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June 3, 2008, 8:06 am

Published: The mother of all iPhone patents

Last Thursday, a week and a half before the expected unveiling of iPhone version 2.0, Apple (AAPL) published a 371-page patent that describes virtually every aspect of version 1.0 — and adds a few wrinkles we haven’t seen before. You can download it here.

Alden Malley at AppleInsider has done a pretty good job of teasing out the details in the patent that aren’t offered in the current iPhone, items that could be taken as a checklist for improvements to look for in the 3G model. Among them:

  • Instant messaging
  • Inline content in Safari, such as Flash and Quicktime movies
  • A dedicated blogging client
  • Java software downloads
  • MMS picture and video messaging
  • Support for voice-activated commands and audio capture.
  • An “optical sensor” on the top center of the device (possibly for videoconferencing)
  • A GPS module for mapping and geo-tagging

The patent application, No. 20080122796, was originally submitted on September 5th, the same day Apple announced the iPod touch.

Although, as Malley notes, Apple is under no obligation to deliver any of the improvements described here, the document does offer hints — both broad and specific — about the direction the company is headed.

It also offers a rare glimpse inside Apple’s iPhone skunkworks and at the people who work there. Although Steve Jobs is listed first, the filing also lists two dozen Apple employees whose names you rarely hear outside the Cupertino campus. To give credit where credit is due, here they are:

Jobs; Steven P.; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Forstall; Scott; (Mountain View, CA) ; Christie; Greg; (San Jose, CA) ; Lemay; Stephen O.; (San Francisco, CA) ; Herz; Scott; (Santa Clara, CA) ; Van Os; Marcel; (San Francisco, CA) ; Ording; Bas; (San Francisco, CA) ; Novick; Gregory; (Santa Clara, CA) ; Westerman; Wayne C.; (San Francisco, CA) ; Chaudhri; Imran; (San Francisco, CA) ; Coffman; Patrick Lee; (Menlo Park, CA) ; Kocienda; Kenneth; (Sunnyvale, CA) ; Ganatra; Nitin K.; (San Jose, CA) ; Anzures; Freddy Allen; (San Francisco, CA) ; Wyld; Jeremy A.; (San Jose, CA) ; Bush; Jeffrey; (San Jose, CA) ; Matas; Michael; (San Francisco, CA) ; Marcos; Paul D.; (Los Altos, CA) ; Pisula; Charles J.; (San Jose, CA) ; King; Virgil Scott; (Mountain View, CA) ; Blumenberg; Chris; (San Francisco, CA) ; Tolmasky; Francisco Ryan; (Cupertino, CA) ; Williamson; Richard; (Los Gatos, CA) ; Boule; Andre M.J.; (Sunnyvale, CA) ; Lamiraux; Henri C.; (San Carlos, CA).

Notable absence: Apple VP Tony Fadell, who built the iPod and heads the division that created the iPhone. His name had appeared with Jobs’ on earlier iPhone patents.

The optical sensor shipped with iPhone 1.0. That’s how the iPhone knows to deactivate the screen when it’s up next to your face. Hold your iPhone up in bright light and look above the speaker. If you are in really bright light and you look closely, you’ll see an area that is not quite the same color black as the rest. There it is.

ex ped: I think that’s the proximity sensor you’re seeing.

Posted By Andrew Montgomery, Brooklyn, NY : June 4, 2008 9:33 am

Where are the women coders and planners? I see zero. Behind this tree? Hiding behind the water cooler? Where? Hey, it’s a dude’s development team, so the iPod may be a dude’s device. What does this say about women. Are they just left washing the guys’s jock straps. I see a similarity in the Catholic church, where nuns are not priests and are left to wash the Pope’s linens, an honorable and traditional profession.

Posted By Lino Positano, Los Angeles, CA : June 3, 2008 9:08 pm

this reminds me of bill trying to patent all the 1’s and 0’s used in programming. Equally as stupid and it will get just as far.

Posted By macdisser,bronx,new york : June 3, 2008 4:49 pm

Apple Stock is heading to $650.00 a share in 2009! I purchased Stock back 11 Years ago at 16 1/32 in 1997 and have a 4,545% gain (yes, 45 bagger!) I see the next 10 years the best 10 years in Apple’s History. Buy some stock and enjoy to hold LONG!

I own 1000 shares at $4.00 a share now ( post 2 x 2:1 splits!). I sold some a few years back to buy a 2 family investment property.

Apple iPhone 2.0 and iPhone 3G will kick the SUPERCHARGED earnings in for Apple, AT&T and get ready to the ride of your life.

See you at $650.00 in 2 years or less!

Long AAPL!

Thank you to all Apple Employees, whom without you I would not have turned $6,400.00 into $290,000.00

Then iPhone 3G is the Next Macintosh revolution!
Earnings revolution for us shareholders too.

Posted By Brian Murphy, Waltham, MA : June 3, 2008 9:57 am

I don’t see the “Kitchen Sink.”

Posted By Dennis, Phoenix Arizona : June 3, 2008 9:55 am
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Philip Elmer-DeWittSilicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
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