I know I'm going ot be hit with "troll" or "underrated" following. I've been modded down before for just pointing out a fact. Hell, the post you were replying has already been hit by the anti-apple folks. Still, let me reply to this:
Apple invests heavily in marketing.
I'm not going to say that Apple doesn't invest in marketing. They do. But they are not "heavily" investing either. I've read several articles that say so. This article is one of them. There's several others. Many here at/. say that Apple is popular just because of advertising, but that is not the true. They also say that the iphone only become popular because of ads. Which is not true either. In fact, I see a lot more Verizon's Droid ads than anything else (and now with a free droid!). Oh and in the web I see a lot more motorola flip ads (another droid phone) than anything else. I don't care which one is best, I have none of them. But just saying that Apple invests heavily is not true.
The Popular Sciene magazine on the ipad only about 25MB. Downloading 500 megs is just crazy, specially if they are doing in app sales for future issues. The PS magazine does the in app sales. I'm pretty sure that the Time magazine also does the in app sales too. The problem with those magazines and several newspapers is that they have very high prices. $5 for an issue is insane.
I think the PS magazine is very close to the Wired one, except for videos and so many ads: Video of PS mag (fast forward to the 1 min mark).
Not "if," OSX has a lot of open source in it. You can download the kernel (named Darwin) and some utilities from their open source website. Another good web page with Apple's open source software information is http://www.apple.com/opensource/ . There you can see what project is being used by the different Apple applications or utilities.
how come nobody's made some modifications to not check for Apple's BIOS
There are several websites out there with info and utilities to get OS X running on almost any PC out there (drivers can be a hassle tho). Apple has not done much to stop them, except of course of Psystar that was actually trying to run a business around cloning Macs. Try this one, I think it should send you in the right direction http://www.osx86project.org/
3) make sure it is very well optimized for flash video
See, the problem with that is that only Adobe can "make sure" that their flash player can be well optimized for any device. They have failed to do so for Macs (and linux damn it!). If say, Flash was on the iphone and it was pretty bad or just not good enough, problems with battery life, CPU being hammered by the flash player, crashes, etc would be pointed at Apple by the majority of the public. Apple doesn't want to be blamed for that. They want to control their own system. On top of that, if the flash player worked better on the Android or RIM, then apple would look pretty bad in the eyes of the public. Also, if say, Apple adds new features and the flash player takes 1-2 years to take advantage of that, then those features cannot be used to differentiate their device with other devices. Apple doesn't want that either. They want to control their devices.
n many ways we have been lucky with the PC. We could have ended up with Apple or Commodore controlling the market, both the software and the hardware. Good luck getting Linux to run on a closed platform. Just see how much harder it is to get Linux on a mac, and that is the mac of the company that did NOT end up controlling the entire market.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Installing linux on a mac is as easy as installing it on a pc. The difference is that the macs do not use a BIOS, so you need to install something that helps as a boot manager (rEFIt). Apple's boot manager doesn't recognize linux (I think) I give you that, but at least they include a boot manager that can boot more than just their own OS (windows) and can boot from the network and from external devices. I dont think you understand what a mac actually offers.
While I dislike Gates with a passion, he did create a platform that is remarkably open. Old Borgie never cared if you watched porn on his OS. Never felt the need to keep the kiddies safe from titties. While I agree with Apples decision to ban flash from their platform, there is a danger in this.
I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't care if you use an iphone or an ipad to watch some porn. He just doesn't want to distribute it thru Apple's store. Just like Gates [MS] never distributed porn.
Then explain why you tolerate Apple banning flash
That sugar analogy didn't work. but I'm going to explain why I tolerate Apple banishing flash. I love it, because I had to use flash on a non-windows environment. It sucks. On a C2D2 mac laptop, it consumes about 80-90% CPU on some (if not most) non video flash apps. It makes the battery die faster. It makes the whole laptop run very hot. I don't want developers to feel comfortable developing for the lowest denominator (flash) that has demonstrated that sucks.
When does the line cross between protecting customers and controlling them? Would it be okay for MS to warn you that your are about to install virus? How about if they refuse to allow you to do so? How about a cheater program? A crack? You can argue for controlling such software but should MS be allowed to do so? Should Apple?
I would love for MS to warn if you are about to install a virus. And would love if they refused my parents (and other tech people) of installing it. A cheater program is not the same as a virus, so I'm not going to lump them together with viruses.
