Well, they could take off tiny, tiny sliver of the defence budget. That would pay off all the money borrowed to fund parks, energy research, public education and roads.
Just a thought.
"We must tighten our belts! We must slash spending! No more waste!"
"Ok, how about we cut this thing that has doubled in cost since 9/11 for no real tangible benefits...."
"No! Cutting defence spending is unamerican! Slashing Planned Parenthood's spending will solve the problem once and for all!"
"But they only account for 0.01% of the budg....."
You're basing your argument on two pieces of information that are simply factually incorrect. Google already has a void recognition app on the App Store, and there are other music stores on there too.
I assume you got the capabilities of the iPhone and the types of apps available on the store from slashdot comments, right? Probably from that guy who claimed that the iPhone couldn't view youtube videos because it doesn't support flash.
That was my point - it's being praised here because Google is "standing up to whiners", but when Apple does it they're "creating crippled, inferior products for sheeple".
Good UI design and feature set choice is hard work.
Can I make a joke about people "holding it wrong"?
I know of a similar large company that likes to do things a particular way, and it's *never* described as "being respected for having a vision and going for it", in fact it's almost universally reviled.
Glad that you are seeing reason, and that if you emphasise the "every" in everything, only to have one of the most successful early products that came out of Apple and the Woz/Jobs partnership pointed out to you excluded from that "every" that you really didn't think your trolling through very hard.
Still, 2/10 for showing up to mindlessly bash him.
It was a *prototype, unreleased* iPhone, which everyone and their dog in the tech press were hunting for details on in the run up to a release.
But you knew that.
It wasn't just "some guy losing a phone". There was a lot of money to be made here. Gizmodo bought their advertising revenue for cheap - $5k for all those juicy ad impressions? A steal (pun intended).
Apple didn't "put pressure" on anyone - they reported it stolen and Gizmodo didn;t exactly hide the fact that they had it (they tried to hold it to ransom). What did you think law enforcement were going to do?
I love Matlab, but *my goodness* it has UI issues on the Mac - the version I have (2010b) often gets into an interface lag quagmire, sometimes taking 10 to 15 seconds to register that I've clicked on an element (whether a button or a menu etc) - I have tried using the java.opts fix etc, but nothing works.
The frustrating thing is that sometimes it works just fine, then the wind changes direction or a cloud passes or something and the whole thing slows to a crawl.
It *doesn't* affect the processing of the maths, only the UI, so running bench shows no problem and while you are waiting those agonising seconds for the UI to respond the CPU is just sitting idle.
It's a shame, because it's nice to be able to fire it up and work on things without having to be in the lab, but it can be an exercise in patience.
Dell sells an almost identical panel to the one in the Thunderbolt and LED Cinema display and the price is almost identical, and the Apple displays even throw in a magsafe connector and a set of connectors (USB on the cinema display, USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt/gig ethernet on the Thunderbolt display).
So, unless Dell (and a couple of other manufacturers who also sell them at the same price) are also "insanely overpriced" for their monitors too, I can't see how you can make that claim with any accuracy.
This is not the cover of the standard Galaxy Tab, but nice try.
The normal product box looks exactly like the iPad box, with the product in plan view taking up most of the space against a white background. What Samsung *did* do differently was put the name of the Tab on the front underneath (which Apple only did on the sides).
Either way, the trade dress is most certainly "inspired" by the iPad's box, shall we say.
Regarding the power adapter - how many different designs are there already out there? Put it this way, I'd be struggling to count them on three hands. I don't expect them to make it a cube, but they could easily have made it different to Apple's design with minimal effort.
Which is different, unless you count "a picture of the device as prominent element of front cover" as "totally copying" (and Apple's invention, to boot)
No, I don't count "just" that - and that's the whole point of this *entire* lawsuit, that it's lots of little things that add up. In terms of the box they copied the front style - large plan view of the product on a white background with nothing else on there (samsung added the name underneath, but that is the only difference), then the internal layout of the box's packaging (and yes, there are only so many ways you can put a rectangle in a box, but somehow Samsung did it identically to the way Apple chose to do it)
Actually, The Tab uses a non-standard version of that port. Can't really call it standard - Samsung's version on the Tab is as "standard" as Apple's dock connector.
> UI Which is different again
The UI is their weakest argument, but several of the icons Samsung chose to go with bear striking resemblance to Apple's icons. Had all the other stuff not been the same, I doubt the UI alone would feature at all in a question of copying.
> power brick Which is slightly different and is god damn rounded rectangle again.
Other than being black, the two US-style power bricks are the same. You're just clutching at straws here.
The box, connector, shape, UI, power brick etc have all been linked on here before several times.
It's really not just one thing, and Apple don't have a patent on a black, rounded rectangle, they have a design patent for the iPad that includes that description as many parts of the whole design. Just that on its own is not enough.
Any one of those things on its own would not be "remotely reasonable", but all of them together on the same device that looks the same, packaged in a box that has been designed with extremely similar artwork adds up to what they believe is infringement.
There are plenty of other tablets that are not being sued over that look pretty similar, visually, to the iPad.
