Let's dial down the fanboy worship and realize that Apple is a massive corporation with its own interests at heart. We need robust policing to keep it in line, like any other.
Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors.
1) Please, swipe-to-unlock was a clever digital representation of a human action we do all the time, but it was hardly revolutionary. Handing over a patent is way too aggressive and is the kind of thing that hinders innovation, rather than protect it.
2) When Apple ripped off Konfabulator years ago when it introduced widgets, all the fanboys reached back into the OS and tried to argue that it was Apple that had widgets in the first place, which was total BS when you look at the visual appearance and execution of what Konfabulator did. In fact, Apple steals concepts from its developers all the time. Now, with the show on the other foot, it's somehow outrageous to compare swipe to unlock to Neonode, which is almost exactly the same kind of comparison as in the Konfabulator widgets thing.
Let's dial down the fanboy worship and realize that Apple is a massive corporation with its own interests at heart. We need robust policing to keep it in line, like any other.
Cite all the locks you swipe to unlock in your home, your car, or any other apparatus you own.
Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors.
Never got your interview with the Mother Ship, eh?
Apple is so visible that it pushes the industry in industrial design [the photocopying is at an all-time high] to Green compliance, to recycling other old waste, to redefining the retail space from a giant eye sore of overkill down to a clean, minimalist style, to the ways they run their internal operations, etc.
Two of the coolest places and most electric places to work and learn are Apple and PIXAR. That's all due to Steve and the mind share he developed and cultivated in both environments. The third one being NeXT.
Nothing in the IT industry surpasses them and not one place is remotely as diverse, engaging and an absolute refreshing place to work and/or visit than the companies Steve developed.
Hell, even Disney is in a renaissance due to the PIXAR merger and the talent it brought to revitalize Disney--once considered the coolest place on the planet to work.
You slide the storage door with your index finger?
Yup. I slide the bar to the left to unlock the clasp and to the right to lock it. Works with one finger quite well.
EDIT: Just thought of the warehouse doors at work. They lock/unlock with slide locks too. A larger version of simple garage door locks. Takes more than a single finger tho.
A software patent should only be valid if it's not one simple idea or concept, like this one or double click. This is an idea, and ideas should never be patentable. They didn't have to research for years to come up "slide to unlock".
I do understand codecs like H264, which cost years to develop, are patented, that makes sense. But not trivial stuff like double clicks, one-click-to-purchase-stuff and so forth.
Apple is so visible that it pushes the industry in industrial design [the photocopying is at an all-time high] to Green compliance, to recycling other old waste, to redefining the retail space from a giant eye sore of overkill down to a clean, minimalist style, to the ways they run their internal operations, etc.
Two of the coolest places and most electric places to work and learn are Apple and PIXAR. That's all due to Steve and the mind share he developed and cultivated in both environments. The third one being NeXT.
Nothing in the IT industry surpasses them and not one place is remotely as diverse, engaging and an absolute refreshing place to work and/or visit than the companies Steve developed.
Hell, even Disney is in a renaissance due to the PIXAR merger and the talent it brought to revitalize Disney--once considered the coolest place on the planet to work.
That all may be true, but what does it have to do with what I said, which was:
"Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors."
Because of all the other touchscreen phones that used slide-to-unlock before the iPhone came out.
If you know better (as you generally seem to), there is a shortage of judges in many jurisdictions. All you'd need to do is study law for 7 years or so, do a clerkship, pass some more exams, practise law for 20 years or so, then get appointed (or elected).
At that point your legal opinion will be valid.
Until then, why don't we go with the guy who knows what he is talking about eh?
It's funny isn't it? Any patent troll that sues Apple, and we have endless posts about how crap the patent system is, how people/companies are being handed out bullshit patents left right and centre, and how the whole system needs a major overhaul.
Oh, but if someone suggests that Apple has been awarded a patent when they shouldn't have been, because the idea is obvious, we have the opposite outcry. Post after post about how "innovative" a slide-to-unlock gesture is.
Sorry, can't have it both ways. It is utterly ludicrous that Apple was awarded a patent for the slide to unlock gesture. It's pretty obvious and not very clever - Android's gesture unlock is more innovative but I'm not sure even that warrants a patent.
Yep...and all kinds of slippery shiny surfaces that stuff doesn't stick too....
Or I have an idea to patent a power button on a phone.....wait those existed before the iPhone buuuut the iPhone just made them cool right.....Apple should sue......everyone.......wait...they already are...maybe they can just append those suits.
A few years from now (or sooner) Apple will launch an HDTV with innovative, patented features never seen before in a television even though competitors have had over 60 years to improve upon the TV. Shortly thereafter Samsung will copy all of these new features into their line of TV sets. And shortly after that many people will scream in this forum that those features were obvious and that Apple is evil for protecting their ideas. Let it be written. Let it be done.