Who owns the iPad? Apple or the consumer? If MS tried to control your PC in the same way, would you tolerate it? Would you take it from Dell? Then why do you take it from Apple?
APple doesnt try to control the mac, so you cant compare it to the PC. You can comprate it with say the new Windows 7 mobile phones that will only allow silverlight apps.
That seems like a lot of police work, DA work, etc for a piece of shit phone. People will cry about IP and lost sales. Bull shit. Steve Jobs says people will stop buying iPhones because they now know a new one is in development? Are you fucking kidding me Steve? You guys release a new model every fucking year. Only a dipshit retard wouldn't know that July is new iPhone month.
It's not just Apple And Steve being butt hurt about the stole/found phone. It's about the law enforcement groups being butt hurt too. People get in trouble for posting the stupid things they have done on youtube, facebook, etc all the time. Gizmodo posted a story about what it might be a stolen iphone and on top of that said they paid for it. Very retarded of them. The news was all over the world. Now the "law" has to save face and demonstrate that if you do something illegal you will pay for it. Else, what's the point of having punishments for doing illegal stuff if you are never going to be punished. Of course, this doesn't mean that what happened is really illegal, but since it kinda seems like it might be this is why the police is investigating.
My neighbor beats her daughter and locks her in a closet and we call the Police, children's services, and they blow us the fuck off. To busy with real crimes like a missing iPhone.
If your neighbor would make a post like gizmodo about it and it would make news around the world, I bet the police and chidren's services would be there in no time. Said that, I kinda not believe you that children's services is not doing anything. Here in Texas, even parents that do nothing wrong and love their children are afraid of them. If you are really wanna do something about it, tape your neighbor and call your police. If that doesnt work, call your local TV station and/or newspaper. Once it's news the police wont have another choice than investigate. Just like they are investigating Gizmodo.
So Apple's main complaint against OHA is that its mostly proprietary?
For the love of God, the first 5 words of the damn article say that she's not part of Apple anymore... "Former T-Mobile and Apple executive"
This is kind of like Steve Job's open letter about flash where he warns that Adobe could make it proprietary at any time.
Steve Job's never said anything like that. Please re-read the SJ letter. Although I disagree with the App Store being so closed, what you are saying is just completely false.
Meanwhile no apps can be accepted at the App Store if they even mention Google...
I found it that it runs about the same for me. What I found interesting is that running it in a window makes it unbearable on windows 7, but on OSX it runs great on a window.
No, flash plugin doesn't work perfectly fine on other macs. It is a resource hog and incredibly buggy. It's the only reason Safari has crashed in the past year or two. Since I installed click to flash, I haven't had a crash. Well, that's entirely not true. Once in a while I let flash run on certain sites. When I do that, there's always the possibility of a crash. On top of that, flash on a mac is as bad as the linux implementation. It's slow. For some non video sites, certain flash animations can use more than one core. Usually those same sites, do not use that much cpu power with the windows plug in. Flash on a mac is really really awful.
I dont think this decision has anything to do with the experience. It has a lot to do with prices. A lot of companies dictate the prices their products should be sold for. Apple doesn't want the online stores to be placing their prices too low. The same happens to ps3, xbox, wii, DS, other computers, televisions, etc. I'm not sure why companies do this, but they do it a lot. It also seems like those Japanese stores were lowering their mac prices too low and Apple had to stop them... What I find very weird from your post is the following:
They deny me the convenience of expeditiously finding what I want, picking it up and simply buying it and leaving the way I can with any other consumer experience offered by any other seller of product
That's very weird, because I've found that it's actually quite the opposite. At an Apple store, you are usually greeted by an employee. You can tell them what you want and he/she will get it for you and even charge you right there on the spot. Most stores (if not all) do not have computers right there for you to pick up and then leave, they have to get them from the "back." Best Buy sometimes has some of the cheaper laptops for you to pick up, but it not that common. So all in all, I think the Apple store is the fastest if not one of the fastest. And of course the best part is that if you didnt want the employee's help, you just tell them that you are looking and they will leave you alone. Also, most of the time they say something like "Hi, welcome to the apple store, if you need help we are here to help." They dont even get in your way if you dont want to.
I think what I hate most about it is this feeling that I have stepped into an alternate reality. I am okay with this at "theme restaurants" and "renaissance fairs" and the like. It's the experience that people are actively seeking. I get that and it can be fun. But when this experience is a required "rite of passage" in order to own any of their "trophies" (err, I mean "products") I feel a surge of rejection that seems to originate in the vicinity of my stomach.
