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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.

Spotlight better than the Search Box?

They both pretty much do exactly the same thing.
 
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.

That is the check and balances of the system.

Apple isn't even offering licenses to Android manufacturers. As Steve Jobs said, Apple's strategy is thermonuclear war, which is anticompetitive at best, and grossly monopolistic at worst.

Google was friendly with Apple, and even today (tries its best to) remain friendly with Apple, but the mere act of starting to compete with its own platform made Apple angry.

In reality, Apple owns thousands of patents, Google owns thousands of patents, and each Android manufacturer owns thousands of patents. Each of these parties could be infringing on hundreds of patents from all the other manufacturers. It's just a matter of who chooses to sue over what that gets on the news.

The patent system is broken. Apple, Nokia, and Motorola are just players that are abusing it, though Apple is one of the more aggressive companies. Google, HTC, and Samsung seem to be on the defense right now - only using litigation to defend against other litigation. Who wins in the end? Nobody, except for the lawyers. :rolleyes:
 
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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?

Nothing is perfect. A mistake was made with the iPhone 4. It is now fixed in the iPhone 4S. No case needed and it looks the same as the 4.

It is just still slippery and falls out of your hand. ;)
 
software development

I seriously wonder how many people with a lot of opinions on patent infringement know how many shades of gray there are for software patents?

I am a professional programmer and I know that if you were coding features for a major platform it would be a pretty tricky mess to not accidentally violate software patents. I still do not believe that it is stealing to code similar functionality as long as you do it from scratch, but if you copy lines of someone else's code and compile it that, I believe, is stealing.

I wish that the US would ditch software patents but we never will.
 
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?

Yeah, he screwed up in a big bad way. It's something you think they'd pick up in testing, too. I mean it happens so...freaking...often when the antenna is exposed, I'm honestly surprised they didn't.
 
Apple isn't even offering licenses to Android manufacturers. As Steve Jobs said, Apple's strategy is thermonuclear war. Google was friendly with Apple, and even today (tries its best to) remain friendly with Apple, but started competing with their own platform.

Apple using Google maps and google search generates 100's of millions of $$ for Google directly from Apple and via adverts (google's business model).

Yes, very friendly...;)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/06/09/apple-is-about-to-reduce-googles-revenues/
 
Yeah, he screwed up in a big bad way. It's something you think they'd pick up in testing, too. I mean it happens so...freaking...often when the antenna is exposed, I'm honestly surprised they didn't.

What's amazing is that Apple's marketing is so fantastic that the iPhone 4 & 4S have sold record amounts despite these design flaws. I guess a cramped hand(awkward way to hold it) is price of admission to iOS.
 
Apple using Google maps and google search generates 100's of millions of $$ for Google directly from Apple and via adverts (google's business model).

Yes, very friendly...;)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/06/09/apple-is-about-to-reduce-googles-revenues/

It was mutually beneficial. The iPhone couldn't have taken off so quickly without Google's products - Google Maps was one of the main selling points of the original iPhone. If Google's intent was to kill off iOS, they would have ended the Maps deal long before Apple would have been ready with an alternative.

The difference between the strategies of Google and Apple is that Google wants to bring its products to all platforms, while Apple just wants its platform to dominate the market.
 
system wide search

Palm Pre's WebOS was the first mobile phone with system wide search, by the way....Apple implemented Spotlight on the phone after WebOS had hit the streets. The first Apple OS with Spotlight was Tiger.

Google at that time also had a desktop wide search that you could install onto your computer.
 
Palm Pre's WebOS was the first mobile phone with system wide search, by the way....Apple implemented Spotlight on the phone after WebOS had hit the streets. The first Apple OS with Spotlight was Tiger.

Google at that time also had a desktop wide search that you could install onto your computer.

But I'm sure if you look at the patent filing dates, Apple go there first which is why they got the injunction.
 
