Apple Adds Samsung Galaxy SIII To Its Ban List

Do it yourself by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-01 08:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

Add all Apple devices to you own ban list today !

Re:Do it yourself by Nerdfest · 2012-09-01 08:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

I keep saying this; it does have an effect. It's not just those of us that keep up to date about all of the bad corporate behaviour of Apple, Sony, etc, it's all the other people that come to us for opinions. It matters. The world is a much smaller place than it used to be as well.
Re:Do it yourself by Ice+Station+Zebra · 2012-09-01 09:36 · Score: 4, Informative

Already done. Will NEVER buy an apple product and actively work to undermine their market share.
Re:Do it yourself by betterunixthanunix · 2012-09-01 09:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Having all Slashdot tell everyone they know to avoid Apple products might have more of an impact than you expect. People often come to me (and I suspect most other Slashdot readers) asking for advice about computers. If I say, "Stay away from Apple," at least a large fraction of those people will do so.

The real question is, how many Slashdot readers actually will stay away from Apple? A pretty large number of IT, CS, and other technically-minded folks seem to like Apple's products (and they are generally apathetic when it comes to Apple's tactics, licenses, or how Apple is pushing for the destruction of PCs), and quite a few Slashdot readers are big supporters of Apple. If the world's technical communities were united on this issue, there would be no problem -- Apple would be facing mass resistance (see e.g. SOPA/PIPA). Unfortunately, we are not united; a lot of people in these communities like Apple's products and are going to deride people who boycott Apple.

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Palm trees and 8
Re:Do it yourself by Man+On+Pink+Corner · 2012-09-01 09:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

That's fine, as log as you add Samsung into the list of bad corporate behavior.
Any organization with two or more people will be guilty of "bad corporate behavior" in someone's opinion. It's necessary to decide what you consider acceptable versus what you consider unacceptable.
I don't recall Samsung doing anything that I, personally, consider unacceptable. I can't say the same for Apple. Your own point is an empty one unless you elaborate.
Re:Do it yourself by girlintraining · 2012-09-01 10:25 · Score: 3, Insightful

Add all Apple devices to you own ban list today !
That solves nothing. Companies will continue to abuse intellectual property law and ideology to limit consumer choice. Every company has to -- that's how the game is played. Singling out Apple for being the most successful player doesn't change the fact that its the game that's fucking you, the consumer.
You can ban, cry, shout, scream, boycott -- but it's not the players that are the problem, it's the game. If you really want to make a difference, stop buying products designed or produced in the United States, and only buy from companies based in countries that do not buy into intellectual property (like China). It seems strange to advocate purchasing from a communist country with a long list of human rights issues and no labor rights to speak of -- but I'm of the opinion that supporting slave labor is superior to supporting intellectual property.
It's simple, really: We all learn by copying each other. This is neurological and hardwired. When you see someone performing an activity, you may be unaware of this but the same muscles they are using to do it will tense very slightly. These clusters of 'mirror' neurons, along with their connection to the limbic system, form the basis for learning. Intellectual property is a barrier interposed between ourselves and the environment which limits and manipulates that natural process so that industrialists can profit off of it.
It has to be stopped, or it'll stall out human progress for centuries to come -- our technological progress which up until now could be plotted exponentially upwards is rapidly flattening and we're going to have another Dark Ages on our hands if we don't stop this, and our children will live in some dystopic world where they are materially better off, but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically enslaved. Our bodies will be comfortable, but our souls won't.

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#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Re:Do it yourself by andrewa · 2012-09-01 10:44 · Score: 5, Interesting

Wait, so you bought an consumer electronics device from them well over a decade ago, it had a feature on it that didn't work very well for your purposes, and you want to throw them in the same category as crApple? I thought that I had a grudge about Apple through their recent behaviour, ever increasingly closed O/S, and hardware that is becoming more and more difficult (read impossible) to upgrade - but your grudge is slightly alarming... and you got your money back from Best Buy!
As a former Apple employee and dedicated user of their products (I may have bordered on fanboy at one point), I've become so sick of Apple's despicable practices and direction that I've given my iPad to my wife and replaced it with a Google Nexus, replaced my iPhone (goodbye unlimited data!) with a Samsung S3, and my shiny late-2011 MBP has been relegated to a secondary laptop with a nice new Dell running Linux Mint 10... However, were Apple to change their business practices/policies I would again consider using their products as they are of exceptional quality.

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:(){ :|:& };:
Re:Do it yourself by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-09-01 11:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

I do avoid Apple products. However, if someone comes to me and asks for advice, I cannot in good conscience tell them to say away from Apple without also explaining why I feel that way; and, let's face it, these kinds of ethical issues are far from universally agreed upon. It's something that everyone must decide for themselves. Sure, you can provide them with context, but making the choice for them would be immoral.
Re:Do it yourself by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-09-01 11:46 · Score: 4, Informative

Just because the rules of the game allow you to play in a certain way, does not mean that everyone must actually do so. IRL we have laws, and then we have conventions. When people don't follow those conventions, we call them assholes and shun them, but we don't lock them up and don't rewrite the laws.
Similarly here. Not saying that patent reform isn't needed, but hey: of all the companies on the mobile device market today, Apple is the only one engaging in blanket bans on their competitor products and refusing to license some of their patents outright, forcing others to remove features from their phones (including even those already sold, as was the case with S3 and Nexus). So, as far as limiting my choice as a customer goes, they are the worst offender by a large margin. Of course I'm going to bash them more.
Re:Do it yourself by andydread · 2012-09-01 11:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

