Apple Files 'Swipe Gesture' Patent Application

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
If I am reading this patent application correctly (filed Christmas day), Apple is trying to patent a “swipe gesture” for its touch screen devices. So no one will be able to use a swipe gesture on their touch screen devices if Apple gets the patent? That’s stupid, where do I file my “finger gesture” protest?

Systems, methods, and devices for interpreting manual swipe gestures as input in connection with touch-sensitive user interfaces that include virtual keyboards are disclosed herein. These allow for a user entering text using the virtual keyboard to perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys.
Click to expand...
 
I can think of a multitude of gestures I could give Apple, heck I'm giving them one right now :D
 
I'm sorry, you can't move your hand in that motion. It's copyrighted.
 
Just curious... it said it was filed about a year ago; I know patents take about a year to be accepted. Does that mean this actually passed the criteria and is valid from then on (25th)?
 
Steve said:
Quote:
Systems, methods, and devices for interpreting manual swipe gestures as input in connection with touch-sensitive user interfaces that include virtual keyboards are disclosed herein. These allow for a user entering text using the virtual keyboard to perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys.
Click to expand...

I was doing this over 10 years ago with a Palm OS PDA. Swipe right for space, swipe left for delete. Text input using swipes on a virtual keyboard rather than tapping particular keys - done WAY before this patent application.
 
Hell naw, all those Nintendo DS games!


It's Apple, I think they have good intentions filing this before anybody else does - so nobody can sue them.

IE another god bless americas patent system deal. You gotta be big and abuse it to win.
 
Ualdayan said:
I was doing this over 10 years ago with a Palm OS PDA. Swipe right for space, swipe left for delete. Text input using swipes on a virtual keyboard rather than tapping particular keys - done WAY before this patent application.
Click to expand...
Just another ENDLESS example of Apple trying to call their "invention" and "revolutionary" products something new, and it's all technology we've had for quite some time.

I guess as long as the Cult keeps buying their iCrap we'll never see them rot in hell where they belong.


Mad_CatMk2 said:
i call it, iSwipe
Click to expand...

How about...

iWipe

:D
 
Recently apple tried to patent something that looked like "3d microsoft Bob"
 
Next thing yanno we'll see...

"Apple Files "Wipe Ass" Gesture Patent Application"

What the hell, seems to be the craze now, patent anything including the most ridiculously non-patentable things ever thought of by man...
 
Apple is trying to find a way to patent everything under the sun while new york is trying to find ways to tax them.

Interesting times we live in. I thought microsoft was supposed to be the bad guys?
 
Meh ... more apple hate, whats new here. Im a PC guy through and through, but apple has always excelled at GUIs and interface methods (que 2 button mouse joke). I love the iPhone I got for christmas, it is miles ahead of anything out there.
 
MrLonghair said:
Hell naw, all those Nintendo DS games!


It's Apple, I think they have good intentions filing this before anybody else does - so nobody can sue them.

IE another god bless americas patent system deal. You gotta be big and abuse it to win.
Click to expand...


i would trust microsoft further with this patent than i would trust apple.
 
Draax said:
Meh ... more apple hate, whats new here. Im a PC guy through and through, but apple has always excelled at GUIs and interface methods (que 2 button mouse joke).
Click to expand...
That's the big issue. I don't think many would disagree their GUIs are slick. But a computer isn't just a GUI, and that's where the Mac utterly fails.

It's like putting a lawn mower engine inside a Lotus body. Looks great, but under the hood where it matters, it utterly fails.


Draax said:
I love the iPhone I got for christmas, it is miles ahead of anything out there.
Click to expand...
I'd disagree. I've been using the Blackberry Bold for some time now, and hands-down, it's the best phone I have EVER used.
It's miles ahead of the iPhone. The only argument you could have against it is it lacks touchscreen, which IMO getting 4 days of battery life > touchscreen.

Additionally,
1.png

That was shown a year prior to the iPhone.

I've said it many times, and I'll say it again: Apple takes old technology, puts a new interface on it, and calls it "reveolutionary". That's why so many Linux and Windows fans can't stand the company.
Apple didn't invent touchscreens.
Apple didn't invent the dock.
Apple didn't invent the touchpad.
Apple didn't invent the worlds thinnest notebook.

They simply package OLD technology in a NEW shell.

Martyr said:
i would trust microsoft further with this patent than i would trust apple.
Click to expand...

I dont think they would have ever patented it to start with.
A) Common sense
B) Chances of getting sued over it go way up
C) "Big bad Microsoft" wouldn't have been granted it anyway
 
Thats it, I'm flying to another planet.
There might be sensible rules there (for a while).
 