Yeah, he screwed up in a big bad way. It's something you think they'd pick up in testing, too. I mean it happens so...freaking...often when the antenna is exposed, I'm honestly surprised they didn't.

Yes, it was surprising it was not picked up. However part of the reason is that this antenna problem ONLY happened in weak signal areas (4 bars or less) AND if you touch that little 1mm black gap on the lower left side.

Otherwise it was fine...esp if you did field testing with cases on to hide the phone. I got a feeling they knew before it was too late and took the risk. Worked out fine in terms of revenue for Apple.
 
Spotlight better than the Search Box?

They both pretty much do exactly the same thing.

Two things can do the same thing but each have a patent. It isn't what they do, it is how (the process) they do it.
 
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.

Whatever, just let him choose what he wants. I still agree with the last statement; how much you admire the company should not be a factor in choosing your device. I hate Microsoft, but I still choose the XBOX over the PS2, Windows over Linux, and Age of Empires II over Civilization.
 
So I wonder how it works when you win an injunction pending a full court battle but in the interim, your competitor patches their software to avoid infringement. I imagine the infringer has to petition the court to relax the injunction and if so, I would imagine that Apple gets their bond money back and then drops the case. It seems this would be resolved way before the actual case is fully decided.

If so, that is great for Apple. They get to protect their IP and not have to risk $96M bond to enforce the injunction. I know that when Samsung and Apple battled it out in Germany that Samsung had to propose multiple alternate designs for Galaxy Tab before the courts lifted the ban.

The bond was reported as being only a couple million, even if the figure did appear to be low. I guess Apple could still pursue the case and attempt to prove past infringement/damages up to that point. What some people on here don't understand is that no infringement has been proven in these cases. Saying something is likely to infringe on a likely valid patent isn't the same as testing that in court. If a company backs off and redesigns, the motivation to maintain that case may drop off.

Would like to see how they try and make the patent invalid. If it was a logical thing for anyone to do Google would be better placed than most companies to make it. Then once Apple did it, it only took what 9 months to make a direct competition to it? Sounds like a pretty valid patent to me.

Patents require much more information when determining or testing validity.

I do not get all these ****ing lawsuits.

So they issue a possible workaround then they need not pay for previous infringement? In the similar case with HTC, HTC got around with kind of a fix and continue sell their devices. So what Apple got from all these lawsuits? Not a penny! Why Apple still continues these stupid lawsuits?

Apple could probably continue pushing the case arguing past infringement, but they'd have to prove that an infringement actually occurred. In HTC's case, they changed whatever brought on the accusation via a workaround. At that point there is no way to claim that the device will do irreparable harm to Apple. Apple may no longer feel the case is even worth pursuing at that point. What do you think they'd really see out of it? Claims are that HTC's volume isn't that great compared to Samsung and Apple. Are they really going to waste legal resources to try to claim retroactive licensing fees? How well do you really feel that would work out for Apple? What makes you think this is about anything other than keeping these products off the market? They're more likely trying to delay and limit devices rather than extract damages.

I am all for banning products that directly infringe on key Hardware/interface designs, because those trick consumers into buying something they may not want to, and it hurts Apple's sales and brand strength.

However, the facts are all there for us to see. One of the patents has to do specifically with integrated system wide search, not SIRI, as it was mentioned. Since when is a system wide search a feature that is only unique to iOS devices? So, Galaxy Nexus users should not be able to easily search for local files/apps on their device? C'mon, that serves zero benefit to anyone, including Apple.

I don't think anyone even knows what is being sued on with half these articles anymore. Apple seems like they're just going to delay Samsung products whenever possible.

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!!!

They would claim this whether they believed it or not.

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.

Spotlight had a long list of bugs under Tiger ranging from issues with externally connected drives to program stability issues during memory paging and a long list of other issues. Some of them improved under Snow Leopard and Lion, but spotlight was never well designed, especially in its original implementation. It's just been patched many times to be acceptable.
 
