Apple Forces Google To Degrade Android Features 498
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."
improvement (Score:4, Interesting)
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?
Re:Didn't Google do this first? (Score:3, Interesting)
Grep on Unix had this feature long before Apple was a company.
FTFY.
I think this is a good time to post... (Score:5, Interesting)
this TED talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html [ted.com]
I think it's time to start calling technology utilitarian and start removing protections before this sector crashes...
Re:Typical Apple Hater whining (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple thinks they're winning, when in reality they're losing.
Take a look around. I see more and more people complaining about Apple. I know someone who had a macbook pro that just broke. Apple wanted him to buy another. He looked at PC laptops and asked a friend of mine why PC laptops were so much cheaper and had the same if not better specs.
He now owns a pc laptop. He was a die hard mac user.
Apple is ridiculously controlling and overpriced. Users dont want that. Users want cool, so they put up with the fist fucking you get as an apple customer.
Re:Kill Patents (Score:5, Interesting)
There are plenty of morally wrong things people can do that are still legal. It's possible to harrass your neighbour in so many ways that just fall short of breaking the law, to the point they are suicidal, but if you don't do it then it doesn't mean somebody else will.
Apple are a morally bankrupt company, that got lucky in launching a product at the right time technological advances made it possible, then are using their extensive cash piles to destroy innovation. Business suffers, consumers suffer, the only winner is Apple being able to flog off their inferior technology for a couple more years whilst they censor their rivals from the marketplace.
Phillip.
Re:six hundred dollars? (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows has done this for years when searching for device drivers...
Re:six hundred dollars? (Score:5, Interesting)
Some people pay the mob. Some people fight the mob. Samsung - and now Google - has chosen to fight the mob. I think they are right in doing so. When it comes to paying the danegeld [wikipedia.org], rule one is 'never pay the danegeld'. Just ask Shakespeare:
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
âfâfâfNo matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
âfâfâfAnd the nation that plays it is lost!"
License to Search? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Kill Patents (Score:2, Interesting)
I think Apple should be killed first. I have never seen a worse bully or a sorer loser. The tech industry needs to rid itself off this idiocy of a company once and for all. With all the money they have, they have the power now to completely annihilate innovation in the entire tech World. Things were better when they did not have that kind of money power; atleast then they had the hunger to build better products. Instead of quashing competition in the Courts and with the FTC.
I know MS is still hated here with a passion, but Apple is much more evil. At least MS will coexist with Android and only ask a few dollars per device. Not go out all nuke and throw you out of business and go crazy!
I never in my years thought I would say this but I am glad crappy Windows won in the PC war of the 80s and 90s. Who knows what would have happened if the Mac one.
Yes Mac is superior but shit its creators are insane. Apple is turning anti consumer now just like MS as they build their monopoly. Want to replace that battery for your $1700 macbook pro? Throw it out and buy a new one!
I still don't have to buy from them ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Kill Patents (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple can't have total domination, they know that, there's always going to be some low margin devices from their age old competitor & factories that make their devices. they're fine with duopoly though, they know they don't have to fear windows phone that much and there's room for two on the market - but if both iOS and windows phone become niches among android versions that's bad business for both.
Strange modding on my post though. it's not a troll, just statement of current facts - thing is though if you're a ms fan or an apple fan you're going to get pissed at the truth. if it's a troll how come nobody was trolled? no counter arguments?
modding it overrated or off topic would be more apt if anything. these parties were suing each other just few years ago, but not that long ago they stopped that and all are aiming just making android less feasible - MS with demanding money from every android shipped and apple just outright gunning for blocking and the Nokia vs. Apple schism that could have caused trouble to Apple was brought to settlement after Nokia was brought to MS camp, the sums that were in public about that were so large they could have been used for short blocking, much more so than what Apple is using against nexus now, even oracles lawsuit could be seen as extension of that battle(even more so taking that Ellison is connected and was connected with Jobs). I'm not going to go all apk on it and start providing links for the things though, if someone wants consultation why I know all this and why it's true they'll have to look me up and pay relevant fees for my time - though it's all backed up by public news and documents, so I don't see why anyone who can google news articles would bother(not under nda's, no sauna talks, no bar talks - none of that sort led to these conclusions so I'm fine on that, can't sue me).
and this isn't even near the ugliest things going on in mobile business.
Re:Kill Patents - Three Strikes (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
The entire system is broken (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [wikipedia.org].