Apple looks toward iPhone chat app

At its iPhone SDK event last month, Apple touted an adaption of AOL's instant-messaging client for the iPhone. Now comes news of Apple's own patent application for a chat feature.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published the application, titled "Portable Electronic Device for Instant Messaging," on March 6--the very same day Apple was providing details on its software development kit for the iPhone, including AOL's test version of the first "official" native Web chat for the gadget.

The news of the Patent Office's action was first reported by the AppleInsider site late Monday.

AIM for the iPhone, as shown at Apple's March 6 event.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

From the patent application, which Apple filed in August 2007:

The GUI has a set of messages exchanged between a user of the device and another person. The set of messages (is) displayed in a chronological order. In response to detecting a scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a user contact with the touch-screen display, the display of messages (is) scrolled in accordance with a direction of the scrolling gesture.

The iPhone already offers SMS messaging.

As demonstrated last month, the AIM-on-iPhone application--which AOL developed in just two weeks--offers a buddy list and lets users easily toggle among multiple instant-messaging conversations with a finger swipe.

[rdgadz]

patents

how can they get a patent on something like this?

[JohnBarbagallo]

Because...

they're Apple, and Apple owns the patent system :)

[Draxon]

amazon

If amazon can patent "click to buy somthing" online.. anything is possible

[malynj]

prior art?

With the exception of gestures, there is prior art of chat programs on mobile devices with touch screens. Microsoft's live messenger is one such example, but also other all-in-one chat apps for treo and windows mobile.

[Thomas, David]

Instead of ...

Reading the subjective statements in the article, use the link to <br />read the patent application.<br /><br />After reading that filing, from August 2007, I have come away with <br />an entirely different conclusion, than the one presented by the <br />story and AppleInsider.

[pairof9s--2008]

And that would be...?? (nt)

/

[bertmg]

So iChat not good hu?

what better than all Apple products were Apple cross platforms. After all the noise about iPhone OS being mac OS X thinned out, interesting that iChat cannot be thinned out for iPhone. Kinnda of gives the app a bad rep no?

[Lee in San Diego]

No

"Kinnda of gives the app a bad rep no?"<br /><br />No