A trifecta of patents were awarded to Apple Inc today, including a patent that credits Steve Jobs as one of the inventors. Apple’s Mail.app send button, the one depicted by a paper airplane, was apparently invented by Steve Jobs and Bas Ording.
It’s good to see Steve still pulls his weight around Apple’s campus.
In addition to the super-awesome paper airplane icon, Apple was also awarded patents for their Bluetooth headset design, as well as their process for Multi-Touch Input Discrimination.
The last patent award reads like legaleese, but it’s described as follows, according to Patently Apple :
For a hand-held multi-touch touch-surface device that may be put into a pocket, purse, or held against the head (e.g., portable music player, portable video player, personal digital assistant or mobile phone), detecting when the device is being clasped on the way into or out of the pocket, against the body, or against the head is very useful for: input rejection (ensuring that touch-surface input signals generated as a result of these actions are not mistaken for normal finger/stylus touches); operational mode transitions (e.g., dimming the device’s backlight, putting the device to sleep and waking the device from a low-power state); and, for mobile telephones, answering calls (e.g., when the device is brought near, but not necessarily touching the head) and/or terminating calls (e.g., when the unit is placed into a pocket or purse).”
I’m pretty grateful that the fine folks over at Patently Apple keep an eye on these things. I personally wouldn’t have the patience to read through most of these patents.
Huge props to Patently Apple.
Article Via Patently Apple
