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Apple Admits iPod Is From 1970s UK
MattSparkes writes "Apple has all but admitted that a British man invented the iPod over three decades ago in the 1970s. Unfortunately, he let the patent run out. When another company tried to grab a portion of its iPod profits, though, Apple went running to him to defend them in court. In return, it looks like he's in for a share of the cash generated from the sale of 163 million iPods."
Now we just need the news to break that this man was once employed by The Beatles' label and you will hear the sound of a thousand lawyers climaxing at once.
So - let me get this straight, he invented the "iPod" before stored music was even available? Before any substantial file compression existed? Right.. I actually, ummm, invented televisions back during the Taft administration.
More like third fail.
More amusing than this story is trying to imagine what a 1970's iPod would have been like. I'm sure its "ultra portable" battery would have needed wheels but the white headphones, which would be so heavy as to break your neck, would still scream "MUG ME!".
But his will be called the iMail and will use proven technology to do things other devices already do in a proprietary vaguely patentable way. In spite of this he will fail to achieve any results himself and after the patent expires he will then make his money by being paid to act as a coprorate shill in a scam lawsuit.
In Soviet Russia meme tires of you!
on something called a "transistor". Apparently Apple hovered in the wings waiting for the patent on this technology to expire so they could steal it.
Who is this Taco fellow and why can't he read for comprehension?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Now there's a sentence I didn't expect to see on Slashdot.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
"Apple was unavailable for comment at the time of writing."
What, the entire company?
Proverbs 21:19
the iPod wasn't exactly the first mp3 player to be released anyway, just the first successful one in marketing and generating hype
There, fixed that for you.
There, fixed that for you.
Thank God for evolution.
Wow! You were college friends with Bill Gates?
A very bad summary indeed, and a quite bad article to start with.
You sir, have summed up Slashdot quite well in one sentence.
Not even the first successful mp3 player; Linux Journal had one on the cover (IIRC) a couple of years before the first iPod was launched.
I hear the drivers are almost ready!
Apple's was the first (and only, so far) to become a cultural phenomenon
What about the Zune!? Oh, wait...
Star Trek invented the flip phone in the '60s, too. Not to mention the stun gun, the replicator, matter transport, and FTL. :-)
How dare you take the hype and charm out of a Apple article by stating facts.
If I had a goatee and a latte, I'd be using Safari to mod you as a troll with my only mouse button.
On the bottle was a picture of company founder Henry John Heinz, and a quote:
"To do a common thing uncommonly well, brings success."
Punctuation, commonly, is not one of those.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
which wasn't the "first" by any measure
Yes, because for those who remember, there was also this doohickey called a Creative Nomad. It happened to have more space and be much less lame than an iPod at the time.
In other news, welfare checks shall hereafter be referred to as "dividend payments".
Failure to follow this advice may result in non-deterministic behavior.
My Ipod is made entirely of gas. It plays one song called "fart."
I don't even read the comments
Last night I was at a restaurant and being one of those people who can't spend more than one minute of idleness without something to read
*sob* And I thought I was alone in this world...
There are support groups for that, but I got tired of reading their newsletters.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
A very bad summary indeed, and a quite bad article to start with.
You sir, have summed up Slashdot quite well in one sentence.
But you forgot to mention all of the off-topic comments that are inevitably modded "+5 Funny".
What were we talking about again?
In theory, theory always works in practice. In practice, theory rarely works. <><