Ask anybody and they’ll tell you Apple invented the iPod. Not entirely correct according to Apple themselves, who has credited a UK man as author of some of the original patents that outlined how today’s PMPs work. Kane Kramer had no idea about iPods back then, but he sketched out a rudimentary media player in 1979. Sadly, financial difficulties in 1988 meant he couldn’t renew the patent and so it entered the public domain. Apple then used the concept as evidence in their legal case against Burst.com, who were accusing the company of patent infringement and looking for a slice of iProfits.

Kramer’s PMP was called the IXI, and stored only 3.5 minutes of audio and oddly enough it even looks just a bit like what eventually became the iPod. The inventor had to endure ten hours being questioned by Burst’s legal team, who had claimed that the intellectual property of four patents they held was being used by Apple without payment or agreement. Obviously now that Apple has fessed up, Kramer is looking at some kind of compensation. Apple did give Kramer a free iPod that apparently broke after several months. Sadly if not for the lawsuit Kramer may have lived in relative obscurity and we would never have known.

It’s far from the first time that Apple has filed patents for some kind of tablet computer. It’s been described in the past as a large iPhone, or as a full tablet, but these latest images look like a large mobile internet device that would be pretty neat. Most of the 52-page filing is in regards to the touchpad.

The device would be large enough to read easily and use, but also thin and light. One of the images has an interesting virtual keyboard. Some of the illustrations show a tablet Mac with a full windowing interface, where interface windows can be enlarged, shrunk, moved, and cycled, rather than being locked in place like the iPhone. Click the link for an interesting read on more details.

Not sure how much we are willing to believe this, but AppleInsider has found a patent that apparently shows music over the internet streaming to your iPhone and iPod touch. You wouldn’t have to sync content to your device. Instead, you’d sync only the metadata and stream whatever you wanted direct from your computer. Like i said, we aren’t sure if we’re buying this just yet, but it’s interesting. My guess is that there may be just a smidgen of truth to this, but we’re missing some kind of important piece of info. While you’re waiting on this, get an iPhone arm.

Is Apple getting into solar power? It looks that way. According to Tradethenews.com, the company filed a patent involving placing solar cells on portable devices. This means that Apple’s iPhone or other devices could have photovoltaic cells stacked underneath LCD touch screens, which maximizes the area available for harnessing and soaking up the power of the sun.

According to the filing, performance info in regard to the performance of a device’s solar cells could be displayed on the main screen next to battery power, which makes sense. It could also appear on top of the actual cells, which could be displaying the Apple logo. Imagine less charging of devices. Then one day no charging at all. Nice.

Audio-Technica announced the availability of some new noise-canceling headphones recently. These particular in-ear headphones are known as the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3 and pricing is set at around $170.

The Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3, according to its maker, blocks up to 85% of outside noise via “patented” technology which uses embedded miniature microphones to detect ambient noise and adjust the sound-canceling signal appropriately. It comes with three sizes of ear tips (small, medium and large) for a customized fit.

iLuv will showcase some new products at CES 2008 on Jan. 7th. One of the coolest is the i399 audio system. The i399 BluePin 2.1 Channel Hi-Fi Audio System for the iPod is the first iLuv product that actually features the newest BluePin II technology, which offers the user more freedom from up to 300 ft. away. With the detachable BluePin II, users can choose to listen to music on Bluetooth headphones by sending music from another stereo Bluetooth device to the i399. Some other nice features include FM stereo radio capabilities, digital clock display and an auxiliary line input for 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation iPods as well as other audio devices.

The i399 promises a richer more true sound thanks in part to the patented jAura sound cell technology and a woofer built into its 2.1 channel speaker system. Another impressive capability is that the i399 can also do incoming and outgoing calls since it includes a speaker phone. Yet another nice touch is the rhythm-sensitive blue LED light. That’s always a nice touch.

