Apple Patents Pinching.
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ozmanjusri
ozmanjusri writes "Wired is reporting that Apple is trying to gain control of multitouch gestures by patenting the motions used to control devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch.
While multitouch devices have been demonstrated by other companies, including Microsoft, Apple's gadgets are the first mainstream devices to use the technology. Apple have applied for more than 200 patents relating to the compact devices, many for the multitouch screens. They also acquired multitouch patents by taking over a company called FingerWorks.
Synaptics, supplier of most laptop touchpads, has developed a set of getstures they hope will be adopted across all multitouch devices, but if Apple's patents succeed, users may have to learn different gestures for every multitouch device.
There's no doubt a unified set of gestures would be the best option moving forward, but the Apple patents look like fragmenting the fledgling interface before it can be truly established."
While multitouch devices have been demonstrated by other companies, including Microsoft, Apple's gadgets are the first mainstream devices to use the technology. Apple have applied for more than 200 patents relating to the compact devices, many for the multitouch screens. They also acquired multitouch patents by taking over a company called FingerWorks.
Synaptics, supplier of most laptop touchpads, has developed a set of getstures they hope will be adopted across all multitouch devices, but if Apple's patents succeed, users may have to learn different gestures for every multitouch device.
"My guess would be that 80 to 90 percent of consumer notebooks will have these new multigestures by the end of the year,"
says Mark Vena, vice president of Synaptics' PC business unit.
There's no doubt a unified set of gestures would be the best option moving forward, but the Apple patents look like fragmenting the fledgling interface before it can be truly established."
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Apple Patents Pinching.