And So It's Come To This: Samsung/Google Forced To Degrade Features In Patent Dispute

from the this-benefits-the-public-how? dept

The latest in the ridiculous saga of the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, which has resulted in Samsung phones and tablets being banned from sale in the US, is that Samsung, with the help of Google, has been pushing out an over-the-air software update to make its phones worse. Yes, the OTA update is designed to take away a feature, in an effort to convince the judge that the phones no longer violate Apple's patents. The feature in question? The ability to do a single search that covers both the local device and the internet. Because, you know, if Apple had never figured that out, I'm sure no one would have ever thought to search two databases with a single query. Either way, the end result is that the public loses a useful feature, because Apple doesn't want to compete, and a federal judge seems to think that's okay.

Filed Under: android, ota update, search
Companies: apple, google, samsung