Comments on: Regarding Apple Multi-touch Patents, iPhone, Verizon Droid, and Palm Pre

By: Elane Tintinger

Elane Tintinger — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:34:45 +0000

grazie

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:43:30 +0000

Fact is no one else came up with intuitive interfaces using capacitive touch screens until the iPhone platform. Before that, all the rage was styluses on resistive screens, trackballs and roller-dials on Blackberries, etc.

Come to think of it, everyone in mobile before iPhone had their own gimmick to interface with a powerful mobile device (including the iPod roto-dial). Apple cooked up (so far) the best one, and patented it. Everyone else is trying to ape it in one way or another now. But the iPhone "edge" with multi-touch (in the 350 page patent, Apple calls a lot of it "heuristics") is in the patent and I think thats fair, they invented the frick'in thing.

By: gizmoview

gizmoview — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:06:57 +0000

How about doing some homework on WHO has the rights and owns the multitouch patent? Ironically, guess who's name comes up?

You guessed right!

The CEO of Palm Pre, Jon Rubenstein!

Lookup Patent Number: 345173000.

This may just explain a lot of things you've always wondered about!

By: fassy

fassy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:53:22 +0000

Considering that (according to Engadget) the European version of the droid will have multitouch, it seems safe to say that yes, this is patent-related.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/02/gsm-droid-with-multitouch-pinch-to-zoom-demoed-on-video/

Though the speculation that it will appear by default in European droid seems premature, as patents on both sides of the ocean are generally recognized by treaty.

By: Ummm Duh

Ummm Duh — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:40:29 +0000

multitouch is NOT the same thing as multi-touch gestures. For crying out loud people, stop using them interchangeably. Apple's patents on the gestures are not on the gestures THEMSELVES. They are on the gestures WITH the HW specs they state. Go look at the US patents site for the Apple and FingerWorks patents. They are not SOLELY gestures.

By: Pimp Lucious

Pimp Lucious — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:56:40 +0000

Is this a article about multitouch or just another opportunity for Rene to take shots at Verizon and Android. Stop whining and put Steve's pacifier back in your mouth.

By: ted

ted — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:03:58 +0000

Okay there's a few mistakes that need to be cleared here. Verizon pop email data plan is $30. Another corporate provision server is $45 since it costs more to maintain, i.e. banks, microsoft exchange servers, etc. When SMARTPHONES came out, long before the iphone, they we're all the same cost period. At&t does the exact same thing for corporate accounts. 2. Multi gesturing. The motorola droid in other country's will have multi gesturing. The HTC android PASSION will have multi gesturing, or pinching, or whatever you guys call it, just like the palm pre, etc. This was likely implemented on motora's part, but could be Verizon's as well?

Just like in the summer of 2004 the iphone 4g will have MULTIgesturing....... ha ha. Guess who will have that?

By: cardfan

cardfan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:50:14 +0000

If that's really the case, then it would seem like Palm is worth buying alone for the patents.

By: msatlas

msatlas — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:57:02 +0000

The HTC HD2 also manages to accomplish pinch zooming, swipes etc and it's running WinMo.

By: Joe McG

Joe McG — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:37:22 +0000

Umm, is this an editorial, or has this been confirmed?

The HTC Hero has pinch to zoom too. Either way, I'm sure you can easily download and add the feature within a few weeks of release, whether officially or 3rd party.

By: bugs

bugs — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:19:19 +0000

U.S Patent laws that allow the dumbest shit to be patent.

only reason droid or any other os dont have multi touch.

the interesting question would be, windows mobile platform if microsoft renamed it to surface, since microsoft does also own touch patents for its surface device.

round ball cell phones inc next?

By: iphone4idiots

iphone4idiots — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:31:26 +0000

First . . . These multi touch patents seem shady to me. Reminds back in the day I believe it was some British company tried to patent the hyperlink. That didn't fly and neither will Apple if they say things like pinch to zoom.