Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20120107654) for a rechargeable battery with a jelly roll having multiple thicknesses.

This battery cell includes a jelly roll enclosed in a pouch, wherein the jelly roll includes layers which are wound together, including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating. The jelly roll also includes a first conductive tab coupled to the cathode and a second conductive tab coupled to the anode.

Apple has filed a patent at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for the design of the Mac mini. Patent number 20120106067 is for a small form factor desktop computer.

An Apple patent (number 20120109349) for media management and routing within an electronic device has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

The invention relates to routing audio within an electronic device using a variety of sources and outputs. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.

By Rick Sutcliffe

The Spy’s tools provide this month’s entertainment, both for his consistency and their diversity. You see, his two sons recently had their birthdays, and predictably, they got tools.

After all the well-equipped householder needs his drills, saws, screwdrivers, hammers, power strips, sockets, the box to organize it all, a good work bench and proper ladders. Now, no matter that one is a software engineer, and the other a high school math and history teacher — how else can they get jobs done around the house?

One thing I hope to see in the upcoming Mountain Lion is better keychain synchronization.

Sure, there are solutions such as Dropbox and 1Password, but it would be nice to have a solution built into the operating system. This would let me sync my desktop Mac with my laptop and my iPad without resorting to a third party solution. And that seems more in tune with the Apple way.