For years I've said that Apple is by far one of the scariest software companies out there.<p>The enthusiasm for their products and CEO seems to have a blinding effect on the very same people that would normally be up in arms.<p>I think it would be an interesting social experiment to outline many of their business practices without mention of the products, company or brand, even possibly an alias, or dummy co. and survey their hardcore base for opinion of the company.
As bad as this seems, the best thing you can do as an aspiring developer is <i>ignore it completely</i>, and do whatever you're going to do anyway.<p>The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem. Even then, there are lots of steps between "patent granted" and "patent successfully defended in court". You're so far from that point that it's not even worth thinking about this kind of crap.<p>Also, before you bust out your pitchforks and torches, put your logic hat on for a second: this doesn't make any sense as an offensive move. The patent system is broken and everybody knows it. And as a result, any responsible tech company with sufficient resources <i>must</i> play the same game of mutual self-destruction. Meanwhile, Apple has a vested interest in cultivating a developer community. Patent trolls could easily kill that community. If Apple didn't patent ideas like this, some patent troll in Texas <i>would</i>, and the situation would be much worse for small developers.<p>Obviously, I don't <i>know</i> if Apple is being defensive or offensive here, but it's pretty difficult to imagine them going from retail hardware company to professional patent troll. Again, it doesn't make sense as an offensive move.
One thing that surprises me in the images was that one of them is exactly "Where to?" by tap tap tap:<p><a href="http://taptaptap.com/#whereto" rel="nofollow">http://taptaptap.com/#whereto</a>
While I'm certainly not a fan of this like most commenters here, am I the only one that is of the opinion that instead of hating Apple, we should hate the broken US Patent system?<p>While it disgusts me that they are able to patent these things, they are operating within the current rules of the patent system, and one could argue that if they didn't do so, someone else may come along and patent the same things. The phrase "don't hate the player, hate the game" comes to mind. In fact, they could be running afoul of their duty to their shareholders if they did not make their best effort within the law to protect their intellectual property. They could be altruistic and morally correct as many people here seem to wish they would, but someone else could come along, file the same silly patent, and succeed then bring a suit against Apple for infringement. We should all be sending letters to the USPTO or Congress, not Apple for this atrocity.<p>Further, it is important to keep in mind that these are patent applications that have been FILED, but are not patents that have been ISSUED. There is a big difference there. I could file an application for a patent on a pencil, but it will not become an issued patent because that's bogus. Likewise for these, they may well get rejected for being unpatentable subject matter.
This seems like a direct conflict of interest for Apple. Patenting app ideas will only serve to further alienate developers from the platform.<p>I don't see any good coming from this, and I really hope "generic idea" patents like this start getting shot down by the patent office with regular frequency.
The philosophy with patents these days is that whatever you do (as a part of a big company) that hasn't been done exactly that way before, you submit an invention disclosure on it. In this sense, patents these days are used more like copyrights!
Gary Kildall refused to develop anything like a word processor application for CP/M because, basically, that way leads to evil and corruption. MS, of course, beat him out in the IBM deal and dominated with exactly that recipe.<p>Everything old is new again.
They recently patented this 3D Modeling using an iphone too:
<a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/29/apple_investigates_3d_recording_of_real_world_places_objects.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/29/apple_investig...</a>
The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement
I don't see these patents up on PeerToPatent.org yet, but if anyone has any data that can invalidate them, keep an eye out for when they do go up and stop the applications in their tracks.
Why do people expect Apple to play by different rules? If they are developing these applications to be released in 8 months they're potentially in a bad spot if someone else patents them 2 months from now. What they choose to do after they are granted the patent is a separate issue. Patent reform in general is yet another issue. It's like complaining that the away team hits a technical free throw in a basketball. That's just how the game is played these days.
seeing this has pushed me over the edge. i now want to join or start an effort to destroy or at least fix the idiocy that is the current US software patent system. we cannot let this bullshit continue!
What ever happened to Apple taking the lead, standing up, and doing the right thing, damn the consequences? One of the reasons why Apple fans have been so fanatical about Apple products is because they know Apple will do the right thing. Unlike say, Microsoft.<p>So now Apple is just like any other evil, scheming mega-corp. It's pretty sad actually. Like the day the music died, Apple software has died.