They might be dicks, but it would still be dilution of the term "patent troll" to call them that. After all, they do actually sell a product with said feature.
It may be a TouchWiz thing, but I've seen it on Samsung phones I've owned. That is until Apple decided to throw patent lawsuits around. A firmware-update later and gone it was.
These days most Android-phones have a "overflow" effect when reaching the end of a list. Specifically designed to avoid lawsuits.
I'm confused what part bothers you. That Apple patented it. Or that it is worth a billion dollars.
Because if it's the first then it is just a hypocritical position. And if it's the second then maybe you don't understand the math. Size of lawsuit = Price per patent * Number of infringing devices.
It's because the number of devices sold is so large that it ends up being such a large lawsuit.
For sake of clarity, both bothers me, but it's the fact that a trivial UI implementation detail can be patented and monopolized I consider fundamentally wrong.
That someone can build a 1 billion dollar beast on top of that, what any decent software engineer can do in a matter of days, just makes it so much worse.
Some people have a rather mellow attitude to it all and simply say "Don't hate the player, hate the game". I proclaim the right to hate the game and anyone who plays it. Apple should have some pride and a sense of dignity. Apple should be better than this.
Firstly there is nothing trivial about it. The concept never existed before the iPhone and it is absolutely not intuitive that it is how list scrolling is supposed to work. It's unquestionably distinctive to the iPhone.
Secondly what a software engineer can do in a matter of days is a ridiculous and pointless measure of anything. I could build Google's original search engine once I knew exactly how it worked. It's the "how it works" part that is novel.
Thirdly you completely fail at understanding the maths here. The only reason it is a billion dollar idea is because Samsung sells so many devices.
"In a non-final Office action the USPTO has declared all 20 claims of Apple's rubber-banding patent (U.S. Patent No, 7,469,381 invalid [for prior art and obviousness]... A finding of anticipation is a determination that there was no inventive step at all."
Superficial as it is, absolutely, this is something I love about iOS. It reinforces the "manipulating real objects with touch" metaphor. If I move my finger while pressing down on a piece of paper in real life, I expect the underlying paper to move as well. The highlight on Android just feels weird and clunky with no basis in real world interaction. That's not to say it isn't usable -- it just isn't as much fun without the momentum scrolling physics.
I don't really think of my phone as obeying any sort of real life physics. There are way too many interactions that don't (on iOS as well) for me to be able to keep up that illusion.
I hate the bouncing scroll - yet another example of Apple's idiotic focus on skeuomorphism. I like to scroll up when I'm at the top of a list, or down when I'm at the bottom, while reading an article or whatever. If that bouncing scroll thing existed in Android, the page would move as a result. That's not a problem with the highlight.
We all know that Android would have this if it wasn't for patents.
You can't scroll without the page moving... so I don't understand your point.
Plus if you are scrolling slowly and reading as you go, having a litte bit of background show (part of the effect) is little difference from showing a flash of colour.
> We all know that Android would have this if it wasn't for patents.
No, we don't. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Now that there is a viable alternative that people are used to, I don't think bouncing would be used if the patent were to be invalidated tomorrow.
The only reason to use the bounceback early on was because (a) no alternatives had been developed yet and bounceback was adequate, and (b) it appeased all the early adopter Apple fanbois.
> Plus if you are scrolling slowly and reading as you go, having a litte bit of background show (part of the effect) is little difference from showing a flash of colour.
You completely missed my point. It has nothing to do with scrolling while reading. It only has to do with when I'm at the top or bottom of a page/list.
> You completely missed my point. It has nothing to do with scrolling while reading. It only has to do with when I'm at the top or bottom of a page/list.
If that is the case, what is the diference between scrolling and nothing moves but you get a flash of color, vs some text moves and you see a bit of the background.
So you’re saying you scroll while you read, and it's a noticeable advantage than when you hit the bottom your reading is slightly easier because the page didn't move a fraction.
I would have thought if you are already scrolling and reading, the slight decrease in distance when you hit the bottom would be less distracting than a total change in behavior.
No. Not at all, the Android mechanism for end-of-list is literally much less jarring. It's a subtle fade up of color that clearly indicates that you're at the bottom without having the damn thing jump around the screen.
I fail to see how it has anything at all to do with skeuomorphism. What object exists in real life that is comparable to a bounce back scrolling list ?
Is that something people like so much? Whenever I've used an iOS device, it annoyed me. I much prefer the highlight in Android.