TechieSooner said:
Additionally,
1.png

That was shown a year prior to the iPhone.
Click to expand...

As usual, you fail.

The LG Prada was first announced on December 12, 2006, under a month before the iPhone was revealed on January 9, 2007. Pictures were first leaked by Engadget on December 15, 2006: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/12/20/first-pics-of-the-lg-ke850-based-prada-cellphone/ . Official press releases for the Prada were made January 18, 2007, after the iPhone was first shown and demonstrated. Either way, there is no conceivable way that there was "copying" involved considering that Apple had a functioning phone working at the same time that the Prada was first shown in press releases. The thing took four years to develop, its not like they saw a picture of the Prada and then just whipped it up.

Then there's the fact that the iPhone has the better UI, which comes to the next point...

I've said it many times, and I'll say it again: Apple takes old technology, puts a new interface on it, and calls it "reveolutionary". That's why so many Linux and Windows fans can't stand the company.
Apple didn't invent touchscreens.
Apple didn't invent the dock.
Apple didn't invent the touchpad.
Apple didn't invent the worlds thinnest notebook.

They simply package OLD technology in a NEW shell.
Click to expand...

You have a weird obsession with who "invents" things first, when that really isn't the point.

Execution is where it counts. Apple doesn't hit a home run every time but they have a better batting average on execution than almost any other company of that mammoth size. Then there's the fact that they are generally the first to bring technologies to the mass market (ie - first mouse+GUI, first palmrests in a notebook by moving the keyboard to the rear, first integrated trackball in a notebook, first integrated trackpad in a notebook, multitouch on a trackpad, first light sensor, first sudden motion sensor, etc etc). On top of everything they do it in such a way to be immediately and obviously useful to the end user.

As a tech geek who likes to own all the toys, this is something I appreciate more and more as I'm getting sick of so called "ergonomics" and cross-compatibility devised by engineers who don't have a clue. Things like usability and minimizing steps to get a task done are things Apple does that just seems obvious, yet very few other companies (ie - Google) really "get".

Again, they don't "invent" anything (but neither does Microsoft), they simply execute better. Technology is meaningless without proper execution. You can't stress the importance considering that their competition is more than happy to follow in their lead afterwards (hardware manufacturers are self-explanatory, for further proof feel free to look at memos by Jim Allchin, Gates, and Ballmer in regards to how they need to be "more like Apple" in terms of delivering an experience to the end user).

Finally, "Apple didn't invent the world's thinnest notebook".

Uh, who had one thinner before that? I really want to know...
 
Also, this patent thing is really really stupid. That said, there is a point here.

MrLonghair said:
It's Apple, I think they have good intentions filing this before anybody else does - so nobody can sue them.

IE another god bless americas patent system deal. You gotta be big and abuse it to win.
Click to expand...

Then I read bullshit like this: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...le-google-sued-over-icon-software-patent.html

Yup, a small company patents GUI ICONS and then retroactively sues Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Patenting technologies to protect ones self from lawsuits seems to be the course of the day considering how many of these get posted as news items here, but goddamn its dumb...
 
I saw Serpico reply here, but since he is a recent welcomed addition to the Ignore list, I can only imagine he's complaining about some of these claims. I realized I failed to link any of them so here it is...


TechieSooner said:
Apple didn't invent touchscreens.- Back in the 70s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_screen#History
Apple didn't invent the dock. -Stardock was the first one here. Actually did some searching and this website has a good writeup: http://wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?aid=318845
Apple didn't invent the touchpad.- Once more, really old technology. 1988. Yup, 20 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_Corporation
Apple didn't invent the worlds thinnest notebook.- Clear back in 1998 (A whole ten years ago) Mitsubishi had one thinner. And, BTW, this is counting measurements like the rest of the world does: by the thickest point.
http://news.cnet.com/Mitsubishi-unveils-notebook/2100-1001_3-205190.html Also, back in 2003 there was yet another that was thinner, the Sharp Actius MM10 (Too lazy to look it up)
Click to expand...
 
TechieSooner said:
I saw Serpico reply here, but since he is a recent welcomed addition to the Ignore list, I can only imagine he's complaining about some of these claims. I realized I failed to link any of them so here it is...
Click to expand...