What are you talking about? Do you feel in an alternate reality when you enter Walmart? Target? Banana Republic? JC Penny? Every store has its own look and feel. The Apple store mimics their own minimalistic designs. In fact, I think this helps them a lot. The only things that pop up in their store are their own products, which is what they are selling after all.
It's even more annoying, considering a judge threw out my case against my city's bus service. I was splashed in the face by a puddle in the bus station, where I was picking up some hookers. Next day: BAM. Herpes.
Didnt it give you tourette's too? I mean, after being splashed in the face, I bet you yelled all kind of things. You should fire your lawyer and get a new one.
I'm not trying to say that other devices couldn't do those things, say an Android based tablet, but that these comparisons are kinda lame and childish. Usually, they are made by those that don't like the iPad. Here's a novel idea: Don't buy one! Or, compare the ipad with Android tablets. Then we can have a good article and hopefully some a good discussion about the topics at hand. If the courier was in production or very close to it, it would be another good item to compare to. Till then, I'm pretty sure apple and some consumers (maybe the apple fanatics) are very happy with the ipad.
Damn it. I hate replying to myself, but I forgot the facts:'( I guess I need more coffee.
According to the Nexus One specs, it has up to 7 hours of video playback. Let's assume it does 6 hours. Hell, let's assume it's 5 hours. Now, according to this flash mobil evangelist: "Our own tests show that video can be played for well over 3Hours over WIFI from youtube in H.264 (Baseline 1.2)." Then it gives an update on the blog and says: "My colleague Michael Chaize has also completed his own tests shown below. In addition to my own basic test he demonstrates the ability to play videos and gaming for over 4 hours and five hours respectively." No thank you... I prefer no flash!
To all you said, you can add: - No 64 bit Adobe products for the mac for a long time (next version will have it) - Adobe not wanting to use cocoa and releasing carbon version of the mac products
People are laughing at me when I suggest that future iMacs will have app store lockdowns and now will be "ad-supported" to boot. It's iPhone 4.0 today and OSX 11 tomorrow.
the ads are for those applications that want to make money thru ads. If developers dont want them, even on their free application, they dont have to include them. The whole thing is so that if you want to include ads, they have some hooks on the SDK so that it's easy for the developer.
also, about app store lockdown, I seriously doubt it. In fact, when steam announced that they were releasing a mac client, appleinsider interviewed them (link here). John Cook from Valve was asked if Apple was helping them. He replied: "Cook: Yes, we've been working with them a bunch as we get more acquainted with their platform. They've been a great partner so far and we look forward to growing our relationship with them over time."
So yeah, even tho some slashdot trolls and some slashdot haters do not like apple and make up stuff, what you said, it's not going to happen.
I was actually quite shocked when the Economist site went free. Beats me why - those were high-quality articles I was willing to pay for. As in, pay to access the site. Maybe they knew they were going to make more money if they had a lot of people seeing and clicking the ads than people paying for the content. I dunno.
Apparently, what I've heard is that the Kindle-WSJ deal has something to do with the price. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but that's what I heard (TWIT podcast) and read somewhere (cant remember where). They are not the only ones, the popular science mag+ app is charging 4.99 per issue. Although the app is very pretty and what not, not many are going to pay that much. I think the price will have to be adjusted if they want to sell more issues.
Old news, the Texas State capitol had to be extended almost 20 years ago. The extension is like 3 stories underground. On the top 2 or maybe all 3 stories they added some skylights and windows so that sunlight could go down into the rooms and natural light could be available. Even if you are underground, it never feels like it.
When I was growing up in the 80's there were a crap ton of electronic "systems" that I could not program or "tinker" with including the NES and the master system. At that time, I still wanted to make a game for the NES, but didnt know how. There was no google for me to search for "how to create a NES game." Kids these days can google How to create an ipad app and find ways to do so.
In fact a 13 year old kid made an ipad app and is selling it here:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ichalkboard/id322491414?mt=8
I'll go out on a limb and say kids will be all right with an ipad.
They're both agglomerations of older tech, surrounded in plastic, with identical functionality. One of them is very different because it comes in two parts?
Well, I wasn't passing judgement on the patent or the patent system. But now that you ask for my input; I think that the whole patent system including hardware (which we are talking about right now) is in pretty bad shape. Said that, as it stands, it's very possible they are different because the apple patent will be about an accessory to a system with a touch input system, while the nintendo DS is a system. I know, it sounds completely stupid as they are so similar.
