February 02, 2009, 3:05 PM — If you're tired of reading about fun facts gleaned from values in Apple's configuration files, maybe you're ready for something more hardcore: fun facts gleaned from patents! Folks have been poring over the Apple multitouch patent since it was released, last week; since it was 358 dense pages, the opening salvos were high-level, focused on whether it did or didn't represent the sort of innovation-squelching patent trollery that most tech folks have grown to hate. But now people are digging into the details and coming up with the dirt, including the possibility that Apple is preparing a videoconferencing iPhone app.
Now, while a patent on iPhone videoconferencing might well herald actual iPhone videoconferencing, it doesn't necessarily mean that any such thing is coming to your iPhone any time soon. Remember, Apple patented what appeared to be a tablet Mac way back in 2005.
Meanwhile, at Davos, Switzerland, the world's political and financial elite are gathered for their annual meeting, and Adobe head Shantanu Narayen (who apparently counts as one of the elite?) appeared to have spilled the beans by claiming that Adobe and Apple are "collaborating" on bringing Flash to the iPhone. But with no word from Apple, "collaborating" could just mean "we are trying to meet the standards Apple has laid down for us," which is implied by his statement that "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver." With Steve Jobs having said that full-fledged Flash is too heavy and Flash Lite not useful, one wonder if some third way can be made to fit. With the iPhone currently dominating the smartphone market, Adobe has more incentive to get Flash onboard than Apple does -- unless the Pre or something like it is Flash-enabled from the get-go.
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