“Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that at least one more Android phone is getting pinch-to-zoom gestures, and it’s never been clear why certain phones don’t include the feature,” Newman reports. “Rumor has it Apple requested that Google avoid multi-touch back when the companies were cozy, but Google may no longer want to comply now that the relationship has soured.”
“We don’t know the terms of the arrangement — or whether it actually exists – so it’s unclear whether Google could ever add multi-touch to older phones,” Newman reports. “For all we know, there may be issues with the Droid and G1 that preclude Google from releasing a simple update, regardless of whether Apple’s involved.”
Newman reports, “Whatever the reason may be, the Droid and the G1 lack multi-touch for core Android apps, even though the hardware in both phones supports multi-touch gestures… The Droid’s and G1’s missing multi-touch is an argument against Android’s fragmentation. Android phones aren’t all on the same page, with different hardware, user interfaces and versions of the operating system.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc. Google’s Nexus One News and Updates page states among the update’s features list: “Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications.” Google quite noticeably does not use the trademarked term “multi-touch.” of ocurse, it goes without saying that Multi-Touch on iPhone is much more than just “pinch-to-zoom.”
Now, beyond trademarks, what about patents? Are the following statements just empty words or will Apple finally move to protect their IP?
• We’ve been pushing the state-of-the-art in every facet of design… We’ve been innovating like crazy for the last few years on this and we’ve filed for over 200 patents for all of the inventions in iPhone. And we intend to protect them. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiling iPhone, January 9, 2007
• We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP, in which case we will go after them. We will not stand for having our IP ripped-off and we will use any weapons at our disposal [to stop it]. – Apple COO Tim Cook, January 21, 2009
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brian F.” for the heads up.]
