Apple Claims to Have Invented Multitouch

Following Apple, Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' reported comments that his company "invented" the multitouch interface, stories have now surfaced that Apple is attempting to patent this approach, setting off a potential patent war with Nokia, among others.

Amazon's Kindle Both Satisfies and Disappoints at Once

I just spent a Thanksgiving weekend with the Amazon Kindle, the online retailer's newest entry into the long-disappointing ebook market, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the system works.

Whether you like the Kindle will depend, as most of the early reviews have, on whether you focus on Kindle, the physical ebook reading device, or on Kindle, the complete ebook distribution system.

The later is the best thought-out, most thorough yet with by far the largest inventory of ebooks ever offered.

HSDPA Frequencies Confuse Roaming Picture

It seemed as if the confusion over traveling internationally, or purchasing a GSM phone, had been sorted out: Get a quad-band GSM phone and you'll be set most anywhere in the world that has cellular coverage.

Enter HSDPA (for High speed data packet access). HSDPA otherwise referred to as UMTS, is the high-speed data access technology, often called 3G, most widely used by GSM carriers.

Problem is HSDPA works on different frequencies. So, you can buy a tri- and quad-band GMS phone, only to find it's high-speed data for browsing works only in one region. Now, you'd actually need a phone with ten bands (deca-band?) to cover voice and data everywhere.

First Look at Google's Android

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and others gave us the first look at the open source software that will form their Gphone platform, code-named Android, some time later next year.

Note the interface looks like the iPhone, with Cover-Flow-like image movement, and finger gestures.