Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

This got me curious... how do you unlock older NITs?
EDIT:
Forgot to add the link: http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_grante...-news-3307.php

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

slide key, no onscreen thingy.
We are lucky Apple didn't patent the on-off switch, the keyboard, or the human-device interaction.

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

I don't understand how you can patent digital mecanisms that mimic unpatented real life mecanisms.

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

You can patent human genes and can ask for cash if someone even tries to do research on it. Your sad little genetic-based disease can be someones goldmine even before a cure is found. Talking about trolls...

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

770 & N800: press power, then centre d-pad button. The N810 adds a physical slide switch on the top.

As for the patent, it seems it only has legs in the US with their known-broken patent system:

(The article even has pictures of said prior art, on WinCE no less)

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

Don't forget the most important aspect about the NITS - they were first. So we can keep on using the NIT software without worrying about what Apple does with this patent or other subsequent patents.

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

Recently, there was some "America Invents" act passed that changes the US system from first-to-invent to first-to-file IIRC. Let's wait and see.

EDIT: oh my, Samsung (or the blogger?) even demonstrated prior art using a screenshot of an Terratec EWX control panel which is NOT the mentioned Native Instruments Guitar Rig:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G_MFyfkRWz...screenshot.png

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

Barely (Apple's patent application is from December 2005), but the 770 didn't have slide-to-unlock anyway. IIRC we didn't have any kind of slide/swipe UI elements until Canola.

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

Barely is all that matters in the patent world. ;) And let's not forget the nokia 7710 which was Hildon-like in some respects and released in 2004.

But most of Apple's relevant touch screen patents were filed after 2005 anyway. The big takeaway is that Maemo 4 doesn't have the patent problems of Android.

Re: Apple Patented "Slide to Unlock" - Question for older NIT owners
 

it seems that patent system's going towards the wrong direction... are manufacturers supposed to check all filed patents before they make real products with innovative features? apple seems to be claiming too much. (or they're just receiving too much exposure from the press?)