Apple patent is for Universal Serial Bus plug, socket coupling arrangements
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 21, 2008 at 10:25am
A new Apple patent (number 2008020069) for Universal Serial bus plug and socket coupling arrangements has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office.
According to Apple it involves a Universal Serial Bus socket-equipped arrangement (USB-SEA) configured for mating with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) plug having a plug metal housing and an aperture disposed in the plug metal housing. The arrangement includes a plug-receiving cavil configured to receive the USB plug. The arrangement further includes a spring-loaded mechanism disposed within the plug-receiving cavity. The spring-loaded mechanism is biased toward an interior region of the plug-receiving cavity.
The spring-loaded mechanism is also configured to slide along the connector metal housing of the USB plug when the USB plug is inserted into the plug-receiving cavity and to movably mate with the aperture disposed in the plug metal housing when the USB plug is in a terminal mating position with the USB socket assembly. The spring-loaded mechanism represents one of a spring-loaded ball and a spring-loaded pin.
The inventors are Evans Hankey, Rico Zorkendorfer, John Benjamin Filson, Douglas Joseph Weber and Stephen Zadesky.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
