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Before the iPhone, smartphones looked like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada
http://asset1.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/20090403/IMG_4858_540x360.jpg

You mean like this

The iPhone was released in late June '07 but was *announced/demo'ed* January 9. This is a critical point because it widens your hypothetical reaction time between iPhone and N810 from 3 months to 10. Not saying there was any copying, or that the N810 was a reaction to the iPhone, but with almost a full year after the iPhone was demo'ed, it's harder to claim parallel development with near-100% certainty.

The N810 also had a *resistive* touchscreen, and... well, wasn't a phone but an "internet tablet" that relied on wifi or a Bluetooth bridge.

Meanwhile, the LG KE850, aka Prada was not announced Jan 2007, it was announced Dec 12, 2006, less than a month before the iPhone was demo'd. And if your original point with the N810 was that 3 months wasn't enough time for Nokia to copy Apple, Apple definitely didn't copy LG, with less than a month between both announcements (and over Christmas, too).

I watched various video reviews (example), and LG's own promo video from 2007, and about the only thing similar between the Prada and iPhone is that it has a capacitive touchscreen. The user interface in no way measures up to the original iPhone UI. The Prada at launch didn't have a full keyboard (so T9 only for text entry), and judging from the various apps they basically just transplanted onto a touchscreen the same small-screen, large-text interface seen on phones with a T9 keyboard, with very few UI innovations. Entering contacts was as awkward as I remember when I borrowed a phone in 2005. No multitouch, and what little swiping I saw was for scroll bars, which the reviewer had a very awkward time using, and the responsiveness was jerky (but "good enough", of course).

I tried finding images or video of their internet browser. Instead my top hits included an 8-step guide for setting up its internet connection first. I gave up after reviews said it was hopelessly outdated, and navigation/display options were "very poor". No wonder they never bothered showing it in demos and reviews.

I know this particular thread is about the hardware. I am not the original poster, and I have no problem saying there's parallel development in touchscreen hardware for phones.

But judging by what I see of the first Prada... no way in hell was it Apple's marketing alone that propelled the iPhone to the top, like you're implying.

The Prada got into user's hands before the iPhone by a few months, but its UI carried over far too much baggage and inappropriate interface elements from older phones, so it was completely and rightly eclipsed less than a month after its intro by the iPhone's intro/demo. And unlike Microsoft's infamous vapourware demos, what we saw of the iPhone in Jan 2007, we got that summer.

As willing as I am to accept the sample size of "people negRo_slim on Slashdot knows", I think I'll trust industry data:

iPad Enterprise Adoption Up To 80% In Fortune 100

Like this one from 2008? Or 2007?

I would want this oversized NES to put the oversized NES controller in

Like this one from 2008? Or 2007?

I would want this oversized NES to put the oversized NES controller in

I second that.

Please read further about the guy and what he did in the past. He had never commanded the company - all this patent shit is not his decision.

May I remind you this Steve Wozniak poses with his new Galaxy Nexus at Google Building 44 ?

It's in the works.

http://www.slashgear.com/google-confirms-metro-style-chrome-for-windows-8-13218100/

That "16 hour" start-up time is probably bogus. It's not in the article. If it's real at all, it probably refers to how long it takes to drive the thing from some base to the target area. The military often figures response times like that - from when it's called for until it gets there and starts shooting.

There's a smaller version, the Silent Guardian, with only about 250m of range. This is about the size of a WWI tripod-mounted heavy machine gun.

If this technology had been available in the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement would never have happened.

There was even a "Smart Case" for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that was a blatant ripoff of Apple's "Smart Cover." It wasn't made by Samsung directly, but by a firm with close ties to them, and apparently with Samsung approval.

Dude, how many times do we have to say this? If you don't want your parents finding about about something, don't post it to Facebook!

What? I've been digitally modeling LEGO for a couple years now... it's called Minecraft. Oddly enough, there is now an actual Minecraft LEGO set in the works. At least the mapping should be fairly straightforward, but I wonder if it comes with Endermen that tear your lawn apart when you're not watching.

As mentioned above, the 'reasonable' part doesn't apply if you don't pay when you should.

