There was, however, an even bigger conceptual breakthrough: the mobile device as general purpose computer, open to the world of software, powered by the resources of the cloud.

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Yeah, but it's a general purpose computer.

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Therefore, any patent that claims a method of solving a problem by programming a general-purpose computer is, like the patent the high court struck down 40 years ago, effectively a patent on a mathematical algorithm.

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On top of that, the description of the Apple TV as the "next-generation Mac Mini" strikes us as a little odd, since the Mini was never sold as a media extender (even though you can use it that way) and the Apple TV was never sold as a general-purpose computer (even though you can use it that way).

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Unlike the more powerful general purpose computing device such as the personal computer or, more recently, the smartphone, embedded devices are typically things like cars or thermostats which are only given a limited amount of computing power and memory to accomplish specific tasks.

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The computer Brownell came up with was built using general-purpose Intel chips and Windows and Linux operating systems.

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They would rather rely on a general-purpose and, from a copyright holder's point of view, highly untrustworthy device: the personal computer.

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