The Back Page: Patently obvious

Notoriously secret as Apple is, there are but a limited number of ways to discover what exactly the company is developing. Thanks to our current ongoing pandemic, my surefire proprietary method—rooting through the compost bins, discarded smoothie containers, and perfectly round pizza boxes in Apple Park’s industrial trash compactors—has become impractical.

So I’m left instead with virtual trawling—which smells a lot better, at least. And there’s no better source for divining exactly what Apple is working on than the patent documents that it publicly files with a government agency. (I mean, we all tell the government exactly what we’re up to, no fibbing, right?)

I can see the skepticism in your eyes, so allow me to banish it to another plane of existence forthwith by running down three recent inventions that the company is—and I can’t stress this highly enough—definitely developing. You be the judge.

MultiPad

Your house is littered with the iPads of Days Past, and no doubt you wish you could put them to better use.…