The figure you linked is of a hardware device (ipod touch/iphone) inside a dock that has an auxiliary screen. The nintendo DS is a single device with 2 screens. They are very different. Tho, the figure does look like a nintendo DS a lot.
What I find interesting is what one of the websites linked by the twitter account said about filing date: "The Apple patent was originally filed in Q3 2008, while the iControlPad first got covered by Pocket Gamer in May 2008."
It would be interesting to know if apple has anything that would demonstrate they had been working on this patent before may 2008, or even before the icontrolpad group thought about it. Wouldn't that demonstrate prior art?
well, for one, you have to install a sshd by hacking the iphone or ipod touch (and I guess an ipad in a few days/weeks when hackers find a way). Once you have sshd access you can install some kind of terminal app and run it from inside your app. I think the popular way of jailbreaking it installs both the ssh cliend and server. If you dont want to jailbreak your iphone/ipod touch, there are several ssh terminals you can buy from the official ipod app store. There are also several VNC and RDP apps. I dont have an iphone, but I do have a first generation ipod touch. I have not jailbroken it, but I do have an ssh client that I use to log into my server.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not going to say that Apple doesn't invest in marketing. They do. But they are not "heavily" investing either. I've read several articles that say so. This article is one of them. There's several others. Many here at /. say that Apple is popular just because of advertising, but that is not the true. They also say that the iphone only become popular because of ads. Which is not true either. In fact, I see a lot more Verizon's Droid ads than anything else (and now with a free droid!). Oh and in the web I see a lot more motorola flip ads (another droid phone) than anything else. I don't care which one is best, I have none of them. But just saying that Apple invests heavily is not true.
The Popular Sciene magazine on the ipad only about 25MB. Downloading 500 megs is just crazy, specially if they are doing in app sales for future issues. The PS magazine does the in app sales. I'm pretty sure that the Time magazine also does the in app sales too. The problem with those magazines and several newspapers is that they have very high prices. $5 for an issue is insane.
I think the PS magazine is very close to the Wired one, except for videos and so many ads:
Video of PS mag (fast forward to the 1 min mark).
Not "if," OSX has a lot of open source in it. You can download the kernel (named Darwin) and some utilities from their open source website. Another good web page with Apple's open source software information is http://www.apple.com/opensource/ . There you can see what project is being used by the different Apple applications or utilities.
Mac's do not use BIOS, they use EFI.
There are several websites out there with info and utilities to get OS X running on almost any PC out there (drivers can be a hassle tho). Apple has not done much to stop them, except of course of Psystar that was actually trying to run a business around cloning Macs. Try this one, I think it should send you in the right direction http://www.osx86project.org/
See, the problem with that is that only Adobe can "make sure" that their flash player can be well optimized for any device. They have failed to do so for Macs (and linux damn it!). If say, Flash was on the iphone and it was pretty bad or just not good enough, problems with battery life, CPU being hammered by the flash player, crashes, etc would be pointed at Apple by the majority of the public. Apple doesn't want to be blamed for that. They want to control their own system. On top of that, if the flash player worked better on the Android or RIM, then apple would look pretty bad in the eyes of the public. Also, if say, Apple adds new features and the flash player takes 1-2 years to take advantage of that, then those features cannot be used to differentiate their device with other devices. Apple doesn't want that either. They want to control their devices.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Installing linux on a mac is as easy as installing it on a pc. The difference is that the macs do not use a BIOS, so you need to install something that helps as a boot manager (rEFIt). Apple's boot manager doesn't recognize linux (I think) I give you that, but at least they include a boot manager that can boot more than just their own OS (windows) and can boot from the network and from external devices. I dont think you understand what a mac actually offers.
I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't care if you use an iphone or an ipad to watch some porn. He just doesn't want to distribute it thru Apple's store. Just like Gates [MS] never distributed porn.
That sugar analogy didn't work. but I'm going to explain why I tolerate Apple banishing flash. I love it, because I had to use flash on a non-windows environment. It sucks. On a C2D2 mac laptop, it consumes about 80-90% CPU on some (if not most) non video flash apps. It makes the battery die faster. It makes the whole laptop run very hot. I don't want developers to feel comfortable developing for the lowest denominator (flash) that has demonstrated that sucks.
I would love for MS to warn if you are about to install a virus. And would love if they refused my parents (and other tech people) of installing it. A cheater program is not the same as a virus, so I'm not going to lump them together with viruses.
