Elan Microelectronics demonstrates its eFinger multitouch tech running on Android
By Paul Miller 
posted April 12th 2009 10:25AM
posted April 12th 2009 10:25AM
[Thanks, Phelipe H]
posted April 12th 2009 10:25AM
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Replace 'Apple' with Microsoft and then, only then, your statement will be true. Starting with stealing Mac code to create Windows and the history rolls from then on.
Elan is another opportunistic company out to make some quick cash by suing someone who is having a lot of success. If the iPhone/Touch were not successful they would not have done this.
Um, Elan have products based on this unlike most of those other companies and what about Apple suing others? For instance trying to stop iops for a couple of their players having different colours and a screen above the controls. How many orientations can you have for a screen and controls?
I prefer being able to use my phone with only one hand...
Multitouch is a nice additional thing to have, but I don't like it when some functions require the use of it.
Yeah like driving and using both hands to multi-touch your phone.... I like the fact that I can use 1 finger to type on my p1i and also have a physical keyboard... ooh and it's touch screen.
I agree. Multitouch is nice in some situation, but sucks in others like you mention. I like that about android, that it doesn't assume onlly one interface metaphore and gives you choice. I have the rooted multitouch os, and honestly, i don't really use the pinch gesture much, i am finding I prefer the "click the magnifying glass to zoom" UI, especially since you can do it one handed.
Right. So when all else fails, just claim that multitouch is useless. Microsoft fanboys need to get over it and move on already.
Where, the FAKE CJ, did they mention Microsoft, or love for company thereof?
in fact, the only phone that wasn't Android mentioned was the P1i, made by Sony Ericsson, and running SYMBIAN (UIQ 3.2, precisely).
SO lets say this is all true ..why didnt THEY (Elan Microelectronics)come out with this 3 years ago (or whenever ago when they had it) For the record I totally agree that stealing patents is Wrong but this was kinda like (pardon the analogy) inventing a can opener and sitting on it for years (probably not sure if people want it )then some one else (crapple) comes out with a similar can opener (changes the name to worm can opener...
WinMos are for Bimbos
I strongly believe patents and copyright are what is holding humanity back. There anti the free market patents in particular were hotly contested by free marketeers when they came out. Think of the innovation and progress that would be possible if anyone could take an idea and move on with it. It would of course be disasterous for the multinationals who hide behind them.
No one funds expensive and time consuming research out of the kindness of their hearts. There needs to be assurance in place that I can't waltz up and steal years of research and development from you and push a product out a few months after you demo something groundbreaking and new.
@matt,
Think about this : companies do research to find new stuff so they can patent and copyright it (and thus make money out of it)
If they can't make money out of it, then they will not do research and humanity will stand still.
what you want is some sort of communism in the market but sadly communism failed.
I don't buy that argument guys. Companies will do research regardless of whether they can get a patent. Why? Because if they don't their competitors will and no one can afford to stand still. That's a death sentence. Being first to market is arguably very much worth the incentive to do the research.
Really though, how many companies do a lot of real research? Only the big ones like Intel, Corning, Microsoft etc who have the resources to throw at it. That's a very small segment of the market. Everyone ELSE licenses technology or buys parts that they combine to make their products. In the end making things should be about fitting technology and to certain problems. The best fit wins - and that includes much more than simply technology but customer service, company ethics, responsiveness, etc.
In the end big changes usually come from the bottom up not the top down. Patents limit how much bottom up can occur. That makes for more stability in the market but that's not necessarily a good thing.
How anyone can associate a pure free market system with communism is beyond me.
damn thats pretty nice, that keyboard thou takes it to the top
FYI: Apple Inc. already has 10 "multi-touch" patents GRANTED. The oldest filed in 1998...
Hold on a sec, what phone is this?
Never seen it before, and it's running Android - is this a new Android handset, and if so who made it?
Hate to break this to the fanboys but Andoid doesn't have multi-touch because Google didn't want to piss Apple off and get their services and apps yanked from the iPhone, it has nothing to do with patents, if a company existed that has the money to take on Apple in the courts its Google.
Fanboys talk as if Steve Jobs shouted Eureka! one day and thought up multi-touch, he didn't he just bought one of the companies who already had called Fingerworks.
A few others are called Bell Labs (1984), Perceptive Pixel, Elan and even Microsoft (investing in N-Trig),Cubit have even open-sourced a load of multi-touch tech.
Apple's patents only appeared once multi-touch screens became affordable, with much of Apple's "innovation" they jump in first but it has more to do with the big OEM/ODM manufacturers in the far east bringing the price of new tech down rather than Apple coming up with any of this from scratch.
Dear god Apple fans still think Apple design their "logicboards" its hilarious ! before Nvidia took over all Intel macs have used the EXACT same chipsets as PCs they even use Intel EFI chips.
