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This article is entire speculation (Hint: it's gaseous). It could be patents, but it doesn't prove that it is by any measure. I would like to see multiple use

by jerrya 14y ago

This article is entire speculation (Hint: it's gaseous). It could be patents, but it doesn't prove that it is by any measure. I would like to see multiple users on phones, because I would love to put my phone in guest mode whenever someone wants to borrow it, or whenever the lockscreen is unlocked without a pin. If it really IS about patents it sounds like a great case to demonstrate the silliness of patents. Smartphones ARE computers, they have computers within them, they run computer operating systems, ... Computers have had multiple logins for decades. Tablets are allowed to have multiple logins. Why on earth should multiple logins on smartphones be considered patentable?

fleitz 14y ago
Remember all those X on a computer patents? Well, welcome to X on a smartphone.
shawn-butler 14y ago
> Why on earth should multiple logins on smartphones be considered patentable? The actual patent linked [0] makes several claims and it simply isn't just "multiple logins" whatever that means as you don't login to any phone from any vendor of which I am aware in the Symbian era (circa 2004). The SIM card represents your "login" to the phone network and this patent describes all the innovations that would be required to turn a single SIM card into a usable "public" or quasi-public resource (usage reports, access controls to apps and data, etc etc). Consider all of the services and technology that would be required to make this scenario possible, and more importantly usable (voicemail for each user, some way to indicate incoming calls for specific users, etc). Computer operating systems support multiple user log-ins for time sharing of CPU resources and for data security. The concept here is not to have a multi user operating system in that sense. The idea is that the phone features can be shared, not the "computer" features. So just simply having multiple logins to a linux kernel running on a phone with some UI trickery or a "jail" to enable a "guest" mode would not violate the claims of this patent as I understand them. You may or may not be philosophically opposed to software patents but this probably is not the poster-child case for abuse you want to use in any reasonable discussion. Are there any of the claims made in particular you find objectionable? I read the patent claims as enabling an extremely novel/innovative use case of a smartphone. Would you also find objectionable the patent application made by Zipcar [1] for the technique/technologies required to turn a privately held automobile into a shared public or quasi-public resource? Kind of what appeared in my mind's eye as I first read the Nokia patent. [0] http://bitly.com/Q3okiK http://bitly.com/Q3okiK [1] http://bitly.com/TkSR6d http://bitly.com/TkSR6d

by jerrya 14y ago

fleitz 14y ago

Remember all those X on a computer patents? Well, welcome to X on a smartphone.

shawn-butler 14y ago

> Why on earth should multiple logins on smartphones be considered patentable? The actual patent linked [0] makes several claims and it simply isn't just "multiple logins" whatever that means as you don't login to any phone from any vendor of which I am aware in the Symbian era (circa 2004). The SIM card represents your "login" to the phone network and this patent describes all the innovations that would be required to turn a single SIM card into a usable "public" or quasi-public resource (usage reports, access controls to apps and data, etc etc). Consider all of the services and technology that would be required to make this scenario possible, and more importantly usable (voicemail for each user, some way to indicate incoming calls for specific users, etc). Computer operating systems support multiple user log-ins for time sharing of CPU resources and for data security. The concept here is not to have a multi user operating system in that sense. The idea is that the phone features can be shared, not the "computer" features. So just simply having multiple logins to a linux kernel running on a phone with some UI trickery or a "jail" to enable a "guest" mode would not violate the claims of this patent as I understand them. You may or may not be philosophically opposed to software patents but this probably is not the poster-child case for abuse you want to use in any reasonable discussion. Are there any of the claims made in particular you find objectionable? I read the patent claims as enabling an extremely novel/innovative use case of a smartphone. Would you also find objectionable the patent application made by Zipcar [1] for the technique/technologies required to turn a privately held automobile into a shared public or quasi-public resource? Kind of what appeared in my mind's eye as I first read the Nokia patent. [0] http://bitly.com/Q3okiK http://bitly.com/Q3okiK [1] http://bitly.com/TkSR6d http://bitly.com/TkSR6d