"the fact that the Surface uses cameras instead of a capacitive touchscreen is not an "aside", its the smoking gun."
I think you're confusing 'multi-touch' with 'multi-touch on a small capacitive LCD touchscreen'.
The fact that other companies chose to use cameras or other screen technologies instead of capacitive LCD touchscreen doesn't mean they weren't employing multi-touch. 'Multi-touch' simply means that the system registers multiple touches simultaneously.
Multi-touch existed long before FingerWorks got into the game, but they were the first to actually use it in a mass market product and they invented a lot of the multi-touch gestures that we now use on a daily basis.
"Apple (aka Fingerworks) invented multi-touch, which is the method detailed in its patents and used in the iPhone."
If FingerWorks invented multi-touch, Apple buying the company would not mean that suddenly Apple becomes the inventor of multi-touch, just that it holds those patents.
And the FingerWorks patents cite earlier multi-touch patents (even calling it that), so it's clear they're not claiming to have invented the entire thing.
"Nobody, that I've seen, has provided an example of a product predating the iPhone that uses this multi-touch technology."
Em, how about FingerWorks' own products, before they were acquired by Apple?
I think you're confusing 'multi-touch' with 'multi-touch on a small capacitive LCD touchscreen'.
The fact that other companies chose to use cameras or other screen technologies instead of capacitive LCD touchscreen doesn't mean they weren't employing multi-touch. 'Multi-touch' simply means that the system registers multiple touches simultaneously.
Multi-touch existed long before FingerWorks got into the game, but they were the first to actually use it in a mass market product and they invented a lot of the multi-touch gestures that we now use on a daily basis.
"Apple (aka Fingerworks) invented multi-touch, which is the method detailed in its patents and used in the iPhone."
If FingerWorks invented multi-touch, Apple buying the company would not mean that suddenly Apple becomes the inventor of multi-touch, just that it holds those patents.
And the FingerWorks patents cite earlier multi-touch patents (even calling it that), so it's clear they're not claiming to have invented the entire thing.
"Nobody, that I've seen, has provided an example of a product predating the iPhone that uses this multi-touch technology."
Em, how about FingerWorks' own products, before they were acquired by Apple?