iPad gets to keep its unique USB port design, which could be winging its way to iPad 3.
 Click to enlarge |
| Credit: Patently Apple |
However, what is unusual about this design is that the USB and SIM card ports are situated alongside one another, the work of CEO Steve Jobs, lead designer and VP industrial design Jonathon Ive, and several others.
The second mystery port is called a ‘connector slot for landscape connectivity’.
The drawings released look like a design for the first iPad Wi-Fi + 3G although it never came to light on the device, nor on the iPad 2.
Nonetheless, it could be the next trick up Apple’s sleeve for its next tab installation, the iPad 3.
The tech giant applied for the patent before the reign of iPad in Q1 2010.
And it’s not just USB patent wins that Steve Jobs’ giant has to celebrate – it also secured the rights to 15 other innovations including an iLife iDVD application, allowing users to edit multimedia and create slideshows and movies.
It has also nabbed the virtual keyboard design, first released in 2007 on the iPhone as well as a way of developing Web Clip Widgets and Cover Flow, all for for iOS devices, according to Patently Apple.
And for music lovers, its Cover Flow technology for iOS allows users to select and browse through its library via its 3D album cover display.