I too have recently started to advise against purchasing Apple products since their litigious behaviour and will continue to do so until they end this anti-competitive behaviour in the marketplace. I simply explain that Apple is Anti-Free market and anti-consumer-choice, Purchasing Apple IOS products is like purchasing a 5 bedroom house with only access to 3 rooms. The bulder of course has access to all 5 rooms. They get it then.
Re:Do it yourself by hherb · 2012-09-01 11:58 · Score: 5, Informative

A pretty large number of IT, CS, and other technically-minded folks seem to like Apple's products (and they are generally apathetic when it comes to Apple's tactics, licenses, or how Apple is pushing for the destruction of PCs), and quite a few Slashdot readers are big supporters of Apple.
It is changing. In our clinic we were in the process of transitioning towards an "all Apple" environment (iphones, ipads, Macbooks, imacs and mac minis). However, witnessing with great concern Apple's customer hostile approach worsening rapidly over the last couple of years we decided to reverse the process. In phones it was easy - the Galaxy S3 is a vastly better device. In laptops it is not easy, we still find Macbooks unrivaled in build quality and features, and there is nothing on the market we could find that would come close to the desirable specs of a mac mini.
As a result, we are now transitioning to a mix of generic PC hardware and Mac hardware mostly running Linux (some desktops still running OSX), and Galaxy S3 phones and soon the new Galaxy note tablet too. While it is a slow transition, I can see many like minded people in my area making a similar transition - the walled garden walls have become far too high for many, the sun is not coming through any more.
Only two years ago I probably would have still praised the advantages of the OSX ecosystem. Nowadays, they have become as disgusting as Microsoft had 10 years ago - and that was the last time I used any Microsoft products. The writing is on the wall for Apple too - instead of keeping innovating they merely try to maximize their profit through litigating any competition and locking their existing customers completely in. When corporates become intolerably arrogant it is only a matter of time before people turn their back.
Re:Do it yourself by makomk · 2012-09-01 12:22 · Score: 4, Informative

The font was small and had no background box, making it unreadable in many scenes and useless for my then fiance.
That's in large part the fault of your DVDs rather than the player. DVD subtitles are bitmap overlays which don't generally have any kind of background box. Whilst some DVDs do support old-fashioned closed captions, a lot of DVD players don't handle outputting them because they use a really old and quirky and US-specific data format in the vertical blanking interval that's really hard to support (and apparently can't be supported at all on high-definition outputs).
Re:Do it yourself by atlasdropperofworlds · 2012-09-01 12:22 · Score: 4, Informative

Did MS seek injunctions against products from being sold? No.
Do they get some money from Android units sold? Yes.
MS is certainly bad. Apple is far worse.
Re:Do it yourself by jedidiah · 2012-09-01 12:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yes. Blatant copying is OK with me.
Otherwise nothing will ever get done because EVERYTHING builds on something else. If you think otherwise then you are just a pathological narcisist.
Although I don't accept your premise.
BOTH devices are blatant copies of any number of other devices that came before them. This is how progress occurs.
Ownership is not supposed to be assigned to "what" but to HOW. That HOW needs to be non-trivial. It needs to be something that can't be replicated by some student.
Patents need to be real inventions, not college homework assignments.

--
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:Do it yourself by Tough+Love · 2012-09-01 12:43 · Score: 4, Insightful

I've been responsible for converting more than a dozen people from Apple to Android now, and Apple's bad acting is all the encouragement I need to redouble my efforts. Not that it takes much convincing. Basically, demonstrate the Google connectivity, show the hardware features (standard usb is a big deal for just about everybody) compare the free and open Android app scene to Apple and it's a done deal. Oh and the price of course, especially the Nexus 7.The bottom line is, a Google logo is just a lot more sought after these days than a half eaten apple.
Another way to seal the deal, bring along a couple of Nexus tablets and demo a video chat using Google Talk, which is based on free-and-open Jabber/XMPP. A pair of magic videochat devices for $200 each, how can you beat that?

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When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Re:Do it yourself by Tough+Love · 2012-09-01 12:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

Any organization with two or more people will be guilty of "bad corporate behavior" in someone's opinion.
Most try to steer clear of the "actively destructive" perception that Apple is building for itself.

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When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Re:Do it yourself by StripedCow · 2012-09-01 12:56 · Score: 5, Funny

Perhaps Slashdot can start by changing the Apple icon, just like we had the Borg icon for Microsoft.
For Apple, I'd say something with a snake will do.

