Apple gets patent on "slide to unlock"

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
I have a slide to unlock thing on my sliding glass door. I slide it over, it unlocks the door. Patenting this action, although in a different form, is possible? God the patent system is fucking stupid.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
81
It only matters if the courts hold it up when challenged... should be pretty easy to show prior art.
 

Patranus

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2007
9,280
0
0
Just another stolen tech Apple claims as their own! That multi-billion cashpile must hire the best laywers and the best grease for US Patent office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Tj-KS2kfIr0

A laser and a touch screen are two complete separate inputs.

Anyways, this was filed in 2005 and guess what Android looked like in 2005.
prot2.jpg
 

Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
3
0
Android stole practically everything from iOS. Before the iPhone shipped, Android was a sorry Blackberry clone.
I'm not paying attention...:$

I guess this is why Jobs hated Android so much!
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
Android stole practically everything from iOS. Before the iPhone shipped, Android was a sorry Blackberry clone.

Umm, before Android shipped, Android was a sorry clone. The first version we actually got for retail was all touchscreen and icons.

And its already been well established Apple ripped off THAT scheme from other manufacturers. They just did it better, which is generally their Modus Operandi.
Or whatever.
 

dwell

pics?
Oct 9, 1999
5,185
2
0
And its already been well established Apple ripped off THAT scheme from other manufacturers.

Uh, no. Unless you're referring to the LG Prada, the UI of which looked like this:

HWdWa.png


Which was essentially ATM machine technology. iPhone blew it completely out of the park and did it like no one else before them.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
What's next? A patent on clicking a button? Assholes. By assholes, I mean lawyers and legal departments in general, and the people who think this kind of shit is really original. This is just another case of too much Steve Jobs, not enough Steve Wozniak.
 

eternalone

Golden Member
Sep 10, 2008
1,500
2
81
Needs to be challenged if its true immediately and people should make a fuss about it, because its an unreasonable patent.
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
2
76
Slightly on topic in regards to the darker side of apple.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/darker-side-apple-human-cost-iproducts-164412176.html

Touches on the awful worker conditions where Apple and other products are made outside of the US.

"What I was really shocked by was institutionalized dehumanization," he says. "The systems that are put in place are working and the objective of them working is to work people, basically, to death."

....
As said above, Apple is not the only company to do business with Foxconn. Over the last two decades Western companies have shipped hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs overseas to not only China's Foxconn, but other manufactures in third world countries, in a hunt for cheap labor. Unfortunately in doing so, Corporate America chose to ignore its Western values and high labor standards, says Daisey

Most consumers may not appreciate the effect their buying habits have on the lives of others.
 

Phokus

Lifer
Nov 20, 1999
22,994
779
126
I patent the mechanism for breathing, every human being owes me cash.

Fuck Apple. And Patranus, you're a sorry Apple fanboy/apologist.
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
Our patent system works well for many things, but software and GUIs are not among them...

We need to reform this madness.
 

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2004
9,859
1
81
Sliding to unlock still shouldn't be a patentable process.

Shhh...

Teh Googelz used to have buttonz! That's now the topic of this thread.

Look for Apple to shortly file suit against the makers of all styles of deadbolts, which also slide to unlock, and are in violation of their new patent. There could be centuries of royalties owed here!

Apple has also invented 'not having buttons' and will now get an injunction preventing tennis balls, curtains, and bedside tables, all of which are violating their 'no buttons' patent.
 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
Android stole practically everything from iOS. Before the iPhone shipped, Android was a sorry Blackberry clone.

And Apple stole from the ingenuity of the Koreans. Who stole it from [insert prior art here].