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Meanwhile auto-completes have been around for far longer. Yet another ridiculous patent gets approved. I'm sorry but I don't see any meaningful technical innov

by gopher1 13y ago

Meanwhile auto-completes have been around for far longer. Yet another ridiculous patent gets approved. I'm sorry but I don't see any meaningful technical innovation by bringing it to a mobile touch screen.

mercurial 13y ago
At this stage, it is clear that the US patent system is, many times, leveraged to enable court-backed extortion. Which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Apple's ethics.
- bushido 13y ago
  This is not helping Apple's image one bit. In recent months I have been meeting a lot of old-fans of Apple devices who are switching to other mobile manufacturers just so that they do not contribute to the closed litigious innovation killers that Apple has turned into. Haven't seen as many people switch from Macbooks to Linux/Windows much yet, but have seen a blip in that direction too.
  - poolpool 13y ago
    Yes their record iPhone 5S sales and what will surely be record iPad sales reflect that is a large scale thing that is actually happening. The overwhelming majority of people don't follow silly patent slapfights and tech news. It just has 0 bearing on their life and how much they like their chosen telephone.
    - bushido 13y ago
      1. > Yes their record iPhone 5S sales and what will surely be record iPad sales reflect that is a large scale thing that is actually happening. Record sales is a deceptive(and a lagging) indicator of customer/potential customer sentiment. Because: a. The number of smartphone users has increased exponentially b. The number in itself cannot be used to ascertain the number of users who owned iOS devices that have switched to other devices or the number of first time smart phone buyers who purchased the device c. Whenever iPhones are compared to other smartphones it is done with a single make/model ex: 194 million iPhone's vs 80 million Samsung S4's. In the context of this topic, this is a pears to oranges comparison. - A pear to pear comparison would be to compare iOS sales to Android smartphone sales. In which case it would be 194M vs 880M or a ratio of 0.2204545:1 in 2013 - You can take this a step further and now compare it year over year. i.e. 125M iphones vs 450M android smartphones in 2012. or a ratio of 0.2777777:1 - Using the previous two statements it could be said that iOS smartphone sales have reduced 21% in comparison to android smatphones year-over-year - The comparison above is not too fair either, to take it a step further you should first remove most international sales (by country) and only keep the numbers from select countries. I would use US and Canada (maybe throw in UK). Next remove all phones that were NOT on a 2+ contract (this would level the playing field, and drops the pricing issues to an extent). - There are other factors that could also be considered 2. The overwhelming majority of people don't follow silly patent slapfights and tech news. It just has 0 bearing on their life and how much they like their chosen telephone. Touche. Unfortunately, you are discounting one basic (and HUGE) fact, most of this majority rely on the advise of the minority aka the active tech enthusiasts and professionals to help make the buying decisions. This minor group does care about lack of control, patents etc. There are multiple instances of the tech enthusiasts caring enough for making or breaking a product. For example most designers, engineers and tech enthusiasts (myself included) have despised IE, yet among the hundred (more likely thousand) of people I moved over to Opera, Firefox or Chrome (in that order) less than 3 had ever noticed a webpage to be broken and thought it was IE. It was simply a pain in the ass for us, the developers and we made IE burn. There are hundreds of such examples.
ryanhuff 13y ago
Having auto-complete is not the issue. You have to look at the patent claims, which would describe a specific approach. In this case, it seems to involve Apple's specific approach to auto-complete when paired with a touch screen interface.
- bushido 13y ago
  That is true. AND even more infuriating. I wonder if I could apply for a patent for sidebar designs and widgets (for increasing interactivity, customization, conversions etc.). Oh wait those have already been applied for and approved, for example: https://www.google.com/patents/US8209622 https://www.google.com/patents/US8209622

by gopher1 13y ago

mercurial 13y ago

At this stage, it is clear that the US patent system is, many times, leveraged to enable court-backed extortion. Which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Apple's ethics.

bushido 13y ago
This is not helping Apple's image one bit. In recent months I have been meeting a lot of old-fans of Apple devices who are switching to other mobile manufacturers just so that they do not contribute to the closed litigious innovation killers that Apple has turned into. Haven't seen as many people switch from Macbooks to Linux/Windows much yet, but have seen a blip in that direction too.
- poolpool 13y ago
  Yes their record iPhone 5S sales and what will surely be record iPad sales reflect that is a large scale thing that is actually happening. The overwhelming majority of people don't follow silly patent slapfights and tech news. It just has 0 bearing on their life and how much they like their chosen telephone.
  - bushido 13y ago
    1. > Yes their record iPhone 5S sales and what will surely be record iPad sales reflect that is a large scale thing that is actually happening. Record sales is a deceptive(and a lagging) indicator of customer/potential customer sentiment. Because: a. The number of smartphone users has increased exponentially b. The number in itself cannot be used to ascertain the number of users who owned iOS devices that have switched to other devices or the number of first time smart phone buyers who purchased the device c. Whenever iPhones are compared to other smartphones it is done with a single make/model ex: 194 million iPhone's vs 80 million Samsung S4's. In the context of this topic, this is a pears to oranges comparison. - A pear to pear comparison would be to compare iOS sales to Android smartphone sales. In which case it would be 194M vs 880M or a ratio of 0.2204545:1 in 2013 - You can take this a step further and now compare it year over year. i.e. 125M iphones vs 450M android smartphones in 2012. or a ratio of 0.2777777:1 - Using the previous two statements it could be said that iOS smartphone sales have reduced 21% in comparison to android smatphones year-over-year - The comparison above is not too fair either, to take it a step further you should first remove most international sales (by country) and only keep the numbers from select countries. I would use US and Canada (maybe throw in UK). Next remove all phones that were NOT on a 2+ contract (this would level the playing field, and drops the pricing issues to an extent). - There are other factors that could also be considered 2. The overwhelming majority of people don't follow silly patent slapfights and tech news. It just has 0 bearing on their life and how much they like their chosen telephone. Touche. Unfortunately, you are discounting one basic (and HUGE) fact, most of this majority rely on the advise of the minority aka the active tech enthusiasts and professionals to help make the buying decisions. This minor group does care about lack of control, patents etc. There are multiple instances of the tech enthusiasts caring enough for making or breaking a product. For example most designers, engineers and tech enthusiasts (myself included) have despised IE, yet among the hundred (more likely thousand) of people I moved over to Opera, Firefox or Chrome (in that order) less than 3 had ever noticed a webpage to be broken and thought it was IE. It was simply a pain in the ass for us, the developers and we made IE burn. There are hundreds of such examples.

ryanhuff 13y ago

Having auto-complete is not the issue. You have to look at the patent claims, which would describe a specific approach. In this case, it seems to involve Apple's specific approach to auto-complete when paired with a touch screen interface.

bushido 13y ago
That is true. AND even more infuriating. I wonder if I could apply for a patent for sidebar designs and widgets (for increasing interactivity, customization, conversions etc.). Oh wait those have already been applied for and approved, for example: https://www.google.com/patents/US8209622 https://www.google.com/patents/US8209622