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If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Re:Do it yourself by atlasdropperofworlds · 2012-09-01 14:16 · Score: 5, Interesting

Asking for money is one thing. Seeking to ban products is quite another. Most patent cases between active tech companies get settled out of court, usually in a cross-licensing deal. Google's lawsuit will probably be settled that way, and both companies will continue on - no products banned.
Apple, on the other hand, just doesn't believe in real competition. They obviously aren't secure enough in their own products and capabilities, so they seek to ban other, arguably better, products from the market.
Re:Do it yourself by Sancho · 2012-09-01 14:47 · Score: 5, Interesting

Most don't fully get it or see the importance, but that doesn't matter either because they will easily get the fact that Android devices deliver a lot more value for the dollar and have a lot more good quality free stuff.
That's a matter of opinion.
I went from Palm to Windows Mobile to Apple to PalmOS to Android. Apple absolutely delivers the best experience, followed by PalmOS, then Android.
I hated Android. Seriously, with a passion. I loved the idea--a modern, open-source phone where I could install anything I wanted. In practice, I never found anything worth installing that wasn't in the market, the free apps were all ad-laden (taking up valuable screen real estate and slowing things down), the source was incomplete (drivers) and the phone vendor tried to lock the phone (and claimed that overriding it would void the warranty.) I couldn't even find paid versions of some classes of app that I wanted in order to avoid the ads because free apps are a race-to-the-bottom (on both platforms.) Paid apps seemingly have a hard time competing when there's any free version out there that isn't just a demo. The scrolling was horrible--I felt like I was using gestures to perform unrelated actions rather than directly controlling the on-screen elements. This probably sounds like a minor gripe, but UX is a rather important part of any design. I understand most of the UX is fixed in ICS. Maybe I'll give it a shot when my contract is up. Probably not, though--I'm practically locked into the ecosystem such that I the cost/benefit skews more in Apple's favor.
Regardless, due to the customizations, philosophical differences between vendors, and varying degrees of carrier influence, it's really not fair to compare Apples to Androids. You really need to compare specific phones (and specific OS versions). You might say Android is better, but I could show you phones being sold in stores today which offer a vastly worse experience and are as locked down as the phones being sold by Apple today. At the top end (best Android phone in all categories compared to best iPhone), things get tighter, but the price also get closer, if not exactly the same (16GB GS3 and the 16GB iPhone 4s cost the same.)
Re:Do it yourself by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-01 15:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

How about three different convictions or case settling of price fixing? Samsung has paid over a billion dollars in settlements or fines for price fixing in the DRAM, LCD display, and mobile phone markets.
But they've got a nice shiny halo over their heads around here for reasons passing understanding.
Re:Do it yourself by fredprado · 2012-09-01 16:14 · Score: 5, Informative

Google gets nothing by banning XBoxes, simply because it does not sell video game consoles. Obviously they are not trying to ban anything, they want just a slice of the pie.

Microsoft patents troll Google for money. Google patents troll Microsoft for money. They make agreements and continue to be. That is basically a zero sum game. Obviously it helps no one but the lawyers but it does not harm the consumer.

Apple is trying to patents troll Samsung into oblivion so they don't need to compete anymore and can have a legal monopoly over smartphones and tablets, and US courts apparently are fine with monopolies and Crony Capitalism so they get away with this.
Re:Do it yourself by Aryden · 2012-09-01 21:48 · Score: 3, Informative

That's interesting, I have been buying samsung monitors for years now. I have a house and office full of them. Anytime there is any issue at all, we send the monitor back and we get a replacement within weeks. I mean dead pixels, faulty speakers, scratches on the front panel, anything at all.
Re:Do it yourself by lsatenstein · 2012-09-02 04:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

Wait, so you bought an consumer electronics device from them well over a decade ago, it had a feature on it that didn't work very well for your purposes, and you want to throw them in the same category as crApple? I thought that I had a grudge about Apple through their recent behaviour, ever increasingly closed O/S, and hardware that is becoming more and more difficult (read impossible) to upgrade - but your grudge is slightly alarming... and you got your money back from Best Buy!
As a former Apple employee and dedicated user of their products (I may have bordered on fanboy at one point), I've become so sick of Apple's despicable practices and direction that I've given my iPad to my wife and replaced it with a Google Nexus, replaced my iPhone (goodbye unlimited data!) with a Samsung S3, and my shiny late-2011 MBP has been relegated to a secondary laptop with a nice new Dell running Linux Mint 10... However, were Apple to change their business practices/policies I would again consider using their products as they are of exceptional quality.
I have Samsung laptops, washing machine and dryers, vacuums, etc. All top top quality products. I had other samsung products (cell phones and TVs). All top quality. The one time some small electronics failed, I got an RMA after I quoted the date of purchase and the serial number on the device. They sent me a new one.
If it was for a TV or washer, they have certified repair organizations. Can't beat that.
Now for the major factor. Their products performs better than the average. Like all manufacturers, from car to home appliances, etc. they buy a few of the competing products, figure out how they can do it better and sell a better product. It also happens to them, as you can bet a thousand dollars that Apple did that same thing with Samsung and their other competitors.
Samsung Galaxy performs better than does Apples overly priced product. Price gouging, is price gouging, and using the courts in every possible way to harm competition (they learned from MS), is not what I consider acceptable.
Apple is temporarily on top. I think it will be a me too company within 5 years. And all the competitors with their patents will combine to make sure Apple dies a torturous death.

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Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada

Thanks Apple by zerodl · 2012-09-01 08:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

For limiting my choices on (good or bad) products. I could rant endlessly about this but I'd be preaching to the choir. But wow, I don't like Apple at all now because of this.

