Appletell

In a lawsuit filed by Typhoon Touch last Monday, Apple, Inc.—along with ten other companies—were implicated in the proceedings. The lawsuit was focused on Dell, but Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG were all mentioned. The lawsuit involves patents filed by Typhoon Touch, specifically numbers 5,379,057 ("Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same") and 5,675,362 ("Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computing System Employing Same"). 

Typhoon Touch claims that all eleven companies knowingly violated these patents and seeks damages, royalties and legal fees. Typhoon Touch’s legal department says that not only are they seeking millions, they are quite confident that should an out-of-court settlement not be made, they will be awarded a large sum.

All of these companies, despite having legions of seasoned attorneys and legal gurus, may have a hard time defending themselves, as these two patents have been successfully defended in the past. Recently, Typhoon Touch made an out-of-court settlement with Motion Computers and Electrovaya. The latter of those two companies ended up offering 20% of its popular Scribbler Tablet PCs sold in the US. 

Via [Electronista]

Apple and Immersion have reportedly begun talks about integrating some sort of tactile feedback system into the iPhone.  If you’ll remember, one of the biggest complaints about the iPhone when it first came out was its lack of feedback when typing with its touch screen keyboard.  With an example of their work coming in the Samsung’s new Instinct, Immersion Corporations is a company that would fix just this problem.  The most common way of doing this sort of thing is a small vibration that happens near where you touch to confirm the device has received your input.

In my opinion, the iPhone touch screen keyboard is fine just the way it is once you get used to it, but I have small fingers so may have it a little bit easier than most.  However, I have used devices with tactile feedback such as vibrations and I sort of like it.  I’m sure Apple and Immersion will find an innovative way to integrate this if they, in fact, do.  Who knows, maybe it’s even coming in the 3G iPhone, but I doubt it will be ready by then.  What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks to a leaked presentation slide belonging to Intel, there is much speculation on the rumor that the iPhone may be destined to switch from its current Samsung-based roots to Intel’s Atom architecture in the near future. However, since Intel’s Atom architecture is only in its first generation, the evidence suggests that the transition will not take place until the second revision of the ultra-mobile Atom platform, code-named “Moorestown,” is released.

This would see the speculated third-generation iPhone pick up Silverthorne’s smaller, and more refined successor sometime in the future (possibly 2009), while the Silverthorne chip itself serves an initial and important role in Apple’s tablet-like extension of the iPod touch platform, frequently referenced as a reincarnation of Apple’s discontinued Newton MessagePad.

Along with many other things, the move to Intel’s Atom architecture will allow Apple to better solidify the codebase of its handheld devices with that of its remaining business segments, mainly its Macintosh computer line and digital media products, such as Apple TV. It will also serve to help Apple form a tighter shield around its intellectual property, preventing information leaking through the press and the Internet as it has many times in the past, given that the company’s disclosures and future product plans will be in the hands of one less partner.

During Intel’s Fall developer forum last year, its executives mentioned an unnamed “Moorestown” processor, describing it vaguely as the “chip the iPhone would have wanted.” Expect the future of the iPhone to be based on Intel’s Atom architecture.