/face palm at the English in that title. Was it written by an imbecile?

(btw, Apple along with every other tech company patent all sorts of [LIFTED]. Doesn't mean it necessarily gets put in anything they end up selling. They patent it because they think they one day might do it, not because they plan to)

Do you have daily briefings with Apple about what they will/won't do or you've got a new crystal ball?!

Actually they patent these things sometimes to stop them being patented and used by others. A good example of which is Channel 4 patenting the volume equalising of adverts to shows. Everyone knows that ads are louder than shows but this stops anyone actually doing anything about it. They have never used this technology and by rights no one else can either. Apple could have the same objectives. This maybe to stop it being used by others.


Apple probably realise that as well so it may all be a storm in a teacup.

Didn't you know every Apple purchaser gets a complimentary iBall with their new shiny?

Damn I must have missed out on that. Will it tell me when the next iGadget is coming?

Yes it will, but as you have to read and accept the EULA before use, if you divulge that information to anyone - even other iBallers - St Jobs sends out a powerful laser blast from the iBall and fries your head.

So when will you be getting a laser to the head for revealing that information?

That information is public - it's only the future shiny stuff that is dangerous...

Ftzzzz!

Heather Kay RIP.

Ah, they've changed the title of the BBC article so it actually makes sense in English now. And they accuse Aunty of dumbing down...

As to your question Koli, it's standard practice in pretty much every tech company from the 'one man in a shed' operations upwards. If you have an idea - any idea - you patent it, or at least apply for patent on it. That way, as Amnesia said, even they end up not making the 'thing' themselves which happens far more often than you'd think, if someone else makes it they can make a bit of easy money. In fact that's all some people do. I assume you've heard the phrase 'patent troll', yes? It also makes for legal defence in patent breach cases, because when someone else sues you for breaching their patent, you can then sue them for breaching yours and in the end you settle out of court for a relatively acceptable sum as the whole thing cancels itself out.

So no, patenting something does not at all mean they are about to release it to market. It doesn't mean they ever will. Most of the time, it means nothing at all. And writing some ludicrous 'oh noes, Apple is about to ruin your life!!!' tabloid junk story about it is something which, in an ideal world, the BBC would be so far above they could barely be seen with a telescope. In the real world , I guess not.

If you do web search and find some of the frankly mental things Apple has patented in the past and how few of them have actually made it into shipping products, you'll have a better idea of what the situation actually is.

Jon