Teknovis

There has been a lot of discussion recently about one of Apple‘s latest granted patents – US 8,223,134 Portable Electronic Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying Electronic Lists and Documents. For example, see Apple granted ‘the mother of all smartphone software patents’.

I actually think that the patent is being over hyped. I would not be overly concerned about infringing it, because its independent claims are very narrow.

Tags: Apple

It has been a busy week for Apple regarding its patents in court!

Firstly,it had a win in the US where it has (temporarily) blocked sales of some Samsung devices! I think that Google will quickly implement a work-around, so I do not expect consumers to notice the ban in practice! For more details on this story see Apple enforces Galaxy Nexus smartphone ban in the US.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a court in the UK ruled in favour of HTC by finding that some of Apple’s patents were in fact invalid! See HTC defeats Apple in swipe-to-unlock patent dispute for more details. I love the word “obvious” – it is so powerful ;)

It will be interesting to see what happens next, given that the two rulings are somewhat contradictory!

Tags: Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung, UK

A US judge has ruled that HTC is not allowed to use some of the patents that it recently acquired from Google, as part of its efforts to sue Apple! For the full story see Apple blocks HTC’s use of Google patents in US lawsuit.

This ruling could have significant effects on the values associated with patent rights, portfolios, and transfers!

Tags: Apple, Google, HTC

After reading Apple granted patent for using apps during calls over the weekend, I realise that I have been infringing this patent for years :)

Actually the article seems misguided:

At present, smartphone users can either make calls or use apps – they can’t do both.

And

… for example, being able to take part in a conference call over your smartphone and interacting with information or data contained within a specific business app.

I have actually been doing both of these examples for years on my HTC P3600 (with the help of a hands-free kit)!

Tags: Apple, HTC

I was very surprised to read today that Openwave is going to sell all of its products and focus exclusively on its patents! See Openwave Puts Products Up for Sale.

I notice that Openwave’s web page now reads “Inventors of the Mobile Internet”, but maybe it has been like this for a while!

I have not decided yet if this is a good or bad strategy! I guess that it would be bad if Openwave pursues a patent troll approach. On the other hand, I wonder how much manufacturing Apple does (if any).

Tags: Apple, Openwave

I received this from a friend recently:

Android Eats Apple

Enjoy :)

Tags: Apple, Google

Somebody brought this article to my attention today: Apple gets killer location services patent.

I bet Apple is really excited about this, and Google is probably the most worried!

In fairness, I am not sure if this patent would remain valid if challenged :o

Tags: Apple, Google

I came across this cool interactive feature describing all of Steve Jobs’s patents today – Steve Jobs’s Patents.

Apparently, Steve has a very direct involvement with Apple‘s patent activities, according to Steve Jobs’ patents: A vital lesson for CEOs.

Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs

I found some very interesting graphs from Flickr this week showing the most popular digital cameras with which its users take photos. See Flickr Camera Finder.

Perhaps the most amazing statistic has been the stellar rise of the Apple iPhone 4 to become the most popular digital camera!

Tags: Apple, Flickr

This week I came across two more high-profile companies moving from apps to web app (HTML5) to avoid the Apple tax.

• Amazon’s Answer To Apple’s Terms: A Web-Based Kindle Cloud Reader — Brilliant On PC, Better On iPad
• Vudu Is Now Streaming To The iPad, Uses Web App To Avoid The App Store Revenue Tax

The other advantages that these developers will experience is that they no longer need to get approval from Apple (which can make planning and time lines difficult), and their apps are now cross-platform!

I previous wrote about this subject in Financial Times on an iDevice.

Tags: Amazon, Apple, HTML, Walmart