10 Intriguing Apple Patents the iBike, Wand Remote iKey and more

Apple was granted 563 patents in 2010, some of which will show up in future products and might well change the consumer technology landscape just like the iPod, iPhone, App Store and now the iPad have.

Apple patent expert Jack Purcher of Patently Apple has been monitoring the company’s patents since 2006. We asked him why he thought Apple is such an innovative company.

“Many have asked me why I think that Apple is more innovative than others. I usually answer that question the same way each time,” says Purcher. “I’m not sure that they are on a technical level. The difference is that Apple has an inspired leader and CEO who, for decades, has had a real vision of where technology should go.”

We’ve taken a look at some of Apple’s recent patent applications to see what exciting developments might be in store for the future — as any one of these patents could be the next step in Steve Jobs’s master plan or vision. As Purcher puts it:

“Jobs’s vision for the digital lifestyle a decade ago is still on a roll. It’s innovation at its finest. But it began with a vision — and that’s the difference.”

What do you think of these Apple patents? Any you’d like to see realized? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

1. iBike

Apple's smart bike concept is like the Nike+ running system, but for those om two wheels. In addition to seeing pertinent data from you (heart rate, etc) and the bike (speed, distance, etc.) on your iPodor iPhone, the system could be used as tool for group communicationwhen biking with others.


2. Wand Remote

Is gesture control the next big thing to follow touch? It seems Aplle might think so with this patent for the Aplle TV that sees the home entertainment gadget shiooed with a Winmote-like motion controler. Besides managing the on-screen cursor via movement, the "remote wand" could be used to browse through and control media.


3. Solar Powered iPhone

Apple has come up with a way -- in theory anyway -- of adding solar tech to it's portable devices without spoiling the all-important aesthetics. By integrating the photocells into the touch screen, future iPods, iPads, and iPhones could soak up the power of the sunvia their displays, making for greener gadgetry.


4. Touchscreen iMac

This clever concept gives the desktop PC iPad-esque functionality. While the monitor is upright. it's a common iMac running Apple's full operating system controlled with a mouse, but flip it horizontallt and switches to the iOS and the touch controls take over.


5. iKey

Chances are your iPhone has already replaced your compact camera, MP3 player and handheld gaming console, but Apple could take the convergence a step further and replace your keys. The Cupertino company has patented the idea that iPhone could unlock your car and home with a proximity-based PIN code system.


6. iHeadset

This is one patent we could definitely see coming to market. Aplle has designed a Bluetooth headset with stand alone media playback functionality. This could well be a future version of the iPod Shuffle -- small wearable and, thanks to the Bluetooth features, multitasking.


7. Shareable Apps

How would you like to be able to beam your latest App Store download to a buddy? Apple has come up with the idea of an "application seed" system whereby developers could choose to make their apps shareable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It's a fantastic concept for content providers who are looking to spread the word as far and wide as possible. Additionaly, trial version options could be great word-of-mouth money maker.


8. Video Games Comic Book

If you want to relieve that last level of Mass Effect that you aced, Apple might offer a way to do so in the future. This unusual patent allows you to describe your progress through a video game, record it, and then turn into a book or e-book in comic style.


9. MAgnetic Lenses

iPhotography is hot, and it's potential is limited only by hardware restrictions. Although Apple has steadily improved the iPhone's camera, it's still just a point-and-shooter. This patent describes a way of enhancing a portable device's camera funtionality with a magnetic zoom or macro lens attachment.


10. MacBooks with built in Projectors

This exciting idea could see future Apple laptops coming with built-in projectors. Just think how handy it would be to be able to share what's on your laptop screen -- wether that's a movie or presentation -- with a group of others at the click of a mouse.

Apple's Mac App Store sparks another software gold rush

(CNN) -- With the launch of an App Store for the Mac last week, Apple has proved that its all-in-one digital marketplace model -- so successful for the iPhone, iPod and iPad -- can flourish on old-fashioned laptop and desktop computers as well.

Developers with software ready for the store's January 6 opening were met with throngs of click-happy customers.

Mac users have appeared eager to spend money on apps, even for software that was previously available on the Web and in brick-and-mortar stores. Downloads on the first day exceeded 1 million -- out of a pool of about 1,000 apps, Apple said.

Distributed evenly, that works out to 1,000 downloads for each app, although name recognition and how Apple allocates promotion tend to skew results. But some development houses did gangbuster business.

Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president for iPhone software, said last year that the company's iPad would spark "a whole new gold rush for app developers," a prediction that must now apply to the Mac store as well.

