Apple exploring home power system, mood sensing media software

More new patent applications from Apple this week show a potential device that would analyze and control the power consumption of electronic devices within a home, and a method for sensing a user’s mood and choosing media based on their emotional state.

5 o’clock roundup: Tablet rumors heat up Apple shares, NORAD tracks Santa

Here’s the latest action:
Talk of an Apple event in January has sent the company’s shares to an all-time high. Rumors that the company will debut a highly anticipated tablet were set ablaze again after The Financial Times reported that Apple had rented the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for an event in January. Apple [...]

AMD keeps pressure on Intel with more six-headed server chips

Advanced Micro Devices is launching two new versions of its chips with six brains today. The AMD Opteron HE and SE server microprocessors have six cores, or processors, on a single chip. The introduction is the latest volley in the ongoing tennis match AMD is playing with Intel.
With these two new versions, AMD is spreading [...]

Roundup: VCs more confident, Apple patents future iPhone ideas

Here’s the latest action:
Confidence is coming back among venture capitalists — So says the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Index, which measures the mood among dozens of well-known VCs.
Facebook sued for click fraud — RootZoo says its own analytics show discrepancies over how many Facebook users clicked on RootZoo’s ads.

Gawker says ad revenue up 35 percent [...]

New iPhone patent applications: Object identification, face recognition, messaging tweaks, more

About 50 rungs further down the innovation ladder, some new Apple patent applications revealed this morning are definitely less interesting and complex than the few we covered last week. In fact, considering some of the technology has already existed for quite some time we’re not even sure why Apple is attempting to patent a few [...]