HTC sues Apple in the UK

Smartphone maker HTC is taking rival Apple to court in the UK just weeks after losing a preliminary ruling over two patent violations in the US. The latest case was filed at the High Court on 29 July according to reports on Bloomberg, but the exact nature of the litigation in HTC Europe Co v Apple Inc was not specified. …

[alain williams]

Time to go & buy ...

that HTC that I have been thinking of getting for some time...

Actually any Android will do - but I want a keyboard with a control key since I will be wanting to ssh into Linux systems -- recommendations anyone ?

[Thomas 4]

Some advice

I'd steer clear of the Droid/Milestone. While the screen and processor are pretty good, Motorola is terrible at updating and the keyboard is of very poor quality.

[John Robson]

Bluetooth keyboard...

I have a folding BT keyboard, with a control key - but the HTC senseUI conflicted with the latest BT drivers, so it can't support HID.

Installed cyanogenmod (other firmwares exist) and it's lovely. I have a very small laptop.

Icon? I even get an Escape key (even if it does require two buttons to be pushed)

[Giles Jones]

Don't feel the patent trolls

By buying a HTC you are feeding the patent trolls (ie. Microsoft).

http://www.businessinsider.com/htc-pays-microsoft-5-per-android-phone-2011-5

So you aren't being as clever as you think.

[Chemist]

"wanting to ssh into Linux systems"

Am I missing something ? - I SSH into my Linux systems all the time without a control key.

Just asking.

[alain williams]

Why control key

''Am I missing something ? - I SSH into my Linux systems all the time without a control key.''

Control & Escape are really useful if you want to use emacs.

[hplasm]

Now you've done it....

You had to say the E word...

[Loyal Commenter]

EMACS

EMACS Makes A Computer Slow

[Chemist]

Re : Why control key

Thanks, I 'd just read it as though it was necessary for SSH.

[Anonymous Coward]

patent trolling

Unlike Apple, Microsoft licensed its relevant patent portfolio to HTC. Just got its "legal" pound of flesh, and extended its "legal protection".

(As indeed it should have, as HTC has made most WinMob devices worth their salt, along with the current crop of Win7 phones).

But the money aside, Apple trying to patent "grid of icons" thing is kind of low. There needs to be a higher threshold for a non-obvious claim to be granted.

Also, software patents should expire more quickly than mechanical ones like, say, in two years. Two years is a lot of time in softwareland. It is more than enough to exploit the headstart, and short enough to drive innovation and not stifle it. Designers and manufacturers should make the money, not the lawyers.

On a sidenote: I wonder how the web would be, if for instance Opera had the "foresight" to patent the, say, tabbed browsing?

[Anonymous Coward]

thank goodness i'm not alone

"Am I missing something ? - I SSH into my Linux systems all the time without a control key."

if you use gnu screen, a ctrl key is indispensable.

the milestone has a decent enough screen resolution and the keypad is acceptable apart from the hideous top row. but some key combinations don't work when using connect bot. i find it easier to connect and work using putty from my e71.

[dubno]

a suggestion

HTC Desire Z .. flip out keyboard - works like a charm for SSH'ing back to the boxen.

[Zbig]

Desire Z

Go for HTC Desire Z then. While using Irssi ConnectBot SSH client, the optical trackpad key will serve as CTRL key by default.

[Steve Evans]

re: can't win

Very true, but they could always just give up on the US, leave them to their introverted ways and concentrate on the rest of the world. That worked perfectly well for Nokia for many many years... In fact it only went pear shaped when they tried to get into the US market!

I just wish they'd spend a bit more time communicating with customers, the recent end of June, end of July Gingerbread update for the Desire Z hasn't won them any points in the books of many people. FYI it arrived on 1st August.

[Arctic fox]

@Steve Evans Re Re "Can't win". To be fair what HTC said was that.........

..........Desire Z owners should get their update by the end of Q2, ie by the end of the second week in July (if I have not misunderstood the American accounting cycle). I in fact received my update at the end of the second week (I am "unlocked"). It is likely that, as usual, the carriers had a fair amount to do with any delay. A great deal of customer dissatisfaction as far as the *timing* of updates is concerned is the result of the carrier's desire for control and their incompetence when it comes to completing and releasing the upgrade within a reasonable time-frame.

[Steve Evans]

re: @Steve Evans Re Re "Can't win". To be fair what HTC said was that.........

Indeed, many delays are caused by the carriers putting their own crap into firmware. Seen this many times with Nokias in the past, which is why the first thing I ever did with them was change them to vanilla Euro models and flash stock firmware onto them.

My DZ is just like yours, unbranded, and not tied to a network. That's not the work of a gold card, that's the result of buying it outright because I was still stuck in my N97 contract at the time.

A couple of weeks ago there were people talking about Vodafone pushing gingerbread out in the UK, yet my unbranded had nothing. It's all just a mess.

The HTC forums were full of brits on Sunday night complaining about it being the end of July, and they still hadn't received it. Most of them seemed to get it on 1st August, including myself.

Unfortunately all the talk has now been overtaken by the original Desire owner bitching about not having a full GB update, and things not working.

Oh well, got it now, better 6 months late than never. Better off than the G2 owners who are still running about like headless chickens wondering where their update is.

[Arctic fox]

@Steve Evans Re Re Re "Can't win". To be fair what HTC said was that.........