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason this makes me so mad is that even though it's a bit trivial, it's one of the truly original things about the iPhone and multi-touch when it came out.
If Apple can't get protection for stuff like this then there doesn't seem to be much point to patents at all. You might as well just take the China attitude of letting anyone copy anyone else whenever they want.
Whatever you hear to the contrary, the fact is that multi-touch was a truly original breakthrough as was it's application to the iPhone UI and almost everything about it. Apple dutifully recorded everything they were doing and patented it to the hilt.
If all of that end up meaning nothing at all, then truly ... what is the point?
The world would be in a horrible place if not for the creatives and the geniuses that invent things like this. It's the core of what makes us different from the other animals. Yet capitalism and the legal system treats creatives like so much cannon fodder for the most part.
I think it's just sad.
So the judge will end up supporting part of Apple's patents, but not all of them...so it is sad. Sorry dude, but once this goes to court it is up to the judge. No use in complaining that Apple won't win 100% of the time.
I would rather see no software patents on this kind of stuff anyway. Instead, leave it up to the companies to build the best product. I have used iPhones, Android Phones and Windows Phones. The slide to open idea works well on the iPhone and well on the Windows Phone (in a different manner). On so many of the Android phones it stutters.
If I had to make a decision to buy a phone JUST on that one concern I would be forced to choose between the iPhone and the Windows Phone.
Apple's iOS is simply better than the Android OS (IMHO) and many people who choose (versus buying what the carrier drones push at them) a phone also agree.
Of course, people call "FOUL FOUL FOUL" at Android, but have you seen iOS 5. It's notification system has the "Look and Feel" of Android. So why is that okay? Because Apple did it and not Google?
BULLSHIT. Get real. If you can create another non-stick material, then you can name and patent it. You are not patenting the idea of non-stick, but the molecule combination used to make Teflon.
Comments
1)
Let's dial down the fanboy worship and realize that Apple is a massive corporation with its own interests at heart. We need robust policing to keep it in line, like any other.
Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors.
...bullshit patents...
The patents are real, they have been granted.
The patents are real, they have been granted.
That the patents are real and have been granted is objective reality.
Whether they should have been granted is the point in contention. If not, they are invalid, and therefore, in my parlance, bullshit.
I hope that clarifies what I meant.
1) Please, swipe-to-unlock was a clever digital representation of a human action we do all the time, but it was hardly revolutionary. Handing over a patent is way too aggressive and is the kind of thing that hinders innovation, rather than protect it.
2) When Apple ripped off Konfabulator years ago when it introduced widgets, all the fanboys reached back into the OS and tried to argue that it was Apple that had widgets in the first place, which was total BS when you look at the visual appearance and execution of what Konfabulator did. In fact, Apple steals concepts from its developers all the time. Now, with the show on the other foot, it's somehow outrageous to compare swipe to unlock to Neonode, which is almost exactly the same kind of comparison as in the Konfabulator widgets thing.
Let's dial down the fanboy worship and realize that Apple is a massive corporation with its own interests at heart. We need robust policing to keep it in line, like any other.
Cite all the locks you swipe to unlock in your home, your car, or any other apparatus you own.
Cite all the locks you swipe to unlock in your home, your car, or any other apparatus you own.
The two slide locks on my storage building?
EDIT: Forgot the one drop down door in the utility room. It has a slide lock too.
The patents are real, they have been granted.
thats the fun thing about patents, it doesnt matter, if they are invalid.
It just requires a bit of legal entertainment.
Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors.
Never got your interview with the Mother Ship, eh?
Apple is so visible that it pushes the industry in industrial design [the photocopying is at an all-time high] to Green compliance, to recycling other old waste, to redefining the retail space from a giant eye sore of overkill down to a clean, minimalist style, to the ways they run their internal operations, etc.
Two of the coolest places and most electric places to work and learn are Apple and PIXAR. That's all due to Steve and the mind share he developed and cultivated in both environments. The third one being NeXT.
Nothing in the IT industry surpasses them and not one place is remotely as diverse, engaging and an absolute refreshing place to work and/or visit than the companies Steve developed.
Hell, even Disney is in a renaissance due to the PIXAR merger and the talent it brought to revitalize Disney--once considered the coolest place on the planet to work.
The two slide locks on my storage building?
EDIT: Forgot the one drop down door in the utility room. It has a slide lock too.
You slide the storage door with your index finger?
You slide the storage door with your index finger?
Yup. I slide the bar to the left to unlock the clasp and to the right to lock it. Works with one finger quite well.
EDIT: Just thought of the warehouse doors at work. They lock/unlock with slide locks too. A larger version of simple garage door locks. Takes more than a single finger tho.