Source for the second (and hopefully last) time :)

Well... It's sometimes hard to pay what one should when:

[...] Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple [...]

source

Forget teaching kids how to program; the $25 Raspberry Pi computer might just be the home entertainment STB and compact gaming console we’ve been waiting for. The low-cost computer – and its $35 sibling – should deliver double the graphical performance of the iPhone 4S, according to executive director (and Broadcom SoC architect) Eben Upton, telling Digital Foundry that not only does the BCM2835 GPU at the heart of the Raspberry Pi roast Apple’s latest smartphone, but it thoroughly whups NVIDIA’s Tegra 2.

Really?

http://www.slashgear.com/windows-8-on-arm-wont-run-x86-apps-microsoft-admits-16180415/
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/will-windows-8-run-x86-apps-arm-tablets-or-not-173498

There's tons more quoting Microsoft officials on this- ZDNet's the only one that says what you're saying. Reality is, in order to accomplish what you're talking about there, you're going to need a bit more oomph as emulation of the X86 on ARM's not exactly what one would call "stellar" and you're going to need that to make what you're talking to work. It might be doable if you were talking 2+ GHz A15's- but we don't have those yet and at that level, you're actually better off moving on to something else.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/space/soon-seti-to-search-the-moon-for-alien-artifacts_749128.html

http://www.slashgear.com/seti-to-check-moon-for-signs-of-aliens-28204769/

http://news.discovery.com/space/seti-to-scour-the-moon-for-alien-tech-111227.html

I wonder if they'll find Daneel there?

I'm not sure they're being as short sighted as you suggest. Cyanogen Hired by Samsung, Will Continue Work on CyanogenMod for Android.

Everyone is using their huge market share to promote their products left and right. It takes a long time for laws and legal authorities to catch up to developments in technology, and by that time these monopolies are so big that they can painlessly absorb any fines and have bottomless cash reserves for a legal fight.

Google is doing that, but it is important to note that Google is no different in this respect from any other major company. It offers the only way anyone will ever compete with Facebook, and the fact it, Google is one of barely a handful of firms that have any hope of ever challenging facebook. Smaller social networks are never going to challenge Facebook, with or without Google, the best they can do is find a niche like LinkedIn did.

Facebook's privacy issues are well documented. Facebook have also been happily abusing their monopoly in the social space. They are trying to take over the world of instant messaging and email - I already have people who send me facebook messages as a substitute for email - it's not just Google. If I install the facebook app in my phone it will automatically copy all the phone numbers to my facebook account. This is a classic example: http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/google-android-facebook-contacts/

Facebook want to control all your social contact over the internet, and they are using their monopoly to try and extend the control to IM, email and other things. Another example is how if I share a link to a news story on facebook, the link automatically gets converted to one that forces you to add the facebook app of that media outlet before being able to open a link. And the default option for the app is that every news story you read is posted to your profile - more lovely data for facebook to build a comprehensive profile about you. In effect, facebook is redirecting links I post, if that's not worrying I don't know what is.

Apple have a lovely history of monopoly abuse too, again I don't know if this puts them on troubled legal grounds but it definitely should. A classic example is their refusal to provide an iTunes app for Android, when they quite willingly make one for Windows. Since iTunes is the sole way of acquiring a vast majority of digital content, Apple are using that monopoly to distinguish their mobile devices and operating system.

Apple are also trying to use design patents, not utility patents to force other tablet makers to make tablets that are functionally or ergonomically inferior: http://www.slashgear.com/apple-made-to-specify-design-alternatives-for-samsung-02199756/

"Apple suggests Samsung to design devices that do not have a front surface that is black, do not have a shape that is rectangular or do not have rounded corners, and that the front surface should have substantial adornment as opposed to a sleek clean surface" -- None of these are brilliant distinguishing design innovations, they are obvious design decisions any tablet maker would make. These aren't technology patents, Apple is in effect asking Samsung and others to make funcitonally compromised designs just to make them look different.

In an ideal world, compatibility would be enforced. If Apple are running a digital downloads store that has market dominance they would be obliged to make it available on different platforms. Google+ and Facebook would be obliged to let people add Facebook contacts on google and google contacts on facebook, so the social networks are forced to distinguish themselves based on features, not on which one is already too entrenched to compete with.

