Apple was granted a recent patent, no. 7,508,662, for a handle arrangement with integrated heat pipe.

Here’s how it’s summed up in the patent application: “As portable electronic device designs become more compact, managing thermal loads in integrated circuits (e.g. processing units) becomes more challenging.

One reason for this challenge is that high powered portable devices can generate significant amounts of waste heat energy over a relatively compact area. As such, damage due to heat cycling may cause collateral damage to components in close proximity to heat generators. In conventional solutions, fans may be utilized in coordination with a heat sink to dissipate generated waste heat. In some examples, where fans are utilized to cool components, battery life may be significantly lowered.

“Although conventional methods as illustrated may be effective, as noted above, power requirements for fan usage may, in some instances significantly reduce battery life making such a solution somewhat undesirable. Furthermore, use of a fan may, in some examples, contribute to an undesirable increase in noise level. Therefore, handle arrangements with an integrated heat pipe are presented herein.”

The  iBook G3 Clamshell had a handle (removed on later models),  a quick search turned up third-party handles for newer models, too, though at about $45 you might be better off with a case.

Have you bought handles? Would you like to see them on your next laptop?

via macsimum news

Apple has filed a patent for a wireless “remote wand” with the idea of adding it to future versions of Apple TV.  The wand would give users with control over a cursor on the Apple TV screen, sort of like a mouse controls a cursor on a computer. The wand would also give Apple TV three-dimensional controls similar to those offered by Nintendo’s Wii controller.

According to Apple Insider, unlike the current 5-button remote on the current version of Apple TV, the wand can control a number of functions and can be used to zoom, as a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application and a media application.

A feature called “Now Playing,”  launched in  fall 2007,  allowed latte-sippers to wander into a Starbucks, log onto the iTunes Store with a laptop, iPod Touch or iPhone and instantly see what song was playing in-store, plus browse and buy music on iTunes.

Unwired View found a patent Apple filed for a similar feature.
The basic idea: place a local cache of iTunes media store server at a retail location and follow the music played from that cache. The associated info is beamed to iPhones and Macbooks via local Wi-Fi network.

Apple envisions lots of in-store tie-ins and cross selling thanks to the feature.

From the patent application:
“One advantage of the invention is that patrons of establishments can dynamically receive store-based information while at the establishments. Store-based information facilitates user experience and can also facilitate locating associated media content from an online media store.

In store-based information can be displayed on a patron’s portable electronic device while the patron in the store… The online media store can coordinate with central management to make store-based information centrally stored and accessible…”

Via Unwired View

After a round of saber rattling that left Palm and Apple hurling threats of patent infringement lawsuits, the Sunnyvale, Calif. company Wednesday attempted to smooth any ruffled feathers.

Palm had “no issues with Apple” patents and is “very respectful of other companies” patent portfolios, Palm chief Ed Colligan told an audience at the Thomas Weisel Technology & Telecom Conference.

The comments follow a week of verbal sparring between Palm and Apple over the upcoming introduction of the Pre, a touch-screen handset from the Treo maker.

Have Apple lawyers targeted Palm as a potential target for patent-infringment lawsuits? Concerns sent shares of the Palm Pre handset slipping Tuesday.

Palm shares were down $0.40 as of 1:22 p.m. Eastern. Apple’s stock was up $0.86.

Worries were renewed earlier today on word Apple had been granted a patent covering a “touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD.

Apple was granted a key patent covering many aspects of the iPhone interface as well as potentially other “multi-touch” handsets. CEO Steve Jobs was listed among the inventors in a 358-page filing awarded last week.

The patent covers the iPhone, gestures and the handset’s OS X operating software.

U.S. Patent No. 7479949 comes saber-rattling between Apple and other touch-screen handset makers. Last week, interim Apple CEO Tim Cook warned unnamed competitors that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company would protect its intellectual property.

Palm said Friday it won’t be threatened by Apple’s hint of lawsuit should rivals mimic too closely its best-selling iPhone. The maker of the new Pre smartphone did some trash talking of its own, bringing up “fundamental” handset patents it owns.

“If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves,” Palm spokewoman Lynn Fox told the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD.

Fox said Palm controls a “robust patent portfolio” that includes possibly vital aspects of cell phone design. Palm’s Treo handset is seen as breaking ground for Apple and other smartphone makers.

Apple may be adding useful swipe gesturing functionality to the virtual keyboard on the company’s mobile devices, according to a report at MacRumors.

Blogger Arnold Kim describes two potentially effective additions to Apple’s touch interface contained in a patent application filed yesterday with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Aside from the single finger swipes depicted in the diagrams below, multi-touch gestures (two and three fingers) could invoke other special functions. If a single finger left-swipe might delete a letter, a two finger left-swipe could delete a whole word, and a three finger left-swipe could delete a line. Similarly, a single finger right-swipe could add a space, while a two finger right-swipe could add a period. Up swipes and down swipes could also invoke different functions based on the number of fingers used.

As with Apple’s evolving multi-touch notebook trackpads, these optional functions could provide iPhone and iPod Touch users with useful and welcome shortcuts.

Apple is being sued for patent infringement after a company alleges Cupertino used confidential data to launch Apple TV and other products.

EZ4Media is asking an Illinois court to grant an injunction and fine Apple for infringing on four patents on technology to stream video from a device to a television.

The company claims three employees with “confidential and proprietary information” about the patents were hired by Apple months before the computer-maker launched Apple TV, a product that streams video to home television screens.

Apple has filed two patents bringing liquid-cooling to increasingly powerful (and hot) laptop computers. Once the domain of massive number-crunchers, liquid-cooled notebooks foresee a day when quad-core processors and better video overwhelms current fan-driven cooling.

In its U.S. Patent Office applications, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple outlined an active and passive liquid-cooling process.

The active liquid-cooling process involves bathing circuits, the heat relieved via fins. A more inexpensive passive liquid-cooling procedure would include a heat sink located behind the laptop’s display. Moving the heat away from the computer’s body could solve the dilemma of an overheated lap.