Wow.
The answer is "not even close" - I'll let you figure out why.
Apple and Palm won't be going to court anytime soon.
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The Palm Pre's UI is peerless in its class.
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Wow.
The answer is "not even close" - I'll let you figure out why.
Apple and Palm won't be going to court anytime soon.
The Fingerworks patents (which I've read) are mostly for pressure sensitive keyboards, and have little or nothing to do with LCD touch implementations.
Nope, Apple has not gotten a bunch of multi-touch patents, although they've applied for some rather questionable ones.
The only granted UI patent that I can see that Palm might've stepped on, is the one about rubber-banding at the edges of a screen.
If Google did so, it had nothing to do with patents, but some other kind of business agreement.
Seriously, you won't get good facts reading fan news blogs written by non-engineers.
Something just occurred to me regarding developing software for webOS. Since applications are just HTML5/CSS/Javascript, wouldn't it be possible for anyone to unpack an application and look at all its source code? This would be a huge deal breaker for developers who don't want people poking through their code.
ahhhh interesting point. This definitely would make it hard for big companies to bring their software to WebOS, since they have so much red tape on what is allowed with their software. I think that would be a deal breaker for most developers.
Palm says they'll have a solution soon.
Compiled code isn't immune to being looked at either, of course. I used to spend quite a bit of time decompiling apps and recreating source code.
So Palm doesn't have a solution for this now? That's really going to hold off a lot of developers until they come up with one. I wonder what their solution is going to be.
I'm aware that compiled code could be decompiled to produce source code. But it isn't as trivial as just viewing the actual HTML/Javascript source code with a text editor.
Who would want the Pre? It is subpar:
1. Can't surf and call at the same time.
2. Can't email and call at the same time.
3. No visual voicemail.
4. Only 8 gigs storage, of which only 7.2 or so is available- just music alone with consume that or more.
5. Can't download music over 3G- Sprint says it will only allow over WIFI.
6. No on screen typing ability- yeah, I know, someone will develop an app- but who knows when it will be or how good it will be. As it stands now, you have to use the keyboard for all typing. Trying looking at a web page in landscape, then having to rotate the phone to up and down, pull out keyboard, type, and then rotate back. Subpar.
7. Yeah, it syncs natively with iTunes now, but who knows how long that will last until Apple breaks their hack.
I know, it multitasks, its with Sprint and not AT&T, etc. but at least to me those don't matter. The above are much more significant. Oh yeah, there's Synergy. Just wait until you spend half your days avoiding duplicates and overwrites with all those different contact files.
1. Can't surf and call at the same time.
2. Can't email and call at the same time.
3. No visual voicemail.
4. Only 8 gigs storage, of which only 7.2 or so is available- just music alone with consume that or more.
5. Can't download music over 3G- Sprint says it will only allow over WIFI.
6. No on screen typing ability- yeah, I know, someone will develop an app- but who knows when it will be or how good it will be. As it stands now, you have to use the keyboard for all typing. Trying looking at a web page in landscape, then having to rotate the phone to up and down, pull out keyboard, type, and then rotate back. Subpar.
7. Yeah, it syncs natively with iTunes now, but who knows how long that will last until Apple breaks their hack.
I know, it multitasks, its with Sprint and not AT&T, etc. but at least to me those don't matter. The above are much more significant. Oh yeah, there's Synergy. Just wait until you spend half your days avoiding duplicates and overwrites with all those different contact files.
That really bothers me about Palm. I've read many people saying that it's going to make Apple look like a douchebag for patching in an update to most users, but I think it's the other way around. It's going to make Palm look like an ass for announcing a feature that they knew they wouldn't be able to keep.
I'm with you on this. Palm's a "real innovator"- they just hack their way into iTunes.
I am saying that Sprint has said with the Pre it will not allow downloads of music on the Pre over 3G, only Wifi. Apparently the Amazon store is just a web interface that downloads. It doesn't know how you're doing. It is Sprint that doesn't want to use up 3G bandwidth.
Sorry, forgot to tell that this is all listed in the official user manual for the Pre which you can download numerous places. It says very clearly it will not be allowed to download except over wifi.
I think it already makes Palm look like an ass for skipping a third of the platform development. They built the hardware, they built the device software, and then they hacked their device to act like an iPod to use Apple's sync software. I'm guessing it's the only way they could afford to get the product to market without asking for another round of funding.
Ditto. Look at their financials at the SEC Edgar site- Palm's barely alive. I think the reason there is a shortage of Pre units at launch is suppliers probably have them on COD.
