Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Apple is working on methods to power up select components of a Mac from a sleep state, per a patent at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Apple has won a patent for an integrated touch screen from the US Patent & Trademark Office. Per the patent (number 7995041), Displays with touch sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup are provided.

During his 2010 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, CEO Steve Jobs said, “We’re going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we’re going to make FaceTime an open industry standard.” So has any progress been made in this area?

In case you’re not familiar with it, FaceTime is video calling that uses Wi-Fi. It was first introduced with the iPhone 4. FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to communicate with anyone on an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or Mac from your Mac. If you use one of the new MacBook Pros you get 720p clarity.

Several Apple patents have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 7994820 is for a level shifter with embedded logic and low minimum voltage. Per the patent, in one embodiment, a level shifter circuit may include a shift stage that also embeds transistors that implement a logic operation on two or more inputs to the level shifter. At least one of the inputs may be sourced from circuitry that is powered by a different power supply than the level shifter and circuitry that receives the level shifter output.