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Apple Forces Google To Degrade Android Features
walterbyrd writes "The latest in the ridiculous saga of the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, which has resulted in Samsung phones and tablets being banned from sale in the U.S. is that Samsung, with the help of Google, has been pushing out an over-the-air software update to make its phones worse. Yes, the OTA update is designed to take away a feature, in an effort to convince the judge that the phones no longer violate Apple's patents. The feature in question? The ability to do a single search that covers both the local device and the internet."
don't forget to pay your licensing fee, you cock smoking, teabagging faggots
You'd have to pay to be de-graded!
Time to kill off the patent system. It has become absurd.
I actually prefer separate web searches and local searches. I find it annoying that the default Android search sends query terms over the web to Google, and I rarely if ever find the mixed searches useful.
As far as I can tell, I can turn off mixed global/local search, but I end up having to choose one or the other with the Google search app. Or is there some way I can get separate shortcuts for local and web searches?
Google desktop search had this feature long before iPhone came along. A search box on the windows desktop that searched both the local drive and the computer. Migrating this feature to mobile seems obvious.
Is there anything more to this patent? Otherwise, this is the perfect examples of how the patent system can be easily abused for software patents
Did they license it, or is there more to this story?
Just maybe I can buy a device that's been 'degraded' into being just a phone. Think of it as a good way to get rid of bloat, where you turn the device on, not boot it up.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
This is just the kind of software patent that really strikes fear into smaller developers, since it's a technique that comes to mind naturally (I've had search boxes that have done mixed kinds of searches for decades).
I have never cheered "victories" even from companies I like, for any software patents... these truly are things that need to be abolished as patentable.
At this point though, I do not think the international community will allow it unless we get some REALLY strong support from government...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Is there a feature with this automatic software push on an Android to get prompted if you want to install this or is it choice-less?
I would feel sorry for Android users, but then I remember that iPhone has not voice directions. Android does on Google Maps. iPhone does not. Allegedly Apple pys more in license fees to Google than Google gets from Android. We know that MS probably gets more from Android than Google does. Google seems to playing an aggressive game, which is looking like a rear action. Bing is becoming acceptable. Apple is going to fight hard on maps, and probably give features that Google will not. Google is a trusted necessary brand for many people, no matter the platform. As it becomes platform specific, Chrome, Android, who knows what will happen.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
We all love you really, now die in a fire!!!
As far as I know, no Apple products support simultaneous online and offline searches...So whats the bug ruckus about? iOS search shows local results and a link to do a Google search (oh the irony) in Safari when you search for something.... Makes me so angry that Apple can block a feature that they don't even implement in their own OS. fah!
Apple is pathetic.
this TED talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html
I think it's time to start calling technology utilitarian and start removing protections before this sector crashes...
......as bad as the handset makers/carriers for Android phones are at getting updates out, most of these handsets will be obsolete by the time this 'update' gets pushed out.
Needs to be said: Apple must die. I don't want an all Apple world; they don't deserve a good number of the patents that they have been erroneously granted; and it they were gone they would be little missed by many many people because they, their always high prices and overly generous profit margins, and their walled-garden beliefs, aren't what many of us want in our devices.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Shouldn't the patent be on how it's done and not that it's done at all? That's like patenting the concept of a machine that seperates fibers from its seeds and not actually patenting the cotton gin itself.
Especially since the article in question doesn't use it. Apple didn't "force" Google to do anything, Google gave up a feature to avoid a patent fight. Not that the actual article is much better. I hate most of these stupid patents, but don't go around like Apple was whacking Google with a stick to remove a feature. Blame the judge for his ruling, if anything.
And I don't even have an iPhone. I don't even have a smartphone.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
god is it that hard to actually follow the law. apple uses tons of "other people's patents" but guess what they actually pay for them! Duh!
Apple chooses to do the deed. No one is forcing apple to do this but the end result is Google is forced to do something they don't want to do. Legal? Probably. Moral? I wouldn't even start there. Apple doesn't have morals but of course most companies don't either.