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- -= Napalm means serious BBQ =-

Re:Thanks Apple by jacks0n · 2012-09-01 09:28 · Score: 4, Informative

What you just described - making a new product by slightly altering an existing one - happens in the food world all the time with no legal issues at all.
What you didn't describe but probably intended to - copying a bread recipe - also happens all the time with no legal issues at all. When either of these things happen, the baker is thrilled. Some of them actually publish books helping you infringe on their own products!
In short, your metaphor fails to map to the primary event in every way possible. Please stick to car metaphors in the future. It's traditional.
Re:Thanks Apple by andrewa · 2012-09-01 11:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Absolute bullshit. Can you imagine the state of the automobile industry today if there had been a patent on the 'look and feel' of the original automobile, and Ford had aggressively sued other automobile manufacturers? Apple are probably the richest company in the world and they are using their excessive funds to cripple any competition with frivolous patent trolling. It will become less important to Apple to innovate if there is no competition, is that what you really want?

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:(){ :|:& };:
Re:Thanks Apple by epine · 2012-09-01 11:19 · Score: 4, Interesting

its pretty clear that Samsung would not have been selling anything even close to the Galaxy phones if they had not studied the iPhone
Never heard of enabling technology (such as high-quality low power displays)? Never heard of convergent evolution? Never noticed that many technical product categories come into existence almost overnight due to economy of scale effects?
Apple clearly benefited from work at Xerox. Without Xerox, we'd still be using text consoles. I'm not so sure Samsung benefited from work done at Apple. What Apple established was credibility of consumer demand for a new class of expensive toy.
Do they own that? Or is it just the nature of business that everyone piles on to a hot new product category?
Re:Thanks Apple by Kjella · 2012-09-01 13:58 · Score: 3, Informative

Can you imagine the state of the automobile industry today if there had been a patent on the 'look and feel' of the original automobile, and Ford had aggressively sued other automobile manufacturers?
Actually Ford would be the one being sued to hell and back by Daimler-Benz. His mass production on an assembly line was revolutionary but he did not in any way invent the automobile.

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Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings

A small thought by jareth-0205 · 2012-09-01 08:24 · Score: 5, Interesting

In the long term, would the best outcome here be for Apple to *succeed*? I mean, if they manage to get their main competitor banned in the States, they look like a unbridled predator competing not with quality, but lawyers. (I know generally /. thinks that already, but general public perception is more important) If the reaction for those wanting a Galaxy III is going to be something along the lines of "why can't I have the shiney thing?" and turn their ire on Apple / lawmakers.

Apple might want to be careful what they wish for... the rest of the world will steam ahead unrestricted, and the case for software patents being harmful will get stronger.

Re:A small thought by dotHectate · 2012-09-01 08:51 · Score: 4, Informative

I've a friend that's flip-flopped from telling me I needed an iPhone (when I got a Galaxy SII) to telling me how wonderful his wife's Galaxy SIII is. He's not even a tech-type guy and he's talked about the Apple vs. Samsung trial specifically because he wants to get a Galaxy SIII for himself soon.
Customers are fickle (outside of the the fanboy spectrum) and will jump on whatever is "hot" at the time. That's the whole purpose of the "walled garden" that Apple - and yes, Google "Play Store" also - encourages. It's an attempt to lock people into a specific set of devices (ones that you profit from) by discouraging change. Who wants to lose music, games, etc just because there's a new device out that is a little better? The better they can convince people to stay, the more money they can extract.

So yes, outside of the walling of the gardens, I suspect people want those choices. I would find it really interesting to see people genuinely upset that they're getting taken away from them.

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Patience is a virtue, but haste is my life.
Re:A small thought by Doctor_Jest · 2012-09-01 09:08 · Score: 4, Interesting

If the Galaxy SIII is on everyone's list (looks like it's a popular phone right now), and somehow the ban goes into effect, there will be tons of pissed people who will remember that Apple told them they couldn't buy a phone they wanted. (Regardless of who implements the ban, the courts, etc... it's Apple's wish, so it's Apple's fault.)
Telling a customer "Apple banned the sales of that phone here in the US" will piss them off for a long time. It's not good to tell someone they can't buy something. :) Apple should realize this by now... but they're just trying to kill off competition (this isn't about patents... it's about market share...) The top dog (now Apple) is taking a page from every other top dog's playbook and litigating their competition now that they're #1 (or perceived as such....) It's not exclusive to Apple, of course... lots of companies do it. Steve Jobs thought Android copied his iPhone, so this is a natural extension of his nerd-rage. Trouble is, Steve's dead... the RDF is fading... people aren't going to be pleased... and Apple may reap the benefits sooner rather than later of the old phrase "don't shit where you eat."

