[jrockway]

This feature is largely useless, anyway. An example is, I receive text messages from Amazon when an order ships and is delivered. The "system and method to cause a computer to detect and perform actions" then highlights the tracking number and order number as though they are phone numbers, which it immediately dials when your finger comes nearby. This is very annoying because they are not phone numbers, they are tracking numbers. Lacking this feature will make me like my phone more.

[lambda]

Tracking numbers have a lot more digits than phone numbers; do they actually get detected as such? I've never seen it happen.

I have, however, found it useful to tap on an address to bring it up in Google Maps or a phone number to open it in the dialer.

[technogeek00]

Actually a fair number of shipments by small companies and even Fedex have shipment numbers that total out to 10 or 11 digits which fits a fully dialed international number perfectly and will be highlighted by Android. So the feature is bad and good at the same time. Source: I made and maintain a shipment tracking progam on Android.

[Gigablah]

Skype's browser extension does this to phone numbers on webpages; does this mean they're violating the Apple patent as well?

[lambda]

Possibly, but pure software patents tend to be harder to go after than software coupled with hardware (like mobile devices).