Apple Patents Portrait-Landscape Flipping

theodp writes "On Tuesday, the USPTO granted a patent to Apple for Portrait-landscape rotation heuristics for a portable multifunction device (USPTO), which covers 'displaying information on the touch screen display in a portrait view or a landscape view based on an analysis of data received from the one or more accelerometers.' Perhaps the USPTO Examiners didn't get a chance to review the circa-1991 Computer Chronicles video of the Radius Pivot monitor before deeming Apple's invention patentable. Or check out the winning touchArcade trivia contest entry, which noted the circa-1982 Corvus Concept sported a 15-inch, high-resolution, bit-mapped display screen that also flipped between portrait and landscape views when rotated, like our friend the iPhone. Hey, everything old is new again, right?"

Not prior art

[pauljlucas]

Neither of the two cited examples of "prior art" cited in the summary were portable as is claimed (also according to the summary) by the Apple patent.

Accelerometers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did the Radius monitors use accelerometer data? Nope, they used a positional switch mounted on their stationary base. Since this specifically addresses use of accelerometer data (no fixed mount on a netbook or smartphone) that isn't prior art here, sorry. Making in-jokes about the patent system mocks its all-to-real deficiencies, of which this is not one. Oh, and way to write a terrible headline - Apple hasn't patented portrait-landscape flipping. You really did read about this before writing.....didn't you?

Re:Not prior art

[KiloByte]

Not Apple, it was Nokia who did it first on a phone. And it's annoying as hell. It can be disabled (a must for sanity), but then you get warnings all the time about the "orientation lock". You see, I'm secure with my orientation and please get the hell away from trying to get me to change it.

Re:Not prior art

[peppepz]

The Apple patent was filed on December 19, 2007. The Nokia N95 had an accelerometer for automatic UI rotation and was released in September 2006. It wasn't touch-screen, while the Apple patent is applied to a touch-screen device. It is therefore a clear example of obviousness: what can be done on a non-touch-screen phone, can obviously be done on a touch-screen phone. Common reality-distortion field influence where something doesn't exist or is unuseful until it gets added to an Apple gadget.