Yup, and if you'd bother reading my posts instead of running and hiding behind an ignore list, you'd see that I took on your alleged "point" head on. Like I said, Apple doesn't invent, they just execute really well. Inventing, that stuff shows up in research labs or smaller companies which they buy (Xerox engineers with PARC went on to work on the first Mac, and a company called Fingerworks that innovated in multitouch interfaces was bought by Apple, and so on). What Apple does first is implement this research into products for the mass market, and with that also comes the tendency to implement it in the most efficient way possible from a user interface standpoint.

Apple didn't invent the trackball, that was invented in the early 1950s, decades before the first mouse, but what they did do first is integrate it into a laptop and put the keyboard at the back of the bottom case. They followed that up shortly after with the first trackpad that functioned by "pushing" the cursor instead of having it act like a Wacom tablet with a 1:1 finger:cursor correlation (Psion released a notebook with this function in 1989 that obviously nobody followed up on).

You might poo-poo the idea that this is important, but every single notebook ever since has done the same thing. Toshiba, IBM, Compaq, none of them did this, and then after those features were introduced in Powerbooks, they all did it. That's the whole point, and one that you are too stupid to grasp based on the number of times you have brought up this point.

Going back to that conversation, your earlier notion that Microsoft, kings of copying ideas that have gone well past the research lab phase and are already consumer products made by other companies, the idea that they invent anything or are first to market with a product is beyond delusional.

All this on top of thoroughly disproving your "point" of the LG Prada showing up a year before the iPhone.

Once again, you completely fail.
 
Draax said:
Meh ... more apple hate, whats new here. Im a PC guy through and through, but apple has always excelled at GUIs and interface methods (que 2 button mouse joke). I love the iPhone I got for christmas, it is miles ahead of anything out there.
Click to expand...

since it's SO far ahead of everything out there...how's the MMS messaging going on your new iPhone?

my old old old LG 6000 and a couple models before that did it seamlessly...

let me know when you finally get that upgrade...
 
LOL, wow people need to calm down. Only on Hard is the iPhone serious business. Get a grip.
 
Or the other dozen or so hardware features it's missing compared to what phones years ago had..
 
i think a mod on another board put it best...

"the iPhone can do a tongue stand on my iCornhole"

the iPhone hasn't even caught up with my XV6700 yet...or the 6600 for that matter...or a multitude of windows mobile 5/6 devices in terms of functionality and practicality.

it has the accelerometer and a snazzy interface...oh oh oh and visual voicemail...

big whoopie...

let me know when it can do something that is a truly compelling reason to upgrade...and maybe i'll show some real interest...

nah...i still wish apple would die...nvm
 
Draax said:
Meh ... more apple hate, whats new here. Im a PC guy through and through, but apple has always excelled at GUIs and interface methods (que 2 button mouse joke). I love the iPhone I got for christmas, it is miles ahead of anything out there.
Click to expand...

GUI and iPhone is a different matter. here, it appears that apple is trying to patent anything that exist under the sun when the mood strikes.

Hell how can anyone patent a gesture?:confused:
 
fubar569 said:
i think a mod on another board put it best...

"the iPhone can do a tongue stand on my iCornhole"

the iPhone hasn't even caught up with my XV6700 yet...or the 6600 for that matter...or a multitude of windows mobile 5/6 devices in terms of functionality and practicality.
Click to expand...

Do you enjoy hitting yourself in the balls with a hammer?

I figure anybody that uses Windows Mobile on purpose has to be into that as well.
 
w1retap said:
Or the other dozen or so hardware features it's missing compared to what phones years ago had..
Click to expand...
Feel free to list those dozen features and I'll tell you how well my iphone does them. For a start MMS is available through third party apps. What's next on your list?
 
?

- auto focus camera
- real GPS, not A-GPS
- user interchangeable batteries without having to pry open the thing and break the 2 cent chinese plastic tabs holding it together
- user expandable memory slots (microSD or equivalent)
- tactile keyboard so you don't have to look at the thing while you type, and for higher accuracy for people without 5 year old sized fingers
- bt sim support
- bt a2dp that isn't just hacked dual mono
- non-hacked 15fps horrible video recording
- speakerphone that doesn't sound like a whisper coming from a tin can
- infrared for universal remote capabilities or beaming vcards at meetings

I was only listing a few top hardware features it's missing, you want all the software features listed too that aren't even available through 3rd party or hacking? But in the first place, why should you have to hack the phone to shit and void user agreements & warranties in order to get it hardly up to par of other phones from years ago? I'm not wasting my time.. there's too many, and I've already listed over a dozen in other threads. Feel free to use the search option.
 
w1retap said:
?
- auto focus camera
Click to expand...
You have to manually focus the iphone's camera?
- real GPS, not A-GPS
Click to expand...
The 3G is close enough to real GPS, it works well enough to drive by so I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.
- user interchangeable batteries without having to pry open the thing and break the 2 cent chinese plastic tabs holding it together
Click to expand...
Send it to Apple and get it replaced, not a big deal. It beats dropping your phone and having the battery cover inoperable for life. My friend is forced to put a shim under his Nokia battery. I used to think non replaceable batteries was thing but they've sacrificed usability for build quality in that regard.

