Feeling the pinch

Seems as if Apple enjoys making other rival companies feel the pinch. Or at least, it hopes to stop competitors pinching the 'pinch'. It's all about gesturing, see... ummm... Look, I'm not describing this very well, am I? I'll let someone else do the talking instead. In a recent article in Wired, Bryan Gardiner writes:

Is pinching proprietary? We may find out in the coming months as many companies, inspired by the success of Apple's iPhone, release their own multitouch-enabled laptops, smartphones and tablets. In doing so, these companies -- including RIM, Nokia and Synaptics -- may run afoul of multitouch patent applications recently filed by Apple.

"If Apple's patents are granted, the company could absolutely stop others from using similar technology," says Raj Abhyanker, a patent lawyer who used to write patent applications for Apple. "They'd also be in an especially good position to stop others from including certain features. Apple could stop [their use] not only on mobile devices but also desktops."

So is this a cynical move by Apple to try to gain the upper hand on the upper hand they have already gained? Is this just posturing about gesturing? Y'see it's generally agreed that multi-gesture touch screens will be features of most handhelds in the next few years, so this could turn out to be a real roadblock. The Wired article continues....

If Apple's patent applications are successful, other manufacturers may have no choice but to implement multitouch gestures of their own. The upshot: You might pinch to zoom on your phone, swirl your finger around to zoom on your notebook, and triple-tap to zoom on the web-browsing remote control in your home theater.

That's an outcome many in the industry would like to avoid. Synaptics, a company that by most estimates supplies 65 to 70 percent of the notebook industry with its touchpad technology, is working on its own set of universal touch gestures that it hopes will become a standard. These gestures include scrolling by making a circular motion, moving pictures or documents with a flip of the finger, and zooming in or out by making, yes, a pinching gesture.

But whatever happended to competition and free enterprise? Although I love the iPhone, I think Apple might be acting a little too precious on this one. Did IBM try to patent the index finger click gesture? Did MicroSoft patent the 'frowning when the screen freezes' gesture? Even the name 'Apple' is not that original after all. Just ask Lennon and McCartney (or Adam and Eve for that matter).

Well, I have one or two gestures just for the guys at Apple , and they aren't patented...