Slashdot Mirror
Dcube: Portable Audio With Ogg And A Scroll Wheel
Slowtreme writes "There have been many attempts recently to cash in on Apple's iPod success. Napster, Dell, and others have made iPod clones. This Korean Dcube looks like they are going all out. With 1.5 gig, Ogg and MP3 support, grey scale display, USB2.0, wireless, FM radio, it looks like a nice device. Most noticeable however is the scroll wheel, Apple holds patents (pending) on scroll wheel design. How much noise will this make?" (The Napster-branded one is actually a Samsung product; Samsung, too, is supporting Ogg Vorbis in some models, though not in that one.)
All the best interface designs are obvious ... in retrospect. You can't just say "It's a wheel!" without recognizing the enormous amount of effort and care that went into its design and engineering.
The wheel is what makes the iPod unique, and it deserves its success because of it. This is one of the good uses of patents, in the sense that it gives a manufacturer a temporary monopoly as a reward for innovative design, and will hopefully spur other innovative designs in the iPod comptetitors. Seems like a good thing to me.
I realize they're pricey, but stop running and accept that you'll eventually pay extra to get an iPod. Stop running to the ends of the earth for every "iPod-killer" to come down the block. The amount of money you'll spend on each new pale substitute will be so much more than you'd spend on the iPod, which works so well with iTunes. This is an intervention, my friend.
I'm sorry, but a scroll wheel is what sits between my left and right mouse buttons. Pick another name OKTHXBYE
My prediction is that this will happen.
IMO, the US patent system has basically desceneded into little more than a registry service. By submitting a patent you're declaring, "I had this idea on this date." There doesn't really seem to be all that much checking going on to see if the idea is actually patentable in the first place.
I see things like this "scroll wheel" patent as an example of the ridiculous things that get rubber stamped at the patent office. It's not as if Apple invented the scroll wheel/jog dial. They've been avaible on VCR's, DAT's, etc for quite a long time. That leaves two things their patent could cover:
1) Using a scroll wheel with *gasp* mp3s.
2) The specfic details of how their scroll wheel interface works.
(1) would be a junk patent. (2) would either be so broad it was a junk patent, or so specfic as to be worthless.
Life is too short to proofread.
I never fail to be amazed at how often companies try to copy Apple's design only to produce a product that looks similar but is noticably uglier.
It's entirely subjective. WFIW I think this is marginally nicer looking than an original iPod.
There's also the way it scrolls through long lists quickly, and the way it interacts with the other buttons, that make it such a great and unique piece of interface design.
Hmmm.... just like to jog dial on countless other electronic devices?
Sure the wheel is a good idea, but it's hardly original. And it's not really a major innovation either, more of an evolution. Ever heard of Pong?
Life is too short to proofread.
Ok, this thing certainly has A TYPE of scroll wheel. And yes, Apple has patents for its own version of a scroll wheel - as well as the way the wheel itself works and how it works specifically with the i-pod. It could be that this company has absolutely ripped Apple off.
But Apple isn't suing anyone or releasing statements detailing its intentions to do so just yet, mnk? Lots of things have scroll wheels. My mouse has one. I don't think we can patent a simple hardware control itself. i mean, why not patent a toggle switch if that were the case?
How about we wait and get just a LITTLE more information before we start branding patents as ridiculous or, on the other end, start a wildly speculative crusade to protect Apple's intellectual property.
** Chigusaaa!!! You're the coolest girl in the WORLD!!! **
Who gives a flying crap about OGG. It's always like Linux users to root for the underdog. In this case however, OGG means shit in the "real" world.
+5 Troll and +2 Flamebait modifiers.
I think that the scroll wheel patent would be a pretty minor point in Apple's legal whacking of this device. Its design is an obvious copy of the iPod, and would be actionable under industrial design law. Apple successfully sued EMachines for ripping off the iMac design, and this looks like even more of a rip-off than their machines did.
Don't underestimate the convenience. 20 gig is enough for many people to rip and download all of their CDs. They don't have to plan ahead what they want to take with them.
1.5 gig is 10-20 albums, depending on how you rip. I would not like to have to pick what 10 albums I'm going to take to work each day.
Sometimes I listen to something like Pink Floyd or Neil Young, and then feel like more, and might end up listening to 5 albums in a row from that artist. Other times, after one album, I want something totally different next, like Garrison Keillor.
It would be horrible to have to pick in the morning which 10 albums are going to fit in with my mood that day.
Talk about an open-and-shut case. This thing will never see the light of day looking like it looks in those photos. You can bet the farm on it. Apple Legal will have a C&D out to these guys in no time.
Have you USED it? It's not the same as a mouse wheel or other wheels. You can move the wheel the same distance and it goes through the list at different speeds depending on how quickly, or how slowly, you move. You can move the wheel 2 inches and go through either 5 songs, or 100, depending on the speed.
It's not just the fact that it's a wheel, it's how it interacts with the interface.
A "Scroll Wheel" normally refers to a wheel on the side of a device such as a PDA that is used for scrolling.
What you are referring to here is a "Scroll Pad".
Wheels turn.
That still doesn't explain why they should have a fscking patent on it. It's just a wheel and/or touchpad.
- RCA
- Quassar
- GE
- Audiovox
- iRiver
All these budget companies have created audio crap since i've known about them. What makes you think something thrown together ripping of a patent and having all these features for dirt cheap is going to be worth the money or the ink used to print it. I think the 1 out of 5 Ogg users need to find a different codec or brew up their own firm ware for a decent product. It seems everything wants to touch the iPod but as of right now none of them have all of these Loyalty, Quality, good branding, a good track record of not making audio garbage, international support forums (ie ipodlounge), and excellent 3rd party accesory support. iPod is the new "i'll have a coke" and " can i have a kleenix" The only thing at this point that can kill the iPod is a better iPod. _g"It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself." - Henry Rollins
Your radio rant is entirely subjective to where you live. In seattle we have a few decent radio stations(107.7 and 96.5 just did format chages), one very interesting one (89.5 is a high-school run station playing mainly eurobeat), and one great one (KEXP 90.3 the greatest station on the planet). It makes sense for me to listen to those. Also, the radio is for more than music. It would be nice to get news and traffic updates on my portable player.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
"Most noticeable however is the scroll wheel, Apple holds patents (pending) on scroll wheel design"
Oh guys, guys, GUYS! This is NOT a scroll wheel! A scroll wheel is something a mouse has! This is a JOG DIAL!