Ban on Galaxy Nexus U.S. Sales Upheld, Software Patch to Circumvent Forthcoming

[viewfly]

Am I reading this correctly? That this is all because of the search functionality? Does apple really think they'll lose sales because of that one feature?

I can't figure out how they were able to patent that. It's been part of most desktop operating systems for ages.

I hope the patent is nullified.

Actually Apple implementation of desktop/web search is NOT on all desktop OS...it (spotlight) is so much better than MS search box. And the patent for Apple's just came out in Dec 2011 although it was filed in 2000 and 2004.

This could be very interesting and just the beginning.

 

[Srh12]

I'm seeing a lot of civility right now. It shows which brand has the more civilized "fanboys". You know over on all the fandroid blogs the sentiment is surely "apple sucks I'm boycotting them" while if it was goog or shamsung getting the injunction it'd be "good I hope all iPhones are banned forever, only android should exist". In general, the more insecure of us are generally more vicious due to inferiority complexes...while up here we can look down on them and think "yeah it (still) sucks to be them, that's a shame". Kudos to you, kudos to us for recognizing this is a bit lame.

 

[ChazUK]

I know, but that's not what I'm talking about. The Nexus cannot play AAC, especially if it has an iTunes Store DRM on it.

http://m.samsung.com/hk_en/consumer/mobile/mobile-phones/smartphone/GT-I9250TSATGY-spec
It can play DRM free AAC files. I'm not sure where you're getting the information that it can't.

http://www.mobilephonesforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=313

Galaxy Nexus Music & Sound Music Player: AAC / AAC+ / AMR / AMR-NB / eAAC+ / MP3

 

[aristotle]

I'm done with iOS hardware. I will continue to use and purchase OS X, but will now proceed to sell all 3 iPads my family owns and this evening I am taking away all of the 6-8 iPods from my wife and children. In return, I will be buying them the Nexus 7 tablets and Galaxy Nexus phones imported in to the US for a marginally higher price.

Good for you. /sarcasm Can I have some money too? You seem to have too much of it and not enough sense to use it yourself.

Do you realize that Android is not compatible with your software library, that Android lacks a lot of apps and games, that it lacks features like low latency audio and that Google considers you the "product" rather than their customer?

Maybe you need to simmer down and start thinking with your head instead of your heart.

 

[tninety]

I'm seeing a lot of civility right now. It shows which brand has the more civilized "fanboys". You know over on all the fandroid blogs the sentiment is surely "apple sucks I'm boycotting them" while if it was goog or shamsung getting the injunction it'd be "good I hope all iPhones are banned forever, only android should exist". In general, the more insecure of us are generally more vicious due to inferiority complexes...while up here we can look down on them and think "yeah it (still) sucks to be them, that's a shame". Kudos to you, kudos to us for recognizing this is a bit lame.

And how insecure are you for accusing so-called "fandroids" of having inferiority complexes in a condescending way while gleefully trumpeting the clearly superior etiquette of the Apple community?

You're a dirty hypocrite. Your post is such a poorly constructed attack on the Android community, it disproves itself.

 

[Srh12]

And how insecure are you for pointing out the apparent insecurity of so-called "fandroids?"

You're a dirty hypocrite.

To be honest I never said I, personally was willing to be the bigger man. I wanted to pat macrumors users for being open minded. I am just fine and peachy with the ruling.

Personally, I have owned 3 buggy, laggy android devices in the past year and am now of the opinion that the platform should be put out to pasture like a lame horse quickly and quietly haha how's that for dirty?

 

[maconservative]

Can't wait until Google sues Apple for ripping off the pull down notification menu in iOS. It will be hard to work around that one. But you know what they say, what goes around comes around.

Did Google patent it?

 

[viewfly]

Oh you mean like google desktop which was released in 2004 before spotlight?

I wonder if copernic desktop search released before 2000 is prior art for the patent in question.

Spotlight was announced in 2003 and the foundation patent for it was filed in 2000, by the same authors of the 2004 one. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...XT&s1=6847959.PN.&OS=PN/6847959&RS=PN/6847959

As far as MS's Copernic is concerned, I don't remember what it was in 2000, compared to today. Did it combine Web and local search? But the Apple patents were issued, it is up to the courts to decide. And it is all about minor details, not board simple concepts.

In 2000, this was what Apple was trying to invent, and got the patent for it:

From the above patent as to the need for the invention in 2000. just remember read this with what you had on your desktop in 2000...

