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Was the iPod Accessory Port Inspired By a 40-Year-Old Camera?

Posted by timothy on from the danged-neat-even-if-coincidence dept.

An anonymous reader writes "While Samsung has been accused of repeatedly borrowing everything from Apple's hardware, to packaging and accessories, it appears that all current iDevices share a port which is very similar to one found on a forty-year-old Polaroid camera. It gets more interesting when you realize that camera was the 'supreme achievement' of a man Steve Jobs idolized. Edwin Land was the creator of the Polaroid camera and, if Steve Jobs obsessed over Land's devices the way many do with iPhones, etc. today, there's a chance this similarity is not a coincidence."

3 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Remember the good old days? by ynp7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You guys remember the days when every piece of bullshit spewed by an Apple fanboy wasn't immediately posted on the front page of slashdot?

  2. Re:Those aren't the same. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Someone needs to learn what inspired means...

  3. Perfectly plausible... by Aphrika · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Especially when you consider that the click wheel iPod is thought to be influenced by a 1954 transistor radio.

    Plus even Jobs' comments about the iPhone 4 being "like a Leica camera" betray the fact to yes, their designers look to past gadgets for inspiration, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone given the task of locating the port saw the Polaroid camera and went "let's try that"...