I read somewhere that Apple has patented a stylus, possibly for use with its iOS devices. I also read the opinions of some webpage-writers, that this is something the late Steve Jobs would have hated.
Now I'd like to offer my own opinion, for what it's worth ... how can any human being read the mind of another human being -- and that too when the person being probed is no more with us? It is a well-documented fact that humans tend to change their minds almost as often as they change their clothes. And, from what I've read of him, Steve Jobs didn't appear to me to be so stubborn in his ideas that he wouldn't have evolved with the times.
If customers show a preference for a stylus as a tool to help make them more productive, what better option than to patent, design, make and sell your own? If I were in any position of decision-making, I'd definitely want to do this, rather than allow third-party styli to be used with my products -- especially when one could profitably charge something for the add-on.
Isn't this what most manufacturing corporations do? My opinion is that they offer a relatively inexpensive main product, operating system and then charge for add-ons, accessories, etc. (I'd briefly touched on this earlier here.)
Quoting the patent abstract: "An active stylus is disclosed. The stylus includes an electrode at a tip of the stylus; and powered circuitry coupled to the electrode and configured for capacitively coupling the electrode with a capacitive touch sensor panel. The powered circuitry can further include drive circuitry configured to output a drive voltage at the electrode and/or sense circuitry configured to sense a voltage received at the electrode."
Now although the application doesn't specifically mention the corporation, the two persons who filed for it -- Jonah Harley and David Simon -- are engineering managers at Apple, who have apparently been working on stylus technology for quite some time.(Patent Application Reference here.)
My opinion therefore, again -- for what it is worth -- is that (despite Steve Jobs' adverse comment about styli at an Apple event in 2010,) if one must write about something, it is best to write about facts, rather than spend time on hypotheses -- unless, of course, one is an Einstein or other great thinker and visionary.
Now I'd like to offer my own opinion, for what it's worth ... how can any human being read the mind of another human being -- and that too when the person being probed is no more with us? It is a well-documented fact that humans tend to change their minds almost as often as they change their clothes. And, from what I've read of him, Steve Jobs didn't appear to me to be so stubborn in his ideas that he wouldn't have evolved with the times.
If customers show a preference for a stylus as a tool to help make them more productive, what better option than to patent, design, make and sell your own? If I were in any position of decision-making, I'd definitely want to do this, rather than allow third-party styli to be used with my products -- especially when one could profitably charge something for the add-on.
Isn't this what most manufacturing corporations do? My opinion is that they offer a relatively inexpensive main product, operating system and then charge for add-ons, accessories, etc. (I'd briefly touched on this earlier here.)
Now although the application doesn't specifically mention the corporation, the two persons who filed for it -- Jonah Harley and David Simon -- are engineering managers at Apple, who have apparently been working on stylus technology for quite some time.(Patent Application Reference here.)
My opinion therefore, again -- for what it is worth -- is that (despite Steve Jobs' adverse comment about styli at an Apple event in 2010,) if one must write about something, it is best to write about facts, rather than spend time on hypotheses -- unless, of course, one is an Einstein or other great thinker and visionary.
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