Apple VICTORY: Old Samsung phones not sold any more can't be sold any more A US appeals court has said that various ancient Samsung phones which aren't being sold any more can't be sold any more, because they infringe an Apple patent. The handsets affected are the Galaxy S3 and some older models dating from 2012 and before. Samsung is now on to the S6, so these aren't exactly piled high in the shops …
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...because I'm starting to have the inclination...
...I'd buy an ambulance ... repaint to, "Whhhhambulance..." along with a list of the patents that Apple has willfully infringed upon ... and drive it up and down the street of Apple's head office for a few days.
"So hyperlinks and click to call?"
No, those are the results, not the algorithm. The algorithm is... let me waddle through the legalese... not quite clear... anyway, I assume it is just a regular expression or two, quite obvious to those of us who are "skilled in the art", but not to the USPTO.
The mind boggles.
"... I assume it is just a regular expression or two, quite obvious to those of us who are "skilled in the art", but not to the USPTO."
Yes, maybe now, but was it obvious in 1996 when Apple filed this patent application? Given that Samsung would've worked their socks off to show it was, and failed, I think not.
"was it obvious in 1996?"
I don't know how old you are but I suspect many of us could have written the regexp for detecting telephone numbers in 1986 let alone 1996, it would only be something like [^0-9+-() ]\+?[0-9-() ]+[^0-9+-()] I'm sure that can be revised but as I just typed it without stopping (I'm walking the dog at the moment) and I'd hardly call myself a coding genius, that should give you an idea how easy it is.
"And I thought the Germans had just killed the "slide to unlock" patent, too"
They did, yes. It's funny really; just about the only place who think Apple have a case is the USA. Can't imagine why the largest US company seems to only have a chance of prosecuting a foreign company in US courts.
The S3 was good enough for most uses, I was hoping that when my old folks need new phones or I need a budget spare I could pick new S3's up super cheap from clearance stock, bit of a bugger that Apple have got their way and they can't be sold. Hopefully they can still flog them in Blighty.
Would make more sense for someone to (now the phones are illegal to sell) release a "Simplez Firmwarez" (tm) which turns the S,S2,S3 etc into a basic phone complete with simple functions for those who don't want or need the pointless extra features.
Also turns off the damnable auto-update permanently but still allows things like the WiFi hotspot feature and BT handsfree headset to work if needed (default of the former on power-up: OFF!!!)
A "text preconfigured number if dropped and not picked up within say 1 minute" would be handy too.
so the effect will be even less in Africa, Asia and Europe.
The USA is likely one of the biggest markets in the world but the churn is far less than in Asia where cell handsets are often sold without carrier plans, which is often required by law, and therefore it's not uncommon for users to buy new units after 6-12 months - and just toss the old units.
There's a street market in Ho Chi Minh City's District 5 where used iThingies - versions 4 or older - can be had for USD$10-15! Seems a fair price.
therefore it's not uncommon for users to buy new units after 6-12 months - and just toss the old units
I don't get the connection. Why does selling them without plans mean people want to buy new phones every 6-12 months and throw away rather than resell the old ones? Are the phones they're buying such low end junk that they don't last longer than that?
I don't get the connection. Why does selling them without plans mean people want to buy new phones every 6-12 months and throw away rather than resell the old ones? Are the phones they're buying such low end junk that they don't last longer than that?
Considering that they're probably low end Mediatek trash devices, that see zero support ever. Not even in the hacker aftermarket al-la CyanogenMod. I wouldn't really doubt it that much.
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