Apple has applied for a new Patent which has been granted by US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent describes what appears to be a new dock connector that can support both DisplayPort/USB 3.0. Apple has been using the 30 pin connector for a while now which brings portability and extendibility to all its products. With this Dock connector, the productivity of the iDevices will be greatly increased.
Right now, only Apple’s MacBook Pro supports Thunderbolt, but clearly they expect for the format to take off. What will help take off Thunderbolt in the long run is an in-demand gadget supporting Thunderbolt… and it’s easy to see that if Apple allowed their line-up of iDevices to sync with Thunderbolt, there’d be a very clear reason for end users to upgrade.
Apple has been granted a powerful patent that packs quite the wallop. Somehow they snuck a secret patent application through the system for an all-new high speed connector that will combine at least USB 3.0 and DisplayPort. Although the patent illustrates an iPod as being one of the first to adopt this, the patent clarifies that it’s for all future Mac hardware as well.
Apple’s patent is for a “Reduced Size Milti-Pin Male Plug Connector” and large describes a smaller 30-pin dock connector, but inside of the wording of the patent, there’s explicit mention of new support in the iPod Dock Connector for new transmission technologies.
“Some embodiments of the present invention can provide support for one or more new high-speed communication standards,” the patent filing read, which then goes on to cite USB 3.0 and DisplayPort as examples of these standards.
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