Why can’t we be friends? Oh why can we be friends?

Well as simple as that beautiful Smashmouth opus may sound, putting that philosophy into practical use is easier sung than done. Especially in the smartphone world.

Example: The Palm Pre, that everyone has been drooling over has been making a lot of noise with its impress UI, the smooth OS and maybe more than anything else it’s buttery looking touch screen system. Nowadays this isn’t considered the most groundbreaking technology as things like this have been around for a while, but some people feel that it’s not necessarily technology that belongs to everyone. Namely, Apple.

After the demos of the Palm Pre started spreading like wild internet fire, Apple got a bit defensive and started huffing and puffing and then accused the kind of touching that the Palm Pre was participating was inappropriate.

The legal jumbo is a bit convoluted and going over most of our heads, but it what it boils down to is that Apple as the the patent for certain kinds of touch interfaces which are in use in the iPhone 3G. This includes multi-touch interface, certain kinds of scrolling and other more technical aspects. From the demos we’ve seen, the Palm Pre could definitely be infringing on those patents.

The result? It could mean a variety of different things. If pushed to the limit Palm Pre’s release could be significantly delayed. There is also a possibility of Palm paying licensing fees for the use of the functions or in the best case scenario for Palm they will prove that they aren’t biting no one’s style.

What it means for us? A lot of talk and not much rock. We’re pretty eager to see this set get out into our hands.

What do you think?