App Store winners

One big winner from the Mac App Store launch has been Evernote. The free note-taking app catalogs text and multimedia files; synchronizes them over the internet to be accessed from phones, a website or desktop software; and lets you search through them.

Evernote was downloaded 90,000 times on the App Store's opening day. That's about a 10th of all apps purchased that day. It's been consistently listed in the section of most popular apps.

"Having a well-formed app store is the most important part in getting attention," Evernote CEO Phil Libin said. "We were on the iPhone App Store since that launched as well. We've kind of been through this once before, so we had pretty high expectations of what being in an app store means for getting attention."

The Mac App Store launch, Libin said, "exceeded our expectations."

Being in the Mac App Store helped expose Evernote to 40,000 people who had never used it, he said.

Evernote has also benefited from Apple's promotional efforts in the store. It sometimes gets top billing in a rotating list of featured apps, similar to the top section of the iTunes Store. Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy also listed Evernote among the top five "must-have" apps, which is determined by consistent top performers in downloads and ratings.

Another Mac App Store hit is SketchBook Express, No. 7 on the must-have list. Autodesk, the maker of that free drawing program, says the store "effectively doubled" the number of people using the professional version of SketchBook on opening day. The company declined to provide exact figures.

SketchBook Pro costs $30 on the Mac App Store, versus almost $70 on Amazon.com. It's now among Apple's highest-grossing apps.

A lucrative business model

Apple takes a 30% cut of app sales, which makes its app stores a lucrative business for the company as well as developers. Because of this success, the stores are facing increased competition from Google's popular Android Market, a forthcoming Amazon.com app store and other rivals. This week, Microsoft contested Apple's trademark request for the term "app store."

Free applications benefit from the app store exposure too, even though they don't help Apple's business as directly. For example, Twitter is also on the Apple must-have list. The social networking company launched on the store with its first official desktop client, based on work by the engineer who made the iPhone app.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is "pleased" with the results but declined to say how many times the free app had been downloaded.

The App Store program is included as part of a software update for Mac computers running the newest version of the operating system, called Snow Leopard. Further enhancements to the app model will come as part of OS X Lion, which is scheduled to go on sale this summer.

Previously, Mac software could be found on vendors' websites or in stores (in cardboard boxes, no less; how quaint).

For developers, submitting an application to Apple for sale in the Mac App Store can be easier than getting their software on a retailer's shelf, which can require complex business deals. It is also easier to sell through an established app store than through a developer's own website, which can require building payment mechanisms and systems for licensing customers' copies.

Mac owners like the store because it makes software easier to find, manages what's been downloaded, makes it easy to move apps between computers and provides alerts when a new version is available.

Some software makers complain that Apple's rules about what it will accept are too stringent and that the company takes too big a cut of revenue. But Apple doesn't bar developers from distributing their wares in other locations on the Web.

Pros and cons

But are these early success stories sustainable?

Caffeine, a simple utility that helps prevent the computer from automatically going into sleep mode (get it?), did exceedingly well early on. The app has been downloaded more than 135,000 times. About one-third of those sales came on launch day; as for other apps, they have tapered somewhat since.

While daily downloads are decreasing steadily for Caffeine at a pace of about 30% per day, the app continues to attract new customers at a rate several times greater than anytime since it came out four years ago.

"The App Store opens up the opportunity to sell 99-cent apps, which was previously not really feasible, and I think that could bring a lot of new smaller apps," Caffeine developer Tomas Franzen said. "It's a lot easier when they handle hosting and payment for you.

"I'd say I'm a believer" in the app-store model, he wrote. "The App Store makes downloaded software easy for regular people, and it turns out there are a lot of regular people out there!"

However, not every company has the Midas touch for launching app stores. Google, which produced a hit with its Android Market, has drummed up minimal interest in its Chrome Web Store.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales isn't sold on the app-store concept. At an event in England, Wales spoke out against the idea of app stores, calling them "a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem," according to blog reports.

A magic formula?

But many developers seem convinced that Apple has hit on the right formula.

Scott Gilbert had been planning to build a weather-report app for the iPad or iPhone. The product manager for Swackett immediately changed course when he heard Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveil plans for the Mac App Store in October.

"There's so much competition in the regular App Store," Gilbert said of Apple's mobile software store and its 300,000 apps. "I thought if we could be there on day one in the Mac App Store, we could rise above the noise."

And they did. Swackett was on track to get 100,000 downloads in its first week. The developers are making money from ads, which had been shown 2 million times in six days.

