Samsung Galaxy S3 Stripped of Local Search 243
DavidGilbert99 writes "Ahead of a legal battle with Apple, Samsung has begun disabling the local Google search functionality on the international version of the Galaxy S3. This mean S3 owners will no longer be able to search contacts, messages, or other content stored locally on their phones using the in-built Google app. The interesting thing is that Apple has yet to sue Samsung over this feature in the EU or the UK and so it seems as if Samsung is being ultra cautious ahead of the the companies' big court date on Monday next."
Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:didn't i have local search on my Mac years ago? (Score:3, Informative)
Apple filed the patent in 2000. I'm guessing it had something to do with Spotlight.
Google Desktop Search came out in 2005, I think. Just before the Apple patent was finally approved.
It's still a bogus patent. It's even short enough to be readable, despite the legalese. It basically says, you enter a query into a box, and the "machine" looks in several different places for the answer.
Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)
Is that not an admission of guilt of infringement?
It is hard not to infringe if you are writing a single search interface. Here's the patent. [uspto.gov] Apple is claiming to have invented executing searches on multiple sites from a single interface, of ranking and presenting the results in some order, and of being able to guesstimate what file type the user is trying to search for:
The present invention provides convenient access to items of information that are related to various descriptors input by a user, by means of a unitary interface which is capable of accessing information in a variety of locations, through a number of different techniques. Using a plurality of heuristic algorithms to operate upon information descriptors input by the user, the present invention locates and displays candidate items of information for selection and/or retrieval. Thus, the advantages of a search engine can be exploited, while listing only relevant object candidate items of information....
...web-browser applications are not designed to search for non-web-based documents or applications located on the computer or an associated computer network and, conversely, File Find-type utility programs are not capable of searching the Internet for web-based documents or applications. There has been no combination of desktop find routines that presents a single interface and Internet browsing routines to allow a computer user to find a needed or desired item of information from among all different types of information storage systems. Additionally, there is no program which is able to process the user's input and then determine, using many different factors, including use of the Internet, the intent of the user as to the file to be retrieved. Accordingly, in order to present a more informative and personalized user interface, a unitary manner of finding a user's desired item of information is needed.
I have bolded the things that Apple claims did not exist before this invention.
Re:But... (Score:4, Informative)
as pointed out last time, Dogpile.com holds a massive amount of prior art if the claim is searching multiple sources with one interface.
(Not to mention as a programmer is damn obvious).
Workaround (Score:5, Informative)
They (Samsung) should just implement an enabling code (like an easter egg), that is supposed to be secret, but "accidentally" ends up in the open. Entering this code on your phone will then enable all features owned by Apple. With this workaround, all Apple can do is blame the individual users. Btw, this is the same technique that has been used successfully by DVD player manufacturers for circumventing region-code restrictions enforced by trading authorities.
Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)
It was actually Picasso who said that. Jobs stole it from... oooh.
Re:pre-emptive stripping (Score:3, Informative)