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."

Comments

Re:how?

[meist3r]

Ignorance filter circumvented.
GTFO, first RTFA then RTFM and then STFU.
Smart people need to use acronyms, it's like learning. Complex things just can't be properly conveyed by repeating the same way too long expression over and over again. If you leave them out you confuse things.

At least I can rest assured that you'll never work at the UN, WTO, BMW, DMV, KBR or NASA.

Bad summary? Bad article!

[kimvette]

The IXI System report and the 1981 patent explains how the whole idea revolved around distributing music electronically down telephone lines, this was many years before the internet had been invented.

Hogwash. The Internet was invented in October 1969 if you take ARPANet's going live into account, or 1983 if you want to consider the cutover to TCP/IP the birth date of the Internet. Considering that the basic infrastructure was the same and it was merely a cutover to a new protocol, I'd consider the ARPANet to be the birth of the Internet. In any case, 1979 does not predate 1969 at all, and if you want to consider the cutover to TCP/IP to be the birth of the Internet (sorry, it doesn't; internet email predates TCP/IP), 1979 is not "many" years prior to 1983.

What a crappy sensationalist rag. By their logic, I'd consider Tracy Dick to be the origin of the cellphone because he had a wrist telephone back in what, the 1930s? (1931; I just googled to verify). Also, what about wireless sound/data gadgets in Star Trek or even buck rogers? Both predate that "ipod" drawing by more than a decade (in the case of Buck Rogers, it's many decades).

A doodle != an invention, IMHO. If it is, then the time machine has already been invented, along with interstellar spacecraft and death stars.

Kramer's gonna need the money

[dontmakemethink]

FTA: He is currently working on a new device which will record telephone calls and send the audio file via email.

My VOIP already does this. I check my voicemail by playing .wav email attachments.

Ice Age Man Invented the iBrain+iMemory+iVoiceBox

[itsybitsy]

Tens of thousands of years ago pre-ice age man invented the first iPod when he remembered the very first song and was able to play it back on his iBrain+iMemory+iVoiceBox, aka the first iPod. In addition to being the first singer he was the first song writer. At the time it was an Earth Shattering event and it spread fast and far beyond his pod. Of course all was not well since the iMemory wasn't perfect to say the least. The iVoiceBox also wasn't so good. Man would evolve and get the full iBrain + iMemory + iVoiceBox upgrades that were needed for the likes of Prince and Michael only to be obsoleted by the Apple iPod! What's next? iPod inBrain!