Apple has a new patent application in the European Patent Office that details out a new volume control feature to help prevent hearing loss when listening to an iPod. People that have messed around with the settings on an iPod have likely already noticed that you can already set the maximum volume for your iPod to avoid an inadvertent blasts of sound that could damage your ear. The new feature would be available in iPods and the iPhone and would take into account not only how loud the volume is while your listening, but also how long you’ve been listening to decide when the listener may have had enough.

What do AT&T, Apple, Comcast, Cablevision and eBay all have in common? They are all being sued today by Klausner Technologies over visual voicemail patents the company says it owns and which it feels these well known, other companies have not yet requested a patent license for.

The suits were filed by the company which “was founded by Judah Klausner, the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer.” Klausner Technologies says Cablevision’s Optimum Voicemail, Comcast’s Digital Voice Voicemail, eBay’s Skype Voicemail and AT&T/Apple’s iPhone Visual Voicemail services all violate patents it holds which allow “users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays.”

Another patent from Apple was recently published through the USPTO showing a type of text-to-voice system entitled “Multimedia data transfer for a personal communication device”.

The patent describes a system for transferring data between mobile, personal communication devices such as phones, walkie talkies or maybe even iPhone nano’s. According to Macnn the system would lend itself nicely to those with visual impairments since it transfers text between devices and the receiving device could then read the text aloud through a speaker.

A notable difference between this system and and traditional texting …

The nosy sleuths (and we like nosy) at Unwired View discovered a very interest patent application filed yesterday by Apple Computer for a “Dynamic lyrics display for portable media devices.” Apple’s filing explains that “The text being displayed is associated with and synchronized to the media content being presented.” Hmm, doesn’t that sound a lot like what a karaoke player does? Essentially Apple is claiming the patent on karaoke functions on a PMP but there is at least one device out there that does exactly that, Asus’ Z801 flip phone.

Even if Apple doesn’t wind …

Otterbox is well-known for making tough and waterproof cases for mobile phones, PDA’s, iPod’s and even cases to keep your cigars safe and dry, so it’s no surprise to see that they have one coming out for the Apple iPhone. But it is a surprise to see that they don’t have one out yet nor do they even have a set date. The company has only said that the case is still months away from being released.

The design shown here looks promising with a cover that gives the iPhone a “semi-rugged” protection and completely …

We had posted a few months ago about what we thought might be an iPhone Nano product from Apple, and here’s another one that could easily fit the name filed at the USPTO.

The patent digram shows a click wheel similar to existing iPods with a touchpad that shows the graphical images of a phone dial-like wheel with numbers and letters. It would make sense that just like the iPod has gotten smaller with time, Apple could cut out a few features and make a smaller, simpler but equally cool mobile phone. …

According to a filing with the USPTO it looks like Apple is looking to extend their touch screen technology beyond the iPhone and use it in a new mouse design.

According to the filing this mouse has a touch sensitive surface that works through a camera inside the mouse viewing an illuminated surface. The changes in illumination due to fingers on the mouse would indicate the “touches”, and pressing harder would signal things like a right or left button press, since this mouse has no buttons.

The touch sensitive mouse would then …

Gadgets that need a somewhat-significantly sized interface for texting messages or dialing phone numbers can only get so small before they will just be too tiny for the average person to use, so what would a designer do when they’ve simply run out of space on the device? By looking at this patent found by Unwired it appears that Apple has an interesting solution.

Instead of trying to cram more buttons into a small area or re-purposing the same area, it appears that they are playing with idea of using both …

A Wii Phone from Nintendo? C’mon; this seems a little far fetched, or is it? Recently we’ve seen the iPhone, rumors of a Zune Phone and now this.

According to T3 there is a distinct possibility that Nintendo may be coming out with some type of phone combined with the console remote. There had been some rumors last year about adding a microphone to the controller, and Nintendo has been taking advantage of internet based services with the Wii console, lately. This combination could possibly lend itself nicely to some type of …