Court reverses injunction that likely shouldn't have been granted

Back in the start of the summer Apple was granted an injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus based on the ‘604 universal search patent. The court has reversed its decision based on the fact that Apple had not shown that universal search was a main selling feature of the phone. I realize that injunctions such as this require expediency in the legal system in order to be effective however an issue such as this must surely have been in the mind of the court when granting the injunction. I understand that Apple has many patents and is merely utilizing them to ensure competition is increased in the marketplace but it is quite a stretch to believe that people are buying phones based on unified search. I think we will be seeing more of this as the courts delve deeper into Apple’s patents and find that many of them are overly broad or have some prior art to invalidate them. 

Apple continues to unlock the patent system

Apple has just been granted another patent on Slide to unlock that creates a much broader claim. The new claim eliminates the proviso of the slide having to move along a predetermined path. Many of the workarounds to the previous patents involved eliminated the predetermined path and adding other options to the unlock such as in Android’s ICS and Jellybean implementations. This new patent broadens the scope of Apple’s claims and it will be interesting to see if this one holds up in the courts or if it will be shot down for been overly broad.

Motorola drops the latest ITC patent infringement against Apple

Is Google stopping litigation against Apple? Was there a settlement made behind the scenes? I am very curious to know as to why this case was dropped alas I do not think we will find the answers any time soon.

Motorola drops the latest ITC patent infringement against Apple

Siri's new movie reviews

These are pretty awesome reviews…for a robot

Siri's new movie reviews

Here's Your Chance To Win A Role On 'Arrested Development'

This isn’t really in the description of my account but I felt it was too awesome not to share.

Here's Your Chance To Win A Role On 'Arrested Development'

Me and this iPhone, we’re going places.

Not literally, of course. I hear the new maps are terrible.

The Verge’s Paul Miller in his Offline column

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New Blackberry devices are looking very very interesting.

Automated Assistant Patent

Engadget is reporting that Apple has now applied for a patent for an ‘Automated Assistant’  which sound a whole lot like Siri, here is the abstract from the US patent application:

“The intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.” 

It looks like it was filed way back in June so it’ll be working its way through the system for the next little while. I am very curious to see if the patent goes through, it looks like it is specific in terms of the use of a conversational dialogue but I am still curious to see how this plays out for Google’s own Google Now. 

Blackberry 10

RIM is taking BB10 on tour with its Blackberry Jam tour and it showed off some awesome new tweaks to the public. Hopefully we will get to see the new handsets too, I personally would love to at least try one I think they look very forward thinking! Hit up the link to crackberry.com’s hands on!!

Blackberry 10

iPhone 5

Checked out the iPhone 5 today, it is a great looking piece of hardware, especially in comparison to the old one. The phone feels fake because it is so thin and light but the industrial design is impeccable. I am still very disappointed by how stale iOS feels and for that reason I do not think I could switch to the iPhone but it is one of the nicest looking phones out there that is undeniable.