The universal search, the possibility to search on Google and your own phone in one go, has been removed last night from American SIII´s.
An early move by Samsung to avoid a sales ban request by Apple which claims to have patented ´universal search´. It doesn´t affect Galaxy SIII phones outside of the US as Apple´s patent only exists in the US.
Apparently Samsung choose to preemptively remove the feature to protect the sales of their hugely popular flagship model. As far as we know Apple did not yet file for an injunction against the SIII; the current case is against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus where judge Koh does everything to ban Samsung, but the federal court so far overruled her.
Worrying that the end-user in the US now ends up with a crippled phone just because Apple could go after Samsung. Good that these software patents are not allowed in Europe.
The legal wrath of Apple on the US market is effectively crippling choice #patents
rotten apple indeed
As many comments and stories on G+, facebook and blogs have mentioned, the worm will turn and Apple will suffer for being weak and using the legal system as a tool for a crazy assumption that they invented the universal search.
It is a shame that Samsung have done a preemptive nosedive as well
Apple patenting a search? That's rich. Google is search.
I do not think Apple are doing themselves any favors here.
Neither do I +David Amerland If their strategy had been more subtle Samsung would have waited until the Jelly Bean 4.1 update of Android which will contain a workaround the patent.
This is business as usual and wouldn´t have made headlines. Now, even without demanding it (yet!), Apple is seen as the culprit.
+Scott Wilson didn´t know Lucy Koh used to work for Apple. I have posted much more about the patent war last year but noticeably on the difference between the US and the EU is Apple ´cool´ but a copycat, says UK High Court: design patent fails https://plus.google.com/u/0/112352920206354603958/posts/3JgYs22uiyM
+Scott Wilson Where did you see that Koh worked for Apple?
This "crippling" of the stock device could probably be easily worked around by a 3rd party app
Just a question for you +Mike Cosmi – and forgive me for not knowing my tech stuff. So this XDA you speak of will push a fix to all of us who own a Samsung made Android phone as soon as Samsung disables this feature?
XDA is just an independent group of users, hackers that give advice on how to root, tweak and optimise all smartphones. Android phones are just a bit more amenable to being tweaked than others
+Max Huijgen OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! Apple is gonna sue you for impersonating their logo.
+Mike Cosmi although I know a fix will be made by developers the reality is that 99% of the consumers will never know about it nor will they ever flash their rom.
I´m sorry +Mike Cosmi but expecting the general audience to flash their roms and invalidate their warranty is not realistic.
Non tech persons don´t side load, flash nor care about patents. All they care about is their user experience out of the shop and that´s crippled by the patent war.
I think in the past couple of months there has been a slow but steady buildup of backlash at Apple. I think by being cheap litigators, they are driving more and more people away. Even perhaps people that would otherwise have no problem with the company. I hope they realize this, before apple goes by way of Microsoft and becomes uncool. And if all the collage and young adults stop buying, who else is gonna buy their crap.
+Mike Cosmi I think you fail to realize that here are a lot of people that use features without knowing what they are. They simply use the phone as a whole, and don't distinguish features. The bottom line for them is the overall experience. So I agree with +Max Huijgen that taking features away, that otherwise be there from the start changes user experience.
Also, a rebuttal to your argument that people just go on xda and flash or what not. If you buy a car and that car has 250 hp. Do you buy aftermarket parts and upgrade it to 300hp? It's fairly easy to do, proportionate to flashing a phone. And tell me how many people do that.
I'm looking forward to abetter global campaign from samsung. They have strong tech but i think they fail in pushing their usp. Freedom from apple's sandbox.
+Max Huijgen For all this I have taken it as my social mission to prevent as many iPhone sales as possible. I have succeeded in changing many peoples minds. I am sure I am not alone
The way iPhone works or does not work gives me also enough ammunition to
make iPhone users apologetic as well
Some body told me that it is very good so long as you use it with a laptop
to load apps from iTunes
They can't even load apps on the air
Dr Able Lawrence MD DM
Sent from Samsung Galaxy S2
+Mike Cosmi It is only a good thing that Tim Cook is going to unburden the lawyers as a primary source of indirect income generation, and I hope Apple goes back to doing what they do best – innovation and the design of great looking hardware.
+Yura Yefymenko good point about flashing your car, I put petrol and oil in mine and upgraded to N2 in the tyres this year, no go faster stripes, or hacked HP improvements.
I have however jailbroken my iphone, but that was my choice, I wanted to do things with it that apple would not let me. If I had gone the Android route, I'd be hacking that as well, but I went apple due to software that only exists on a mac for my work.
+Able Lawrence , since IOS5 both the iphone and ipad have been able to download apps, update their OS and function without itunes.
I'd never #boycottapple as I like their stuff, however, I don't like their current / passing methodology of bullying, its morally unethical and damaging to an often vain market they hold in their hands
+Mike Cosmi Regarding Apple backing off the lawsuits, I'll believe it when I see it. Suing everyone that competes with them has been in their DNA since the look and feel lawsuits of the 80s, and a tiger doesn't change his stripes easily.
Or they will become cats
Dr Able Lawrence MD DM
Sent from Samsung Galaxy S2
Its a göod thing Apple's patents dont in Zambia
Its a göod thing Apple's patents dont in Zambia