Type of Article: MacTech Blog

The common scenario for the rumored Apple HDTV (the “iTV”) is pretty much a traditional television set with (depending on which reports you believe): Siri voice control; gesture control; 3D (perhaps without glasses); a Retina display for watching 4K movies (such as the upcoming “Hobbit” films); use of an iDevice as a remote control; and a la carte TV programming.

However, if Apple really wanted to think and act different, it could serve up a modular TV or perhaps a glass screen powered by a set-box top.

Two new Apple patents at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office show that Apple continues to work on ways to get the most life out of the batteries on its various devices.

An Apple patent (number 20120185456) for information management with non-hierarchical views has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Apparently, it involves a modified Finder window in Mac OS X.

Per the patent, information items in a file system are arranged into groups that are created according to a grouping component. A non-hierarchical view displays visual representations (e.g., icons, thumbnail images) of the information items arranged in visually delineated groups according to an arrange type that can be specified for each group.

Two Apple patents have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office showign that Apple is working on ways to improve support for hearing impaired users.

My, how things have changed. According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com), the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system will capture 4% share of 123 million smartphones sold in the United States market during 2012. That’s up from 3% in 2011.

Remember when Apple was the beleaguered company and the Mac only had 3% market share in the U.S.? Those were dark days. It’s nice that the sun is shining in Apple-land now.