Several Apple patents have popped up at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Here's a summary of each.

Patent number 20010094585 involves remote control systems that can distinguish stray light sources. Remote control systems that can distinguish predetermined light sources from stray light sources, e.g., environmental light sources and/or reflections are provided. The predetermined light sources can be disposed in asymmetric substantially linear or two-dimensional patterns. The predetermined light sources also can output waveforms modulated in accordance with one or more signature modulation characteristics. The predetermined light sources also can output light at different signature wavelengths. The inventors are Steven Porter Hotelling, Nicolas Vincent King, Duncan Robert Kerr and Wing Kong Low.

Patent number 20010095198 is for shared comments for online document collaboration. Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that edits a document. During operation, the system shares the document as a webpage and receives, from the webpage, a comment for the document by a collaborator of the document. Next, the system updates the webpage with the comment and enables responses to the comment by other collaborators of the document from the webpage. The inventors are Michael Bultrowicz and Boris Smus.

Patent number 20010095209 is for a portable media device with workout support. Improved techniques and systems for utilizing a portable electronic device to monitor, process, present and manage data captured by a remote sensor are disclosed. The portable electronic device offers a convenient user interface that can be visual and/or audio based customized to a particular application, user-friendly and/or dynamic. The portable electronic device can pertain to a portable media player and thus also provide media playback. The inventors are Sandeep Gupta, Greg Marriott, Max Sprauer, David A. Shayer, John Wesley Archibald and Shannon E. Wells.

Patent number 20010095219 involves selective history data structures. Methods and apparatuses which create and use selective history data structures are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes monitoring presentations accessed by a user, automatically selecting some of the presentations accessed by the user according to, at least in part, the user's access patterns, and displaying representations of the some of the presentations in a pattern of an n.times.n array, wherein n is greater than 1. Other methods are disclosed, and various apparatuses and machine readable media are also disclosed. The inventors are Maciej Stachowiak, Kevin Decker, John W. Sullivan, Darin Adlert and Adam Roben.

Patent number 2001009582 is for a method for estimating temperature at a critical point. Methods and apparatuses are disclosed to estimate temperature at one or more critical points in a data processing system comprising modeling a steady state temperature portion of a thermal model at the one or more critical points using regression analysis; modeling the transient temperature portion of the thermal model at the one or more critical points using a filtering algorithm; and generating a thermal model at the one or more critical points by combining the steady state temperature portion of the thermal model with the transient temperature portion of the thermal model. The thermal model may then be used to estimate an instantaneous temperature at the one or more critical points or to predict a future temperature at the one or more critical points. The inventors are Keith Cox, Gaurav Kapoor and Arnold Vaughn.

Patent number 20010094815 involves a method and apparatus for performing type-aware change tracking in a document. One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates performing type-aware change tracking in a document. During operation, the system receives from a user a command which changes a content of an object in the document. In response to the command, the system determines a type of the object. Next, the system modifies the content of the object according to the type of the object. The system then creates a history of the modification. Finally, the system displays the history of the modification to the user. The inventors are Paul Elseth and Carl D. Grice.

Patent number 20010094880 is for media list management. Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for managing a playlist on a portable media device including generating a random order of media items based on a seed, receiving an instruction to power down the portable media device, saving the seed in a storage, and powering down the portable media device. The inventors are Matthew Rogers, Christopher R. Wysocki and Timothy Patrick Hannon.

Patent number 20010095195 is for defining spreadsheet functions. Defining spreadsheet function behavior is disclosed. In some embodiments, in response to receiving a selection of a parameterized spreadsheet function behavior to be associated with a spreadsheet function, the parameterized spreadsheet function behavior is associated with the spreadsheet function based at least in part on the selection. In some embodiments, the parameterized spreadsheet function behavior is associated with a behavior of the function with respect to one or more arguments of the function. The inventors are Michael Jeremy Coblenz, Maxence Lloyd Crossley and Yik Shing Yip.

Patent number 20010092025 involves seamless display migration. Exemplary embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and systems for seamlessly migrating a user visible display stream sent to a display device from one rendered display stream to another rendered display stream are described. For one embodiment, mirror video display streams are received from both a first graphics processing unit (GPU) and a second GPU, and the video display stream sent to a display device is switched from the video display stream from the first GPU to the video display stream from the second GPU, wherein the switching occurs during a blanking interval for the first GPU that overlaps with a blanking interval for the second GPU. The inventors are Mike Nugent, Thomas Costa, Even Brasfield, David Redman, Amanda Rainer, Tim Millet, Geoff Stahl, Adrian Sheppard, Ian Hendry, Ingrid Aligaen, Kenneth C. Dyke, Chris Niederauer and Michael Culbert.

Patent number 20010090930 is for a subtractive display. A display and techniques for displaying information involve the use of pixel-generating elements that include a light conduit and multiple adjustable light absorbing filters. The light conduit allows light from a light source to pass from a first side to a second side of the pixel-generating element. A first adjustable light absorbing filter adjustably absorbs a first set of visible light wavelengths from light passing through the light conduit to produce a first filtered light. A second adjustable light absorbing filter adjustably absorbs a second, different set of visible light wavelengths from the first filtered light. Each adjustable light absorbing filter is adjustable to a substantially transparent state, and the pixel-generating element generates a viewable pixel having a color adjustable between substantially a color of the light source and a color of the light source as modified by one or both of the adjustable light absorbing filters. The inventors are Gabriel G. Marcu and Wei Chen.

Patent number 20010091039 involves color correction of electronic displays. The method for adjusting the characteristics of the display may include constructing color models as a function of a parameter such as temperature. Furthermore, the color model may be used to determine adjustment values to be applied to a display. The adjustment values may be organized in a table as a function of temperature and color values. The adjustment values may be determined from measurements. The inventors are Gabriel G. Marcu, Benjamin John Becher, Wei Chen, Steve Swen and Jesse Micahel Devine.