I do understand codecs like H264, which cost years to develop, are patented, that makes sense. But not trivial stuff like double clicks, one-click-to-purchase-stuff and so forth.
(Insult deleted)
Apple is so visible that it pushes the industry in industrial design [the photocopying is at an all-time high] to Green compliance, to recycling other old waste, to redefining the retail space from a giant eye sore of overkill down to a clean, minimalist style, to the ways they run their internal operations, etc.
Two of the coolest places and most electric places to work and learn are Apple and PIXAR. That's all due to Steve and the mind share he developed and cultivated in both environments. The third one being NeXT.
Nothing in the IT industry surpasses them and not one place is remotely as diverse, engaging and an absolute refreshing place to work and/or visit than the companies Steve developed.
Hell, even Disney is in a renaissance due to the PIXAR merger and the talent it brought to revitalize Disney--once considered the coolest place on the planet to work.
That all may be true, but what does it have to do with what I said, which was:
"Apple is a giant transnational corporation which cares about only one thing: maximizing total profits.
They do so in many ways, including making great products, but also by wrangling bullshit patents and using them to hurt innocent competitors."
This is an idea, and ideas should never be patentable.
Idea: A substance to which stuff can't stick...
WHOOPS, THERE GOES TEFLON.
Because of all the other touchscreen phones that used slide-to-unlock before the iPhone came out.
If you know better (as you generally seem to), there is a shortage of judges in many jurisdictions. All you'd need to do is study law for 7 years or so, do a clerkship, pass some more exams, practise law for 20 years or so, then get appointed (or elected).
At that point your legal opinion will be valid.
Until then, why don't we go with the guy who knows what he is talking about eh?
Oh, but if someone suggests that Apple has been awarded a patent when they shouldn't have been, because the idea is obvious, we have the opposite outcry. Post after post about how "innovative" a slide-to-unlock gesture is.
Sorry, can't have it both ways. It is utterly ludicrous that Apple was awarded a patent for the slide to unlock gesture. It's pretty obvious and not very clever - Android's gesture unlock is more innovative but I'm not sure even that warrants a patent.
Idea: A substance to which stuff can't stick...
WHOOPS, THERE GOES TEFLON.
Yep...and all kinds of slippery shiny surfaces that stuff doesn't stick too....
Or I have an idea to patent a power button on a phone.....wait those existed before the iPhone buuuut the iPhone just made them cool right.....Apple should sue......everyone.......wait...they already are...maybe they can just append those suits.
Until then, why don't we go with the guy who knows what he is talking about eh?
So you'll listen and obey to what one guy says that applies to every person on the planet, eh?
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason this makes me so mad is that even though it's a bit trivial, it's one of the truly original things about the iPhone and multi-touch when it came out.
If Apple can't get protection for stuff like this then there doesn't seem to be much point to patents at all. You might as well just take the China attitude of letting anyone copy anyone else whenever they want.
Whatever you hear to the contrary, the fact is that multi-touch was a truly original breakthrough as was it's application to the iPhone UI and almost everything about it. Apple dutifully recorded everything they were doing and patented it to the hilt.
If all of that end up meaning nothing at all, then truly ... what is the point?
The world would be in a horrible place if not for the creatives and the geniuses that invent things like this. It's the core of what makes us different from the other animals. Yet capitalism and the legal system treats creatives like so much cannon fodder for the most part.
I think it's just sad.
So the judge will end up supporting part of Apple's patents, but not all of them...so it is sad. Sorry dude, but once this goes to court it is up to the judge. No use in complaining that Apple won't win 100% of the time.
I would rather see no software patents on this kind of stuff anyway. Instead, leave it up to the companies to build the best product. I have used iPhones, Android Phones and Windows Phones. The slide to open idea works well on the iPhone and well on the Windows Phone (in a different manner). On so many of the Android phones it stutters.
If I had to make a decision to buy a phone JUST on that one concern I would be forced to choose between the iPhone and the Windows Phone.
Apple's iOS is simply better than the Android OS (IMHO) and many people who choose (versus buying what the carrier drones push at them) a phone also agree.
Of course, people call "FOUL FOUL FOUL" at Android, but have you seen iOS 5. It's notification system has the "Look and Feel" of Android. So why is that okay? Because Apple did it and not Google?
The patents are real, they have been granted.
And how many times have Apple fanboys scream bloody murder when patent trolls are granted patents. Those are "real" and "they have been granted".
Idea: A substance to which stuff can't stick...
WHOOPS, THERE GOES TEFLON.
BULLSHIT. Get real. If you can create another non-stick material, then you can name and patent it. You are not patenting the idea of non-stick, but the molecule combination used to make Teflon.