Slashdot Mirror
Apple's Legal Fight With Samsung Revealed a Gold Mine of Top-Secret Information (bgr.com)
An anonymous reader writes with this story about how the Apple vs. Samsung battle brought to light the inner workings of Apple product development. BGR reports: "Following a contentious patent battle that raged on for nearly five years, Samsung last week finally agreed to pay Apple $548 million in damages for infringing upon a number of iPhone and iPad patents. While Samsung may still be holding out hope that it may someday recover those millions, it seems that we can finally start closing the book on the most widely publicized patent dispute in recent memory, one which saw Apple and Samsung battle it out in courtrooms across all corners of the globe.
One of the more interesting aspects of Apple's legal battle with Samsung is that it gave us an unprecedented look behind the veil of secrecy that typically shrouds all aspects of Apple's product development and day-to-day operations. Over the course of discovery, innumerable court filings, and a fascinating trial, the inner workings of Apple were brought to the forefront for the fist time in history. From photographs of iPhone prototypes to how Apple conducts market research, Apple's legal battles with Samsung provided tech enthusiasts with a treasure trove of previously top-secret information.
With Samsung now agreeing to pony up for damages, we thought it'd be a good time to take a step back, reminisce, and take a look at some of the more interesting nuggets of information the hard-fought patent dispute brought to light."
One of the more interesting aspects of Apple's legal battle with Samsung is that it gave us an unprecedented look behind the veil of secrecy that typically shrouds all aspects of Apple's product development and day-to-day operations. Over the course of discovery, innumerable court filings, and a fascinating trial, the inner workings of Apple were brought to the forefront for the fist time in history. From photographs of iPhone prototypes to how Apple conducts market research, Apple's legal battles with Samsung provided tech enthusiasts with a treasure trove of previously top-secret information.
With Samsung now agreeing to pony up for damages, we thought it'd be a good time to take a step back, reminisce, and take a look at some of the more interesting nuggets of information the hard-fought patent dispute brought to light."
You seriously think there is a secret in the success of the always-deficient-apple-hardware? All their devices are worse performing than their competitors. This is not secret nazi technology.
That was just stupid.
I want the physiological details of how the Jesus Phone incarnated parthenogenetically and triumphed over mortality.
The rest is just CEO trashtalk which amounts to nothing.
>> how Apple conducts market research
I thought Apple didn't conduct market research. http://appleinsider.com/articl...
> AppleDontCare
That's the truth. I bought a new MacBook with AppleCare last night, and it wouldn't boot out of the box. They wanted to give me a refurbished one as a replacement. I bought a new laptop so I don't want a used one. I left the laptop with them and ordered another from MacMall (no sales tax!). They said they would only refund a part (90%) of what they charged me for the laptop since it was opened. Looks like I need to do a chargeback.
They would fix my MacBook with ApplCare since it was over 36 months since it had been manufactured. I bought it 29 months ago.
All of my Intel Apples crash more than ten times as often as the PowerPC ones did.
Those octagon-like corners might be a good way to get around Apple's patent on rounded corners. Could've saved Samsung half a billion dollars.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The Intel ones crash pretty often. It sucks that they decided to shove such crappy CPUs down our throats.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Republicans have the reverse Midas touch. Everything they touch turns to shit.
AppleDontCare is correct. The SSD quit in my nine month old MacBook, but they refused to replace it. At least I drove a few customers off when they overheard how Apple was screwing me.
.... that says absolutely nothing.
Forstall cryptically told them that if they opted to join, they would have to “work hard, give up nights, work weekends for years.” Not mincing words, Forstall also told prospective team members: “If you choose to accept this role, you will work harder than you ever have in your entire life.”
You see, this is why I don't get hired for these things. I'd ask what my increase in pay is going to be. And in Cupertino, CA with those work hours and demands, I'd be looking for $500K per year - at the minimum. See, all the free California shit pizza in the World isn't good enough compensation.
But, there's a huge line behind me of people with no money sense or lives who jumped at that chance. That's their choice. But when you wake up one day in your late thirties, alone and with diminishing career opportunities, you ask yourself how you could be so stupid to devote so much of your life to a job. And there's this jab of pain when you see some of your classmates who pursued less demanding careers that have a loving spouse and family. And then your job is off-shored.