APple doesnt try to control the mac, so you cant compare it to the PC. You can comprate it with say the new Windows 7 mobile phones that will only allow silverlight apps.
It's not just Apple And Steve being butt hurt about the stole/found phone. It's about the law enforcement groups being butt hurt too. People get in trouble for posting the stupid things they have done on youtube, facebook, etc all the time. Gizmodo posted a story about what it might be a stolen iphone and on top of that said they paid for it. Very retarded of them. The news was all over the world. Now the "law" has to save face and demonstrate that if you do something illegal you will pay for it. Else, what's the point of having punishments for doing illegal stuff if you are never going to be punished. Of course, this doesn't mean that what happened is really illegal, but since it kinda seems like it might be this is why the police is investigating.
If your neighbor would make a post like gizmodo about it and it would make news around the world, I bet the police and chidren's services would be there in no time. Said that, I kinda not believe you that children's services is not doing anything. Here in Texas, even parents that do nothing wrong and love their children are afraid of them. If you are really wanna do something about it, tape your neighbor and call your police. If that doesnt work, call your local TV station and/or newspaper. Once it's news the police wont have another choice than investigate. Just like they are investigating Gizmodo.
For the love of God, the first 5 words of the damn article say that she's not part of Apple anymore... "Former T-Mobile and Apple executive"
Steve Job's never said anything like that. Please re-read the SJ letter. Although I disagree with the App Store being so closed, what you are saying is just completely false.
Agains, completly false, there are even 3 apps developed by google (not to mention a youtube client that is included with every iphone/ipad/ipod touch).
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/panoramio/id331007973?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-earth/id293622097?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-mobile-app/id284815942?mt=8
I understand that Apple hate is crazy high in Slashdot lately, but I'll say about 50% or more is all about blind fanaticism. Facts be damned.
I found it that it runs about the same for me. What I found interesting is that running it in a window makes it unbearable on windows 7, but on OSX it runs great on a window.
No, flash plugin doesn't work perfectly fine on other macs. It is a resource hog and incredibly buggy. It's the only reason Safari has crashed in the past year or two. Since I installed click to flash, I haven't had a crash. Well, that's entirely not true. Once in a while I let flash run on certain sites. When I do that, there's always the possibility of a crash. On top of that, flash on a mac is as bad as the linux implementation. It's slow. For some non video sites, certain flash animations can use more than one core. Usually those same sites, do not use that much cpu power with the windows plug in. Flash on a mac is really really awful.
That's very weird, because I've found that it's actually quite the opposite. At an Apple store, you are usually greeted by an employee. You can tell them what you want and he/she will get it for you and even charge you right there on the spot. Most stores (if not all) do not have computers right there for you to pick up and then leave, they have to get them from the "back." Best Buy sometimes has some of the cheaper laptops for you to pick up, but it not that common. So all in all, I think the Apple store is the fastest if not one of the fastest. And of course the best part is that if you didnt want the employee's help, you just tell them that you are looking and they will leave you alone. Also, most of the time they say something like "Hi, welcome to the apple store, if you need help we are here to help." They dont even get in your way if you dont want to.
What are you talking about? Do you feel in an alternate reality when you enter Walmart? Target? Banana Republic? JC Penny? Every store has its own look and feel. The Apple store mimics their own minimalistic designs. In fact, I think this helps them a lot. The only things that pop up in their store are their own products, which is what they are selling after all.
Didnt it give you tourette's too? I mean, after being splashed in the face, I bet you yelled all kind of things. You should fire your lawyer and get a new one.
They should have added this pic in the article too:
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/marshall663/iPadvsRock.jpg
I wonder if the rock or the Jupiter can do any of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw
http://vimeo.com/10630568
I'm not trying to say that other devices couldn't do those things, say an Android based tablet, but that these comparisons are kinda lame and childish. Usually, they are made by those that don't like the iPad. Here's a novel idea: Don't buy one! Or, compare the ipad with Android tablets. Then we can have a good article and hopefully some a good discussion about the topics at hand. If the courier was in production or very close to it, it would be another good item to compare to. Till then, I'm pretty sure apple and some consumers (maybe the apple fanatics) are very happy with the ipad.
Damn it. I hate replying to myself, but I forgot the facts :'( I guess I need more coffee.