"Samsung, with the help of Google, has been pushing out an over-the-air software update to make its phones worse."
The connotation of "worse" is that it was already bad to begin with.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
A futile attempt to make Android worse than Apple. But a successful attempt to leave Apple's engineering reputation in tatters.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I posted this on the site that is linked to from /.
It's ridiculous, and Apple even being allowed to get an injunction for "slide to unlock" is horrendous. The English courts showed that this patent was absolutely useless since it was already in use by another company before Apple. So, Apple should never have even been allowed to get that idiot of a case into court.
Also, now we see Apple has been granted a patent on AR glasses. Again, this is stupid since Google are actually one of the first to market with an actual real thing, and even if they weren't I can point Apple to several films I worked on during the 90s and early 200s in which we not only done this, we basically had the concepts and ideas all over cinema screens around the world!
It's ridiculous that Apple might try to use this patent to stifle others from launching their AR glasses, but prior art should basically kick Apple in the teeth once and for all.
This dispute is entirely about what will happen to the Apple share price if Samsung's higher end phones overtake Apple's sales. US shareholders don't seem to care about the world market, only the US one. Therefore, Apple executive bonuses depend largely on keeping Samsung out of the US.
This may be partial truth and an oversimplification, but I think there is merit in the argument. Currently HTC is struggling, so is Motorola, but Samsung is a huge threat not to Apple (the market is expanding) but to its share price.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Because my carrier, for some reason, hasn't put out ANY of the Galaxy Nexus updates at all. Why does this yakju/yakjux BS even exist I wonder?
You don't know what you are talking about. In Florida, like most states, you can only shoot someone when in fear for your life. If someone comes in your house, you can probably shoot them, but if they are just trespassing in your yard, you will most likely go to prison.
I think Apple should be killed first. I have never seen a worse bully or a sorer loser
That is absurd. They are not a "sore loser", they literally cannot be since they are currently winning by any measure.
What they do is understandable, they try to prevent outright copying of things they do.
That works fine for design patents, they've only attacked companies for blatant violations. But the software patents, even though Apple has done some things first are ideas that truly are too broad to be patented, and have been used in software before.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
prior art should basically kick Apple in the teeth once and for all.
Rather a bad metaphor since all prior art does is allow everyone to do something instead of just one company.
To date competition has not hampered Apple.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
While the subject is interesting, the article holds very little information for discussion and does little more than link a previous article from The Verge.
Anyhow, here's the patent in question: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8086604.PN.&OS=PN/8086604&RS=PN/8086604
I'm not qualified to judge its validity, but it seems to encompass more than "the ability to do a single search that covers both the local device and the internet" as stated by the article.
Fuck Apple
Google Chrome and Firefox at the least, before the iPhone ever did it, allowed you to search your own local history AND the internet from the URL bar. Local searches showed up in the preview, but if you hit enter, it would pass the search onto your favorite browser. Software patents should all be invalidated, IMO.
Siri.
and it's being used against Google to stop them from selling phones. Yep. I agree. Apple really does not innovate. I mean, it takes quite a bit of imagination to come up with this argument.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Does Siri really allow you to search your local device? Or launch apps?
Possibly in iOS6, but not in 5 as far as I know...
Still, touché I suppose.
And the feature will not be missed... If I could disable the useless search on the iphone I'd do it in a second.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Aww, poor Apple, unable to compete in the stores and real world, so they have to stifle competition through the court.
i took a cgi suite made for web forums and turned it into a search engine on the local device for use on the internet.....
SO your all saying i should sue apple?
how the hell does that NOT reflect exactly what Google Desktop already did - search locally and search internet in same results set?
nevermind the obviousness of such an idea...
but then again, it isn't THAT obvious given that I don't think i've ever actually searched my phone before except while it was mounted as a filesystem on some other O/S...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
So watch the feature appear in the "play store" with a name that makes it obvious that it's an existing technology deployed to smaller computers.
who owns the patent on searching (in general), because i guess that is where the real money is. /sigh
...
