“Although long rumored by analysts, a newly-published filing at the US Patent and Trademark Office confirms that Research in Motion is indeed working on touchscreen technology for its phones,” Electronista reports.
“The filing, entitled System and method of integrating a touchscreen within an LCD, depicts an array of parallel electrodes which register input as changes in voltage are detected, triggered by pressure from either fingers or a stylus,” Electronista reports.
“More importantly, it is suggested that the technology could allow for multitouch control, something so far limited to Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and MacBook Air,” Electronista reports.
Full article here.
iPhone has over 200 patents…..that is what Steve said.
Can RIM bypass that?
I hope Apple sues the crap out of Research in Motion (and wins).
At least they are innovative!
competition is good
Its Friday…first post….its sunny outside…life is good.
My kids think I am immature….
Buster — your kids are right.
But who cares
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Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.
– Sam Levenson
If RIM brings this to fruition, I can’t wait! I really love the way Blackberries integrate with eXchange… and how easy they are to administer. I mean, you can wipe an employees handheld remotely if he loses it.
They’re definitely nowhere near as pretty as the iPhone, but they’re extremely functional.
@buster
“iPhone has over 200 patents…..that is what Steve said.
Can RIM bypass that?”
No, but RIM can invent their own multitouch technology.
The multitouch patents Apple has are Apple’s way of doing multitouch. There are more than one ways to skin a cat.
Err…There’s more than one way to skin a cat. That’s what I wanted to say…
“it is suggested that the technology could allow for multitouch control”
A “SUGGESTION” that it “COULD”? Boy, that’s pretty weak tea. How much more passively could that have been stated?
Engineering in Reverse, more like.
<< The multitouch patents Apple has are Apple’s way of doing multitouch. There are more than one ways to skin a cat. >>
Yes- RIM’s way might be to use the tip of your tongue. Then, when selecting icons on your new Multi-touch Blackberry- you could give it a RIMjob.
@ILuvMyMacs…
that post deservers a Rimshot!
ba dum bump!
“Then, when selecting icons on your new Multi-touch Blackberry- you could give it a RIMjob.”
Will the home page spread open from a vertical line with a pink and star-shaped home button in the middle? And I guess that any cords for accessories should be short and curly.
Cheap, copying bastards!
Looks like Apple is getting another RIM job!
Damnit, iLuvMyMacs!
But, mine required less set-up.
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You can multi-touch all day, but RIM doesn’t have OSX. When Intel has their chip inside the iPhone along with 3rd party apps from the upcoming SDK. The iPhone is becoming a computer. I would like to see it a smidgen more responsive along with mini-iChat. iChat would take the cake along with VOIP.
A new standard is about to be set…look at the first iPod and laugh compared to todays. The iPhone will not sit still.
Ampar, I think you have the quote wrong. It goes:
“Explosive diarrhea is hereditary. It passes through your jeans.”
— Sum Jung Gai
But we ALL know that serious users need the little itty bitty keyboard. Ballmer said so.
Multitouch is great and all. It’s a perfect way to interact with a small device, and a logical progression from the stylus. And, sure, anyone can evolve into the multitouch approach.
It’s the integration of applications that sets the iPhone apart from all others. Can RIM do THAT?
I predict that Apple’s legal department will have many long hours ahead of them… good luck folks!
Rim needs to stop… think… and then stop wasting the little money resources they have left… you have to have something left to give back to the stockholders!
After the SDK comes out this month, the iPhone is going to quickly catch up with the Blackberry in most of those areas where it’s still behind and, with it’s intrinsic advantages the iPhone could start to be a real threat to RIM, the only smart phone which, so far, hasn’t lost market share to the iPhone.
So RIM may well be thinking of countering with their own touch-phone.
But it ain’t going to be easy. It took Apple a couple of years development and RIM will have the further disadvantage of having to ‘avoid’ Apple’s copyrights.
Does anybody here know how good RIM’s OS is, and whether it’s up to the job?
“Although long rumored by analysts…”
Long rumored since when, sometime around Macworld 2006??
This is another ‘me too’ catch up rumor based on a patent filing by someone who is ‘working’ on touchscreen technology for phones. I thought that M$ held the patent on vapor products…
I have no doubt that RIM will market such a product sooner or later. I’ll worry about it when I see the first credible favorable comparison to the iPhone.
That was funny, Sum Jung Gai!
“Explosive diarrhea . . .”
The other E.D. you have to worry about.
RIM wanted to deliver this product this spring, but they are highly likely to miss their launch date due to manufacturing issues that are as of yet unresolved. Missing spring means waiting until August for the product to make its debut…
RIM is the one Apple may choose to sue (should RIM be violating any of Apple’s patents). No one else in the industry represents a threat, but RIM is already established with a great reputation (why I have no idea – the BB Perl I have sucks), but businessmen are perhaps the most clueless tech folk on the planet, so “good enough” is “great” to them – but I digress…
If RIM has chosen to roll the dice and blatantly step on a few of Apple’s patents, Apple will go after them with the cease and desist suit, stopping the product cold.
