I don't know why, but this just makes me laugh.
Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
91–100 of 156 posts
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. It smacks of a proxy war.
"if" it were an attack on Google rather than HTC, I wonder what it is that has spooked Apple to bring out such a big gun now, rather than earlier?
The fact that the Nexus One is better, hardware-wise, than the iPhone? (Earlier Android devices were intentionally stripped down for the sake of being inexpensive. The Nexus One is not.)
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Don't the last two patents basically give them the right to sue ANYONE who has ever made some sort of GUI application, including vendors in their own app store and people who write apps for OSX? Aren't these basically design patterns? Welcome to the world of software patents. Many of the other ones are probably also very basic and widespread, they're just not worded in such a way as to make it so obvious.
Read the claims, not the titles. The title of a patent means nothing, from a legal sense. So while a title can be broad, the claims must be very specific.
The claims merely need to be specific enough to not conflict with other patents (excluding the so called "obvious" and vague notion of "been there, done that"). Design patterns in the general sense are patentable, unfortunately.
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Artificially limiting the capabilities of the hardware (people pay for) with the interest of keeping control, can't possibly be in the same league as "shiny toys that don't do exactly what you want". People also lose the perspective of scaling the current trends set by Apple and others to everything ... what would happen if all the documents within your computer would be DRMed? What would happen if all personal PCs h…
No one is forcing you to be in the iTunes store and write iPhone apps. As for all personal PCs having only software approved by a central authority -- all electrical appliances are approved by UL. I don't see that as having resulted in much evil. To get to drive in the US, everyone is approved by their State. I don't see that as being very evil. The former is opt-in and arranged by insurance interests. The latter is…
That's like saying 10 years ago, no one is forcing you to use Windows.
Right now there is no credible alternative to iPod/iPhone/iTunes. Guys like Google and Microsoft are trying to make a better product. If Apple continues to win by making the better product, that's good for consumers, that's how the free market is supposed to work. If Apple decides to focus their time instead on PREVENTING other people from making the better product, instead of improving their own product, that's evil.
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#95If this had happened a day earlier I don't think I would have posted that RFS. Apple is inching ever closer to evil, and I worry that there's no one within the company who can stand up to Jobs and tell him so.
PG, I am working on a startup in a controversial field. I'm excited about figuring out how to solve the problem that is inherent in the field. I believe our solution will bring great value to the industry but sadly, it might be exploited - albeit legally - by unscrupulous parties and still bring us revenue. It is this last part that I'm conflicted about. I truly believe in many of the hacker principles (that are also common to many users in this forum) but feel really sad and lousy that my system might violate the principles I believe in. So I ask the following question not with a trollish sentiment but with genuine interest in how you deal with similar conflicts:
You seem upset by Apple's latest antic and I am guessing that it violates some of your core principles. Would you take a stand and withdraw your RFS to show your disapproval of their tactics and risk future profits from YC's involvement in iPad startups?
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#96I love John Gruber's response to this:
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Xerox management thought all of those things were just toys and that computers would never be anything but what they were at that moment. Reminds me of a lot of people who look at the iPad and say "meh."
Come on now. Please explain to me what is revolutionary about the iPad. It is 'meh'. It's just a big iPod touch. It's like a netbook or laptop but less useful. There's nothing revolutionary about it at all. It's a slightly slicker version of all the tablet PCs that have failed to capture significant market share for the last 10-20 years. It'd be easy to say "sure but you're a geek, you just don't see how easy to use…
It'd be easy to say "sure but you're a geek, you just don't
see how easy to use and useful the iPad is for normal
people". But I don't think it is.
Sorry, but you don't see. Heck, I am a geek and I do want iPad, and I know exactly why do I want it. That's because I know what I will not be doing with it, and why "deficiencies" which were repeated over and over since Jan 27 do not matter. No, I won't be doing any programming on it, nor will I be carrying it out of my house often. But there are activities on which I spend a lot of time and for those iPad is just perfect.
I used to be surprised how many geeks missed the point that iPad has IPS screen, but I just gave up. It is so easy to point what iPad does not have and miss that it does have. Just wait till you can spend some time with the device, and say meh then.
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple has been evil since the first ipod when you had to use itunes to load music. They have locked people in with no cheap way out. Pure evil IMO.
Pretty sure DRM started out as an industry idea. Regardless, it all pretty much had to happen the way it did. At the time, none of the major studios would have considered releasing DRM-free music. The had to be shown that it would work first.
Maybe DRM is an idea that comes from anyone who creates content and wants to get paid for it.
Yeah, most of the DRM implementations out there are a PITA, but what choice do content creators have anyway? I recently read that 90% of the installed base of World of Goo was pirated. How would you feel if someone stole 90% of your web startup's source code? Oh, you say you lock your source repository that down with tight security at the network and server level? How is that conceptually different from DRM, exactly? I realize that the implementation is very different, of course, but that's not my point.
Besides, I don't expect DRM implementations to be so painful in the future. DRM on PCs sucks because it attempts to close the barn door after the livestock has escaped. If you want to see a device where content control was built in from the ground up, consider the xBox, which is basically a special purpose PC that with tightly controlled installation rights and distribution of content. So the DRM can be relatively unobtrusive.
Or look at Steam, which has gotten quite a bit better than it was a few years ago. And they've been experimenting heavily with bringing down the price point for games, now that every paying user doesn't have to subsidize 10 thieves.
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#99If I were paranoid I might think that this was a bit of an attack on Google rather than HTC.
I hope apple knows they will lose that fight.
Re: Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
#100If I were paranoid I might think that this was a bit of an attack on Google rather than HTC.
I think it's far more calculated than that: Google's shipping Android builds avoid a lot of basic UI features that Apple did first. HTC then adds most of them through their "TouchSense" modifications, just like they did with WM6 before. They're trying to keep Google in its place, and prevent HTC from extending it. They're happy with Android being out there for the dorkwads and ideologues (it lets them shed their 'wor…
I enjoy reading hacker news comments because they tend to be mature and express interesting ideas well. I hope your future comments do not resort to childish name calling as you do in this one.
As for your point, that you feel patents like the multi-touch patent are justified, I would point out that many people disagree with trivial patents such as this, or even software patents in general. It is developers and IT people that are upset with Apples highly controlled development environment. Alienating this group of people may eventually backfire.