I think those "special cases" are going to be the reason people use it.
"remind me to call mom when I get home" "what's the traffic like on my route home?" "take me to the nearest bank/post office/brothel" "is my sister free next weekend?" "I have a meeting at 10am tomorrow at [some address]"
With all the various actions involved in those. You can just pick up the phone and make a quick note in seconds that way and the phone works out what to do.
I think the "question the web" part is the less interesting part, although still useful. Like you say, it's not going to change how we interact with computers completely, but it just adds an extra avenue to work with.
I've seen a youtube video of Android running on a 3G or 3GS way back when those were the current gen iPhones. I seem to remember an issue with the number of buttons available with some of the physical buttons expected on an Android handset being mapped onto the volume buttons on the iPhone.
Every so often someone comes along trying to reinvent the wheel on computer interfaces, and it usually falls flat - like the "arms up in the air Minority Report UI", or 3D UIs etc.
Taking a bunch of features that people use all the time and combining it into a system that you can interact with quickly and easily when you're not "actively using" your device might be exactly what we need.
Being able to pick up your phone and say "remind me to call mom when I get home" and then put it right back down and have the phone be able to work out what you want is a great idea. It takes you about 5 seconds and then you can go back to whatever you were doing.
I don't think we'll be using it like Star Trek just yet as the main way we interact with computers, but for simple things like that I think it could be awesome (dare I say, "magical (TM)").
As many people will point out here, this is not Apple's original technology, they weren't the first to do it, there will be use cases where it won't work, you can do it much more cheaply and non-walled-garden-y with a rooted Nexus GTi Turbo running cyanogen, Apple steals everything, they're an evil empire tracking your every move and other such tiresome memes etc etc, but Siri is one of the first attempts to really pull this sort of thing together cohesively. Whether it is successful or not, who can say yet? It's certainly interesting and I expect we'll see it on many other smartphones in a similar guise - it's not like the technology is unique.
Slashdot Mirror
If your spelling and grammar are anything to go by, then yes indeed you've proved we're doomed!
Well, they could take off tiny, tiny sliver of the defence budget. That would pay off all the money borrowed to fund parks, energy research, public education and roads.
Just a thought.
"We must tighten our belts! We must slash spending! No more waste!"
"Ok, how about we cut this thing that has doubled in cost since 9/11 for no real tangible benefits...."
"No! Cutting defence spending is unamerican! Slashing Planned Parenthood's spending will solve the problem once and for all!"
"But they only account for 0.01% of the budg....."
"I said once and for all!"
Cool story bro.
You're basing your argument on two pieces of information that are simply factually incorrect. Google already has a void recognition app on the App Store, and there are other music stores on there too.
I assume you got the capabilities of the iPhone and the types of apps available on the store from slashdot comments, right? Probably from that guy who claimed that the iPhone couldn't view youtube videos because it doesn't support flash.
I'm talking about slashdot specifically, but I probably should have specified.
That was my point - it's being praised here because Google is "standing up to whiners", but when Apple does it they're "creating crippled, inferior products for sheeple".
Good UI design and feature set choice is hard work.
Wow. What reality are you in? It sure isn't this one!
You have no clue at all.
Android devices are doing remarkably well, and I welcome that, but my goodness you're wide of the mark on Apple's prospects and endeavour.
Can I make a joke about people "holding it wrong"?
I know of a similar large company that likes to do things a particular way, and it's *never* described as "being respected for having a vision and going for it", in fact it's almost universally reviled.
Options are good things, usually.
Yes, it's all about "fucking rectangles". You nailed it.
Why do they even have a legal department when they can just ask you?
If he had meant tethering that is what he would have said. What he is asking for is not the same thing.
Glad that you are seeing reason, and that if you emphasise the "every" in everything, only to have one of the most successful early products that came out of Apple and the Woz/Jobs partnership pointed out to you excluded from that "every" that you really didn't think your trolling through very hard.
Still, 2/10 for showing up to mindlessly bash him.
That's nothing. It's ReiserFS day tomorrow.
I've already started digging the hole.
Not that I usually side with AC's, but he did just accurately refute your argument.
You said
EVERYthing steve jobs has done
(emphasis yours).
It's very funny watching anti-Apple trolls get all worked up over stuff like this.
Nor will you have legions of people jumping out of nowhere to trash you either...
Just sayin'
It was a *prototype, unreleased* iPhone, which everyone and their dog in the tech press were hunting for details on in the run up to a release.
But you knew that.
It wasn't just "some guy losing a phone". There was a lot of money to be made here. Gizmodo bought their advertising revenue for cheap - $5k for all those juicy ad impressions? A steal (pun intended).
Apple didn't "put pressure" on anyone - they reported it stolen and Gizmodo didn;t exactly hide the fact that they had it (they tried to hold it to ransom). What did you think law enforcement were going to do?
I love Matlab, but *my goodness* it has UI issues on the Mac - the version I have (2010b) often gets into an interface lag quagmire, sometimes taking 10 to 15 seconds to register that I've clicked on an element (whether a button or a menu etc) - I have tried using the java.opts fix etc, but nothing works.