Microsoft's continuing monopoly abuse is incredible, after the anti trust rulings. I am still amazed that it is impossible to buy a laptop without windows being loaded on it and without paying a few dollars to Microsoft. Also, retail versions of Windows cost far more, so in effect if you think

I know, I know. but still.
http://www.slashgear.com/motorola-anti-icloud-patent-suit-success-tipped-for-2012-18196549/

Reposted because some might find it interesting that Motorola is suing Apple, even if it's slightly off-topic in that it has little to do with Microsoft vs. Barnes and Noble. It seems to me that it's on-topic, in that it has to do with "Established Operating Systems vs. Android".

I also took the liberty of making the URL into a link.

As an aside, I think a little tit-for-tat is deserved in this case - Samsung can't sell its Android offering in Australia, and Apple may soon not be able to sell its iOS offering in Germany. Eye for an eye, and all that.

As well as the fact that large quantities of concrete and associated infrastructure are visible by satellite and not easily hidden (except perhaps for the Chinese - they seem to have a handle on out weirding us).

Google as well. Saw an interesting article on Google X labs, their "skunkworks"-style division yesterday.

http://www.slashgear.com/google-x-labs-plans-robot-researchers-to-map-the-future-14194990/

There's a link to the poorly-paywalled nytimes article in there. Funny thing is they like to keep the fact that they're doing research a secret and constantly emphasize that they put very little money into research, because research makes shareholders nervous. Shows you how far ahead shareholders (or their HFT servers) are thinking.

Today’s infringement filing by HTC may be the first time that Google is exercising its patent portfolio to help an Android partner. The nine patents involved were transferred to HTC from Google on September 1. Three of the patents originated from Openwave Systems, two from Palm, and four from Motorola. These patents were acquired prior to Google’s $12.5 billion bid for Motorola...

Link here: http://www.slashgear.com/htc-sues-apple-using-google-motorola-patents-07177865/

So, Google acquired those patents from Motorola before their acquisition bid. Saying Google is Motorola is akin to saying that Google is IBM since they've acquired patents from them as well.

Elop chose the best tool for the job, which happened to be WP7, and apart from him being the 8th largest m$ shareholder when he took the job doesn't have any hidden agenda at all. You can trust Microsoft.

That ok Steve?

iPhone batteries are actually massive compared to those in most other phones. Look at the iPhone4's battery, it's freaking huge:

http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/iphone_4_teardown1-540x399.jpg

So 90% of Android users are clueless? After only being out for a few weeks, iOS 5 is now installed on 1 out of 3 compatible Apple devices.

Just saying...

http://www.slashgear.com/ios-5-is-now-installed-on-1-out-of-3-compatible-apple-devices-17188562/

http://www.slashgear.com/steve-jobs-pledged-thermonuclear-war-on-grand-theft-android-21189861/

âoeI donâ(TM)t want your moneyâ Jobs told Schmidt as the two men met in a cafe in Palo Alto early last year. âoeIf you offer me $5 billion, I wonâ(TM)t want it. Iâ(TM)ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, thatâ(TM)s all I want.â Unsurprisingly no settlement was reached, and the legal battle between Android OEMs and Apple continues to this day.

The lawsuits are about the product, not the profits.

as for TFA whomever came up with a camera dock so you can work your iPod from across the room? A little too much time on their hands methinks.

I think the prize for 'gratuitous use of an iPod when there's more appropriate technology' must go the Ion Torrent DNA sequencer, a $50,000 piece of lab equipment that incorporates a dock for an iPod Touch (which supposedly runs a status monitoring app, though the machine itself has a perfectly good screen for this):

http://www.slashgear.com/ion-torrent-personal-genome-machine-has-an-ipod-dock-23120950/

But from a 2011 perspective, maybe the most curious artefact in iPod history is the HP-branded version, which it's very hard to imagine Apple allowing now:

http://www.onedigitallife.com/2004/08/31/hp-introduces-re-branded-ipod/

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2345

Well, I hope the Cyanogenmod project continues.

They've quite publicly stated that they are ... and the CM7 code review has been as busy as ever.

Steve Kondik is now working for Samsung: what that will do to his priorities (and to what is actually allowed to do on CMx) is hard to say.

