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>Tap to zoom, pinch to zoom, bounce back, rounded rectangles with glass etc. are obvious features people expect in a touchscreen device that is manipulated using fingers.

These are obvious features now. They weren't obvious in 2007 when the iPhone was released. Apple basically dictated the language of the consumer smartphone when it released the iPhone in 2007.




Weren't a lot of those interactions developed in academia before the iPhone came out? e.g. Jeff Han's TED talk, 2006: http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_tou...

It's kind of bs that Apple can sue for people copying their gestures when they clearly were inspired by previous research on the topic..

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/02/if-android-is-a-s...

By they have "patents," so what should Universities do, should Universities spend all their time and resources patenting every little idea they come up with just in case some company decides to come along and copy them? Or maybe, just maybe, patent law juries should be required to actually properly review prior art, as the jurists in this case have admitted to ignoring?*

* http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57500358-37/exclusive-appl... "It was bogging us down."

I mean, honestly, if juries won't consider prior art because there is TOO MUCH OF IT, how can we expect to take patent law seriously?


Minority Report came out in 2002. It contains pinch-to-zoom. It is obvious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVBzx0LMNQ

Edit: Another commenter linked to this 2002 video, which is a better example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waSXkJBKT1s&t=2m19s


That should not give them exclusive rights to making what can be called a smart phone in 2012. Also both pinch to zoom and rounded rects have a solid prior art.


Not to mention "tap to zoom."

I mean, WTF...


They're obvious features now because we can actually use two objects (our fingers) to interact with the screen at once. Pinch to zoom wasn't at all obvious when everything only could be touched once (PDA's) or not touched at all.

It seems only obvious to pinch to zoom something, but we could not have done that until a full touch interface.




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