Here's a link to a whole article about how the Pre won't be allowed to download over 3G:
http://www.precentral.net/no-amazon-mp3-over-3g-wait-what
There are many happy original iPhone owners, and many happy iPhone 3G owners that don't live in 3G areas that wouldn't consider their phone to be subpar.
The whole point of synergy is that it prevents that from happening. If you want to argue that synergy won't work I'd like to see some legitimate reasoning.
Sure, but why are you comparing Palm's (June 2009) 8GB Pre to Apple's 8GB (June 2007) iPhone. Everyone loves to make this argument, so the Pre is "as good as" 2007 technology...
The people looking at a Pre will be deciding between a (June 2009) 8GB Pre for $299 before rebate and a (July 2009) iPhone - most likely with 16GB for $199 or 32GB for $299.
I'd have to see some of these social butterflies use Synergy. Knowing how many variations of people's names I have, I can imagine it being a frustrating experience to sort out Synergy contacts, at least when first activated.
All excellent points to ponder! I will say it again, when I previewed the "Pre" I was surprised that a company would put out such a horrible subpar keyboard for a phone. It's microscopic and almost impossible to type anything, you almost feel as though you need to grab a pencil with an eraser to type something! I truly believe that the "Pre" is all hype and all the "Palm fan-boys" are going to commit suicide once they realize they wasted $ on such a cheap, poorly designed phone.
I think most phone keyboards, no matter how bad they are, a user will eventually get used to it. This is what Palm is banking on for this phone. However, I could see them, for the Pre 2 or 3, going to a landscape slide out keyboard.All excellent points to ponder! I will say it again, when I previewed the "Pre" I was surprised that a company would put out such a horrible subpar keyboard for a phone. It's microscopic and almost impossible to type anything, you almost feel as though you need to grab a pencil with an eraser to type something! I truly believe that the "Pre" is all hype and all the "Palm fan-boys" are going to commit suicide once they realize they wasted $ on such a cheap poorly designed phone.
apple simply HAS to make a stand and at least try and defend its patents.
The big guys will be salivating in the wings waiting to jump into multi touch so apple has to try and sink this poorly funded competitor which is blatantly copying. It must send a signal to the other competitors It will not be as easy against say Nokia who can out fund apple easily.
AS you said like it or not apple has to square up for a potentially bloody fight- they have no choice.
Sigh. Same old nonsense. What patents?
As has been pointed out several times, Apple doesn't have a patent on multi-touch, despite the online articles that at first oh-so-breathlessly claimed so. Or single touch. Or handheld UIs.
Interestingly, Apple is being sued over the techniques they use for displaying pages. Apple themselves documented that they derived the click-to-zoom a section of web page from someone else's patent. Apple and ATT also got sued and had to pay for using the previously patented Visual Voicemail.
That's how this stuff works. No one sues anyone until someone starts making money. Then the lawyers crawl out and then sometime later someone might end up having to pay someone else some money. Much was made of Burst's patents. And Apple eventually paid up with some money found down the back of Steve's sofa.
With regard to iPhone patents. Apple has 7,479,949. The patent situation is developing, but regardless of patents, Palm are in a very unusual position.
They are launching a competitive product which was not developed in a clean room by isolated Trappist monks. The Pre was built largely by team of engineers who left Apple. Regardless of the patent situation, if it can be shown that one feature, one line of code, or one circuit was derived illegally, then Palm is suddenly in a very bad place. And it may have to prove that it did not derive ideas and methods from Apple illegally.
If Apple did file a case, Palm's resurrected share-price could falter and just having to defend itself from a lawsuit could require more financial resources than the impoverished Palm can muster.
Palm's attitude is interesting too. Plug a Pre into a computer by USB, and the Pre identifies itself as an old-model Apple iPod. This was done in order to sync with iTunes.
That "i am an iPod" move alone seems remarkably agressive. Almost as if Palm want to provoke a confrontation.
C.
Yep the so-called "multi-touch patent" ... which was nothing of the sort.
That patent was simply about locking scrolling to one direction, based on the inital angle of your swipe. Read the abstract here.
Not so unusual. Pretty common in Silicon Valley for engineers to leave and start new companies. It's the backbone of the business.
Jobs did the same thing when he raided Apple of its top Mac engineers and formed the NeXT corporation.
Apple sued NeXT and came out looking stupid, having done nothing but make Apple look frightened of what NeXT could come up with. Jobs will no doubt remember this.
However, times are different. You might be right that Apple could try to use more FUD on Palm. Apple hasn't exactly been a shining beacon of niceness for some time now.
And that Palm wants to point out that they're legally confident. Or.. it could just simply be a feature that an engineer stuck in and not much thought was put into the ramifications. That happens a lot too. Not everything is a plot.
Cheers.