Motorola stock price: $7
Any bets on where it is after they launch their best-in-class OMAP, hi-res multitouch handset on the nation's #1 carrier in time for the holiday season?
I'm guessing....more than $7.
The fact current android devices (Save the hero) don't support multitouch out of the box is ridiculous. My dream LOVES multitouch heh, and I'm not even on the hero rom.
Cyanogen experimental right now, and it's been fun so far!
@Keeping it Reil: the cover for the charging port. it gets annoying sometimes. In the picture above it is open like they just unplugged it from the usb charger
@switchblade saints: I've never had a problem with it, and the fact that it's present at all is a major benefit. I suppose if one didn't like it, a tiny snip from a pair of wire cutters would solve a relatively minor problem.
Apple patented the hell out of multitouch after creating IP on top of the GUI from Xerox that eventually became Windows. Apple didn't patent their work and lost a mint in licensing fees. So this time round, they want to make sure that if their work gets copied in trillions of devices, they get licensing fees.
As the person who invented the strawberry and didn't think to patent, I can somewhat relate. I often wonder how my life would have been different if I took the time to fill out the paperwork. It was a weekend project, and honestly, I never figured a clump of red seeds would catch on.
@MrBlahBlah: The really sad thing is, Apple didn't even invent the technology. They just bought it, wrapped it up and filed dozens of patents and patent applications early on. The patents and applications are vague, and really, there are companies using multitouch, Apple can't stop that.
It's particularly pathetic that Apple, a company that professes to pride itself on innovation and ingenuity, both rarely develops their own technology and also stifles any creative use or development, however loosely based on things they didn't even create, or own. Essentially, they suppress thought and creativity with the threat of massive legal and financial devestation.
Google pissed in the Apple pool yesterday by releasing their own lil "activesync" for the iPhone. It doesnt make Mobile Me that inviting now. Looks like war is starting to brew.
I hate patents, that hold technological evolution back. I hate them.
I understand the concept, and that a company that creates something wants to be the sole proprietor of said technology, but it simply has gotten out of hand.
Almost everything gets patented these days, the stupidest, smallest thing.
It's crazy. And in the long run? Everyone, that does this shoots himself in the foot, because everyone nowadays does so.
Damn it. I want open source for everything. I want my Star Trek like Society, now!
@tylerstyle: Patents (and copyright), when properly used, create innovation by providing a financial incentive for companies to provide the capital needed to develop technology.
We bemoan patents like those employed by pharmaceutical companies, but, when one looks at the expense involved in bringing a drug to market (often involving tens of thousands of test subjects in years of scientific testing), the usefulness of the drug generally offsets the minor delay in the drug being widely and cheaply available.
Just like movies try to make back their cost in the first three weeks of wide release, a drug needs to make back its cost within the patent period.
Money drives innovation and patents provide the money.
@OMG! Ponies!: Of course, while the incentive mechanism is the same, people are much more sympathetic to the rights of patent than copyright owners. The same consumer that understands a computer company's need to profit from its innovation justifies stealing music as though music were free to produce, and its creation unmotivated by incentive to profit.
@frigg: Copyright law has strayed pretty far from its original purpose. At this point, copyrights exist in near perpetuity thanks to a periodic patching to ensure that highly profitable IP (namely Mickey Mouse) is kept out of the public domain.
The patent life for drugs is an excellent example of when the law works. Corporations invest in developing new technology and when the patent runs out, generic versions of the drug become available for a fraction of the cost.
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 is what happens when the law breaks down. And that is why God made Sonny Bono crash into a tree. As punishment for violating the intent of copyright protection.
The last couple of lines you wrote is probably the funniest I've ever read on this site! Bravo!
Also, I completely understand Google's reasoning, but they need to grow a pair! The fact that Google hasn't (and Palm seemingly has) is the very reason people have barely talked about Android lately and can't stop whispering about the Pre - despite the fact that Android phones exist while the Pre doesn't even have a release date.
@DW: The reason everyone's excited about the Pre is not because of its multitouch, it's because it comes with ramjets, laser guns, infinite power, time travel, sushi on demand, and cut and paste.
Brilliant upselling. Did you get that from the groupthink during the webinar? Perhaps I'm just to risk-averse to try and repurpose my assets that way. I'll never break through the glass ceiling this way.
I have a question: Couldn't companies that want to get multitouch or any other competing patented technology) on their product leave a way for a user to add on something like this?
@Wes Elliott: Hey guys - sorry about the confusion - some HTML weirdness made that step unclear.
What you have to do is hit the enter key twice, then type telnetd, then hit enter once more. The instructions to hit enter are what dropped out of that blockquote.
It's fixed now so give it another go and hopefully that will fix the problems you guys are having.
That is not multitouch. The 3rd app showed exactly what is going on. Essentially, the touchscreen is interpreting the two thumbs simply as one REALLY big finger that can grow and shrink in size.
That is why the g1 and the iphone can only do zooming stuff.
When someone implements a little logic and draws circles around the fingers (which is actually pretty simple), then we can get excited. Until then, they aren't doing anything that isn't possible on ANY touchscreen.
