Prior art for RIM double tap spacebar to insert period and capitalize next character

Question

US Patent No. 6,396,482 - Hand-held electronic device with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs

Looking for prior art related to claim 16:

A method of inputting characters into a mobile device having a keyboard and a display, the keyboard including a plurality of character keys and a space bar, the method comprising the steps of:

• (A) inputting a first set of characters into the mobile device using the keyboard, wherein the first set of characters comprise a first sentence;
• (B) selecting the space bar of the keyboard twice in succession and (1) displaying a period symbol (.) after the first sentence, and (2) instructing the mobile device to capitalize the next character input using the keyboard; and
• (C) inputting a second set of characters into the mobile device using the keyboard, wherein the second set of characters comprise a second sentence, and wherein the first character in the second set of characters is automatically capitalized by the mobile device.

Note the patent has a filing date of Jun 25, 1999, so any relevant art must have been published before this date. This patent has been assigned to RIM.

Basically, this claim is directed to the familiar feature on modern smartphones of double tapping the spacebar at the end of a sentence to automatically insert a period. Additionally, the next character typed will be automatically capitalized.

Answer 1

At a minimum, I'd think they do not have a valid claim to the auto capitalization.

I haven't found anything on the auto-insertion of the period, but the claim for autocapitalization documented in claims 16(B)2, which is getting ready to capitalize the next string, and 16(C), which describes actually doing so, appears to have prior art:

The Apple Newton, which was launched in developed in 1987 and discontinued in 1998, included autocapitalization of sentences, as documented here:

Now, this auto-capitalization was not triggered by a double space; it appears to have been triggered by the insertion of a period. But it seems that one could easily conclude that once there's art for a period-triggered capitalization, adding capitalization after a double-space triggered period isn't novel - the same period is triggering it, and only the way the period was generated seems new.