No, but you did miss the part where you're being way too literal; and how the phrase "top secret" has come to mean much more than just a classification by the US Government in common language like 30 years ago.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
if you are making a smartphone, and you have to make sure that your design doesn't infringe upon their patents. It's kinda like how Coca-Cola and Pepsi have a tendency to avoid making identical formulas.
The real issue, however, lies in whether one group unintentionally made a design error BECAUSE the information to prevent them from doing so was unavailable.
I already have an appointment the Saturday before Chrisrmas at the Apple Store to try to lose them as much business as I can. My laptop is only six months old, and they won't fix it.
If you don't like the CPUs that Apple uses now, feel free to go back to the mobile PowerPC G4 of 12 years ago. IBM wasn't going to make a low-power G5, because they just couldn't do it, and the POWER6 next-gen CPU family was going to be even more wattage thirsty.
This is why Apple jumped. PowerPC was a dead end for applications that didn't involve the cooling capacity of a data center.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
For those who don't know, Samsung marketed this digital picture frame in 2006, long before the iPad was even a rumor, and even pre-dating the iPhone. Notice how the front looks identical to the later Samsung tablets, just with bigger bezels and no button. And it contains all of the distinctive elements of the original iPad that Apple sued over except the home button - flat, rounded corners, black bezels with white/silver edges. As if Apple simply ripped off Samsung's design, then turned around and sued Samsung for ripping them off.
The argument against that version of history has always been that the back of the picture frame looks nothing like the back of the iPad. Well, now we have this image of the back of an early iPad prototype, lending support to the theory that Apple used Samsung's picture frame as a starting point for their iPad design.
Let us celebrate fists!
What is their excuse for not fixing it? You don't even need AppleCare; it's still under warranty.
Am I missing something?
no, it's all about click-baits.
mfwright@batnet.com
Seagate did that to me. They claimed the warranty started when the drive was made instead of when I bought it. Sad to see Apple pulling the same crap.
I've been to five different Apple stores about the problem with my new MacBook's keyboard. They've lost customers at every single one of them when they overheard the problem. I'm sure I cost them hundreds of times over what a new keycap costs.
My e key is coming apart and has sharp edges. It's a simple, but annoying problem.
It's amazing how they'll piss off people by not honoring the warranty in front of other customers! That is so stupid.
Send a letter to:
Customer Service
Apple, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
I've managed about forty or so Apple laptops with AppleCare at work since 2002, and every single time I've gone to they store, they have refused to fix the problem, even if it was something as simple as a keycap that was falling apart or the little scissors under the keycap. Those parts cost less than a $1, but Apple still decides to screw the customer over them. Officially, and I confirmed this with an Apple exec,they have a policy against fixing those two parts in the store. They're supposed to mail the laptop in for repair. Because the store is judged on the number of laptops they send in for repair, they certainly don't want to do that for something so cheap.
Send them a snail mail letter. Every single time I have done that, Apple has eventually agreed to honor AppleCare.
Like most garage sales the stuff was mostly someone else's crap that you wouldn't want for yourself. Apple's reaction to Samsung's âoeThe next big thing is already hereâ ad campaign was interesting though.
Top Secret is a classification given to sensitive government information. It is not related to Trade Secrets in the least. There was no Top Secret information revealed in the court filings. If there were people would be getting indicted for mishandling classified information.
Seagate did that to me. They claimed the warranty started when the drive was made instead of when I bought it. Sad to see Apple pulling the same crap.
Wait, what?!? They can do that?
How are we supposed to know when buying when a drive was manufactured? This sounds downright illegal.
Did you miss the part where you aren't being literal enough? Wtf is the difference between a Trade 'Secret' and a Trade 'Top Secret'?
Top Secret is a classification given to sensitive government information. It is not related to Trade Secrets in the least. There was no Top Secret information revealed in the court filings. If there were people would be getting indicted for mishandling classified information. Just because YOU use the term too loosely doesn't change the fact that only STATE SECRETS, not TRADE SECRETS, can be classified as TOP SECRET.
