Apple Wins iTunes Interface Patent

phalse phace writes "There aren't too many details, but C|Net's news.com.com is reporting that Apple was issued a patent for its iTunes software interface on May 4. If you remember, Apple recently applied for a patent for its iPod interface as well."

Comments

Not sought any patents?

[kemapa]

While software patents have become increasingly common in the past few years--leading to long and contentious strings of litigation over seemingly basic computing techniques--not all companies are taking Apple's approach.

A RealNetworks spokesman said his company had not sought any directly comparable interface patents for its 10-year-old media player software, for example.

Of course RealNetworks has not sought any interface patents! How could you patent bloat, resource-hogging, and un-usability!?!?

Lsongs picture link

[Hackie_Chan]

Compare this to Compare this

Re:Lsongs picture link

[bubba451]

Here's a better comparison (I made the window bigger and put it in Browse mode).

The only difference, besides Lsongs taking a few beatings from an ugly stick, is that for some reason its controls are on the bottom.

But everything else, down to the File/Edit/Controls/Visualizer/Advanced menus and the eye icon for Browse is the same.

Pretty embarrassing.

hmm.

[mkavanagh2]

How will this affect rhythmbox? For those who don't know, it's a free iTunes-alike for GNOME. I like it since mp3blaster is buggy without anyone trying to fix the bugs, xmms seems to have stopped innovating and everything else...well, sucks :)

Ignorance about UIs

[faust2097]

Designing a novel, useful, original UI is as difficult as any other aspect of product development in the business world. If I can patent the design of a remote control [which wouldn't send the /. crew up in arms] why is it such a logical stretch to patent the interface for a software product that has the same type of functionality? In the case of the iPod the interface is both hardware and software. Doesn't Apple deserve the benefit of developing it just like a carmaker would for a braking system or a drug company for a new medicine?

UI design is [b]hard[/b] and good solutions require careful development.

Here is the patent

[angle_slam]

The patent number is 6,731,312. The first claim is

1. A computer readable medium comprising media player application code which implements the following procedures:
generating in a user interface an application window having a window frame and a plurality of stiles to define a plurality of panes within said frame;
displaying in a first one of said panes a user selectable index of a plurality of media files;
displaying in a second one of said panes first selected information for said media files; and
displaying in a third one of said panes second selected information for said media files
wherein said second and third panes are each initialized with a selection to view all of said user selectable index of the plurality of media files in said first pane.