[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]Seems asinine to patent this. I'm starting to believe Apple is in trouble AND they know it. They're out of fresh ideas and they're just trying to slow down the inevitable ...and thus they're grasping at straws such as this.[/citation]
Apple is in trouble? Check the recent windows phone/win 8 fail, and lets talk about trouble. Lets talk about having to adapt your entire new OS to fit a world that already moved ahead long ago, and still failing overall. Windows 8 is gorgeous, but is absolutely worthless in almost every other respect. I love having a "start" screen before having to switch back to "desktop" mode. What a calamity.
We all know Microsoft isn't going anywhere. We should also assume that Apple isn't going anywhere either. Them grabbing up patents is merely greed, and nothing else. A company being this lame isn't anything totally new.
Sure, if you smother out what all the other companies are doing/can do in the future you're sort of guaranteeing success, but it also forces people to innovate, and this is where I think Apple may be shooting themselves in the foot. I honestly think they're going to force other companies to innovate completely new products to work around all their patent BS and just might find themselves behind the curve because of it.
While I am a huge Apple fan, I also like the fact that there are alternatives if Apple every goes in a direction I don't like. I like that. I like the fact that I switched from Windows to Apple after a lifetime of using Windows, and can see the merits of both OS(and other OS's for that matter) just by being a bit open minded. I'm currently trying to do it with Win 8, but I'm not loving the experience.
Its just funny to me that so many people are waiting for Apple to fail. Like they're going to personally benefit from Apple going under. Like they actually have personal vendetta against the company. I'm guessing that all of the readers and posters here on Toms Hardware are at least of average intelligence, with the majority being well above the average mark. I find it hard to imagine so many smart people that are obviously tech savvy with a mind for the future are so concerned with making anti Apple post at every turn, with no real benefit other than feeling satisfied that you've fired off incognito style on the internet.