Interesting. I have a gut feeling that in common with the other producers HTC do not release to unlocked customers ahead of the release by their carrier partners in the country concerned to avoid openly embarrassing them. I may have simply been lucky that the carriers offering the Desire Z here in Norway were rather quicker out of the gate than the carriers in the UK with the result that I got my upgrade within (just) the promised time-frame. I have to say that if this kind of malarky where everybody's interest are looked after *except* the customer's interests continues I may end up have to take a look at the "Nokiasoft" phones when I next upgrade. At least then if you are an unlocked customer you get the upgrade when MS release it (at least that appears to be the situation). However, if they are not much cop then I am just stuck having to put up with this kind of crap, sigh. -:)

[Steve Evans]

@Arctic fox

Next time put aLogCat onto your phone and capture that OTA URL! There were people out there who would have killed for that last week - The G2 owners still would, but our OTA file is no good for them.

I don't know about Nokia, their support went right out of the window a few years ago. The N97 I dumped still had 12 months of contract left when Nokia abandoned it and any support (this was before Elop). Their firmware updates (when they happen) were rolled out on a country by country basis, with some unknown and unnamed UK entity adding weeks, if not months, to the release for UK CV handsets (the closest we got to generic, still not carrier supplied). That's why I took to changing my handsets to Euro1 zone instead.

Talk of such things was forbidden in the Nokia forums, so you could never help anyone out properly. Even a forum campaign for UK equality which ran on for dozens of pages resulted in sod all.

So after over 10 years of loyal Nokia support I wouldn't touch them again. I jumped ship before Elop sold them up the river to M$, so that event just made me laugh and mutter things like "You deserve each other".

Pity, they did use to make nice phones, and you could rely on them, but that ended the moment they discovered OTA firmware updates. Who needs to ensure a phone is reliable before it is sold when you can update the firmware in 6 months time... broke? oh we'll fix it... oh we forgot... don't worry, we'll get it right in the next one...

[Arctic fox]

@Steve Evans What can I say?

If I end up facing that choice I guess I will have to hope that Nokia have learnt their lesson. Indeed given that they are, for various reasons, reasonably "motivated" now it may be that they *will* have learnt their lesson - although I am not holding my breath. We will see. At any rate given that the very survival of their company is dependent on what they do now I am reminded of a famous quote from Mark Twain about "the prospect of being hung in the morning concentrating the mind wonderfully" (if I have remembered the quote correctly!).

[Stef 1]

Incorrect generalisation

Try and tell that to Motorola (who was recently bitch-slapped by Huawei asserting their US patent rights).

Considering current UK case law and practice (where 'ICT' patents are concerned), I for one can't wait to see how this one is going to turn out.

Mine's the one with the Macrossan/Aerotel test in the backpocket

[Anonymous Coward]

title?

That might have to do with the fact that Huawei is a much bigger company with a much bigger market share in the Telco/NEP (i.e. not mobile handset) world than what's left of Motorola

[g e]

Depends how much SSH you're doing

You can install alternate touch keyboards that have CTRL char panes in them which, if you're not doing lots and lots of SSH may well suffice.

One keyboard is 'Full Keyboard' by Haily Lin

If you can borrow a pal's Android phone to try it then you may find it's enough which gives you more phone options like Galaxy Sii and Sensation

[TigerEyes]

Use ConnectBot and Hacker's Keyboard

All you need for SSH into Linux from Android is ConnectBot and the associated Hacker's Keyboard (which has CTRL and ESC keys). Connectbot is to Android what PuTTY is to Windows

[George 24]

How much cheaper

would smart phones and tablets be if CrApple stopped sewing Samsung who stopped sewing M$ who stopped sewing HTC who stopped sewing CrApple.... Hardware $20, legal fees $600.

[Ragarath]

Dropped out of the IT game then?

So they have all taken up textiles now.

Perhaps they are seeing who can make their lawyers the best suits.

Sorry couldn't resist. Hence coat.

[Angus Wood]

re: How much cheaper

And they've got the market sewn up!

[Ru]

How else might one tailor a law suit?

:o)

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm too slow

Only just cottoned on to that comment

[A J Stiles]

This thread is going to run and run

This thread is going to run and run .....

[dssf]

Very crafty...

You got me laughing into stitches.. I was almost bursting at the seams... But, i cannot afford to have more buttons popping off...

[CmdrX3]

I don't mind

.. it has me in stitches

[Jolyon]

@Angus

That had me in stitches.

[John Tappin]

career choice

perhaps patent litigation is the new career of choice. With all the corps suing each other for patents of dubious merit instead of developing products there will be a never ending flow of money into law.

Hope the lawyers dont book 6 minute meetings or IBM will sue them for that too...

[Disgruntled]

How long will HTC last?

How long will it be before Apple buy out HTC? Engadget said in April that HTC's market capitalisation was about $34b, Apple could pay cash for that and still have another $40b in the bank!

[Gordon 10]

High horses

Before everyone gets on their anti-apple high horses let's all remember that all these tech co's ate as bad as each other when it comes to patent trolling, and at least they are not obvious patent squatters like some.

Let's also not forget that it was HTC who was a gleeful partner of M$ who allegedly helped them rip off most of Sendo's ip when the first iteration of win

Mob came out.

Indeed one could argue that the Sense UI would not exist without some very iffy behaviour on the part of HTC.

[Mike Richards]

So...

A Californian company is being sued by a Taiwanese company in the UK. Why exactly? For the air miles?

[Watashi]

Risk

Mobile computing seems to be turning into a real-world game of Risk. Apple currently has the US sown up thanks to national protectionism whilst Samsung has South Korea for the same reason and now India thanks to India's dislike of what it sees as US intellectual property rights Imperialism. Expect these two companies to be doing big deals with large public sector organisations around the globe over the next few years in an attempt to capture entire national markets in one fell swoop.

[Alan Denman]

Steve Jobs handiwork

If you ain't got an iPhone we will milk you anyway.