Yes, it was surprising it was not picked up. However part of the reason is that this antenna problem ONLY happened in weak signal areas (4 bars or less) AND if you touch that little 1mm black gap on the lower left side.

Otherwise it was fine...esp if you did field testing with cases on to hide the phone. I got a feeling they knew before it was too late and took the risk. Worked out fine in terms of revenue for Apple.

I tried to do the "death grip" on my iPhone 4 and on the ones at the Apple Store, but it doesn't do anything. I remember tons of people on this forum stating that this is also the case with them. It's probably just a problem on a few iPhones.
 
It was mutually beneficial. The iPhone couldn't have taken off so quickly without Google's products - Google Maps was one of the main selling points of the original iPhone. If Google's intent was to kill off iOS, they would have ended the Maps deal long before Apple would have been ready with an alternative.

The difference between the strategies of Google and Apple is that Google wants to bring its products to all platforms, while Apple just wants its platform to dominate the market.

Yes it is mutually beneficial I agree with you. It also is business. MS still make office for the Mac. Has done so for 30 years and more.

But Google want to dominate with it products, don't kid yourself. I wish for the old days: Apple makes OS and Google makes Maps and Search stuff, which they are free to to give to other platforms.

But Google crossed that line and moved into OS...so Jobs decided years ago to move into Google's territory and make Maps. No hard feelings huh?

With Google moving into OS, where Apple has 30 years experience on them, Google is bound to infringe a few patents.

We all would be better off if Apple and Google went back to their old ways. That was a creative coupling.
 
But I'm sure if you look at the patent filing dates, Apple go there first which is why they got the injunction.

That's my problem with this patent mess. I would understand if patents protected specific implementation (algorithm or whatever) but to allow patents to be used to ban others from implementing whatever they want is just ridiculous. As a software developer now I need to know where exactly my software is allowed to search? Is the following command illegal now?

> grep "Apple is Evil" *.txt

It does search in multiple sources (files). There is very little difference between this command and "system-wide" search. After all, all information in computers is stored in 0s and 1s in files. And every search does exactly the same - searches data from one or more files. The actual implementation may include many layers of software but in principle that's all there is to it.

So I do not understand Apple's claim that they invented a search from multiple sources. This claim is just ridiculous.
 
Yes, it was surprising it was not picked up. However part of the reason is that this antenna problem ONLY happened in weak signal areas (4 bars or less) AND if you touch that little 1mm black gap on the lower left side.

My experiences have been it'll weaken the signal if you put a finger near the gap, within half an inch or so. If I'm using my iPhone without a case, I have to hold it between my thumb and index finger to guarantee a perfect phone call.

Otherwise it was fine...esp if you did field testing with cases on to hide the phone. I got a feeling they knew before it was too late and took the risk. Worked out fine in terms of revenue for Apple.

Right. It's not terrible, but it's bad enough that it's a good talking point to bring up whenever someone mentions the supposedly unerring quality Apple supposedly adheres to. Just like any company, they have their incredibly stupid goofups.
 
Spotlight had a long list of bugs under Tiger ranging from issues with externally connected drives to program stability issues during memory paging and a long list of other issues. Some of them improved under Snow Leopard and Lion, but spotlight was never well designed, especially in its original implementation. It's just been patched many times to be acceptable.

I have to disagree. The native search box in Windows is so slow and nearly useless.

Whereas Spotlight finds things i want very fast and finds applications, files and organizes them nicely.

But this is off topic somewhat. Just saying that I have no problems with the ongoing litigations. It is just normal run of the mill stuff. Most consumers don't see it day to day, but it happens all the time.
 
So I wonder how it works when you win an injunction pending a full court battle but in the interim, your competitor patches their software to avoid infringement. I imagine the infringer has to petition the court to relax the injunction and if so, I would imagine that Apple gets their bond money back and then drops the case. It seems this would be resolved way before the actual case is fully decided.