@sleze69: Wow. What you said was actually completely not true.
The difference is that on most touchscreens the input sensors only register one single touch, and any subsequent and concurrent touches remain unregistered, as the sensor does not register multiple X/Y coordinate inputs until the sensor registers 100% resistance.
On such systems, enlarging the touched area with "one REALLY big finger that can grow and shrink" would not work, as the sensors don't read aggregate touch data, but rather relative and progressive X/Y coordinate data from single points of minimum resistance relative to 100% resistance of no touch.
On multitouch enabled systems the touch processor reports multiple X/Ys of minimum resistance and coordinates them based on concurrence and relative positioning. This allows them to theoretically have to maximum limit to number of touches (barring minimum to maximum resistance loads) and processor power.
By your logic, the only reason multitouch doesn't work on everything is because the programmers are dumb? Also, there are numerous iPhone apps that incorporate multitouch for multiplayer gaming, being able to concurrently draw with more than one finger, and other uses besides the pinch-style zooming.
08/12/09
Any bets on where it is after they launch their best-in-class OMAP, hi-res multitouch handset on the nation's #1 carrier in time for the holiday season?
I'm guessing....more than $7.
08/12/09
Cyanogen experimental right now, and it's been fun so far!
08/12/09
Man I hate that little dingle-berry sometimes.
08/12/09
08/12/09
08/12/09
08/12/09
08/12/09
02/10/09
As the person who invented the strawberry and didn't think to patent, I can somewhat relate. I often wonder how my life would have been different if I took the time to fill out the paperwork. It was a weekend project, and honestly, I never figured a clump of red seeds would catch on.
02/10/09
02/10/09
02/10/09
It's particularly pathetic that Apple, a company that professes to pride itself on innovation and ingenuity, both rarely develops their own technology and also stifles any creative use or development, however loosely based on things they didn't even create, or own. Essentially, they suppress thought and creativity with the threat of massive legal and financial devestation.
02/10/09
02/10/09
02/10/09
I understand the concept, and that a company that creates something wants to be the sole proprietor of said technology, but it simply has gotten out of hand.
Almost everything gets patented these days, the stupidest, smallest thing.
It's crazy. And in the long run? Everyone, that does this shoots himself in the foot, because everyone nowadays does so.
Damn it. I want open source for everything. I want my Star Trek like Society, now!
02/10/09
We bemoan patents like those employed by pharmaceutical companies, but, when one looks at the expense involved in bringing a drug to market (often involving tens of thousands of test subjects in years of scientific testing), the usefulness of the drug generally offsets the minor delay in the drug being widely and cheaply available.
Just like movies try to make back their cost in the first three weeks of wide release, a drug needs to make back its cost within the patent period.
Money drives innovation and patents provide the money.
02/10/09
02/10/09
The patent life for drugs is an excellent example of when the law works. Corporations invest in developing new technology and when the patent runs out, generic versions of the drug become available for a fraction of the cost.
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 is what happens when the law breaks down. And that is why God made Sonny Bono crash into a tree. As punishment for violating the intent of copyright protection.
02/10/09
02/10/09
02/10/09
Also, I completely understand Google's reasoning, but they need to grow a pair! The fact that Google hasn't (and Palm seemingly has) is the very reason people have barely talked about Android lately and can't stop whispering about the Pre - despite the fact that Android phones exist while the Pre doesn't even have a release date.
02/10/09
02/10/09
*that's what we like to call in the business "cross-promotional synergy"
02/10/09
@The original Mr. Who v.2.0.1:
Brilliant upselling. Did you get that from the groupthink during the webinar? Perhaps I'm just to risk-averse to try and repurpose my assets that way. I'll never break through the glass ceiling this way.
02/08/09
02/07/09
02/08/09
What you have to do is hit the enter key twice, then type telnetd, then hit enter once more. The instructions to hit enter are what dropped out of that blockquote.
It's fixed now so give it another go and hopefully that will fix the problems you guys are having.
02/07/09
01/26/09
That is why the g1 and the iphone can only do zooming stuff.
When someone implements a little logic and draws circles around the fingers (which is actually pretty simple), then we can get excited. Until then, they aren't doing anything that isn't possible on ANY touchscreen.
01/28/09
The difference is that on most touchscreens the input sensors only register one single touch, and any subsequent and concurrent touches remain unregistered, as the sensor does not register multiple X/Y coordinate inputs until the sensor registers 100% resistance.
On such systems, enlarging the touched area with "one REALLY big finger that can grow and shrink" would not work, as the sensors don't read aggregate touch data, but rather relative and progressive X/Y coordinate data from single points of minimum resistance relative to 100% resistance of no touch.
On multitouch enabled systems the touch processor reports multiple X/Ys of minimum resistance and coordinates them based on concurrence and relative positioning. This allows them to theoretically have to maximum limit to number of touches (barring minimum to maximum resistance loads) and processor power.
By your logic, the only reason multitouch doesn't work on everything is because the programmers are dumb? Also, there are numerous iPhone apps that incorporate multitouch for multiplayer gaming, being able to concurrently draw with more than one finger, and other uses besides the pinch-style zooming.
01/26/09