The frustrating thing is that sometimes it works just fine, then the wind changes direction or a cloud passes or something and the whole thing slows to a crawl.
It *doesn't* affect the processing of the maths, only the UI, so running bench shows no problem and while you are waiting those agonising seconds for the UI to respond the CPU is just sitting idle.
It's a shame, because it's nice to be able to fire it up and work on things without having to be in the lab, but it can be an exercise in patience.
How are they "insanely overpriced"?
Dell sells an almost identical panel to the one in the Thunderbolt and LED Cinema display and the price is almost identical, and the Apple displays even throw in a magsafe connector and a set of connectors (USB on the cinema display, USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt/gig ethernet on the Thunderbolt display).
So, unless Dell (and a couple of other manufacturers who also sell them at the same price) are also "insanely overpriced" for their monitors too, I can't see how you can make that claim with any accuracy.
This is not the cover of the standard Galaxy Tab, but nice try.
The normal product box looks exactly like the iPad box, with the product in plan view taking up most of the space against a white background. What Samsung *did* do differently was put the name of the Tab on the front underneath (which Apple only did on the sides).
Either way, the trade dress is most certainly "inspired" by the iPad's box, shall we say.
Regarding the power adapter - how many different designs are there already out there? Put it this way, I'd be struggling to count them on three hands. I don't expect them to make it a cube, but they could easily have made it different to Apple's design with minimal effort.
> The box
Which is different, unless you count "a picture of the device as prominent element of front cover" as "totally copying" (and Apple's invention, to boot)
No, I don't count "just" that - and that's the whole point of this *entire* lawsuit, that it's lots of little things that add up. In terms of the box they copied the front style - large plan view of the product on a white background with nothing else on there (samsung added the name underneath, but that is the only difference), then the internal layout of the box's packaging (and yes, there are only so many ways you can put a rectangle in a box, but somehow Samsung did it identically to the way Apple chose to do it)
> connector
Which is standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDMI
Actually, The Tab uses a non-standard version of that port. Can't really call it standard - Samsung's version on the Tab is as "standard" as Apple's dock connector.
> UI
Which is different again
The UI is their weakest argument, but several of the icons Samsung chose to go with bear striking resemblance to Apple's icons. Had all the other stuff not been the same, I doubt the UI alone would feature at all in a question of copying.
> power brick
Which is slightly different and is god damn rounded rectangle again.
Other than being black, the two US-style power bricks are the same. You're just clutching at straws here.
The box, connector, shape, UI, power brick etc have all been linked on here before several times.
It's really not just one thing, and Apple don't have a patent on a black, rounded rectangle, they have a design patent for the iPad that includes that description as many parts of the whole design. Just that on its own is not enough.
The colour is almost the same?
They both have 4 wheels?
I'm struggling here to find something identical.
You just made Apple's point.
Any one of those things on its own would not be "remotely reasonable", but all of them together on the same device that looks the same, packaged in a box that has been designed with extremely similar artwork adds up to what they believe is infringement.
There are plenty of other tablets that are not being sued over that look pretty similar, visually, to the iPad.
I think those "special cases" are going to be the reason people use it.
"remind me to call mom when I get home"
"what's the traffic like on my route home?"
"take me to the nearest bank/post office/brothel"
"is my sister free next weekend?"
"I have a meeting at 10am tomorrow at [some address]"
With all the various actions involved in those. You can just pick up the phone and make a quick note in seconds that way and the phone works out what to do.
I think the "question the web" part is the less interesting part, although still useful. Like you say, it's not going to change how we interact with computers completely, but it just adds an extra avenue to work with.
Actually, they have.
I've seen a youtube video of Android running on a 3G or 3GS way back when those were the current gen iPhones. I seem to remember an issue with the number of buttons available with some of the physical buttons expected on an Android handset being mapped onto the volume buttons on the iPhone.
Perhaps, but isn't that the point?
Every so often someone comes along trying to reinvent the wheel on computer interfaces, and it usually falls flat - like the "arms up in the air Minority Report UI", or 3D UIs etc.
Taking a bunch of features that people use all the time and combining it into a system that you can interact with quickly and easily when you're not "actively using" your device might be exactly what we need.
Being able to pick up your phone and say "remind me to call mom when I get home" and then put it right back down and have the phone be able to work out what you want is a great idea. It takes you about 5 seconds and then you can go back to whatever you were doing.
I don't think we'll be using it like Star Trek just yet as the main way we interact with computers, but for simple things like that I think it could be awesome (dare I say, "magical (TM)").
As many people will point out here, this is not Apple's original technology, they weren't the first to do it, there will be use cases where it won't work, you can do it much more cheaply and non-walled-garden-y with a rooted Nexus GTi Turbo running cyanogen, Apple steals everything, they're an evil empire tracking your every move and other such tiresome memes etc etc, but Siri is one of the first attempts to really pull this sort of thing together cohesively. Whether it is successful or not, who can say yet? It's certainly interesting and I expect we'll see it on many other smartphones in a similar guise - it's not like the technology is unique.