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Apple Asked Google Not to Use Multi-Touch in Android?

This is very disappointing if it's true. The lack of competition will only hurt the consumer.
 
Well, what I do not like is Apple *asking* to protect their technology.

People, Apple has changed, is becoming a totally different company. It is a phone company now. No Mac Pros updates still.... for a computer company?
 
the vj said:
Well, what I do not like is Apple *asking* to protect their technology.
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Agreed. What looks worse: Apple asking Google to not infringe on their patent or Apple suing Android for patent infringement. A lawsuit is a relationship killer and neither Apple nor Google want to be come Apple v Palm.
 
Not only do companies seek patents for basically everything, they also get awarded patents on things that shouldn't really be patentable. And a lot of things fall into a gray category.

To get patent on multi touch driven controls, like the "pinch" gesture is for me a typical thing that I hardly would see as patentable. It's a too natural way for doing something like zooming. To restrict, prevent or by other means make it harder to use natural ways or techniques to accomplish things is never good.

Guys, I just patented yawning. Everyone that from now on yawns, must pay and license the right to do so from me, otherwise I will sue you. Sounds ridiculous? It is.
 
Cybbe said:
This shows how Apple and the ridiculous intellectual property rights system is stiffling competition and hurting consumers.
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The fact that you don't understand the reasoning behind legal protection of intellectual property rights simply demonstrates that you have never created anything of value yourself.
 
kdarling said:
You didn't even bother to read it before reposting that, did you? Or if you did, you certainly didn't understand it.

One more time for the non-engineers: Apple has no general patent on multi-touch. It has one for a very specific way of deciding if you want to do vertical scrolling, which stops no one.
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Yes indeed. Apple has patents for specific implementations of multitouch (does Apple have Copyright for Multitouch?). Apple will protect its implementation, just as it will protect its hardware lock on OSX. Every other manufacturer has to role their own, including Google, or Android makers.

This anecdotal story is BS.

Nothing to see here, move along.
 
Mackan said:
Guys, I just patented yawning. Everyone that from now on yawns, must pay and license the right to do so from me, otherwise I will sue you. Sounds ridiculous? It is.
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How many phones or any other devices used pinching to zoom before Apple? Zero. You only realized it was natural after Apple invented it.
 
lamadude said:
Like people said before here, apple didn't invent multi-touch and this article shows that they rely on external innovations like these and then go threatening anyone that wants to use the same. They really are just as bad as microsoft, if not worse but it's just on a smaller scale.
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Then blame the government for giving Apple the patent.
 
the vj said:
Well, what I do not like is Apple *asking* to protect their technology.

People, Apple has changed, is becoming a totally different company. It is a phone company now. No Mac Pros updates still.... for a computer company?
Click to expand...

Nehalem, Gainestown. That's the holdup.

Look for it after March 29.
 
The whole story sounds ridiculous.

If there is a patent, why does Apple need to ask Google not to use multitouch.
There is a patent, that's enough. No special requests are needed, imho.
 
rhpenguin said:
This is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. If this is the case, Apple is going to stifle innovation on this front for years.

Apple is the new Microsoft. But a whole lot worse.
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Yes. Thank you anonymous Android developer for blowing this clearly factual information out. I mean it sucks to be you with the lousy platform you developed lacking any innovative features, so it is nice of you to roll this lack of features on Apple, anonymous guy.

See where I am going with this?
 
Cybbe said:
This shows how Apple and the ridiculous intellectual property rights system is stiffling competition and hurting consumers.
Click to expand...

technically, apple can always license the patent to other companies at a cost. just that apple at the moment is cash abundant and it's not interested in acquiring microsoft...
 
wonderbread57 said:
How many phones or any other devices used pinching to zoom before Apple? Zero. You only realized it was natural after Apple invented it.
Click to expand...

One more time for those who are late to the patent discussions:

Pinch is old. It's even demonstrated in the 1992 Starfire project video by Sun.

Yes, the iPhone was first to use it in a civilian handheld device, but that does not constitute an invention, only marketing.
 
Even if this is true, it might even be a fabrication of what was actually said. Blogs and hurt feelings can misinterpret information pretty quickly. The exchange could have gone like this:

Google: Hey Steve & Eric, take a look at our G1...
Steve: Your implementation sucks. I would take it out.
Eric: At least for awhile until we can get multitouch cleaned up and working in most APIs...
Google: Well we were under tight deadlines to get something out... but the geeks want something now for the ship deadline!
Eric: comment it out for now... somebody will find it and enable it anyway.

... Engineer goes off to sulk in the corner. Then goes to complain about it to a blog.
 
kdarling said:
APPLE DOES NOT HAVE A PATENT ON MULTI-TOUCH.
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Agreed. How could they? It's been used all over. I think I first saw it on a TED video a long time ago. I'm sure it existed before that too. They may have been the first to market it in a consumer device (like the mouse), but own it out right? I don't think so.
 
Palm

Hah! Palm has one foot in the grave, and the other on the edge of the casket. ANY "relationship* with them amounts to very little at this point, anyway.

(And I say that as someone who was a fan of Palm devices from the beginning. I owned the original "PalmPilot Pro" PDA, a Palm 3, and even one of those wireless Palm V's or whatever they were, with the monthly service plan on the proprietary network. I went on to buy two different Kyocera "smartphones" based on Palm devices, and owned two different Palm Treo phones after that.)

The fact is, they failed to keep up with the changing marketplace, and their products have slowly withered and died. (PalmOS couldn't even support later Bluetooth standards, so devices like their Treos had terrible support for headsets and car kits.)

Anything they're doing now is "too little, too late", and even a well done clone of Apple's way of doing multi-touch on the iPhone isn't enough to rescue them.


SeaFox said:
Apple and Palm have a relationship? I must have missed that one.
Click to expand...
 
nick9191 said:
Look at all the other multi touch phones out there, they are a half assed rip off of the iPhones multi touch.
Click to expand...

Exactly, because Apple thinks they now own any form of multi touch so other companies need to implement it in a half-assed way.
 
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