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It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Re:A small thought by VortexCortex · 2012-09-01 09:48 · Score: 5, Interesting

That's the whole purpose of the "walled garden" that Apple - and yes, Google "Play Store" also - encourages. It's an attempt to lock people into a specific set of devices (ones that you profit from) by discouraging change. Who wants to lose music, games, etc just because there's a new device out that is a little better?
Uhm, no. There's nothing stopping Apple from installing Android on the iPhone 5. Hell, Apple could have a dual boot phone and offer some real choice. Google Play Store doesn't prevent you from buying or installing software from other sources. However, Apple will not let anyone install iOS on a Non Apple device, and actively works to prevent others from selling software to people who own iPhones.
I get what you're trying to say, but maybe you've never used Linux? I can add multiple "App Stores" (PPA's) to my OS, then get all the benefit of having trusted sources of software, and the choice of deciding who to trust for that software... There is a way to do "Walled Gardens" that allow you to unlock the gate, and visit other gardens, and even make your own garden. Android .APKs are cross platform bytecode, you can take the .APK from the repository, and install it on multiple devices... even a new one you just got. I do fault Google with not giving us easier file system access to the Android devices to make such software migration issues simple. One of the issues is that Davlik VM modifies the bytecode on installation to fix byte order, and static linking on a per machine basis, and you don't really want to keep an extra installation .APK on the system for every program you install. Side loaded apps don't have this problem, but it's not a failure of the "walled garden" / Software Repository System itself -- I frequently mirror my package cache to multiple machines on Linux so public facing bandwidth for updates is only consumed once.
DRM and 3rd party Streaming are what creates the planned obsolescence and vendor locking you're speaking of with songs and software no longer being available. However, My own DRM system is merely PKI that allows the User to accept or deny game mods made from others -- That type of DRM that puts the User in control is Good. I use a streaming system on my desktop machines that lets me stream all my media to any device -- That type of streaming where the user is in control is Good.
It's when the User is not in control of the systems they personally use and rely on that you have problems. I encourage you to read up about Free Software: RMS may be fucking weird but he's damn right.
TL;DR: You just need more control over your software -- Can you access the location where the files are and copy them to another device? If not then that's Treacherous Computing, not a "Walled Garden".

Best advertising *ever* by pla · 2012-09-01 08:28 · Score: 4, Informative

Just got mine - Thanks for giving me the push to beat your lawyers to market, Apple!

Re:Best advertising *ever* by jareth-0205 · 2012-09-01 08:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

The OS nothing but an app launcher. Only people who have nothing better to do than endlessly tweak stupid shit focuses on the OS over the app.
In that measure, Android wins. iOS is much more restrictive than Android in what it will let apps do...
Re:Best advertising *ever* by xaoslaad · 2012-09-01 08:45 · Score: 4, Interesting

Amen, when my contract was up, I didn't even think twice to ditch Apple last month after their latest round of litigation. Nice new S3. I'm sorry I ever gave them money. I, along with everyone else, have created a monster, and I am immensely sorry for that.
Re:Best advertising *ever* by andydread · 2012-09-01 12:13 · Score: 4, Informative

Yeah you omitted one important point. It was Apple that decided launch to "thermonuclear war" on Android and started suing world+dog over trivial software-patents. No one would be suing Apple had they not started this "thermonuclear war" against Android. But don't let facts get in the way there...carry on.
Re:Best advertising *ever* by jrumney · 2012-09-02 01:31 · Score: 3, Insightful

Microsoft owns essential patents on exFAT, which is mandated by the SD card consortium for SDXC cards. Microsoft has also been quietly reducing the size of FAT filesystems that can be supported on USB thumb drives with Windows 8, in order to force exFAT on the industry. Samsung really don't have much of a choice here - unless they go the Apple route of unexpandable devices that interface to PCs through proprietary software.
Re:Best advertising *ever* by pla · 2012-09-02 05:56 · Score: 3, Insightful

The problem being, let me reiterate yet again, is that the Iphone does what people need and want it to do.

I want to see a map of drone strikes in Pakistan. I want to tether my netbook to my cellular data plan. I want to run an NES emulator. I want to run a torrent client. I want to get music and apps but hate iTunes. I want to play games with violent and/or pornographic content.

The iGarden most certainly does not do what I need and want it to do, simple as that.

Dear Apple: by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-01 08:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

Get fucked. Seriously. You got what you wanted thanks to an incompetent judge and a jury with conflicts of interest. You can't go about trying to use that as a cudgel to ban things that weren't even in the original case.

It's funny how Jobs once said Apple has always been "shameless in stealing great ideas." Yet when you think someone else has done the same thing to you (regardless of evidence or prior art), you clowns get your panties in a bunch and start stamping your feet, crying to the courts, and whining about "going thermonuclear" on Android. Well, guess what, idiots. You can't shamelessly copy ideas then cry foul when you believe you're the one being copied. It doesn't work that way.

To close, Jobs was a great businessman. But he was also a COLOSSAL douchebag with no sense of perspective or grip on reality. I thought when he died that rational heads would prevail in Cupertino. Apparently I was wrong. This fucker's cult of personality is so strong that even now people worship him like he was some sort of deity.

So yes, Apple. You can go fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, because you're pissing away whatever good-will you may have had left. One day, the drooling iZealots will wake up and get off of the trend-whore treadmill.

--Pretentious signature about what device I'm posting from. In this case, my Galaxy S3

Re:Dear Apple: by subreality · 2012-09-01 10:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

They can, they should, and they must. They have a legal obligation to maximize profits. ... If they don't, they can be sued by the shareholders, and the entire board of directors could be thrown out.
Bullshit. They have an obligation to represent the interests of the shareholders. I am a shareholder in several companies, and I am interested in ethical behavior over profits.
That aside, I don't even think it's a good strategy to maximize profits: it may work short term, but turning the patent cold war into a shooting war is going to hurt everyone in the arena long term, Apple included.