"Like the Find File utility discussed above, finding information on the Internet can prove frustrating because search criteria are often too broad. For example, when a keyword is entered, thousands of different web pages containing these keywords can be displayed in a list for a user to choose from. Accordingly, additional search criteria are needed to more effectively filter information available, for example, on the world wide web. However, there is little technology currently available which allows the computer to help the user determine such additional criteria or to automatically provide additional criteria, so that search results have a higher percentage of items that are of interest to the user.

Additionally, web-browser applications are not designed to search for non-web-based documents or applications located on the computer or an associated computer network and, conversely, File Find-type utility programs are not capable of searching the Internet for web-based documents or applications. There has been no combination of desktop find routines that presents a single interface and Internet browsing routines to allow a computer user to find a needed or desired item of information from among all different types of information storage systems. Additionally, there is no program which is able to process the user's input and then determine, using many different factors, including use of the Internet, the intent of the user as to the file to be retreived. Accordingly, in order to present a more informative and personalized user interface, a unitary manner of finding a user's desired item of information is needed. "

 

[Oletros]

That can be easily invalidated. Apple had 300 UI patents to protects original iPhones but Google copied them easily.

What UI patents has copied Google?

 

[tninety]

To be honest I never said I, personally was willing to be the bigger man. I wanted to pat macrumors users for being open minded. I am just fine and peachy with the ruling.

Personally, I have owned 3 buggy, laggy android devices in the past year and am now of the opinion that the platform should be put out to pasture like a lame horse quickly and quietly haha how's that for dirty?

Android devices are the product of their respective manufacturers, and do not necessarily represent the quality of Android itself. HTC puts its own customizations on top of it, Samsung does too, and so does Motorola. These customizations are not approved by Google, and are, more often than not, the cause of much of the "lag" that some people associate with Android. Either that, or poor hardware. What consumers often don't understand is that, like it or not, it's just the way an open platform works. If Apple licensed iOS in this way, you would see a similar disparity among the quality of devices.

In fact, I could build my own flavor of Android on my Linux box, put it on a PandaBoard or something, and start selling the device on eBay as my own device. I could even make it crash every 10 minutes, and make it lag horribly. Would that make Android itself an OS that crashed every 10 minutes?

Have you used a Galaxy Nexus (a high-end Android device with no customizations) with ICS for more than a few months? Android has improved a lot since the early days. ICS/Jelly Bean hold their own against any version of iOS.

 

[tshrimp]

I love my Apple products, but I have about had it with all this crap.

 

[Srh12]

And how insecure are you for accusing so-called "fandroids" of having inferiority complexes in a condescending way while gleefully trumpeting the clearly superior etiquette of the Apple community?

You're a dirty hypocrite. Your post is such a poorly constructed attack on the Android community, it disproves itself.

Well yes, I could certainly produce a more finely polished post if I were to have the time and butthurt-ness to go back and re-edit my posts. Seriously though, good job this second time around. You win, tiger. I'm going to bed but please keep fine tuning the post, I'll check tomorrow to see how well you did. 'Night dear

 

[Renzatic]

What UI patents has copied Google?

Yeah. If Google copied Apple outright and violated even a fraction of their 300 UI patents, you think they'd be going after that, rather than attacking them over obscure API level stuff.

 

[B777Forevar]

Patents are going to be the downfall of the industry.

 

[Srh12]

Android devices are the product of their respective manufacturers, and do not necessarily represent the quality of Android itself. HTC puts its own customizations on top of it, Samsung does too, and so does Motorola. These customizations are not approved by Google, and are, more often than not, the cause of much of the "lag" that some people associate with Android. Either that, or poor hardware. What consumers often don't understand is that, like it or not, it's just the way an open platform works. If Apple licensed iOS in this way, you would see a similar disparity among the quality of devices.

Have you used a Galaxy Nexus (a high-end Android device with no customizations) with ICS for more than a few months? Android has improved a lot since the early days. ICS/Jelly Bean hold their own against any version of iOS.

Yes. I did own a galaxy nexus. And it was the final nail in the coffin that sent me back to iOS. It's pretty and has several fantastic features iOS lacks. But after the crashes, signal drops, reboots and overall clunkiness I decided I'd go for reliability over customization. I still don't think they put enough testing and quality control into their OS, it is just one long beta test with the users paying dearly to be their guinea pigs.

 

[G51989]

Not that I care or anything. Because I don't care enough about consumer products to be loyal to one.

Apple is a stones throw away from having a 90s evil Microsoft Image. Not that I care if they crash and burn, the last good computer I bought from them was my PM G5, Gotta say, not impressed with my 2011 imac

I wonder if Apple has the balls to Sue Google? Or Microsoft? I mean after all, the Google has " icons that you can touch " and Microsoft is making a " product with a flat surface ", If fan boys are to be believed

Note: For the slow, other than my 2011 being a total turd. This entire post is sarcastic

 

[viewfly]

I love my Apple products, but I have about had it with all this crap.