Of course the real question here is how long before someone hacks it so that the full functionality is restored?
Am I the only one who remembers AltaVista desktop search where you would see local and internet results in the same browser window?
I left the job where I used that in October 1998, so I know I used it before then. I'm *guessing* it was around 1995-1996.
Just make it an US-only "update" and don't bring this bullshit to the rest or the world, where the patent system isn't (completely) torn to hell.
We need more software patents limiting everybody. Maybe then people will finally take action.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Windows updating would also be forbidden over Wifi/3G?
This move by Samsung and Google just confirms that they KNOW and should have known they were infringing and went ahead and did it any way. It's one thing to not like the rules of the game but quite another to violate the rules then cry because you get caught.
Licensing fee? For what? License fee to search your local device? This is patentable?
Good fucking grief! This reminds me of Amazon's patents on single-click ads.
The rotten bastards at Apple have patented ordinary concepts that they have no business patenting. There needs to be patent reform.
Next those bastards will patent the word "phone" so that anybody selling one has to pay fees to Apple.
How many patent wars are there over other household appliances and how vehement are they? Do LG, Samsung and GE lock horns over refrigerators and stoves every time they introduce a new model? I'm thinking, some, but not so much, even though vast numbers of current patents exist for these technologies. The "information wants to be free" crowd is all over this, but it just sounds like the sour grapes whine of an over-tired three-year-old to me. Either that, or a bunch of jackals howling about the lion-kill they can't successfully steal. Grow up kids! Competing globally requires a great deal of forethought and some cooperation with the other players in the same market. Adults recognize this and behave accordingly. They negotiate cross-licensing agreements before committing an idea to mass production. To do less is to invite justifiable wrath.
I guess there is no way to not accept this update?
deal with it scrubs
Oh but don't forget. It's on a phone.
So with whom should people do business if a single firm or a cartel of firms takes advantage of the system unfairly and has been successful at shutting out other firms?
if only there was a device that had this functionality as prior art. This hypothetical device would have to be centered around the web as well as it's own internals, for search reasons, I guess you could call it a "web" OS. When you needed to search, apps, contacts, google, wiki, etc, you could Just Type your query in an ever present search box......... Nah, surely no one could possibly come up with any idea before apple, what was I thinking? Just had a bad realisation - if apple is originator of all ideas, surely they know about the one I just told everyone about... Note to self - buy moar tinfoil.
Why bother having any Apple posts on Slashdot? I guess Apple hate brings a lot of eyeballs on Slashdot.
As CronoCloud loves to tell me: "You are an edge case."
...holy fuck
Table-ized A.I.
having been an Apple fan for many years, owning multiple iMacs, Macbooks, iPod devices, and iPads, I am through with buying their products. Perhaps I should have stopped earlier but it just seems 2012 is the year when Apple jumped the shark.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Just kill the method patents. The fact is, that patents make good sense for mechanical items. But method patents? Most stupid idea that I have EVER heard.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Yo, Google:
I paid for that feature when I bought my phone. You owe me.
Widening search parameters never should have been given a patent.
Sounds like Amazon's one-click bullshit. The whole computing industry was built on the fact that software was NOT patentable in the 70s and very limited in the 80s. The industry grew in leaps and bounds during those decades. The companies that benefited the most from the old (no patent) system are the ones that are now locking the system to try and keep everyone else out of the game. Unbelievable.
They should introduce a three strikes system, if you get injunctions and three or more of your patents are struck down, you don't get any more injunctions. You can still sue for damages after the fact, but no more blocking competitors with irrelevant tat.
I think that solves 90% of the problems with the current system. There's still the issue of needing the EFF to provide lawyers to people that aren't able to fight Apple/Oracle etc.. but they're not really that interested in those suits anyway, there's not enough money in the individual's accounts to pay the legal fees.
Patent examiners are not stupid. But their performance reviews hinge on the number of patent application cases they were able to close. Rejecting a patent is much more time consuming than accepting it, because one has to justify it towards the applicants who are most certain to appeal the decision anyway, creating even more paperwork. So there is a strong incentive for any patent examiner to just rubber stamp with approval, resulting in the mess we currently observe.