"We would not have come out with a Mac app first if not for the (Mac) App Store," Gilbert said.

And for the 61-person team at Evernote, the App Store is something of a blessing.

"We don't have experts here that think about logistics or channels or distribution or advertising," said Libin, the Evernote CEO.

Evernote had the distribution method in place on its site, but that was created out of necessity, said Libin, who was happy to let Apple take the reins on managing server infrastructure and promotion.

"Before, you used to make a great product, but no one would ever get it or use it or be able to buy it," he said. "The app stores have made the software business more of a meritocracy than it's ever been, which really favors geeks like us."

Comparison: Verizon iPhone 4 and Two Hot New Android Smartphones [INFOGRAPHIC]

Thinking of picking up one of those new Verizon iPhones? Take a look at this infographic first.

Here’s a comparison of two Verizon-bound smartphones recently introduced at CES 2011, with Verizon’s iPhone 4 rolled out last week sandwiched in between. Created by one of Skatter Tech‘s student reporters, it’s remarkably comprehensive.

When you compare the Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Thunderbolt to the iPhone 4, the iPhone starts to look like last year’s model. Well, that’s because it is.

However, the iPhone 4′s screen resolution is still higher than the other two, and then there’s that iTunes App Store with 300,000 choices for the iPhone, as opposed to the Android Market’s 200,000 apps (and counting fast) for the other two phones (sorry, kid, but you got that number wrong in your infographic).

What we really wanted to see in this comparison was the darling of CES, the Motorola Atrix 4G, that R2-D2-like smartphone that’s powerful enough to be the brains of a laptop, plugging in to its back for an instant large screen and keyboard.

Too bad there’s no 4G capability yet on the iPhone, the lack of which will make those who pick up the Verizon version next month feel like they’re holding onto an antique long before their contracts run out.

Peruse this infographic, and see if the features that are important to you are eclipsed by a model that’s not your favorite:

It’s Official: The iPhone Is Coming to Verizon

After more than four years, AT&T’s exclusivity on iPhone in the U.S. is set to come to an end on Tuesday, with Verizon expected to announce the launch of the device on its network at an event in New York City.

The move has been a long time coming; rumors of a Verizon iPhone have intensified significantly in the past year, while frustration with AT&T’s network reliability has continued to mount. At the same time, rival carriers have launched dozens of Android devices, which are now outselling the iPhone in aggregate.

All of that sets the stage for an interesting shakeup in the dynamics of the smartphone market. Although not necessarily indicative of broader consumer perferences, 30% of Mashable readers indicate they’re eager to switch to Verizon — even if it means paying a high early termination fee — to get the iPhone on the carrier’s network.

Meanwhile, the real battle might be over which carrier can introduce an iPhone on its next generation 4G network first. Forrester Research wireless analyst Charles Golvin writes, “LTE is the future 4G technology path for both Verizon and AT&T … If Verizon can convince Apple to accelerate its incorporation of LTE, the carrier will be able to deliver a significantly accelerated iPhone experience to more customers than its competitor, and attract a significant number of the first wave of buyers, including the Apple acolytes.”

We’re not expecting Verizon to delve into future devices during today’s press event, but rather simply announce that the current generation iPhone will be available on its network. The event is expected to kick off at 11 a.m. ET — stay tuned to our live notes below (all times ET) and to Mashable for more details about the Verizon iPhone’s pricing and availability.

How Production Of The iPhone Massively Distorts The Trade Deficit With China

With a market cap above $300 billion, there's no doubt that Apple is a glistening example of what's right with corporate America. If more companies were like it, the economy would be healthier.

And yet, Apple is a big contributor to the US trade deficit with China.

It's a point that Andy Kessler made back in 2004 with regard to the iPod. It alone accounted for a $1.5 billion trade deficit with China, and yet the iPod's existence (at the time) was seen as having added $16 billion in market cap to the company.

Today the WSJ is again revisiting the same point, breaking down the math even further. While an iPhone costs about $180 wholesale, the value coming from China -- just the final assembly -- is about $6.50 per unit. And yet the entire cost of the iPhone gets counted in the trade deficit with China. As a consequence, the iPhone alone added $2 billion to the US' trade deficit with China.

Again, nobody would think the trade isn't worth it, and nobody would suggest that on-net isn't good for the US economy.

It's not to say that there aren't issues with currency manipulation out of Beijing, or that US manufacturing can't be more competitive. But if you think the trade deficit inherently represents some huge problem, then you need to dive further into the statistics.