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Samsung Galaxy S3 Stripped of Local Search
DavidGilbert99 writes "Ahead of a legal battle with Apple, Samsung has begun disabling the local Google search functionality on the international version of the Galaxy S3. This mean S3 owners will no longer be able to search contacts, messages, or other content stored locally on their phones using the in-built Google app. The interesting thing is that Apple has yet to sue Samsung over this feature in the EU or the UK and so it seems as if Samsung is being ultra cautious ahead of the the companies' big court date on Monday next."
i don't know if that's a good thing or bad!!!
So they've removed the feature before the courts even told them to?
Is that not an admission of guilt of infringement?
Because searching is like... so new?
Fuck you, Apple.
Being that my version of the Galaxy S3 was purchased through Verizon, and they are notoriously slow with software updates, i can safely say that this feature will be present on my phone for a long time to come. Thanks for being lazy slackers, Verizon!
oh wait, that's why apple is suing them
seriously, google had local PC search like 10 years ago with google desktop. apple had it with finder i can't remember when.
unless samsung has really dumb lawyers that's prior art right there. local search has been on computers since the 1990's
How is this patentable?? Really? This is just common sense that such a feature exists. Or is there a algorithm for this sort of thing? This is ridicilous
And they classified the update that did this as a "Stability update" without mentioning the functionality change.
Time to sue.
Patent holders win.
Consumers lose.
Where's profit?
If Google is successful at invalidating that patent (at USPTO or at Court of Appeals), will this feature come back?
Wait, I am a little confused and not only did I RTFA, but I did a Google search for more information.
Apple has a patent on searching local files for information? wtf? Did they get a patent for searching both the internet and the local files....I mean this must be a twisted reality when a grep or find type operation, which has been around for a looooooong time not only gets a patent, but stops another company from performing said function on its own machines.
Somehow we are getting to the point where companies like Apple seem to be able to patent a chair, just because its a chair that works in the field; no one else can build such a chair again.....This just makes me sad for the industry I once loved.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
Wouldn't an Android search GUI just be a front end for a bunch of grep (for data) or find (for files) commands?
Does it have local search without using a specific google app?
I have a nexus one right now, and I can't search a damn thing with it. It drives me downright nuts. I've run into so many frustrating usability issues with android that I've decided I'm going to have to move away from it on my next purchase. It's really sad when the evil proprietary overlords support industry standards (eg: caldav) better than an open OS.
The lawyers profit. It is their game.
1. Petition for patents on everything.
2. File Patent lawsuit with billable hours.
3. Profit.
So basically, your evil overlord stops Android companies to implement search, then you support the evil lord for it.
Amazing, I never knew someone could actually fuck themselves with such a tiny dick.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Their competitors are now scared to implement the most basic functions. Congratulations! Everybody else loses out, but fuck those guys and fuck society, am I right?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I want to preface this with: I love Samsung and have spent a lot of money on their products. I own a Captivate Glide, and am looking at the SGS3. I hope they triumph over Apple and cost them a lot of money in the marketplace.
But, if they roll out an update which removes this functionality from devices that have already been sold, I hope a class action lawsuit is filed against them.
Partly because removing functionality from a product that has been sold should be very illegal (criminal, not contract law), but also because it's important that every company suffers the consequences of software patents - regardless of whether or not they screw their customers by backing out functionality. I hope billions of dollars are wasted on this garbage, so that the situation ultimately becomes untenable. One day, multinational corporations will, together, take a step back and realize that this nonsense must stop.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Apple is too much of a newbie at playing the evil monopolist game. Software patents suck, but at some point, Apple will run out of patents to assert, specially now that the competition is getting ahead of them in innovation and features. Google has learned that they only have to remove existing features and reimplement them differently. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a true veteran at being evil and forces Android manufacturers to sign up for expensive and shady "IP" licensing schemes.
No way. Typically when you go to court to fight something you don't want to be doing what the plaintiff is complaining about at the same time.
Quit the speculation shit. In fact, doing what you're protesting at the same time is far more likely to be an admission of guilt.