Apple does engineer their own logic boards.
If I use bricks to build my house and you use the same kind of brick to build your house it has nothing to do with how I choose to design my house. Hopefully you'll had the ability to understand that. Likewise, just because Apple use similar chipsets than other companies does NOT mean the logic board design is not engineered by Apple. You think Apple was designing every chip in their PowerPC logic boards and now that they changed to Intel chipsets they are not? You gotta be kidding me.
Anyhow, Apple has had a very long history in chip design:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/
.
It's kind of funny how the MS fanboys always rush to shove words in other people's mouths and then stat making accusations on those very same fabrications. No one is saying Apple invented multi-touch, yet that's what MS fanboys blast Apple enthusiasts about. Having said that, much like other multi-touch developers, Apple does have their own multi-touch patents --and have the right to protect them.
Thing is, what was anyone really doing with multi-touch besides showcasing some technology demonstrators? Nothing much, not till Apple innovated the utilization of this technology into a great, real-world device that people can actually use in their day-to-day lives. Then all of a sudden everyone wants to do multi-touch phones. But that's not a bad thing at all.
All in all, it will be nice to see at least another company (Palm Pre) working hard to come up with a nice multi-touch device to compete in the market. RIMs 1st try was awful but they know how to compete so hopefully Storm 2 will be better. Surely Google will continue improving Android and Nokia is still asleep at the wheel in the US market. MS doesn't know how to compete so there's no hope for them.
FoxKenji, plz stfu. You're idiocy is mind blowing.
1.) The Logic boards were never engineered by Apple. The teams consisted mainly of IBM engineers and now Intel,etc. The only companies that do any REAL Motherboard engineering are major OEMs, aka Compal etc, or companies like Intel that actually produce the chips and therefore have to present base designs that the rest of industry tweaks to their fit. Apple did not design every chip on their PowerPC logic boards either. It takes a company with the engineering man power on the order of Intel's to do such a thing. They sure as hell don't do it now either.
2.) YOU may not be saying that Apple invented multi-touch. Read this blog, they sure as hell insinuate. Read other electronics blogs, they insinuate it too. Read Shank's or PAC Man's posts. They basically state that Apple invented everything and everything else is just an inferior copy. These replies are not to you if you're being half reasonable, but the only way to counter the FUD of completely unreasonable opinions is to put out your own completely unreasonable opinions? Don't like it? Well you Apple fan boys started it. That may be childish, but it's the truth.
3.) Multi-touch technology, even at the hardware level has been in it's infancy up until very recently. I'll give you that Apple did do a good job with a still incomplete technology, but the fact of the matter is, hardware-wise it's still really hard to get right. The fact also remains that Synaptics up until recently has strangled the industry through it's own capacitative screen patents. Elan has really been the only other major player in this technology. Apple's Multi-touch Patent Portfolio depends on Synaptics Licenses. Elan, just won an injunction against them and is now using this as an opportunity to push Apple into licensing their tech. This is how the IP world works. Apple has done it, so I wouldn't call it wise to blast other companies for doing it against Apple.
Can i haz install?
Why Android and Elan didn't demonstrate this before iPhone? Why waited 2 years? It is all garbage lawsuit. No?
SY,
On occasion the USPTO issues patents to multiple companies when they can prove that the technology was developed independently. Elan is going to have to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that apple stole the idea from them. It is as simple as that. Regardless of who invented it history will remember who made the best use of it and marketed it the best. Radio as we know it was simultaneously invented by two different inventors, Marconi is credited with it. Television similarly was invented in the United States and Russia at the same time using slightly different techniques. This is something that will be decided in the courts and its not something that is likely to be over anytime soon.
I'll give you the eFinger...
@FoxKenji
There is a saying that says a thief(MS) that steals from another thief(Apple) has 100 years of forgiveness... So if you claim is that Microsoft stole from Apple while Apple steals from other company and that's ok for you... then it is obvious you are an apple Fanboy and an iDiot!
Um, Nick, no. "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" isn't a documentary. It is well known that while the personalities portrayed may be spot on, Apple didn't "steal" from Xerox. Steve Jobs was a Xerox shareholder, and as such had insight on their GUI at the time. Wozniak and Jobs help develop the system into LISA and eventually the MacIntosh. However, it was Jobs eventual hubris and arrogance that resulted in Apple falling asleep at the wheel, allowing Microsoft (and eventually others) to take their concepts and develop them further.
Settle, guilty, or royalties, the general public will still perceive Apple as the inventor of the greatest interface for mobile phones. Just like how the world sees Apple as the inventor of the digital music player, coolness, the chicken and the egg, the color white, the fruit, and the thing that will keep Steve Jobs alive forever.
Microsoft will go down in history as the company that found the solution to getting rid of mosquitos.