas.

According to Macworld, IPE and other groups have accused Apple of using Chinese manufacturers that pollute the environment, even going so far as to say that such manufacturers are responsible for a rise in cancer rates among locals.

On Thursday Cult of Mac’s Twitterfeed gained its 100,000th follower. We know we couldn’t have hit this big milestone without so many passionate readers who motivate us to provide the best Apple news content on the web. In order to celebrate we want to give back to all our Twitter followers who have supported us, so we’re giving away a treasure trove of goodies as our way to say thanks. We will be hosting a Twitter Trivia Giveaway on Tuesday, September 27th at 5pm EDT. If you’re not going to be available for the Twitter Trivia Giveaway you can still win some prizes by leaving your Twitter handle in a comment on this article and we’ll  enter you in some of our random drawings.

Here’s what you can win:

Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion that the iPad isn’t a mobiel device, Facebook has been working on a native iPad app com for quite some time. In fact, not only has Facebook been hammering away at it for months, but it was even possible to unlock it on jailbroken iPads using the iPhone version of the app.

So where is it? Back in July, the New York Times said Facebook’s native app would be out in mere weeks. Here it is three months later, and we still don’t have an ETA for something as simple as a native iPad app, even as the world’s biggest social network has announced some of its biggest changes yet at last week’s F8 Conference.

Sick of waiting? You’re not the only one. The lead developer of Facebook for iPad has reportedly just quit the social network in disgust for not releasing the app, which was reportedly feature complete back in May.

There’s not much to say about Catculator, a $0.99 Calculator.app replacement that allows you to perform simple arithmetic on the heaving fuzzy belly of an enormous Studio Ghibili style cat!

But just because there isn’t much to say about it doesn’t mean that hundreds of thousands of iOS users shouldn’t be alerted to the fact that they can do math by poking and prodding an adorable, sleepy cat as soon as possible!

Get downloading.

[via AppAdvice]

Although much of the tech news bandwidth has been consumed with chatter about the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung has shipped 10 million Android-powered Galaxy S IIs smartphones — before touching foot on U.S. soil. Many expect the Samsung v. Apple battle to be the cage fight of cellular titans.

TextMate users, rejoice: after years of waiting, TextMate 2 is just around the corner. But is it too late?

AllThingsD says that Apple will announced the next iPhone on October 4th, next Thursday, at a small venue at its own Cupertino HQ. Since All Things D’s “source” is almost definitely Apple itself, that date and venue seems pretty solid.

It’s about the only report about the next iPhone that feels solid. What else do we know for sure about the next iPhone? Pretty much bupkis for sure. Apple has gone to unprecedented and incredible lengths to keep the exact details of the next iPhone secret. It’s the first time Apple journalists have truly felt left in the dark for a long time.

For over a year now, YouTube’s HTML5 web interface has made the official YouTube iOS app seem slow and ungainly. Now it’s one upped f its slow, stupid brother once again by making watching videos on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad even sleeker and easier on the eyes.

Here’s how to access the new design. Just visit https://m.youtube.com/new_visual_design on your iOS device and select “Try The New Visual Design!” Once the app reloads, you’ll be good to go.

I honestly don’t even know why Apple bothers to ship iOS with a YouTube.app installed anymore. The web app is superior to the native app in practically every way.

[via MacStories]

Apple may unveil early next month an inexpensive iPhone that could “drastically expand” the tech giant’s smartphone market – along with providing a huge 50 percent margin. The iPhone 4s, described as an iPod touch with a cellular antenna, could sell for $300, yet cost just $150 to build, claims one Wall Street analyst Monday.

Did you already undergo the rather tortuous process of getting your entire iTunes library mirrored onto Apple’s iTunes Match servers? Well, bum luck, champ, because Apple just reset all its iCloud Libraries a mere 15 minutes ago. You’ll have to start all over again.

The good news, though, is that it might mean Apple will release the iOS 5 Gold Master as early as today.

If you’re looking forward to Motorola’s second-generation Xoom tablet, then feast your eyes on these leaked images that show the device in all its glory.

Amazon’s upcoming Kindle tablet may have cracked one of the toughest nuts facing companies hoping to compete with Apple’s lean, mean iPad supply machine: cost. The Internet retailer may rely heavily on the cloud to store ebooks, as well as stream music and video, weekend reports suggest.

Samsung could wait even longer to begin sales of its Galaxy Tab in Australia. A Federal Court judge hinted she may okay a “brief” injunction while she studies Apple’s patent-infringement claims. The suggestion came during the start of a two-day court hearing on whether sales by the Korean tablet manufacturer should be halted in Australia.

Apple is reportedly planning to introduce curved glass displays to its iOS devices as early as next year, according to a new report. The Cupertino company has reportedly invested in glass polishing hardware for its suppliers that will allow them to produce launch the first curved glass device in the first half of 2012.

In a move that even took analysts by surprise, Apple has recently slashed iPad orders by 25 percent for the fiscal fourth quarter. The cuts, which surfaced over the past two weeks, could indicate renewed urgency for the iPad 3 or a plot to corner tablet suppliers. Or it could mean that even Apple’s not immune to an economic downturn.

We’re all dying to know what we can expect from Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone. For months we’ve been speculating on what it will look like, what kind of features it will boast, and when it will be available. However, a new report could tell you all almost everything you ever wanted to know about Apple’s new iPhone — including its new internals, and an iOS feature that will debut on the fifth-generation device.