Slashdot Mirror
Apple Tries to Patent iPod User Interface
harlows_monkeys writes "Apple's
trying to patent several aspects of the iPod user interface. This one is particularly interesting because the claims are written in fairly clear and simple language, easy to understand by anyone. If this one is granted, it won't be because an overworked examineer was confused by deliberate obfuscation by the application (which is what I think happens for a lot of the ridiculous patents). About half the claims are for things that were implemented in prior players (e.g., Archos), and the other half are for things that are in many other common device interfaces (DVD players, PVRs) and the only novelty is that Apple put them on a portable music player."
Oh boo hoo!
Apple users display no more of a "scarry cult group-think mentality" than your average bunch of Linux users.
To say that all Apple has ever done is slap a candy coloured wrapper on stuff shows a real lack of insight and knowledge. You're probably one of those that dismisses Apple's efforts in creating a decent windowing system, and ignores the fact that at the time only Xerox had done that in the labs on computers that cost much more than $10,000, and their windows couldn't overlap and didn't automatically redraw. No, Xerox had done a WIMP system before, so Apple clearly could not innovate in that area. Please!
As you said, we all borrow ideas from each other, and I agree, there should be no shame in that at all. Indeed as far as I can see Linux is almost nothing but ideas copied from elsewhere - even the idea of giving all the code away isn't new.
The issue here though is that sometimes ideas are genuinely innovative, and that's why we have patents. In this particular case, having read the patent application, I would say that the claim is dubious and relies greatly on prior art. The patent is essentially a claim on the heirarchy order used in the iPod UI. The claims of the parent poster though that Slashdot is full of moaners complaining about people making money and trying to protect their inventions is, I would say, unfortunately mostly true.
Sure some Mac users think that because they have a Mac they're cooler than other computer owners. Some Linux users think that because they run Linux they're smarter than Windows people. You know what though? It's all bullshit.