Wait, I thought they were telling us that touch keyboards were BAD?
Yet again, Apple leads and the others follow.
Interesting…when someone sues Apple, they’re patent vultures. RIM works on its own multi-touch tech and most everyone here wants Apple to sue.
Such little faith in your beloved company.
toonie: Thanks for oversimplying the matter. Generalize much?
“Wait, I thought they were telling us that touch keyboards were BAD?”
Sort of.
“The iPhone has severe limitations when it comes to effortless typing.”
– Research in Motion co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis (Nov. 8th, 2007)
“oversimplying”
Sorry. I oversimplified “oversimplifying”.
Sounds like they are trying to patent Apple’s iPhone patents.
Isn’t the iPhone touch screen based on this same technology and way to do multi-touch??
Look at this video on the Apple website – looks very similar to what RIM is describing in their patent:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#touch
Thank you iLuvMyMacs and Sum Jung Gai. Funny sh1t.
And Ampar, thanks for the enlightenment (Levenson quote).
So if Apple did not do this, no one else would have had the balls to try multitouch in a cellphone. It must suck to be a follower.
This just show how much of a treasure Apple is.
@Name – Re: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
Umm, I don’t recall that being an iPhone function.
“More importantly, it is suggested that the technology could allow for multitouch control. By avoiding violating Apple’s patents, inside sources say that RIM’s phone will resemble ‘a big ass table’. …”
That’s why Microsoft can get away with their big-ass table, and why other companies will push their own implementation of this technology.
The 200+ patents are for specific things, but not for multi-touch itself.
CNN has been using huge multi-touch screens lately to move, rotate and enlarge photos by hand.
When Apple BOUGHT FingerWorks
it pretty much bought and now owns the methods of input for mutli-touch. The iPhone has over 200 patents, which cover present & future technologies on input and functionality.
Many companies can toy all they wish. Experiment and play as much as they desire. But there will be TROUBLE when they choose to market and bring their products to the consumers. Specially, when the product is a similar device and a direct competitor.
http://digg.com/apple/Apple_acquired_Fingerworks_touch_gesture_company_to_create_iPhone
dougless
Apple has only touched on a few of the best and common input methods for iPhone and MacBook Air.
Expect more from Apple shortly.
The iPhone IS ‘eating into the RIM’ market share.
None of this matters – its the combination of OSX and the hardware that wins – these poor suckas have to use WIn mobile or Symbian or some such rubbish.
I dont think RIM’s software is so hot – except it works with a server so they can manipulate it from afar – or so they say.
They can announce all the touch-screen vapour they like – the cell-phone industry is 5 years behind the iPhone already and I cant see Apple suddenly going all zune-like and designing for 1975, can you?
Never underestimate the power of nostalgia to screw up innovation.
Also – the main business of cell phone is with consumers, not business types.
RIM have a big share of a small market – already Apple have 28% of that market, and they arent even going after that market!
“Apple has only touched on a few of the best and common input methods for iPhone and MacBook Air.”
I discovered a new gesture recently. When someone asks to use my iPhone, I gesture a reply by extending only my middle finger. Try it. It really works.
RIM afraid of apple?
pleazzze… it’s funny watching all the threads in here.
Apple my have it’s patents for touch control. But they don’t specify which finger to use. RIM may have figured out the optimum finger for maximum effect and control.
@Pete
I bet they will use your middle finger right? LOL
Pete, Which finger(s) do you prefer to have poking at your RIM?
(with a German accent)
“You want to touch my RIM, yes? Do it! Put your finger on my Blackberry and move it around. Faster!…yes….Now use two fingers!!!!”
The blackberry has one major advantage over the iPhone.
It has an actual keyboard. The multitouch screen is probably the future of user interfaces in general, and it makes the iPhone a great multimedia phone, but typing fast on the iPhone is a pain from personal experience.
Although, I would be curious to see what RIM would do with a multitouch screen…
@e
Wrong with the keyboard. Its a non issue. Just like all new things, you need to just give it some time to get used to it. I now type much faster on my iPhone than I ever did with my Treos and BB over the years. I have never been able to type as fast as the iPhone with those devices.
Don’t think the “touchscreen” concept per se could be patented.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”zipper” style=”border:0;” /> Just how it’s implemented and the way it is used—now that’s eminently patentable.
After all, I recall HP and other vendors touting it as the next big thing for PCs back in the days of the first Mac—the Mouse won.
I have become quite proficient typing on the iPhone keyboard, and I prefer the smaller one used in portrait orientation than the one on landscape. Reason? The buttons are closer together so my fingers don’t have to wander over the larger space.
Once one begins to trust the predictive, corrective spelling of iPhone, the speed arrives in no time.
Time to short RIMM?
“I have become quite proficient typing on the iPhone keyboard . . .”
Impressive. Especially with a cloven hoof.