Good? by taxman_10m · 2012-09-01 08:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

This is partly because of Samsung's stuff they stuck on top of vanilla android, right? I have an HTC phone and hate the Sense stuff. It would be great if this prompts phone manufacturer's to ditch their own UI "enhancements" for vanilla android, thus leaving any UI patent problems on Google's lap.

What I want to know is by Progman3K · 2012-09-01 08:35 · Score: 3, Funny

What happens when the level of ridiculous goes above 100% ?

Do smartphone lawsuits instantly get replaced by something even funnier?

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I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by gl4ss · 2012-09-01 08:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

They seek nothing less than a complete monopoly on the smart phone market.

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" - Steve Jobs, 1994

well... they want the parts cheaper, it's no good if they have to compete for cpu production capacity with samsung. but in the end apple by this way is going to end up the same way as many calculator assembly companies did.. when chip manufacturers like ti&others started making their own calculators - apple has been trying to avoid that a bit, but just a bit(don't quote bullshit how they have their own chip, pls). if they could really force everyone else with their "oh boy we've patented it(but don't ask exactly what!)" to stop producing phones.

the next iphone better do blowjobs and come with a 20g bag of coke for people to buy it - if they're now injunction happy because they don't have anything new than a new screen size then it doesn't really bode that well for apple(not that I care, they're closed garden snobby shithole platform with super short self life for their platforms).

I just wish nokia would have taken them to injunction city instead of ceding into the unholy 3 way circle jerk party-truce in exchange of some cash(from apple) with ms and apple(that's the plan - ms+apple duopoly in desktops, tablets and phones, because android started crashing their party like nothing before on computer-like consumer devices).

but complete monopoly is no good for either of them, they learnt that big way in the '90s.. fake competition whilst blocking everyone else from the market is much better.

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world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.

Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-01 08:40 · Score: 4, Funny

This summary doesn't make grammatical or syntactical sense.

So you're not contect?

Re:A more fitting punishment by mickwd · 2012-09-01 08:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'd rather Samsung be allowed to sell its products in the US.

No AND.

It sucks monkey balls to live in the US! by blind+biker · 2012-09-01 08:57 · Score: 4, Insightful

You got Apple dictating what is and what isn't acceptable to be sold in the US. Now you'll have to smuggle the goods from the rest of the world.

Fucking pathetic!

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"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.

Irreparably harming Apple? by amRadioHed · 2012-09-01 08:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

It seems it would be a hard argument to make that anything was doing irreparable harm to Apple when they are currently the largest publicly traded company in the world.

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We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace

Re:Irreparably harming Apple? by Tough+Love · 2012-09-01 13:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

You know who's irreparably harming Apple? Apple.

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When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by symbolset · 2012-09-01 09:02 · Score: 5, Funny

Samsung gives Windows Phone token support. In return they get better license cost on Windows. But instead of being mass produced in a Chinese sweatshop these token Windows Phones are lovingly handcrafted in Whittier California by a wizened old former TV repairman named Hank. Hank is semi-retired and only works 15 hours a week, but he has no trouble keeping up with the global demand.

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Help stamp out iliturcy.

Banning them will make them more fashionable by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-09-01 09:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

Flaunting something not available for sale in the US definitely has a lot of "bling" value. Just like banning songs from radio broadcast in the UK would increase the sales of records. Hollywood stars, rappers and such will flash them around.

So it might be illegal in the US to sell them. Will it also be illegal to posses one? Will the folks smuggling drugs in a tunnel under the kids on my front lawn, switch to smuggling banned phones?

If I was a South Korean diplomat in the US, I would smugly hand Samsung phones out as diplomatic gifts.

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Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!

Ban the 'phone designed by lawyers'? by knarf · 2012-09-01 09:07 · Score: 4, Interesting

Remember what the press was saying when Samsung debuted the SIII?

The Samsung Galaxy S III: The First Smartphone Designed Entirely By Lawyers

And now Fruit wants to ban this lawyer-designed phone? Well smoke me a kipper, either the reality distortion field seems to cause lasting damage or they are communicating with St. Steve through an Ouija board. In any case it does not make sense. And they think they can gain what by doing this? Respect? Money? Time? What, exactly?

As far as I can see all they earn by going on a sueing spree is ridicule, contempt and hatred. For some reason many people seem to get almost religiously attached to their mobile gadgets, and Fruit now acts as if they are the Church of Scientology. Bad fruit. Soon anonymous will start staking out their sales churches.

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--frank[at]unternet.org

Not about hate, not a choir by fm6 · 2012-09-01 09:12 · Score: 4, Insightful

Why is Apple the bad guy?

Because they're basically out to force Android phones off the market.

And being critical of Apple doesn't make you an Apple hater, any more than pointing out all the problems with Android (version fragmentation, lousy development tools) makes you an Android hater. Some of us simply want to have a serious alternative to iOS devices that only run what Apple says they can run,

Re:Not about hate, not a choir by fm6 · 2012-09-01 11:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

You can use a Blackberry, Windows Phone, even Samsung's own Bada OS.

Oh great, I can switch to an outdated platform that nobody's writing applications for, or I can try to forget my previous bad experiences and hope that MS has finally figured out how to do a mobile OS. Thanks a lot.

