Pinch-to-Zoom and Rounded Rectangles: What the Jury Didn't Say

CharlyFoxtrot writes "Steve Wildstrom at Tech.Pinions takes on some of the what he calls folklore surrounding Apple v Samsung, investigating what was and wasn't part of the case and how the media got it wrong: 'There's one serious problem with the first sentence, which was repeated dozens of times in stories in print and on the Web. Apple only has a limited patent on the pinch to shrink, stretch to zoom gesture that is a core element of touch interfaces. And the 826 patent wasn't in dispute in the Samsung case because Apple never asserted it. In fact, this particular patent does not seem to be in dispute in any litigation.'"

Comments

The whole thing is insipid.

[chilvence]

It really is insipid. Samsung is being sullied. Apple is being painted as a bully. Why? Because of legal mumbo jumbo. If the laws did not exist, then they would just work it out between themselves and we wouldn't have to hear about it! Ask yourself: were the laws created by someone that actually contributed something to human society?

#irc.troll(talk.com

[Anonymous Coward]

persp3ctiVe, the

Re:toothpick in my anus

[Arker]

An excellent reminder of several points many people may well be smugly ignoring.

That said, you show a good bit of the old conspiracy-paranoia stuff too.

"Search enough, and you'll arrive at some lone individuals who cry out their system is compromised and nothing in their attempts can shake it of some 'strange infection'. These posts receive the same behavior as I said above, but often they are lone posts which receive no answer at all, AT ALL! While other posts are quickly and kindly replied to and the 'strange infection' posts are left to age and end up in a lost pile of old threads."

Well, doh, what do you expect to happen? You keep implying this is the result of some cover-up or wide-ranged conspiracy, which is no more rational than the smugness you criticize.

When someone posts something like that, there are two possibilities. There is your APT, sure, and there is what we call user error. The odds are pretty heavily in favour of the latter, but either is *possible.* I've heard these tales from customers, not strangers on a message board on the internet but customers whose machines I am being paid to fix, many times over the years. I've investigated. I've found some user error, some hardware failure, some essentially run of the mill malware with some twist or other on occasion, the most interesting one apparently having been planted by an overzealous PI hired by a real mensch of an ex-husband, but the sort of attacks you are talking about? Never seen that. Dont know anyone that has.

Does that mean it doesnt happen? Of course not. We all know those sorts of attacks are now happening, between state level attackers. And I suspect it's been going on longer and much further along than most would imagine. All true.

But think about this, that guy posting? I've been called to fix his machine, or someone apparently much like him, a few times now. He has such a sophisticated piece of malware that there is nothing I can do to even prove it exists, yet it is not sophisticated enough but what he knows it is there. Just think about that one for a second.

I am convinced these people are often under psychiatric care, and need to be. I, myself, am not a psychiatrist.

So I dont need to be part of any conspiracy to skip over that post and use my time to try and help someone I *am* equipped to help.