Very weird - Palm did universal local search on handhelds circa 1999. Apps could even (actually, had to) determine how app data was searched.
Local search is actually one of the least useful things I've ever seen on a phone. I HATE the implementation on iOS. I don't use it on my Android devices. Pretty much ever. And have many many times wanted to be able to remove the way it worked from both.
It sucks in the sense that Samsung is pre-caving to Apple demands ... but I'm kinda glad at the specific result in this case.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
well, ....
they DO allow getting multiple things from one box.
(yes, I'll take an aisle seat, thank you)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I think a safe way would be to strip it and change the entire search framework to a plugin based system. later let third part apps put plugins into the search framework.
They already do this for sharing, facebook when install can add itself as a share provider and application wishing to share content automagically see facebook( or dropbox etc).
They (Samsung) should just implement an enabling code (like an easter egg), that is supposed to be secret, but "accidentally" ends up in the open. Entering this code on your phone will then enable all features owned by Apple. With this workaround, all Apple can do is blame the individual users. Btw, this is the same technique that has been used successfully by DVD player manufacturers for circumventing region-code restrictions enforced by trading authorities.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
I'm sure there is an app out there to take of it.
When did the Common Lisp find-if procedure appear? What other similar built-in collection-searching functions have there been in programming languages? Would that not be a generic prior art preventing anyone from patenting the ability to search through a collection of entries? Searching a list must have been obvious to anyone "skilled in the art" since some time in the 1960s.
Real karma will set you on fire for a comment like that.
Thank you for being so sue crazy that you cripple others products and thus shit indirectaly on every person trying to buy a product anywhere that isnt yours. And then thank you for gimping your products and only letting your customers get what you think they should only through you and cutting off freedom of the device they paid too much money for to begin with since it has a apple logo on it.
If apple werent such assholes I would support them more. I would like to have a few of their products to play with, check out and learn just for the sake of my geekness but I refuse to because I do not like them as a company. Cell phone? I have a galaxy 3s which is every bit as good as the iphone and in some ways a lot better and costs a lot less. Plus I can put whatever aps or games on it I want. Tablet? I have a nexus 7 that is really great and costs half as much as an ipad but does the same and more since android gives me freedom to put what I want on it. Mp3 player? Eh I use my cel phone for that so no need to buy a overpriced ipod and even if I wanted one I could buy dozens of mp3 players that do the same thing for a lot less. Computer? Ill stick with my pc that is more powerful, I can use more third party software on, I can actually play fucking good games on it and is more or less universally supported across the whole planet that I built myself for a hell of a lot less than a mac. Basically if apple werent dicks they would get some of my money but in the end they dont get shit and honestly I get superior products for a lot less money. I suppose apple by making me not want to buy from them is saving me a lot of cash and putting better products in my hands. So thank you apple.
With all these companies suing each other and the new smart phone plans carriers are rolling out, I think my next phone will be a pay as you go pos.
...Google disagrees with you:
Before the legal fiasco began, Google warned Samsung not to copy Apple:
In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”
http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/25/before-the-legal-fiasco-began-google-warned-samsung-not-to-copy-apple/
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
Fuck you, Apple.
Why? Apple didn't evan ASK Samsung to stop - Samsung did this all on their own.
Why not berate Samsung, for capitulating even before a battle begins? One company cares less about the users, and it's not Apple here...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just root your iphone and install stock android on it.
Why would you want the crappy samsung/your-carrier version of android anyway?
Steve Jobs didn't steal the quote. He attributed it to Picasso .
i thought, therefore i was...
Who cares? It stopped being about design alone a long time ago. And Google itself is being sued over Nexus, which doesn't look anything like an iPhone - solely over features in the phone.
sometime around when real karma gives tim cook aids
i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig
Well done Samsung, I applaud you for improving youir device in this way. Ever since Apple introduced local search my iPhone has been running like a dog. I go to type in a location in the map app and it takes literally 10 seconds for each letter to be typed into the search box. When I search (properly) online with Google for this problem it turns out that the local search kills older iPhones and many people who upgraded to the version of the OS with local search regret upgrading. Leave local search out it's mostly a waste of CPU cycles.
