Apple Inc.

Ida Y Lo

Stanley Rabu

Kurt R Stiehl

Victor Manuel Tiscareno

Robert Steinfeld

Ramachandran Chundru

Craig Lim

Mathias W Schmidt

Cameron P Frazier

Robert Scritzky

Hani Esmaeili

Christoph Werner

Raymund W M Kwok

Sean R Novak

Michael W Barnstead

Xiaoqiang Huang

Methods of coating contacts to have a specific color. The color can be selected to match a color of a portion of a device enclosure for an electronic device housing the contacts. Examples can instead provide methods of coating contacts to have a color to contrast with a color of a portion of the device enclosure. These methods can provide electrical contacts having a low contact resistance and good corrosion and scratch resistance.

Electrical contact appearance and protection

To avoid undesirable electrostatic discharge events while maintaining low leakage currents, earbuds may be provided with controlled electrostatic discharge paths. The discharge paths may include discrete components such as resistors or more distributed resistive components such as resistive elastomers. A resistive elastomer may be incorporated into an interior portion of an earbud between an earbud housing structure and a ground path. A resistive elastomer may also be used in forming an ear bud tip.

Earbuds with electrostatic discharge protection

Connectors for cables such as a 30-pin connector are provided. The connectors may have thermal protection circuits and may carry a power supply voltage and a ground voltage. The thermal protection circuits may disable the power supply voltage when the temperature of the connector exceeds a threshold value. The connectors may have structures that encourage any dendritic failure to occur in a preferred location.

Thermal protection circuits and structures for electronic devices and cables

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Emerald Hills, CA, United States of America

Ida Y Lo