So, the new HTC phones are facing delays in the US, and they now ship with a slightly modified US-specific Android build which removes data tapping and sports an altered app associations screen to avoid Apple's patents. This is step one. Step two is companies avoiding the litigious and anti-consumer messes that are the US and German markets altogether. Clearly, IP laws are working to the benefit of the consumer and the market as a whole. Great work guys.
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Member since:2009-05-19
Member since:2006-06-01
Wow, did I say all of that? LOL Whether software patents are legal, necessary, or proper, or should be thrown out wholesale is a whole other topic. And for the record, I AGREE that software patents are stupid, but they exist, so until someone changes the associated laws, both people and companies must abide by those laws.
So, the fact remains, that a court found that HTC's phones infringe some of Apple's copyrights, and they should have licensed them before shipping phones to this country. That's pretty simple. They might even also infringe on other companies' patents as well, but those have not been adjudicated. Therefore, HTC could have avoided this situation by licensing the patents from anyone involved, but they decided not to and just go ahead and ship their phones, and got caught at it. I suppose if you think that banks are unethical institutions, then that makes it OK to go rob a bank instead of going into the bank and applying for a loan if you want money?
Edited 2012-05-18 11:00 UTC
Member since:2007-08-27
So you think it a simple matter to figure what your widget might have infringed given the state of patent and copyright law.
It's protection racket in which you have to assume every Corp gets it's cut, with or without any merit whatsoever, and that only if the 'Law' is not being used to keep your widget out of the market altogether.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?
Member since:
2009-02-02
FUCK you. If it was up to you and Apple only Apple would be allowed to write any code. The fact that you cannot sit down in front of your computer and write popular useful system code without Apple suing the shit out of you over dubious software patents that did not exist when Apple was a growing company is asinine. Patents should not exist on software. So u think apple created the idea of hyperlinking a phone # to an application? This is madness. And the fact that you advocate for this crap leaves me wondering what the fuck are you doing on a forum about operating systems. You don't give a damn about tech.