On the Swipe-to-Unlock Patent

Ben Brooks on HTC's recent victory in the Swipe to Unlock trial:

I’m actually really glad Apple lost this patent because it’s something that just seems silly to not have on touchscreen devices.

This is a rare time when I disagree with Ben. Swipe to unlock may seem "silly not to have on a touchscreen device" now that you've been using it for 5 years. But Apple came up with that idea to overcome a potential problem. And now that Apple has figured out an excellent solution other companies should be allowed to just take that idea without putting in any of the work? I strongly disagree.

HTC Aims At The iPod Touch

Jon Russell:

Boasting an inbuilt kickstand and stereo speakers at each end, the HTC patent looks like a touchscreen device to rival the iPod Touch, a feat attempted by many with little success.

Well, 4 years later there no excuses for not hitting it out of the park. None.

HTC Admits They Were Wrong

John Brownlee:

In response to profits that dropped 26% this quarter, HTC had admitted that making an early transition to LTE was a “big mistake.”

I don't know that LTE was solely to blame, but this is a huge admission. Apple's strength has always been saying no. And for as much complaining as tech pundits have done about it, it's never negatively impacted Apple's bottom line.

HTC's Next Play

Some interesting additions to HTC Sense 4.0...

• Improved Typography (Great)
• Tab positioning based on device orientation (Good)
• Button functions will now be displayed (Seriously?)

Matt at The Next Web:

Perhaps one of the most interesting developments is the addition of a Guest Mode, which allows HTC smartphone owners to specify what can be accessed if someone else is browsing their device. We all know how annoying it is when people pick up your phone and start going through it, so this would be a great way to block data access.

This sounds like a solid idea to me. I don't know about implementation on a phone, but I know I would like to have this on my iPad. iPad is more like a computer and so different profiles for different users would be awesome. I'm hoping this is part of iOS 6.x.

Additionally:

[T]he addition of deeper integration with Dropbox — which is said to come with 50GB of space for free...

This is surely an attempt to compete with iCloud, and while I wouldn't mind 50GB of online storage (I'm sure at least some of that is for Photos and Music), I find it amusing that HTC is paying customers $10/month to use their phones.

(via TheNextWeb)