Apple had options. P.A. Semi's PWRficient processor would have been a better way forward. Instead, they dumped PPC for a crappy 32-bit Intel chip, and then had to maintain two x86 architectures. Afterward, they bought P.A. Semi for the team, tossed their fine processor, and set them to work on Apple ARM chips. Lots of churn for what the PPC could have delivered from the very start.
Government data classification markers have specific syntax. Just saying 'Top Secret', also in a government setting, is at most an indication, not binding (for one, because there are more countries that speak English, for example). For classification markers to be legally binding, they must follow certain rules (where the info came from, and who has need-to-know). Also, companies these days have data classification systems. They don't have legal redress of course, but they can fire you and/or try to have you fined in a civil court. A classification system helps to define the damage done.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
With hard disks, the mfr date is listed on the box.
My 2003 PowerPC 17" PowerBook lasted longer on battery than any of my Dell laptops of the same era. Also, it ran cooler than the Dells. On the iBooks, that also used a PowerPC, I can't remember ever even hearing the fan run, unlike on the Dells. They should have stuck with quality CPUs rather than moving to the bottom of the barrel Intel ones.
I can't remember my PowerBook ever crashing a single time in the three years I had it. My new MacBook Pro crashes several times a month.
With hard disks, the mfr date is listed on the box.
What happens if you buy it online?
I had no issue getting AppleCare reset to my purchase date for what otherwise would have been an out of warranty repair. Perhaps you didn't keep that receipt? Receipts are important.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
If I could expect "glory", big stock, and/or resume credit, I may have considered such when younger.
I've actually been promised similar things, BUT the owners flaked in the end or the product flopped. I roughly cloned Ebay in 4 weeks once under such pretenses. (I was cross-eyed at the end.)
9 times out of 10 when you are asked to "sell your soul for glory", there's nothing at the end of the tunnel but bulls8t and disappointment. But, the young and restless often like such gambles even if success is unlikely.
I recommend it at least ONCE in your life, before or after you have a family to support. When you get older you then won't kick yourself for not trying when you had the stamina or time. I'm disappointed I never made it big from such gambles, but glad I tried a couple of times.
Table-ized A.I.
... and it's so long. Might as well just replace the summary with a link to the original article, what a complete waste of reading time.
You wasted more than $1 on gas just driving there. Just buy a bag of them and fix it yourself.
> Just buy a bag of them and fix it yourself.
How? Apple doesn't sell them and claims that all that you see on ebay are stolen. I know most of the sellers are scammers since I've bought keycaps at least four times from ebay, and I haven't received a keycap yet.
Apple's policy is that you have to pay for an entire top cover replacement to fix a broken key. They quoted $800 for that for my late-2012 MacBook.
I's all in the secret sauce. Apple has macic elves hidden away.
I'm surprised Apple's lawyers allowed their secret corporate practices to be publically revealed.
Does anyone seriously "reminisce" about the internal processes used by a random company they have no real stake in? If the answer is yes then I'd prefer to die sooner rather than later.
I don't know if this will help but it might. See, there's nothing to worry about. They're probably not wanting to have sex with you. Finally, the odds of finding a rapist in a group of transgendered or hermaphroditic people are probably lower than the odds one might have of winning the lottery. In other words, it shouldn't be very high on your list of concerns.
If, by some strange turn of events, you find yourself encountering one of these folks who is acting in a sexually threatening manner then you might just as well as play the lottery.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Sadly? Caveat Emptor, probably.
However, you may have something known as a "warranty of applied merchantability" in your state. Check your local regulations. I'll leave you to Google it but, in short, it's something that businesses either hope you know nothing about or lack the will to make use of it. However, you may well have an implied warranty in your State even if the company doesn't know this or wish to admit it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I contacted them by email about updating warranty to purchase date. They gave me a toll free number to call and update. I believe I'll also need to email them a copy of invoice, which is reasonable. Not open on weekends, so you just reminded me to do that.
I believe with WDC, you can update online if you sign up for an account.