Apple patent expert Jack Purcher of Patently Apple has been monitoring the company’s patents since 2006. We asked him why he thought Apple is such an innovative company.
“Many have asked me why I think that Apple is more innovative than others. I usually answer that question the same way each time,” says Purcher. “I’m not sure that they are on a technical level. The difference is that Apple has an inspired leader and CEO who, for decades, has had a real vision of where technology should go.”
We’ve taken a look at some of Apple’s recent patent applications to see what exciting developments might be in store for the future — as any one of these patents could be the next step in Steve Jobs’s master plan or vision. As Purcher puts it:
“Jobs’s vision for the digital lifestyle a decade ago is still on a roll. It’s innovation at its finest. But it began with a vision — and that’s the difference.”
What do you think of these Apple patents? Any you’d like to see realized? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sony will unveil a new version of its handheld game console PlayStation Portable on January 27, as well as a gaming-oriented smartphone in February, Bloomberg reports citing two people with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Rumors of Sony working on a combination of a portable gaming device and a smartphone surfaced early last year, but the details about the device were very scarce, and they still are.
No new details have been revealed about the next generation of PlayStation Portable, except that it will be revealed at a briefing on January 27, which Sony has declined to comment. The PlayStation phone will have a touch screen, and will be presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, held from 14-17 February 2001.
Regardless of the technicalities, it’s clear that Sony needs to rethink its portable gaming strategy, as recent numbers show that the iPhone and Nintendo DS are causing Sony’s share in the portable gaming market to rapidly shrink.
Sony plans to do exactly that. The company will outline a new strategy to combine its various online services and enable users to share games, movies and music among devices such as handhelds and TVs, Bloomberg‘s sources claim.

The success of iPad doesn’t appear to be coming at the expense of Mac sales though, as some analysts had projected. Mac sales were up 23% year-over-year, setting a new record for the company.
iPhone sales were up 86% from the same quarter last year, with Apple remaining bullish on its prospects thanks to its impending launch on Verizon. “We’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on,” Jobs said in a statement.
Shares of Apple — which opened down about 5% this morning in the wake of the Jobs news — continued to rebound after hours following the initial release of the earnings report.
Apple is holding a conference call at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT to discuss the results in-depth and undoubtedly face questions from analysts about Jobs’s health and the company’s plans for a successor. Stay tuned to MashableMashable throughout the afternoon for additional coverage.

• 1. A Tasks API and synchronization
• 2. Reminders and notifications
• 3. Recurring tasks
• 4. Shareable task lists
• 5. Visual distinction for overdue tasks

Various nags might be handy, too. For instance, we wouldn’t mind being reminded from time to time that a task has been languishing, untouched. Nor would it be too emotionally taxing to have some sort of visual distinction for tasks left undone.
Google Tasks has already been useful, and these features could put it over the top, perhaps into indispensible territory.
Now if Associate Project Manager Dave Tattersall can spur the GoogleGoogle development team to implement these tasks, we’d be all set. Tattersall wouldn’t say exactly when we’ll see all five of these winners, only stating that changes would be made at undesignated points “throughout the year.”

Many people think that Blogger lacks in all of the extra goodies you can add to other platforms like WordPress, but it simply isn’t true. By using widgets you can customize your blog as much as you like by just adding little snippets of code to the sidebars.
Allow users to talk to you via IM, see what your most popular posts are, or even read news from sites such as Mashable. With these 25 widgets, you can create an even more powerful way of communicating with your visitors, just make sure you don’t overload them with too many!
What are some of your favorite widgets for use on Bloggerblogger?

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Communications Widgets

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Google Talkgoogle talk – Give visitors the ability to talk to you via Google Talk directly from your blog sidebar.
Jaxtr – Create a widget that allows people to call you on the phone without revealing the phone number to them.
Meebo Me – Meebo Me will allow you to create a chat box that you can install on your Blogger page, giving you the chance to converse with visitors to your site.
SkypeSkype – The official Skype widget allows you to create various buttons that can show your current status and also allows people to just click it and give you a call.
Tag-Board – Allows you to add a real-time chat board to your blog that your visitors and you can use to converse.

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Social Widgets

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Delicious Linkrolls – Share your DeliciousDelicious bookmarks with the world with this easy to install linkroll widget.
FriendFeed Widget – Share all of your FriendFeedFriendFeed activity with the readers of your site.
Google Friend Connectgoogle friend connect – A makeshift social network that runs across any site that has installed Google Friend Connect.  You can join a site, see the other members, play games and more.
LinkedInABox – LinkedInABox retrieves your LinkedInLinkedIn profile to display on your blog, allowing people to look through things such as your specialties and experience.
MyBlogLog – If someone visits your blog that is also a member of MyBlogLog, their avatar and username will appear in the box.  You can then click on any person to check out their profile on the service.
TwitterTwitter – Add your Twitter stream to your blog and display anywhere from your last tweet to the last twenty. Also gives a link for people to be able to follow you.
Share on Facebook – A simple widget that allows your readers to share items from your blog on FacebookFacebook.
SocialFeed – A miniature lifestreaming widget that broadcasts your activities on sites such as Twitter, StumbleUponStumbleUpon, Last.fm and so on.  Has several different skins you can choose from.

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Utility Widgets

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Add This – The popular social bookmarking button is available for Blogger accounts.
Easy Comments – This widget allows you to add commenting to any page of your site by placing the widget at the bottom of a page.  Allows people to say if they liked the comment, includes comment threading and more.
Google SearchGoogle search – Add an AJAX powered GoogleGoogle search box to your blog that you can allow to search the web and your blog, or even just restrict it to the contents of your site.
Popular Posts – This widget will take a look at your comments, up to the last 5,000, and generate a list of which posts had the most conversation around them.
Recent Comments – Display the most recent comments on your blog in this widget so that readers can join in the conversation.
Related Posts – Not so much a widget as a hack, this will give you the related post functionality that so many WordPressWordPress powered blogs use.
ShareThis – The highly customizable green button that ShareThis is known for can be added to your blog.  Choose if you want it for social bookmarking, users emailing your posts and more.
Shout List Icons – Be the king (or queen) of social sharing with this widget that generates icons for over 30 social sites your blog can be added to.
Tag/Label Cloud – Gives you the ability to install a traditional tag cloud in your sidebar so people can see what you write about the most.

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Miscellaneous Widgets

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FlickrFlickr – You can generate an HTML or Flash based badge of your photo stream to share your images with your visitors.
MashableMashable – Yes, now you too can share the best web-related news on your blog with the Mashable widget.
Picasa Albums – Display your public PicasaPicasa albums in your blog sidebar with this handy widget.