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An IM Patent for the iPhone?
Ian Lamont writes "Apple has filed a patent for IM on portable devices, which could mean that it's getting ready to launch an IM client for the iPhone. The filing is titled 'Portable Electronic Device for Instant Messaging', and covers methods for sending, receiving, and viewing ongoing conversations. The proposed GUI is similar to Apple's current interface for SMS. As for why iChat wasn't enabled for the iPhone earlier, there's some interesting background and analysis here, which also includes a discussion of AIM for the iPhone. IM also came up in the discussions last year about the most-wanted features in iPhone 2.0."
You can tell that Apple is still the same company they have always been when they are patenting functionality that is already on most modern cell phones and is noticably absent from the iPhone.
So not only is Apple late bringing this feature to market, but they are trying to patent something which has prior art in products which are already competing against their own.
Bravo Steve Jobs!
*slow hand clap*
Hate to break it to ya Apple, but there have been cell phones with the ability to use services such as AIM for quite a few years now.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Forgive me, maybe it's my geezerhood speaking, but I don't understand why anybody would want IM on a phone in the first place. Text messages yes, for if (say) the girl you're calling is in a movie or at the OBGYN or somewhere where she can't take a call right now, but IM? That's INSTANT message.
Why would you IM when you could more easily and cheaply just talk? English class maybe?
*wanders off muttering about foolish young people...*
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Just imagine the fun when people start trying to say that.
...ending well? This seems to be the type of patent a patent troll would try to get through. Can someone please explain to me how this won't end with Apple eventually suing someone for violating the patent, and then rinsing and repeating ad nauseum?
So, the usual question about such patents arises.
How the heck can you patent "a method of doing a well-known operation in a slightly new context"?
The issues are the same -- communications protocols, keeping track of sent and received messages, message sequencing, etc. Big deal, they're now doing it on an iPhone. All of the other stuff is just more of the same on top of a different platform that still needs to do the exact same things as other platforms.
Unless I'm missing something, this patent will likely be describing something well known, and enumerating a few points where it's slightly different and therefore is revolutionary rather than an obvious outgrowth of previous things.
Much silliness here.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Apple's submission to the patent office was first filed late August of last year, two months after the iPhone's US release and several months after the company first demonstrated its SMS chat interface for the iPhone at Macworld San Francisco.
Back in the day, you used to have to do something innovative to get a patent...
This means Apple is trying to patent the use of scrolling gestures for IM displays in chronological order.
There are several iPhone-compatible Chat applications available for Jailbroken iPhones. Does this mean that Apple could file lawsuits against the authors of those apps for patent infringement?
What would prevent Apple from simply adding "...for portable devices" to a bunch of existing patents, effectively locking out "unauthorized" developers?
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Redirect...do not click.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Text messaging functions in a much different fashion than IM.
Your cell phone doesn't initiate an Edge (or whatever) connection just to send/receive a text message. Instant Messaging in it's current form requires you to have that connection live.
I'm not saying text messages aren't a scam or over priced... But there are really good reasons AIM et. al. aren't included as part of a cell phone's text messaging system. The technology just isn't designed around having more than a fraction of subscribers "in call" at once. Not that your battery would appreciate it either.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
1. you can see the availability of your buddies
2. you can maintain multiple conversations in parallel
3. no expensive international calls when buddy is on the other side of the earth
4. you can exchange files around
5. it is much faster to exchange short messages than dial-n-talk
Oh, in case you don't know, English is NOT compulsory on IM.
iPhone users can record short audio messages, using the iPhone's mic, and send this to another user, who is able to listen to the message with the phone's speaker.
In this way, iPhone users can simulate a "real-time" audio conversation.
Oh, hang on a minute....