The reason behind this lies in the fact that it is politically desired to artificially inflate the numbers of patents granted in a country, because that is widely seen as an indicator for innovation. And of course, that is just another instance of Campbell's law.
OS Reviews: Free and Open Source Software
Apple designs and Apple is making them pay by whatever means they legally can. Going on and on like Samsung and Google are innocrnt victims is stupid beyond all reconing. They deserve much worse if there was real justice.
I'm not against software patents on principle, as some folks are, but I'm more or less de facto against them because I have yet to see one even slightly deserving of enforcement. Maybe that's selection bias on my part. Anyone care to point out some software patents that involving something that actually should be patentable?
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Do none of the users of these phones have the source to what they bought? I would have thought people would load multiple versions and could boot into whichever one suited the mood..
I didn't like that--what the hell difference does it make?-
Enjoy your virus-plagued Android market, and wonder then forever why it is so...
Apple lost a customer
Some customers are worth losing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Android salse have definitely exploded in past year period, leading up to 1 million activated devices _daily_.
I was one of them. I bought a cheap Android phone for a stay in europe.
But the deal there is a LOT of those Android devices are not really smartphones, they are basically dumb phones with Android tacked on. Mine was barley usable as a smartphone, basically what you could do with it was turn on tethering so an iPhone could work with data that didn't cost a million dollars.
It's absurd to claim those activation numbers mean ANYTHING when all other signs point to Apple dominating. Developing applications? You'll make 4-10x more developing an app for iOS. Accessories? Look at iOS accessories in any store compared to Android accessories. The list of real-world points of data that scream Apple's success is everywhere, yet the only thing Android champions can see is activations.... the most meaningless stat there is.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...have been around since the 1980's. They indexed and catalogued both books and periodicals inside the local library, AND were able to also include materials available in other libraries in a SINGLE, combined search result.
I also seem to recall a later version (but still before MacOS 9) that integrated web-pages into the search results as well... electronic card catalogues are something Google might want to look into, in terms of prior art...
It's also the law, it's not just the USPTO ignoring basic tests of inventiveness and non-obviousness.
If you recall the patent reform? That was hijacked by the USPTO and patent troll lobby, changing the definition of inventor, from the person who invents something to the person who first files the patent request. Effectively letting them eliminate one of the tests.
They claimed a tradeoff, by eliminating this test, there would be more time to do the other tests PROPERLY. Of course they planned no such thing, they're empire building, the patent office patents more and more stuff and can literally steal the income from the inventor and hand it to any patent troll they choose. I bet, like Goldman Sachs/Federal Reserve, there will be a steady stream of USPTO management who 'retire' into cushy patent troll jobs, and who transfer from patent trolls to USPTO.
Excuse my bitterness, how can we ever reform this mess when the parasites hijack every reform effort?
Apple chose to be a patent troll. You only try to blame the patent system to try and misplace the blame.
Rotten Apple: Apple's lousy design patent lawsuits
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | July 5, 2012 -- Updated 23:47 GMT (16:47 PDT)
> Summary: If Apple continues to have its way it will be illegal to buy anything that looks like a tablet because it will infringe on Apple's “design” patent.
> In the last couple of months a boycott Apple movement has started. It started as a protest about working conditions in Apple's Chinese partners factories. But the banning of the Galaxy Tab seems to have given it new life.
http://www.zdnet.com/rotten-apple-apples-lousy-design-patent-lawsuits-7000000356/
Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display
By Christina BonningtonEmail Author July 3, 2012
> Google’s been flaunting its Google Glass prototype left and right, but it may not be the only company getting into the head-up-display business. Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus on Tuesday.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/apple-patent-hud-display/
Google Jellybean smokes Apple Siri
By Joe Wilcox | July 7, 2012
> But there's a strange twist here. Google removed important search functionality from Android 4.1 in response to US Patent 8,086,604, which Apple successfully used to gain preliminary injunctions against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus.