If so, that is great for Apple. They get to protect their IP and not have to risk $96M bond to enforce the injunction. I know that when Samsung and Apple battled it out in Germany that Samsung had to propose multiple alternate designs for Galaxy Tab before the courts lifted the ban.

I think the #1 thing that Apple wants here is for their products to be distinctive in the market place -- that means enforcing the ease-of-use/user-experience patents they hold as well as their trade dress, trademarks, and design patents. Apple makes their money on having distinctive products so its no wonder they so vehemently defend their IP.

The case would still go forward because Samsung would still be liable for infringing. They can't go Back in time.
 
I have to disagree. The native search box in Windows is so slow and nearly useless.

Whereas Spotlight finds things i want very fast and finds applications, files and organizes them nicely.

But this is off topic somewhat. Just saying that I have no problems with the ongoing litigations. It is just normal run of the mill stuff. Most consumers don't see it day to day, but it happens all the time.

You are probably talking about Windows XP era search. Even then it could be fast if you added needed directories to the list of directories that had to be indexed. In Windows 7, the search is instantaneous. The results are shown and updated as you type. At this moment the system does not do the actual search it just fetches the results from index files that are constantly updated by search engine.
 
I have to disagree. The native search box in Windows is so slow and nearly useless.

Whereas Spotlight finds things i want very fast and finds applications, files and organizes them nicely.

The bugs aren't anywhere near as irritating these days. I recall figuring out workarounds for others as spotlight had a tendency to crash many applications during periods of heavy disk activity.

But this is off topic somewhat. Just saying that I have no problems with the ongoing litigations. It is just normal run of the mill stuff. Most consumers don't see it day to day, but it happens all the time.

I'm aware of the frequency of corporate litigation, and I wish the Apple enthusiast sites had some better topics. The writers don't know much about litigation. Most of the readers know next to nothing. The articles themselves are poorly detailed, and no one would possibly draw real conclusions from them on who is right.

But Google want to dominate with it products, don't kid yourself. I wish for the old days: Apple makes OS and Google makes Maps and Search stuff, which they are free to to give to other platforms.

But Google crossed that line and moved into OS...so Jobs decided years ago to move into Google's territory and make Maps. No hard feelings huh?

With Google moving into OS, where Apple has 30 years experience on them, Google is bound to infringe a few patents.

I don't fully agree with you here. Apple wants to encompass as many things as possible wherever they make sense. They wouldn't necessarily stay out of cartography simply out of respect for Google. Apple will go for whatever markets benefit them.
 
Don't forget to convert all of the AAC files to MP3 first!

I think you fellows need to come in to the 21st century.

I already had the discussion with my wife who wanted a new iPod Touch, but I showed her what was going on in this dispute. Once you have all of the facts, you can make an informed decision. Further, the kids are happy they are getting big 7" screens as opposed to the little 3.5" screens on their iPod Touch.

My music has already been compatible with Google Music Manager, and I already listen to it on my Galaxy Nexus which has a better D/A, and I will continue to use iTunes on my iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Book Pro, and Mac Mini. Further, my kids get all of their music off of iTunes. Using Google Music Manager its all very seamless, provided its DRM free, which it mostly is.

My Marantz AV7005 processor has already replaced my Apple TV functions and I need to now download the Android app for my Harmony Link remote.

I'm glad I didn't buy a NEST thermostat like I was planning to a couple months back.

The transition is easier than one would think.

----------

I believe Android natively supports AAC (and has for a while, I think). I've had no trouble playing iTunes store content on it. Even if it didn't, you could download an app that did and replace the default music player with that. DRM'd files, though, it won't play. http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html Google Play Music will also accept AAC files, but automatically transcodes any content you upload into 320kbps MP3 anyway.

EDIT: Since 3.1 it seems.

iTunes music is no problem. Google Music Manager will accept AAC files, but not DRM files. DRM files are a problem as it is because if you synch 3-4 iDevices to your Mac and it has DRM files, and some of those files are shared between playlists, you can't put it on all of those devices.
 
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