Apple granted broad mobile patent • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#71

Post by i_cannot_hack » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:15 PM UTC

kbutler wrote: post #54

VanL wrote: post #26

The hyperventilating in this article is ridiculous. First, patents always issue on a Thursday - and any large company usually has a number in the pipe. There is nothing unusual about a company the size of Apple getting 25 patents issued in one release. Now, I haven't read all of the 25 patents issued to Apple, but this article makes the classic mistake of confounding the specification (which describes lots of stuff)…

> "and the vertical bar is not a scroll bar." These words were added to get around prior art. All Google would need to do is allow its position indicator to also function as a scroll bar and this patent doesn't apply. Interesting to note that on OS/X Lion, the indicator DOES function as a scrollbar. And when it doesn't on IOS, it bugs me (try flicking through a very long document with the non-grabable indicator on iO…

How can you possible be granted a patent for the removal of a function from an existing idea?

Can I take away the headlights from a car and patent it as something new?

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#72

Post by Rhymenocerus » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:28 PM UTC

Hoorah for us all, even less viable products for us to choose from! I don't understand why people look up to Jobs, but still hate Bill Gates for his business practices during the 90's.

"Picasso had a saying - 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas." - Steve Jobs

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#73

Post by option_greek » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:30 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #60

Sidnicious wrote: post #21

> We can’t take all of our energy and all of our care and finish the painting, then have someone else put their name on it. What a load of shit. What happened to “great artists steal”? Great art must be stolen to inspire new, greater art. The iPhone is awesome. May a thousand devices like it bloom.

> What a load of shit. What happened to “great artists steal”? Great art must be stolen to inspire new, greater art. You'd be totally cool with me stealing the side project you've poured heart and soul into for 5 years, to sell it to an overseas company that floods the market for 1/10 the price?

Assuming they did it from scratch and not shipping the assemblies outright, I don't see what the issue is.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#74

Post by jarek » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #63

mattmaroon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the patents they've granted look to my highly un-patent-lawyer-like eyes like things I had on phones 5 years before Apple jumped into the fray. I'm not really sweating it too much. Multi-touch is big though and I at least have no recollection of prior art.

> Multi-touch is big though and I at least have no recollection of prior art. For anyone that doubts this, checkout the iPhone announcement keynote one more time. It's really worth watching again. The first time Steve slides to unlock, and the first time he "flicks" to scroll with rubber-banding the crowd is floored. It's worth watching for the "stylus" gag alone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uW-E496FXg

I didn't downvote you, but do either of your examples actually have anything to do with multi-touch?

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#75

Post by arrowgunz » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:34 PM UTC

Competition is what drives companies to create better products. Without that there would be very little progress in innovation. I am an Apple fanboy and still hope nothing happens to Android.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#76

Post by Samuel_Michon » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

diminish wrote: post #35

VanL wrote: post #26

The hyperventilating in this article is ridiculous. First, patents always issue on a Thursday - and any large company usually has a number in the pipe. There is nothing unusual about a company the size of Apple getting 25 patents issued in one release. Now, I haven't read all of the 25 patents issued to Apple, but this article makes the classic mistake of confounding the specification (which describes lots of stuff)…

Today a lot of mainstream media published articles along the same line on how Apple's new patents will kill competition; which makes me think, they do it to push the aapl share price higher in the lack of any major apple product announcements in the current quarter.

“the lack of any major apple product announcements in the current quarter.”

Apple fourth fiscal quarter of 2012 started in the last week of June and will conclude in the last week of September.

WWDC usually falls in FQ3, one month a go Apple released new notebooks during the event. That was good timing, it means Apple will be able to keep up with demand when the Back to School crowd starts shopping.

Mountain Lion will be released within the next two weeks, which will also boost Mac sales.

The next hardware announcement will be no earlier than September (new iPhone), but that will probably still be in FQ4.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#77

Post by jbigelow76 » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #60

Sidnicious wrote: post #21

> We can’t take all of our energy and all of our care and finish the painting, then have someone else put their name on it. What a load of shit. What happened to “great artists steal”? Great art must be stolen to inspire new, greater art. The iPhone is awesome. May a thousand devices like it bloom.

> What a load of shit. What happened to “great artists steal”? Great art must be stolen to inspire new, greater art. You'd be totally cool with me stealing the side project you've poured heart and soul into for 5 years, to sell it to an overseas company that floods the market for 1/10 the price?

By referencing "great artists steal" I think the OP was referring more to the hypocrisy of Apple as opposed to indignation.

Here is the youtube video of Jobs saying that Apple shamelessly steals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

Given that Jobs credits Picasso with the "great artists steal" quote and Tim Cook making an analogy about "finishing the painting" the whole thing is quite ironic.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#78

Post by nuclear_eclipse » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:46 PM UTC

kbutler wrote: post #54

VanL wrote: post #26

The hyperventilating in this article is ridiculous. First, patents always issue on a Thursday - and any large company usually has a number in the pipe. There is nothing unusual about a company the size of Apple getting 25 patents issued in one release. Now, I haven't read all of the 25 patents issued to Apple, but this article makes the classic mistake of confounding the specification (which describes lots of stuff)…

> "and the vertical bar is not a scroll bar." These words were added to get around prior art. All Google would need to do is allow its position indicator to also function as a scroll bar and this patent doesn't apply. Interesting to note that on OS/X Lion, the indicator DOES function as a scrollbar. And when it doesn't on IOS, it bugs me (try flicking through a very long document with the non-grabable indicator on iO…

Also of note is that most disappearing scroll indicators in Android are scroll bars; if you can drag on the indicator before it disappears, you can use it to quickly scroll large distances in a big document or list.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#79

Post by Samuel_Michon » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

Sidnicious wrote: post #21

> We can’t take all of our energy and all of our care and finish the painting, then have someone else put their name on it. What a load of shit. What happened to “great artists steal”? Great art must be stolen to inspire new, greater art. The iPhone is awesome. May a thousand devices like it bloom.

“What happened to “great artists steal”?”

That's because the inverse isn't valid. Not every thief is a great artist. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook apparently didn't consider Android to be great art.

The original quote, to put in context what Jobs was referring to:

“One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.” —Philip Massinger

http://nancyprager.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/good-poets-borro...

NB: Jobs mistakenly attributed it to Picasso, who never said such a thing. Jobs probably read Richardson’s biography of Picasso, in which the text is misquoted and attributed to T.S. Eliot.

Re: Apple granted broad mobile patent

#80

Post by nuclear_eclipse » Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 5:54 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #66

RobAtticus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I'm being dense, but what is the proper tense? Nothing in that sentence reads to me like the author thinks that Steve is alive (okay, 'see' maybe).

Personally I wouldn't have used that sentence at all. If I needed something along those lines, I would have written "Steve Jobs' longtime wish may finally come true ... to see Android devices taken off the market." Just the wording "get" and "see" imply that he could still receive these benefits.

I guess that would depend on your interpretation of the afterlife. There are plenty of people in the world who believe that he is still here, just on a different plane of existence...