http://betanews.com/2012/07/06/google-jellybean-smokes-apple-siri/
Federal Court of Appeals denies Samsung’s stay request on Galaxy Tab ban
Kevin Krause | Jul 6th 2012 at 4:30pm
> After Samsung was denied a temporary lift of a ban on their Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier in the week, the news isn’t getting much better. The US Court of Appeals has denied the Korean mobile manufacturers request for a stay on the ban issued by US District Judge Lucy Koh. With the ruling, Samsung’s only hope to get the tablet back on the US market is to reach some sort of licensing deal or settlement with Apple, an avenue that is reportedly being explored jointly with Google.
http://phandroid.com/2012/07/06/federal-court-of-appeals-denies-samsungs-stay-request-on-galaxy-tab-ban/
Android Win: Apple Blasted for Trolling, Sees EU Patents Decimated
Jason Mick (Blog) - July 5, 2012 3:10 PM
> "Obvious" patents should never have been granted, given prior art
> Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) international quest to kill Android, not by competition, but by lawsuits hit a roadblock in the United Kingdom when a Judge ruled Apple's patents to swipe-to-unlock patents to be invalid due to obviousness and prior art.
http://www.dailytech.com/Android+Win+Apple+Blasted+for+Trolling+Sees+EU+Patents+Decimated/article25104.htm
Apple pulls out of EPEAT green registration, may not be able to sell computers to federal agencies
By Steve Dent posted Jul 7th 2012 2:18AM
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/07/apple-pulls-out-of-epeat-green-registration/
How Steve Jobs Fooled the Leader of the Free World and His Opponents
In 2006 Samsung released the SGH-Z610, a phone that had a gesture based touchscreen, app drawer, front and rear facing cameras – the works.
http://theworldwarrior.com/?p=614
LG Prada
The LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada,[1] is a touchscreen mobile phone made by LG Electronics. It was first announced on December 12, 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada
A cave man was resurected today, and he claims that he has a stone tablet showing how to make the wheel and he wants to patent his design, what do we do?
One search for the net and the device. I always know where the information I'm
seeking can be found. Nothing was lost on this downgrade.
I'm not going to find Gina Gershon's age on my phone, (50 as of last month, btw)
and while I may find that file I that I know is on my device on the internet... why
would I want to download it again if I know it's on my phone?
I have a feeling the typical Android user won't even know it is gone.
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
Google and Samsung should start dumping Android phones on the market at every price point. I mean you're already pretty fucking stupid to pay $500-$600 for an iPhone (directly or via subsidized, expensive plans) when you can get a better Android phone (Galaxy Nexus) for $359 but make that value proposition even worse.
Oh, don't technically dump. Just sell for razor thin margins. $1 a phone, or they can sell for a loss and claim advertising revenues will make up for it if regulators and Apple whine about dumping.
I think if Samsung/Google/HTC/others tried they could sell something like the Galaxy S3 for $300 and fuck up Apple's program. And this should be obvious, but manufacture and ship them to the US in _ridiculous_ numbers so they're already here when Apple tries to sue to stop them.
I always joked that you could get a patent on walking and chewing gum at the same time. Guess it's not a joke anymore.
And apple fuckers, you can take away every feature you dont like, we android true geeks, true nerds, true enthusiests , not rich yuppies , will just put back every single feature as a free app to download.
Oh and theres more than one app store thats outside Evil USAs territories, and USA doesnt own earth yet, so eat that.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
It seems to be one of the patents they got with the SRI (of Siri fame) acquisition.
Could google just remove the feature and then offer the user a yes/no dialog to add it back to the OS?
Hurray!
I disabled that feature as soon as I could anyway as I want to decide where to search.
I know perfectly well if I am looking for something on the internet or on the phone, in fact, the way I store stuff on my phone I *never* have to search for it. I know where I put it!
Useless feature - useless patent - useless case.
do not buy apple products. simple easy to accomplish. purchase Samsung or any others that will put apple out of business.
Monopolies are bad for technology and for the economy, but Apple apparently thinks that monopolies are good for them. I hope they are proven wrong, and soon.