He's still approving CM7 code, so I'd say he's managing OK ...

I hope it goes on: that one project has advanced the state-of-the-Android-art considerably. For the past couple of years, I won't even consider a device that I can't root and put my CM on.

Funnily enough, it's even possible that Google might agree with you -- that story claims that they choose a set of CM developers to work on the Galaxy Nexus and ICS.

I also suspect that -- given Samsung famously gave the CM7 devs a Galaxy SII each in exchange for getting CM7 running on the SII -- that Samsung has no wish to see CM7 die either. Or at least, they certainly don't mind seeing it running on their phones. Reading between the lines, I think that Google realises just what a great thing they've got going with the CM team, and are encouraging them to keep on keeping-on; after all, CM has fixed heaps of bugs in the Android code base.

It's certainly a very different strategy to Apple's response to jailbreaking (you may recall that they tried, unsuccessfully, to declare it illegal through DRM circumvention).

Archos 9, the year before the first iPad.

If you want I can remake that web page you linked and put it where the iPad is and put the iPad at the bottom. Or are you finished trolling?

Listed on SlashGear:

• SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
• Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
• N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
• Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
• Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
• Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
• DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
• iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
• Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
• Nobex Radio Premium – Nobex
• Shazam Encore – Shazam
• Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo

They were announced a year before the iPad, you mean. And they looked like this. By the time they got around to shipping, the iPad had been announced, and the JooJoo had changed to look like this. Kinda like how Android phones were announced before iPhones, but suddenly stopped looking like Blackberries as soon as the iPhone was announced.

But I'll allow that the Crunchpad had a simpler design than other tablets even in its clunky prototype form. But that's also because it wasn't really a tablet - it was a web-based e-reader. It's easier to make a clean design when your gadget has only one function.

Symbian, while declining, still outsells iPhone by a pretty respectable margin.

Symbian isn't a phone.

Overall iPhone has only an 18% market share but I'm sure there is some other excuse why iPhone is actually #1.

"Excuse"? iPhone *is* #1 in pretty much every metric. Market share, revenue, profits, customer satisfaction...

Symbian, while declining, still outsells iPhone by a pretty respectable margin.

Overall iPhone has only an 18% market share but I'm sure there is some other excuse why iPhone is actually #1.

Being m$ 8th largest shareholder when he was inserted as a trojan says he does - every time.
The ongoing rape of Nokia in a desperate attempt to gain some relevance in mobile is a disgusting act, even by their standards, and will clearly fail anyway when he scarpers back to his Redmond HQ with his loot, and what's left of Nokia continues work on the Linux based OS's it should have stuck to all along.

A Nokia phone ruined by m$ software is like finding a turd in a punchbowl - no one wants it no matter how much they want to party.

All you have to worry about is...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368269,00.asp

This one took about a week...
http://www.slashgear.com/apples-mac-os-x-security-update-2011-005-blocks-stolen-diginotar-certificates-09178410/

Maybe u can just go to slashd0t.org instead if you set up your internal certs proper if your on a mac :) .

Coming soon, can you set up local certs on a mac? rats... google returned a hit...
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2734627?start=0&tstart=0
even better :)

There are only 1500 pairs, and they're all going to be auctioned on ebay, for charity.

http://www.slashgear.com/nike-mag-official-details-released-in-full-08178190/

You can get today's multi-core x86 computers, where most of the power draw is not from the CPU. Yes, those exist provided you run them at a slower speed than maximum.

HEre's your ARM,

http://www.slashgear.com/25-raspberry-pi-computer-runs-quake-iii-30175129/

Frankly, I'll stick with x86 and supported peripherals for now. Things like llano APU from AMD provide cheap CPU and great GPU and very cheap overall. Why would I go back 10 years in performance so I can run an ARM?

I was personally looking forward to more WebOS devices though.

Well, reportedly, Samsung is still interested in WebOS. Where before they were interested in licensing it off of HP ( http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/hp-confirms-its-in-talks-about-licensing-webos-samsung-tipped/ ), they may now just grab it outright.. even if only as a precautionary move to the recent Google-buys-Motorola move ( http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-webos-rumors-reignite-amid-ex-hp-pc-vp-grab-29174760/ ).