I'm not going to cheer for a for-profit company over another, no matter how less "evil" they look.
As I think I've already made clear, this isn't about hating Apple or loving Google. This is about Apple using bad IP laws to obtain market dominance. This is a bad thing.
Which is not to say that other companies (including Google) don't also do bad things. It's just that this bad thing is the one a lot of us really care about right now.

Re:Misattributed quote. by speederaser · 2012-09-01 09:13 · Score: 4, Interesting

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" - Steve Jobs, 1994

This is a misattributed quote. It should more correctly be attributed to either Pablo Picasso (an overrated artist) or Igor Stravinsky (an excellent composer).

Both of you are correct, pretty much. Pablo Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" in 1934. And here is a link of Steve Jobs saying "Good artists copy, great artists steal" in 1996.

Funny how the profit motive so strongly affects the moral belief system.

Re:Misattributed quote. by Nerdfest · 2012-09-01 09:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Yes, he even stole that quote.

Re:Snore. I really don't get the Apple Hater Choir by Nerdfest · 2012-09-01 09:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

The LG Prada, the Palm Treo, and The BlackBerry are all lined up outside and would like a word with you about copying others.

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by ThePeices · 2012-09-01 09:39 · Score: 5, Funny

Apple already has a 100% monopoly in the iOS market.

Universities and Apple Products by betterunixthanunix · 2012-09-01 09:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

The prevalence of Apple products at universities is no accident; Apple is pushing hard, and universities are basically bending over and promoting Apple products. Windows is sticking around because a few programs are training students to use Windows software (especially MS Office), but a typical college classroom looks like this:

http://potpiedeluxe.com/files/2011/02/apple-think-different.jpg

Suggesting that universities promote a free/libre OS is met with all sorts of derision and skepticism, usually of the form, "Yeah but nobody has any familiarity with that, and it is hard to use, and this is a university so students do not have the time to learn something unfamiliar!"

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Palm trees and 8

Re:Universities and Apple Products by erroneus · 2012-09-01 10:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

Note the absense of Apple in business and government. They aren't interested in meeting anyone's standards but their own.
Re:Universities and Apple Products by betterunixthanunix · 2012-09-01 14:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

What difference does that make? Free operating systems are not Unix-like because Unix is some great OS design (it is good, but there are better things out there), they are Unix-like because that was the most expedient choice in 1984. If the FSF had been founded today, GNU would be Windows-like and we would be saying things like, "Well at least its Windows!"

Not only that, but using Mac OS X is nothing like GNU/Linux or even the BSD on which Mac OS X is based. When last I checked, X11 was not even installed by default these days, and the terminal is not immediately available from the base install (yes, I am sure it is not terribly hard to find; it is also not hard to find in Windows, but when I install something like RHEL, the out-of-the-box DE has a terminal icon right there, ready for me to explore or to use). It is absurd to think that any but a small minority of Mac OS X users will discover a "better Unix," because only a small minority of Mac OS X users will ever see anything even remotely Unix-like when they use their computer.

Universities are no exception to what I said. It is not as though they are encouraging students to use Mac OS X, then teaching them how to write shell scripts as part of some "basic computer usage" class. When a student is having a problem, they just bring their computer to the help desk and have someone else fix it for them. If a student cannot find the program they are looking for, they just go to the computer center to find out what shrink-wrapped off-the-shelf software they should buy, assuming their teacher did not tell them already. We are not raising a generation of Unix hackers when we encourage our college students to use Macs.

Yes, your CS department is different; there, the students are learning to program, so they will find their way to a terminal one way or another, and there are hackers in every CS department who will show people how to install a free OS. Even within CS departments, you see an awful lot of Apple customers these days...

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Palm trees and 8

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by Clsid · 2012-09-01 09:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

The thing is, that Apple by the very definition of their business model, will never be able to reach a 100% monopoly. As a GNOME developer was pointing out, all the success that Apple is having only gave them about 7.5% market share on the desktop, they have been surpassed already by Android on smartphones and their only remaining bastion is the iPad which I think with Windows 8 devices, will truly have a run for its money.

Stop worrying so much, since at best, Apple can be like the Prada or Gucci of computers. Expensive, well designed items that fill a certain niche, but very unlikely to become mainstream but for the shortest periods of time.

Re:Snore. I really don't get the Apple Hater Choir by siddesu · 2012-09-01 10:33 · Score: 4, Interesting

Don't forget the"retina displays" of Sharp and Toshiba in 06, as well as the app markets of the Japanese carriers. There is a lot of copying in every "revolutionary" design out there.

Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? by erroneus · 2012-09-01 10:40 · Score: 4, Insightful

Apple has been evil on Slashdot for a long time.

For some, it was what they did to Franklin. For others, it was how the screwed over Apple records where they allowed Apple to use their name with the agreement that they never go into the music business. (They are now big in the music business with iTunes.) There are lots of reasons Apple is evil. The Apple vs Samsung thing is only the most recent reason.

Re:Thermonuclear by Miamicanes · 2012-09-01 11:52 · Score: 4, Interesting

No, "thermonuclear" would be Google mustering all of its available resources to get Android ported to the iPhone 5 within a month of its release, complete with "Nexus A" boot animation featuring an Android eating an Apple and pooping out a phone whose display expands to fill the whole screen at the end of the animation.