Speaking of cheap two cent chinese pieces, most phones are made entirely of cheap plastic. At least Apple had the balls to made a phone with a metal back and trim. Anyone who can describe the iphone's build quality with cheap and chinese is nuts.
- user expandable memory slots (microSD or equivalent)
Click to expand...
Needed for phones that only have 2 gig of memory from the factory.
- tactile keyboard so you don't have to look at the thing while you type, and for higher accuracy for people without 5 year old sized fingers
Click to expand...
If your fingers are to fat you have more important things to worry about. If you want tactile feedback don't get a touch screen phone. Seems like an issue of common sense rather than a lack of features. The touch screen works great and is a hell of a lot better than that abortion of a touch screen the Storm has.

speakerphone that doesn't sound like a whisper coming from a tin can
Click to expand...
Sounds fine on mine, even better on the 3G...better than my blackberry by leaps and bounds

- infrared for universal remote capabilities or beaming vcards at meetings
Click to expand...
There are plenty of apps that get around that in other ways. You're really nitpicking here

But in the first place, why should you have to hack the phone to shit and void user agreements & warranties in order to get it hardly up to par of other phones from years ago?
Click to expand...
Jailbreaking and unlocking doesn't void your warranty. Restoring your firmware takes care of that. Adding apps to a phone to get usability is no different than buying an operating system that needs third party apps.

The simple fact is that the iphone's lists of strengths FAR outweighs any minor gripe you can nit pick your way to. Anyone who's read this forum long enough knows how I feel about Apple's products but they made the best cell phone stateside by a country mile and anyone who can't give them and the application developers props for that is blind. While the iPhone didn't do anything new they did a bang up job of turning the entire cell phone industry on their heads by putting together an amazing package.
 
Blown 89 said:
The 3G is close enough to real GPS
Click to expand...
Only an Apple fan would think their stuff is "close enough" :rolleyes:

Fact of the matter it still isn't real GPS.


Blown 89 said:
At least Apple had the balls to made a phone with a metal back and trim.
Click to expand...
LMAO, you could've actually used that argument on the first model.
However the 3G has a plastic back.

So to turn your argument on top of itself: Apple is making their stuff cheaper and cheaper.



Blown 89 said:
Needed for phones that only have 2 gig of memory from the factory.
Click to expand...
Also great for backing stuff up to, or moving music, photos, and vids from one device to the other without the bloatware known as iTunes.



Blown 89 said:
If you want tactile feedback don't get a touch screen phone.
Click to expand...
The Storm does this great. What's Apple's excuse?
 
Serpico said:
Do you enjoy hitting yourself in the balls with a hammer?

I figure anybody that uses Windows Mobile on purpose has to be into that as well.
Click to expand...

ever bothered to truly use a PPC/Smartphone for any of its intended purposes? or just as a status symbol like 99.9% of iPhone users who try to claim the "bleeding edge" hardware (ala shit my 6700 had over 4 years ago) is teh most awesomestestest thing to ever have been brought to market JUST because apple did it?

I was able to do word, powerpoint, excel, and access on my 6700, had fill Windows Media functionality, DVD movie support, A2DP, GPS, MMS, Tethering, Exchange support, POP3 support, Flash support, had the SD slot, built in WiFi, IR, literally thousands and thousands of already in place 3rd party apps to add and extend functionality and some that transformed it into things you never thought you could do (such as act as a remote for your entertainment center in your living room via the IR)...and several things i'm not remembering right now...bottom line is the iPhone brings NOTHING NEW to the table...and personally...the WinMo platforms do everything better for the genral public...Blackberry seems to have made a home in enterprise however...and you don't see too many company iPhones out there do you?

the 6700 (at the time) was the easiest to use, has a REAL KEYBOARD, has the full backing of 2 of the largest companies of their kind, excellent aftermarket support for those that desire/need it...i can do any and all maintenance on the device myself and NOT have to be charged by anyone just because my battery took a shit.

Seems to me like apple users are the ones that would most enjoy beating their own balls with a hammer...they they ask Jobs to join in the party and of course...when has he ever turned down a chance to stick it to a loyal fanbase?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top