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Apple secures 17 new patents (images)

New patents include camera flash exposure systems, wireless synchronization, and a design patent on its current iPod Shuffle.

James Martin
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
James Martin
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1 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Flash control for electronic rolling shutter

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published a series of 17 recently granted patents to Apple. The patents involve things like digital-camera calibration and the way in which a computing device boots under a single security model. The concept of wirelessly syncing media, Apple's iPod Shuffle design, top control buttons, and the underneath clip are all now officially Apple's.

Patent 8,150,255 describes the "Flash Control for Electronic Rolling Shutter," shown in the image above.
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2 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Compensating for variations in digital cameras

The patent granted to Apple for "Apparatus and Method for Compensating for Variations in Digital Cameras" details the manufacturing method for a digital video camera.

Figure 1 of patent 8,149,279 identifies this drawing as "a perspective view illustrating a portable media player in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention."
Patent_for_Wireless_Synchronization_between_a_Media_Player_and_Host_Device_.jpg
3 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Wireless synchronization

One of the more notable patents Apple has been granted is one related to wireless synchronization. Dubbed "Wireless synchronization between media player and host device," the patent allows Apple to add content to a media device over the air regardless of whether it's in a docking station or sitting in the user's pocket.
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4 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

iPod Shuffle design patent

Design patent D656,955 is titled "Electronic Device," which shows the current version of the iPod Shuffle.
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5 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Method of manufacturing

Patent 8,146,244 shows a "method of manufacturing a handheld computing device" -- what we now recognize as the iPod.
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6 of 6 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Power source

Patent 8,151,128 is for a "computer system power source with improved light-load efficiency."

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