Apple owns the patent for a fuel cell system to power a portable computer, and that patent may be one to watch as the company rolls out new versions of its iPhone, according to a . Apple filed for the fuel cell patent in August 2010.

Another smartphone technology that may be coming from Apple could involve new ways of interacting with text, said the report, by Thomson Reuters analyst Bob Stembridge. An Apple patent, filed in January 2010, covers technology that allows smartphone users to touch a word on their screen and have a picture, or potentially other media, come up on the screen to assist the user with the meaning of the word.

Apple is scheduled to introduce the fifth version of its iPhone on Wednesday.

The jumped out at Stembridge as something with big potential for the mobile phone industry, he said. While car manufacturers have explored the use of fuel cells in electric vehicles, "it's quite a challenge to implement that technology on the iPod or iPhone scale," he said.

The second patent, for to other media, could have several educational uses, Stembridge said. What Apple seems to describe in its patent is a type of text-based Siri technology, he said.