Personally I'm not sure why they'd be doing that. They're going strong with Android - which, while heavily Google-influenced, is under governance of the OHA - while on their lower-end systems they've got their own OS already - Bada.

Though if there's any chance of WebOS going forward, Samsung would be a good place to start. Them or Huawei, perhaps. Not seeing HTC being interested.

Sure, that would be great - but Apple crippled the MBA with a downsized Thunderbolt port. http://www.slashgear.com/macbook-air-gets-half-power-thunderbolt-29168292/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+(SlashGear)

If the thing can't even handle two external screens, I doubt it'll handle an external screen and an external graphics card...

Despite what the poorly researched slashgear article claims, it isn't crippled.

One TB port consists of two full duplex 10Gbps serial channels. One channel tunnels PCIe, the other tunnels DisplayPort.

The TB chip used in Thunderbolt Macs prior to the MBA is designed to support two Thunderbolt ports, so it has four 10Gbps TB IO channels, and two DisplayPorts. The MBA has one TB port, and uses Intel integrated video, which probably has only one DisplayPort channel available for external monitors. Using the old TB chip would waste half of its capacity, so Apple used a new version of Intel's TB chip which supports one TB port and one DisplayPort.

The only TB Mac which can fully utilize that 2-port chip is the 27" iMac model with two Thunderbolt ports. And maybe the dual-GPU MBP models can get something out of it by tunneling DP connections from both GPUs over a single TB port, provided that this is supported by the TB chip (I honestly don't know whether it is). Other than that, there's no reason for Macs with one TB port to use the 2-port TB chip.

I'd guess the reason Apple used them was time to market. It's common to sell the same chip design in different variants, with cheaper defeatured versions in smaller packages that have fewer functions bonded out to pins. Typically the full-featured package is what gets tested and validated first, so it's also the first into production. It's a reasonable guess that Intel's 1- and 2-port TB chips are an example of this practice.

(BTW, packages are a surprisingly large part of the cost of making a chip, so this is a real cost reduction, not just market segmentation by crippling. From the MB/MBA teardown pics, Intel's 2-port TB chip uses a flip-chip package and the 1-port version uses a wirebond package. Wirebond packages are much cheaper, but can't handle as much power or as many I/O connections.)

So, the MBA TB port isn't crippled at all. You can see this in the RAID benchmarks done by AnandTech (ironically, the very article slashgear used as its source):

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4528/the-2011-macbook-air-11-13inch-review/4

Apple single-handedly made tablets and smartphones into the products you recognize today. Before Apple, we had products like this and this. Suddenly, post-iPhone, we have this and this.

I'm no fan of patents, but this is the exact sort of innovation the patent system was designed to protect in the first place. Regardless of the particular patents Apple has chosen to fight with in these battles, can't reasonable people agree that Apple ought to have some protection on their R&D investments?

"And to answer the summary's closing question: because it means I can carry an ultra-portable (MacBook Air) when I travel and plug it in at home to give it a much needed graphics boost for use at home."

Sure, that would be great - but Apple crippled the MBA with a downsized Thunderbolt port. http://www.slashgear.com/macbook-air-gets-half-power-thunderbolt-29168292/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+(SlashGear)

If the thing can't even handle two external screens, I doubt it'll handle an external screen and an external graphics card...

The only 3rd party app I would really miss having on my Droid is Kindle.

It's planned. http://www.slashgear.com/amazon-kindle-for-webos-touchpad-confirmed-09132141/

WOW! Amazon is cheap bastards... Apple offers 70% (Seven - Zero) of sales. And you set your price... Apple NEVER does.

I think the confusion is the "0% revenue share" in APPLE Store talk that means the HOUSE cut would be 0%... so it SOUNDS like a good deal. Until you realize it's YOU that is getting the "revenue sharing" ... for your OWN APP. I can see people wanting to try out Amazon.. for the sole purpose of it being "not Apple" and "not Google" but under terms like that there's just no way.