Korma: Good
Thus, its in the best interest of the politicians to upsell, beef up, apple share price to the moon, to pay for the lazy ass employees that retire with 5x greater benefits, damn slackers.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I will not purchase any more Apple Products. For work I currently have an older iPhone 3GS and was waiting to upgrade to the 5 this year once it came out. No more, evil actions like this mean I will now purposely seek out a non-Apple product to replace that phone. My company replaces my work cell phone every 2 years and I get to pick what I want. Apple just lost at least one recuring sale by screwing over the general public.
My personal phone is the Samsung Galaxy S3. It was marketed by Sprint to have certain features. Now Sprint and the other Cell phone companys are likewise bowing to Apple in fear of being left out of the next iPhone release and rushing out these patches to cripple the S3's. Yes, Samsung made the update to head off litigation by Crapple, but Sprint is notoriously slow rolling out updates (waited 6 months to get updates on my older Epic), yet Sprint was able to test the crippling patch and other add-in's or sub-tractions and push it out to their customers in days this time? Sprint's forums are full of posts of S3's having signal and other issues now after the patches.
If the cell phone companies cared about their customers, they'd all stand up to Apple and say knock it off. Instead they are more concerned with upsetting apple than their customer bases. I wouldnt be surprised to see class action lawsuits against the carriers from their customers for selling them something and then taking it away. Misleading advertisement and broken contracts. Sure the carriers will try to blame Samsung and Apple, but as i said above, if the carriers banded together and slapped Apple the same way Crapple is slapping all other consumers, this whole thing would be nipped in the bud quick.
I wont be "downgrading" my phone. Screw CrApple.
I must admit that I bought an iPhone 3g a couple of years ago (to develop on). Once I realized that I needed to buy a computer running OSX, a developer license, and that I would likely have to write in Objective-C, I switched to Android and the Samsung Galaxy II. I am not going back to Apple.
On IP: Software patents need to just die. They are killing innovation and companies buy and play them like they're stacking a friggin' Magic: The Gathering, deck ("I see your device and play the LOCAL SEARCH LEADS YOU NOWHERE card and disable your LAUNCH DATE"). Medical companies develop drugs and then after a while their patent expires and generic producers can start creating them. Software patents should have a similar lifespan. You come up with something truly innovative? Great. You have a 2 year window in which you can have exclusive rights. After that, someone is free to reverse engineer it.
Kindly go fuck yourself in the ass with a jackhammer.
Fuck you and your racketeering bullshit. You are not technology innovator, you are a fucking fashion designer. Your ransom on technology holds progress behind for your own financial gain. The only reason you are still business is because of the more responsible and respectable practices of your competitors, who are above your petty bullshit and have a genuine interest in and desire to contribute to progress.
#1. Completely gut the patent system, invalidate all existing patents and abide by a this rule: any concept deemed worthy of a patent needs to be burdened with revolution, detailed and complex, all-encapsulating and original; something that is simply unheard of. Adding a feature to an existing technology doesn't count. It must be type of idea which, in its time, seems inconceivable and astonishing (for example, the telephone ... who, at the time, *didn't* think it was completely impossible and ridiculous to have a real-time conversation with someone across town, across the country or across the world without physically being in their presence?)
#2. Publicly fund the patent office. No more bribe funding (which is what it really is)
#3. Get rid of prior art and replace it with something better: an RFP to the public. Any reasonable, similar or plausible responses would automatically deem a concept non-patentable (and accepted responders would receive payment; I'd gladly see my tax dollars working to prevent BS patents). Such responses would be publicly available and voted upon to prevent some crony in the office rubber-stamping patents. If there are no responses, then no patent is granted.
i am sure
Altavista had a tool to search across desktop, email and internet back in 1998 (and no doubt developed the IP well before then). Maybe they should sue Apple :-) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2066812/AltaVista-Releases-Search-Software