Apple would still be selling hardware, of course... a lot of it, in fact... but Google would be skimming 100% of the "Market" revenue and "Maps ads" revenue from any iPhone 5 reflashed to Android. Apple is probably selling iPhones at a small loss, with the expectation of making back the difference from other fees. Imagine if they found themselves in the position of Sony -- selling devices at a small loss like hotcakes, knowing they'd never see another cent from those same devices once they left their hands.

The goal, of course, wouldn't be to just make iPhones a first-rate Android hardware platform -- it would be to goad Apple into locking down new iPhones against jailbreaking and reflashing really, REALLY HARD. As in, "Motorola hard". Instantly, Apple would alienate their most influential and enthusiastic group of hardcore users, and drive them away from the platform. Consumers would scramble to buy new old stock iPhones that weren't locked down, and angrily return the ones that ended up being locked down anyway. More consumer ire.

Keep in mind, Google would lose nothing from this. A phone running Android is a phone running Android, insofar as Google revenue is concerned. It would be a bit of a gamble, because it would obviously horrify Samsung and HTC (who might, or might not, buy into the logic of using the move to force Apple's hand and goad them into totally locking down IOS devices against reflashing unapproved firmware). Ultimately, though, this isn't about money for Apple -- it's about control. If it were just about money, Apple would shake down Samsung for royalties and move along to HTC & LG. I can't think of any single act of guerrilla terrorism Google could do to Apple that would more effectively undermine the control Apple is determined to exercise than porting Android to Apple's newest and best hardware.

Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? by dmesg0 · 2012-09-01 12:08 · Score: 4, Informative

Apple is evil, period.
Not only on Slashdot, everywhere.
It's time to FSF to restart its Boycott Apple program from 199x. The things Apple does are far worse now than back then.

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by dmesg0 · 2012-09-01 12:14 · Score: 4, Informative

That may or not be true, but the fact remains that someone may have violated another's patent. If you don't go after them, then you lose rights to said patent. Besides, if you are a company and feel someone is violating your IP, it would be silly not to do something about it.

You are confusing patents and trademarks. Please get your facts straight before commenting.
And most of that IP is considered as such only because of the crappy US patent system.

Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? by Yahma · 2012-09-01 12:52 · Score: 4, Interesting

Agreed. Apple's heavy handed tactics and use of patents to stymie simple ideas that are no-brainers only hurts me (and other consumers). I've already been affected by Apple's behavior, in that my Google Nexus has had Local search feature removed (in the US), because Apple won an injunction against Samsung. C'mon, Local Search!? How different is that from "global" search? Google's been offering local search on its search engine for years now. Apple is EVIL period. I will never support them by purchasing their products, and will do everything I can to undermine their marketshare as well.

Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo by dmesg0 · 2012-09-01 12:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

Regardless of why, its still IP that they must defend. Don't like it, change the laws, until then shut your pie hole.

True, you have to defend trademarks, but you must defend patents too.

That's total BS, no law says you have to defend your patents, especially the bogus ones for obvious ideas. Well, unless you are a patent troll, in that case I agree, you absolutely have to do that.

IBM is an example of company that never sues for patents unless being sued by others.
And I believe it's you, sir, who definitely must stuff all your shiny itoys into all of your iholes, and stop insulting others' intelligence with childish replies.

SIII != iphone by sl4shd0rk · 2012-09-01 13:05 · Score: 4, Interesting

The SIII is like twice the size of an iphone. Nobody would ever confuse the two, no matter how rectangular or rounded or rows of icons. Microsoft never even took douchebaggery to this level.

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Apple's continuing douche-baggery by Yahma · 2012-09-01 13:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

Back in April 2011, Apple's trade dress infringement claims against Samsung went like this:

a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded;
the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders;
as to the iPhone and iPod touch products, substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly equal width and narrower black borders on either side of the screen having roughly equal width;
as to the iPad product, substantial black borders on all sides being roughly equal in width;
a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface;
a display of a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners; and
a bottom row of square icons (the "Springboard") set off from the other icons and that do not change as the other pages of the user interface are viewed.
That is basically a list of things you aren't allowed to do. Now, individually, those traits aren't worthy of a lawsuit. It's the combination of those things that will send Apple Legal over to kick down your door. The Galaxy SIII was designed from the start to not infringe on any of the above; yet Apple, in their continuing douche-baggery, has now brought up more ridiculous patents to use against the SIII.
Fuck You Apple!

Re:US Patents lead to technological backwater by flyingfsck · 2012-09-01 17:21 · Score: 5, Informative

"The land of the free" has been a joke to everyone outside of the US for decades. -- Hundreds of years actually. The underground railroad has always run from the USA to Canada, and not the other way around.

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Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!

Re:US Patents lead to technological backwater by Silas+is+back · 2012-09-01 18:28 · Score: 3, Informative

I've been following this on Groklaw for a while, and it's obvious yet again how badly the US patent system is broken when Apple can patent a rectangle with rounded corners and succeed in banning devices of the same shape, and yet refuse to licence the basic technology that is needed for the phone to actually behave like a phone and make calls.

You may be glad to hear that the "rounded rectangle" patent, design patent 504,889, was actually NOT found to be infringed, meaning Apple can NOT patent a rectangle with rounded corners.

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