A separate question is if intellectual property is a good idea at all. But that is beyond the question at hand.
Patent trolls are just a bad idea, but in this case Nokia may have created a foundation that the Apple is building upon. Companies pay for licensing technology all the time. USB, Firewire, Bluetooth, ...
Such as when?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090121/1932143481.shtml
However, I'd be surprised if other examples didn't exist.
Note: When I said Apple "played the patent game" I wasn't specifically referring to filed lawsuits. The threat of a lawsuit is often enough.
Only in the sense that an author has to "tread carefully" around ripping off another author's work. Clearly Apple's patents did not prevent the Pre or Android or any number of other devices from making it to market without apparent functional omissions. What exactly is the problem?
The threat of a lawsuit is often enough.
Enough for what? To prevent someone from violating your rights under law? Well, yeah. That's the way a lot of things work. Holding a patent does not strike me as inherently reprehensible.
But that does not give nokia a free pass to do this either.
Pretty clear to me. Encoding, data, security and encryption are all software issues, not hardware issues.
What a sad thing for them to resort to.
maemo looked interesting, but even the firmware update method was archaic and extremely over complex. From what I remember it only worked if you unplugged the usb cable and plugged it in at exactly the right point or something! (swear to god, this was in the README).
Maybe it's all changed now though.
I do not know re. if the UI experience has changed. I can see how N-series tablets can appeal to hackers who like to modify the software that is running on their device. From this POV having a full-fledged Linux on a mobile device is a plus. But N710/N800 was indeed less slick in terms of the user experience than Apple's devices.
Screw them and the horse they rode in on, this is just a bid of weakness. If you can't compete with your product line in fair ways then you should revamp your product line, not turn to your lawyers.
What a bunch of losers.
I've been using Nokia phones for the last decade, with a two week 'diversion' to Samsung (talk about bad firmware). Nokia has an 'ok' product but it could be a whole lot better, I'm as loyal as can be but software patents are a bad thing and using them like this is just plain dumb.
Bye Bye Nokia, you once were an outstanding company.