There are some older terms here: http://www.slashgear.com/amazon-android-app-store-tcs-leak-29104993/

it's easy to see how a developer could be confused. If that email is read DIFFERENTLY, that "revenue sharing" could actually mean Amazon is trying to CHARGE THE DEVELOPER for putting their app on sale!!!! You gotta love that section 5i that defines "list price"... in other words because they put the app on sale, the "list price" became zero that day because it was the lowest price.. it's not hard to comprehend. But when you deal with terms in clauses.. that reference clauses... in other paragraphs... reading the WHOLE story for "lets put your app on sale" is not the TRUTH.

If iOS doesn't store passwords as plaintext, it's really dumb.

In order for your phone to authenticate with an online service, it has to send the password. In order to be able to do that, it has to retrieve the plaintext.

You could hash the plaintext to obscure it in some manner, but whatever process you use has to be easily reversable in order to get the plaintext back so you can send it off to the server (hopefully over a secure connection!).

You can only access the plaintext from that database if you've rooted your phone. Even then, you have to be using an application that you've allowed to run as root.

Given all of the above, there's no point in obscuring passwords. If the password database is compromised, the phone is compromised and whatever mechanism there is for retrieving the passwords is also compromised.

I don't think you understand. iOS has a keychain (just like OS X, upon which it's based). The keychain is an encrypted file that contains things likes passwords.

The iPhone is just as insecure: http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-password-broken-in-6-minutes-10132627/

Note that process also requires the iPhone to be rooted.

That's the very definition of being more secure.

If iOS doesn't store passwords as plaintext, it's really dumb.

In order for your phone to authenticate with an online service, it has to send the password. In order to be able to do that, it has to retrieve the plaintext.

You could hash the plaintext to obscure it in some manner, but whatever process you use has to be easily reversable in order to get the plaintext back so you can send it off to the server (hopefully over a secure connection!).

You can only access the plaintext from that database if you've rooted your phone. Even then, you have to be using an application that you've allowed to run as root.

Given all of the above, there's no point in obscuring passwords. If the password database is compromised, the phone is compromised and whatever mechanism there is for retrieving the passwords is also compromised.

The iPhone is just as insecure: http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-password-broken-in-6-minutes-10132627/

Note that process also requires the iPhone to be rooted.

Actually, the Ion Torrent PGM has an iPod dock. In fact, it comes with an iPod in the box. Yes, really. See, for example, this link. Sadly, they don't have an iPod app yet - they were more focused on getting the product to market. (Yes, my lab has one.)

The service is coming, Slashgear has reported mention of a "Games Stream" in some Google Help docs (now removed), which hints that the games along with the spam will be available, but you'll be able to ignore it much more easily.

How about linking to the real source instead of a spam site stealing content.

I would. But what's the Android counterpart to an iPod touch?

An option might be to use Nokia's upcoming N9 Linux phone, with Android running in a virtual machine when you really want it. The phone is supposed to come with Alien Dalvik installed (an Android VM compatibility layer). Available in a single solid block of black, blue, or pink polycarbonite with curved Gorilla glass and no buttons on the face.

What kinda excites me as a developer, besides it being linux and an upgrade to my N900 and all that, is the GUI is worked out for single-handed usage.

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-n9-android-app-support-promised-with-alien-dalvik-22160809/
http://swipe.nokia.com/

In the U.S. the Amazon.com store seems to be the best place I've seen so far to buy such unlocked phones.

I've posted this before, but what the hell. Everyone with common sense can see Samsung was imitating the iPhone was recent releases. It was so blatant that reviewers couldn't fail to mention it. It doesn't matter where you fall on the issue, who you think should win or if there should even be a lawsuit at all, that much should be clear.

First Look: Samsung Vibrant Rips Off iPhone 3G Design
Review: The IPhone Look Alike Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 (AT&T)
Samsung Galaxy S Review : "In the time we’ve been carrying the Galaxy S, more than a few people – geeks included – have mistaken it for an iPhone 3GS. The glossy black plastic and metal-effect bezel both echo Apple’s second/third-gen smartphone"

Check out the comparison shot in the first link and tell me that isn't of a whole different order than your comparison picture.

Manufacturers of Android phones are single-sourcing their OS, all of the Google mobile apps and services (which aren't OSS and must be licensed btw), the phone's location service, the phone's internet search -- Google forbids hardware vendors from using non-Google internet and location services. Why do you think Motorola has begun developing their own mobile OS as a backup?