It appears that four of Apple's patent applications were published yesterday.  All four have to do with media and two are directed towards the indomitable iPod.  For all you "Pod Patent Watchers" out there, you are probably not surprised at Patent publication 2006/0168351 entitled: Wireless synchronization between media player and host device.  Since everyone and their favorite speculative analyst has predicted that the next iPod will have some sort of wireless capabilities.  In case you are curious here's the abstract from the patent application.

Improved techniques for interaction between a host computer (e.g., personal computer) and a media player are disclosed.

Yesterday, the U.S. Patent Office published a Sony application for a "Flipper Phone Configuration".  It is Sony's Flip Phonecertainly a different type of flip phone.  The Abstract of the application describes the phone as . . .

A mobile terminal for use in a wireless communication system comprises a housing including a first portion and a second portion. The first portion of the housing has an opening, an inner surface and an opposed outer surface. A module has an inner major surface and an outer major surface. The module is movably disposed in the opening of the first portion of the housing for movement relative to the first portion of the housing between a first position, where the inner major surface of the module is substantially coincident with the inner surface of the first portion of the housing, and a second position, where the inner major surface of the module is substantially coincident with the outer surface of the first portion of the housing.

Of course a picture is worth a thousand words.

With gas being as high as it has been, hybrid cars are all the rage.  Now one company is trying to apply that concept to hamburgers.

St. Louis-based Solae LLC has come up with a solution, a patent-pending invention called SoleCina that involves both the process and the ingredients to produce either a "hybrid" meat — part soy, part real meat — or a completely meatless food that tastes like chicken, beef, pork or turkey.

This approach is in stark contrast to Hardee's and Carl Jr.'s "Where's the Beef?" plan as reported by the Associated Press.

Nintendo the innovator is at it or was at again. MaxConsle.net has discovered a published patent application for the Nintendo DS.

A new patent published by the US Patent & Trademark Office for Nintendo Co. Ltd. on Feb. 2nd, 2006 has revealed an interesting new DS model, a touch panel on which at least two pointing positions are simultaneously detectable report advancedmn.

Forbes has a slideshow that takes a look at a few interesting technology-patent applications filed by major companies and made public by the Patent and Trademark Office in the last two months.

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