According to the Nexus One specs, it has up to 7 hours of video playback. Let's assume it does 6 hours. Hell, let's assume it's 5 hours. Now, according to this flash mobil evangelist: "Our own tests show that video can be played for well over 3Hours over WIFI from youtube in H.264 (Baseline 1.2)." Then it gives an update on the blog and says: "My colleague Michael Chaize has also completed his own tests shown below. In addition to my own basic test he demonstrates the ability to play videos and gaming for over 4 hours and five hours respectively."
No thank you... I prefer no flash!
Flash, on the other hand, is pretty powerful. Especially for low-power devices.
umm, I'm not going to argue how powerful flash is, but the "especially for low-powered devices" is completely the opposite.
To all you said, you can add:
- No 64 bit Adobe products for the mac for a long time (next version will have it)
- Adobe not wanting to use cocoa and releasing carbon version of the mac products
god damn it man, why did you take away my , totally uncool....
the ads are for those applications that want to make money thru ads. If developers dont want them, even on their free application, they dont have to include them. The whole thing is so that if you want to include ads, they have some hooks on the SDK so that it's easy for the developer.
also, about app store lockdown, I seriously doubt it. In fact, when steam announced that they were releasing a mac client, appleinsider interviewed them (link here). John Cook from Valve was asked if Apple was helping them. He replied:
"Cook: Yes, we've been working with them a bunch as we get more acquainted with their platform. They've been a great partner so far and we look forward to growing our relationship with them over time."
So yeah, even tho some slashdot trolls and some slashdot haters do not like apple and make up stuff, what you said, it's not going to happen.
Watch and See
I was actually quite shocked when the Economist site went free. Beats me why - those were high-quality articles I was willing to pay for. As in, pay to access the site.
Maybe they knew they were going to make more money if they had a lot of people seeing and clicking the ads than people paying for the content. I dunno.
Apparently, what I've heard is that the Kindle-WSJ deal has something to do with the price. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but that's what I heard (TWIT podcast) and read somewhere (cant remember where). They are not the only ones, the popular science mag+ app is charging 4.99 per issue. Although the app is very pretty and what not, not many are going to pay that much. I think the price will have to be adjusted if they want to sell more issues.
Old news, the Texas State capitol had to be extended almost 20 years ago. The extension is like 3 stories underground. On the top 2 or maybe all 3 stories they added some skylights and windows so that sunlight could go down into the rooms and natural light could be available. Even if you are underground, it never feels like it.
When I was growing up in the 80's there were a crap ton of electronic "systems" that I could not program or "tinker" with including the NES and the master system. At that time, I still wanted to make a game for the NES, but didnt know how. There was no google for me to search for "how to create a NES game." Kids these days can google How to create an ipad app and find ways to do so.
In fact a 13 year old kid made an ipad app and is selling it here:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ichalkboard/id322491414?mt=8
I'll go out on a limb and say kids will be all right with an ipad.
Well, I wasn't passing judgement on the patent or the patent system. But now that you ask for my input; I think that the whole patent system including hardware (which we are talking about right now) is in pretty bad shape. Said that, as it stands, it's very possible they are different because the apple patent will be about an accessory to a system with a touch input system, while the nintendo DS is a system. I know, it sounds completely stupid as they are so similar.
oh the irony! I went to the website you linked, and look at the words the recaptcha made me type... I wonder if I'm in some kind of NSA/CIA blacklist now :'(
http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/9273/recaptcha.png
The figure you linked is of a hardware device (ipod touch/iphone) inside a dock that has an auxiliary screen. The nintendo DS is a single device with 2 screens. They are very different. Tho, the figure does look like a nintendo DS a lot.
What I find interesting is what one of the websites linked by the twitter account said about filing date:
"The Apple patent was originally filed in Q3 2008, while the iControlPad first got covered by Pocket Gamer in May 2008."
It would be interesting to know if apple has anything that would demonstrate they had been working on this patent before may 2008, or even before the icontrolpad group thought about it. Wouldn't that demonstrate prior art?
well, for one, you have to install a sshd by hacking the iphone or ipod touch (and I guess an ipad in a few days/weeks when hackers find a way). Once you have sshd access you can install some kind of terminal app and run it from inside your app. I think the popular way of jailbreaking it installs both the ssh cliend and server. If you dont want to jailbreak your iphone/ipod touch, there are several ssh terminals you can buy from the official ipod app store. There are also several VNC and RDP apps. I dont have an iphone, but I do have a first generation ipod touch. I have not jailbroken it, but I do have an ssh client that I use to log into my server.