The bottom line... it's very tough not to infringe on a patent unintentionally and it's becoming a problem.
Truth. Everyone is being compelled to file software patents, more as a preemptive defense mechanism than anything else. The fact that some obvious things are getting patents, makes it imperative. It's like a Cold War, with weapon stockpiling, just in case.
Those were functions never conceived of before Apple introduced them, and did not exist in any other commercial products.
All of those basic functions mentioned existed before Apple.
Years before the iPhone, there was slide to unlock, tap zoom, pinch zoom, inertial scrolling, and so forth. Some in commercial products, some not.
Surprised that anyone would not know, at the least, about Jeff Han and his famous 2006 TED talk with pinch zoom (and he was not the first to do it, not by a long shot).
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