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All posts tagged "patent"


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tsera Invented The Touchscreen In 2003, Sues Everyone

Posted by David Tucker in "Zune News" @ 09:01 PM

"A company called Tsera has sued 23 electronics companies in federal court in eastern Texas for violating a patent on touchscreens. The suit, filed on July 15, cites Apple's iPod Classic and Nano products, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Zune digital media player, and several other popular devices as violating a patent, "Methods and Apparatus for Controlling a Portable Electronic Device Using a Touchpad," which was granted in 2003."

Well, here we go again. Is it even remotely surprising anymore when an unknown company with no products that I am aware of digs up a years old patent and sues, well, everyone? No, I didn't think so either. Its hard to say what will become of this suit. Tsera seems to be going especially hard after Apple's iPod and they do indeed hold the patents they are suing over.

According to the Information Week article, there could be some hope in the future. There is apparently legislation in Congress right now to make it more difficult to find courts that will be friendly to this type of litigation. Hopefully that will help but I really think we need to see some sort of reform for the patent process. The patent office can't be expected to identify a potential problem in a patent when its issued but it seems that before these lawsuits are allowed that the patent itself should be given a much closer look.

Someone might want to send the judge a memo that the touchscreen has been around since quite a while before 2003.


Friday, March 14, 2008

Microsoft Patents Coverflow-like Technology

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Talk" @ 10:00 AM

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/03...oft.cover.flow/

"In response to Apple's chiding remarks regarding the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard launch – urging Microsoft to "start their photocopiers" – the Redmond-based software and electronics giant has applied for a patent to Cover Flow-style OS interface. The patent states that the idea revolves around "stacking data wheels" and is primarily designed for mobile environments, potentially the Xbox 360, according to an analysis of the patent by MacNN."



You'll have to excuse the above text, it was written by your sadly typical snarky Apple-lovin' blogger where everything Microsoft does is automatically bad, and everything Apple does is automatically good (even when it clearly sucks).

But back to the subject at hand: this looks like it might be a cool implementation, especially since it seems to go far beyond Apple's coverflow by involving both the vertical and horizontal axis. And unless I'm mistaken, the inclusion of the Web component likely means we'll see this implemented in desktop software as well as on devices. Perhaps this is something we'll see in the next version of the Zune? I'd love to see it on the Xbox 360 as well, because right now the "let's list all your music in a big long list" is a very poor way to access my music library.


Thursday, September 20, 2007

Zune Patent App Promises Recommendations Via Wifi

Posted by Adam Krebs in "Zune Content Creation & Management" @ 07:30 PM

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=2388

"A newly posted Microsoft Patent Application appears to describe technology that would provide automatic downloads to a Zune media player if newly tracks from various artists whose work is already stored on Zune or on a user’s PC-based library becomes available....Say you have five Dave Matthews Band tracks already stored on your Zune. Dave puts out some new tracks. A music service could flag a track for promotion, and that track could automatically be pushed down to a Zune- or your PC media library- in much the same way Windows Updates are pushed through to users."

This is really cool. It seems like a logical extension of podcasting, and if it could sync to the device directly, all the better. Granted, I'm typically on top of the releases from my favorite artists, but if it was coupled with an intelligent recommendation system (a la Pandora or Urge's AutoMix), and only pushed ones it really thinks I'll like, this could be amazing. I love discovering new music, Microsoft loves pushing its partners' new songs. It's a win-win.

At the same time, this has the potentially to be really annoying. Let's say I was in the mood for some Dave Matthews one day, and I start downloading his albums like mad. I check my library a few days later to actually listen to the songs, and find I really and truly hate most of them, but the Zune recommendations keep coming.... Ahh!

Plus, if the recommendation system is poorly implemented (which would never happen...right?), I'd be getting hardcore hip hop on my mostly folk-rock Zune or vice-versa. We'll see how this plays out.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Microsoft and Samsung Share Patents: Zune to Benefit?

Posted by Aaron Roma in "Zune Talk" @ 05:58 AM

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2116107,00.asp

"Microsoft will gain access to Samsung patents relating to digital media and computer-related inventions... Kaefer pointed to Microsoft products like the Xbox gaming system, the Zune MP3 player and Windows-based PCs as those "that can stand to benefit" from the Samsung deal."

Microsoft and Samsung have apparently inked a deal to share some of their respective patents. In particular, Microsoft will gain access to Samsung patents relating to digital media. As pointed out in the article, we probably won't see Microsoft and Samsung technicians working together. Rather this deal basically opens the door for Microsoft to incorporate Samsung technologies into its own products without fear of legal ramifications. The Zune could potentially be one of the beneficiaries of this agreement. While Samsung isn't an impact player in the MP3 arena, they do utilize some interesting technologies in their line of players, including the use of OLED displays.

Tags: patent, samsung

Friday, April 20, 2007

Patent Shows Possible Zune Phone Tiled Interface

Posted by Darius Wey in "Zune Talk" @ 10:25 AM

http://www.mad4mobilephones.com/news/803/

"A newly published patent application assigned to Microsoft provides a unique insight into what the Zune Phone interface might look like. The patent, filed on June 16th 2006 and published on 12th April 1007 (sic), covers Tile Space User Interface for Mobile devices and discusses how small screens and a large number of features make it "difficult for users to access commonly used data and functions" on many mobile phones."



As a user of Windows Mobile phones, I have to admit that an interface such as the one pictured above (which incidentally ought to be taken with a grain of salt) seems a little too simplistic for my liking. But for the millions of average consumers out there, it is quite possibly attractive and functional. Your thoughts? What would you like to see incorporated in the future Zune Phone interface?


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