Patents are ugly for the consumer, but they are the life blood of companies small and large. How else can you justify spending $$ and time for developing products/processes/etc, if your potential competition only needs to sit around and drink coffee and reverse engineer your product?

That is why governments grant patents, even with the flaws.

If Google found a workaround to the patent, then it was forced to innovate. Isn't that the intention?

 

[tninety]

Yes. I did own a galaxy nexus. And it was the final nail in the coffin that sent me back to iOS. It's pretty and has several fantastic features iOS lacks. But after the crashes, signal drops, reboots and overall clunkiness I decided I'd go for reliability over customization. I still don't think they put enough testing and quality control into their OS, it is just one long beta test with the users paying dearly to be their guinea pigs.

I thought it was your bedtime

I have a really hard time believing that you had that much trouble over a stock Galaxy Nexus, which has widely been regraded in the press as very reliable.

It's not like iOS hasn't had its own share of issues.

 

[smoledman]

Why does Apple assume that Google is intentionally infringing on software patents? They should realize that with the sheer amount of software modules being coded, nobody can know for sure which patents they might be violating and it would stop innovation COLD if you had to check every function against the entire patent library. This system SUCKS and has to be reformed!!!

 

[tninety]

Why does Apple assume that Google is intentionally infringing on software patents? They should realize that with the sheer amount of software modules being coded, nobody can know for sure which patents they might be violating and it would stop innovation COLD if you had to check every function against the entire patent library. This system SUCKS and has to be reformed!!!

Intent isn't part of it. It's not about who's right or who's wrong. It doesn't matter if anybody meant to infringe anybody else's patent.

If a company thinks it can get away with claiming something infringes, it will make the claim. It's a shame that the industry has gone to this instead of actually innovating.

 

[smoledman]

Intent isn't part of it. It's not about who's right or who's wrong. It doesn't matter if anybody meant to infringe anybody else's patent.

If a company thinks it can get away with claiming something infringes, it will make the claim.

That's why we need software patent reform. You shouldn't be able to patent an underlying process. It's too cost prohibitive to check every software module against the global patent library. It's much easier to verify hardware & GUI because of their visual nature. Sure Apple will continue to abuse this. Heck Motorola is abusing their H.264 patent to extort Microsoft.

You have to know that all the big corporations have dedicated software teams poring over competitor source code(easy in the case of Android) looking for a million infringements. But think of how devastating that is to smaller companies who can't afford that.

 

[viewfly]

Why does Apple assume that Google is intentionally infringing on software patents? They should realize that with the sheer amount of software modules being coded, nobody can know for sure which patents they might be violating and it would stop innovation COLD if you had to check every function against the entire patent library. This system SUCKS and has to be reformed!!!

Every engineer and company understands that they must do this searching. Sure mistakes are made, and if the patent holder feels it is a problem, they will notify you, and then you need to back down or license. Or many times trade patents back and forth, because most likely there is a shared interest.

That is the check and balances of the system. So it is normal to ligate if the offending company doesn't wish to pay or the patent holder will not license. Nothing to be surprised about.

The patent office makes mistakes issuing patents sometimes...but they don't care. They let the courts decide the correct answer. All of this is normal and no one is being evil.

And it can be greatly depressing for the engineer at times. But what way is there around it?

 

[Renzatic]

It's not like iOS hasn't had its own share of issues.

I took my iPhone 4 out of it's protective case last night to clean it off. While holding it in my hand unadorned, I began to realize how sleek, small, attractive, and well designed a piece of technology it is. As far as pure aesthetics go, Apple is about the best designer in the industry.

...I've also dropped 5 calls today. It's going back in the case.

 

[slopokdave]

We've got 3 android phones in the family and 2 apple tv's. I appreciate their simplicity and "it just works". However, makes me want to get rid of my apple tv's. This really sucks for everyone..........

 

[smoledman]

I took my iPhone 4 out of it's protective case last night to clean it off. While holding it in my hand unadorned, I began to realize how sleek, small, attractive, and well designed a piece of technology it is. As far as pure aesthetics go, Apple is about the best designer in the industry.

...I've also dropped 5 calls today. It's going back in the case.

So they designed the look of the iPhone 4 to have the antenna exposed because it looked cool. I thought Ive is on record stating that you don't do a change for it's own sake, it has to be BETTER. Well he violated his own principle right?