Type of Article: MacTech Blog

An Apple patent (number 8117228) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows how the company intends to offer head-to-head comparisons of products at its online stores.

A patent (number 8117038) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple continues to work on an universal container for audio data. It relates generally to digital audio and, more specifically, to a universal container for audio data.

As evidenced by a new patent (number 8116586) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Apple is working on further ways to improve the camera abilities of various iOS devices.

The patent involves estimating and removing distortion from an image. Some embodiments provide a method of editing images with distortion caused by a camera lens. The method identifies a set of geometries on a set of images taken by the camera lens. The method finds transformations for applying on the set of identified geometries to remove distortion on the geometries.

Note to guys: it’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget your sweetie.

Note to assorted guys and gals: if your main squeeze is a piece of technology, please re-evaluate your life.

Apparently, some of us have waaaaaay too much affection for gadgets such as the iPhone and iPad. Asurion (http://www.asurion.com), which specializes in technology protection services, says its national survey results show that nearly 30% of survey participants believe their cell phone is more helpful to them than their significant other. 

Apple has been granted several patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Following are some of the highlights.