I'll never buy another Apple product, until they learn to play nice. Sure, no company is perfect, they all make mistakes and can get involved in silly litigious dilemmas. But I cannot, in good faith, back a company that is seeking a monopoly in this fashion. Go Fuck yourself Apple!
i hope Google and Samsung paid the fees for "A System And Process For Removing Useful Features Via Auto-Update". that one's owned by a consortium of Apple, Sony and Adobe.
MS have a similar patent on moving things you use all the time around between versions.
don't you know that apple holds worldwide process patents on pushing out software updates that cripple shipped software and devices?
Wait a minute, my Nokia N8 (Belle) can do this (single-search of both the local device and Internet) no problem.
And Vlingo is a halfway decent alternative to Siri. I can do more on my non-iDevices than most people I know with an iDevice.
What has this got to do with Android? Sweet bugger all, but I have to wonder why Nokia is allowed to get away with it and Android (Samsung) is not? More to the point, what about other Android-heavy manufacturers like HTC? Is this just a case of the two megaliths battling and everyone else sitting on the sidelines waiting for an outcome or what?
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)
Apple is just a shining example of what's wrong with the U.S. altogether. The Republicans are a mess and so your stuck with Obummer. I'm glad I moved to Asia, and here...Samsung, Linux, Ubuntu etc., are starting to gain position, its Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Taiwan etc., where innovation etc.,is happening.
I searched my bookshelf, the local library and the book store for a book I needed... I violated Apple's precious patent. OH WAIT, I did this two decades ago. Prior art fuckers! I used the "searching multiple places" idea long before Apple made a patent for it. I'm sure we all did.
> Who gives a shit?
Is that a rhetorical question? Or are you just being obtuse?
Obviously, when it comes to *smart* phones, people give a shit. A "whole lot a shit" regardless of how screwed up the patent system is.
That's the *biggest* reason why Apple have the *lion's* share of the profits---from *all* phone sales.
Most "Android" phones sold are *cheap* ones, btw.
When it comes to smart phones, people seem to be buying either a) an iPhone or b) just about anything else running just about any version of Android.
If Smart Phones were colas, half the cola sold would be "Coke" and there would be *no* Pepsi---just dozens of "no name" generic colas all basically the same. Cheaper. Less brand appeal. And less pricey, no doubt. And "Google" would be selling the "syrup."
But, don't be naive; when it comes to smart phones (and the "iPad," I mean, "tablet" market), Apple have become obscenely (or wonderfully, depending on your "fanboi" status) profitable *because* people give a shit.
I know *I* do.
Personally, I don't think Apple *needs* to abuse the system. Their insanely great products still will kick others' asses.
The system is there for the abusing.
Apple just happens to be the most successful company (by at least a few objective measures, btw) "abusing" it.
The fact the overwhelming majority of Apple's customers *love* their Apple products really is irrelevant. Except [winking] to Apple-haters, of course.
I'm sure iOS only got that with Siri, but Android has had it form 1.0!
Thanks Apple, without your high levels of investment to invent this amazing and innovative idea to search both the Internet and your local device at the same time, where would we be? We all know this couldn't have been invented without massive and huge investment and for this, I feel we should all take the time to thank Apple for increasing human knowledge and technology..
Oh wait, they didn't really invest that much to think of this rather obvious (and never once used by me) idea, what was I thinking...
Perhaps there may be an unexpected upside to the duopoly of MS and Apple. Most of these patents are being invalidated outside of the US, when court cases are coming to fruition. Perhaps when the US loses it Silicon Valley inhabitants, electing to go elsewhere due to restrictive development from patent infringement, the Gov may decide (and I mean MAY), they are on a unsustainable path, losing development to China, EU etc.
May be too late before congress gets off their ass to solve this, however, companies leaving or threatening to leave may get some action on the patent changes. Who knows.
I just dropped cygwin/X on it, problem solved.
Ridiculous! Check out this video that is on the same subject: http://youtu.be/POqBS94mXOM