should apple be sued if iphone gets multitasking?

[afine1]

it seems like phone companies are scared to do the multitouch thing becasue of apple, but the iphone has never had multitasking...so if they get it are they just copying all the other phone companies? if so they should be sued.

just a thought.

 

[cm40]

this is silly.

nobody is claiming to own a patent on multitasking. it's far more complicated than that. not to mention there's already too many threads about this subject and most of the opinions and facts have already been posted in them.

 

[BacteriaEP]

You can't patent multi-tasking as an idea. Were the iPhone to get multitasking with the next iteration then the device, and its users, will be all the better for it.

Just like if the N1 were to get multi-touch, even though the largely held rumor is that Google doesn't want to risk getting into a lawsuit due to certain multi-touch patents that Apple does currently own. Although as long as Google creates their's differently there should be no problem.

It all kind of boils down to the whole Pre vs. iPhone thing. When the Pre first launched Apple said it was "looking into" whether or not they could sue Palm to not have multi-touch in their device due to them owning certain patents. Well, as it turns out, Palm's method of multi-touch is different from Apple's, it's just the outcome is the same. Apple is unable to patent the outcome of what multi-touch does, they can only patent their methods of providing it.

Google, Palm and (I think) WinMo all have multi-tasking, but so long as Apple doesn't directly copy each's method of multi-tasking there should be no lawsuit.

 

[JSchu22]

This thread is ridiculous, with one reason being that the iPhone does mult-task. Just not with third party apps like other OSs do.

 

[cwrig]

This thread is ridiculous, with one reason being that the iPhone does mult-task. Just not with third party apps like other OSs do.

Meaning the 4-5 native apps can run in background mode if one is opened in the measly 128M of ram. Thats not really multitasking.

 

[JSchu22]

Meaning the 4-5 native apps can run in background mode if one is opened in the measly 128M of ram. Thats not really multitasking.

Yes its not total multi-tasking but it still can on some key tasks- playing music, web browsing and phone. I don't know where you're getting that memory limitation on the iPhone though.

 

[afine1]

Did no one realize that this post was just a joke?

 

[JSchu22]

"Just a thought" implies, you know, some actual thought was given to it.

 

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

The iPhone 3GS has 256M of RAM, and hundreds of apps can be loaded on it if need be. Please do a little more research on competing phones.

 

[cwrig]

The iPhone 3GS has 256M of RAM, and hundreds of apps can be loaded on it if need be. Please do a little more research on competing phones.

Right. The first two iphones have 128M, the 3Gs has 256M. Both far to little to allow multitasking. The iphone will not multitask until it incorporates the concept of virtual memory into it's OS. 256 of ram is far to little to allow several programs to run simultaneously. iphone shifts its few internal apps into a background task when another comes fwd.

 

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Right. The first two iphones have 128M, the 3Gs has 256M. Both far to little to allow multitasking. The iphone will not multitask until it incorporates the concept of virtual memory into it's OS. 256 of ram is far to little to allow several programs to run simultaneously. iphone shifts its few internal apps into a background task when another comes fwd.

The Palm Pre does okay in the multitasking arena with "only" 256M of RAM.

 

[huntington]

I would sue, why not? Apple sue just about everyone.

 

[cwrig]

The Palm Pre does okay in the multitasking arena with "only" 256M of RAM.

Likely because it uses virtual memory

 

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Likely? Do you have any citations for these statements? I'm just curious.

 

[ManMythLegend]

Likely? Do you have any citations for these statements? I'm just curious.

What do you get out of trolling ?

You guys are a strange breed.

 

[cwrig]

Likely? Do you have any citations for these statements? I'm just curious.

Maybe they dont use a more efficient OS design than Iphone. Maybe Palm and Android can mulittask and Iphone cant because Steve Jobs just doesnt want iphone users doing too much at once. That must be it.

 

[JSchu22]

Maybe Palm and Android can mulittask and Iphone cant because Steve Jobs just doesnt want iphone users doing too much at once. That must be it.

Yeah, that's it.