Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 22nd Jan 2009 12:04 UTC
Remember when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, and held it up in the air, proudly proclaiming "Boy, have we patented it", followed by a massive applause of the adoring audience? It may seem like this wasn't just an empty claim, either. During the earnings conference call yesterday, the company hinted at possible legal action against Palm were the Pre to infringe on iPhone patents.
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RE[6]: Seems like a reasonable patent
by Moochman on Sun 25th Jan 2009 05:39
in reply to "RE[5]: Seems like a reasonable patent"
Member since:2005-07-06
No one is claiming that any one individual behavior is revolutionary..... Ever heard the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"?
Obviously you're not going to be won over as you have too much anti-Apple bias. Whatever. No other smartphone delivered the same level of user experience at the time the iPhone came out. This may seem like a subjective opinion, but it is the main reason the iPhone is so successful and all touch phones that came before it were such duds.
RE[7]: Seems like a reasonable patent
by tupp on Sun 25th Jan 2009 07:35
in reply to "RE[6]: Seems like a reasonable patent"
Member since:2006-11-12
No one is claiming that any one individual behavior is revolutionary..... Ever heard the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"?
Ever heard of the phrase, "huh?"
You listed ten Iphone features, and then you claimed: "These were all firsts with the iPhone."
I pointed out that eight of those features appeared first on non-Apple products. I questioned the benefits of one of the features that might have originated with Apple. In regards to the other one, I said that I am not familiar with that feature, but I that it sounds generic.
You also claimed: "The iPhone is a usability tour de force..." Disregarding the Iphone's lack of tactile feedback, I mentioned just two of the Iphone's rather significant usability drawbacks.
Obviously you're not going to be won over as you have too much anti-Apple bias.
Whether or not I have a bias has nothing to do with the fact that Apple did not invent most of the Iphone features (as demonstrated above).
By the way, I do not have an anti-Apple bias. I do have an "anti Apple-fanboy" bias, especially when a fanboys ignore the facts presented.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.More News »
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2006-11-12
Okay. So you admit that Apple did not invent the multi-touch phone. We are making progress.
Other fanboys: Did you get that? Please never again claim nor imply that Apple invented the multi-touch phone. Thanks!
This feature could have originated with Apple, and it is certainly an interesting animation (like wobbly windows, and the rotating cube), but does it actually add anything to the usability of the device?
Are you implying that Apple invented opening app feedback?
Apple did not invent auto-rotate. That feature appeared on digital cameras years before the Iphone. Heck, I remember auto-rotating computer monitors in the late 1980s.
Apple did not invent this feature. This problem has been solved in different ways since the first fully touch-screen phone appeared in 1992.
Here is a 2003, Nokia patent application for locking the touch-screen on a phone during an active call: http://www.patentstorm.us/applications/20050079896/fulltext.html
Don't know to what you are referring, but it certainly sounds generic.
Over the years, there has been a lot of non-Apple research into this problem. Probably, the best solution is to just make the buttons bigger with a horizontal keyboard.
I doubt that the Iphone is the first hand-held device to display web pages in such a manner. Even if it were so, how innovative is it to merely copy what we have seen on our computers every day since 1993?
In regards to multi-touch, pinch scaling, that was first shown in 1991 in the Digital Desk system.
You really think Apple invented these?
My friend tried visual voice mail on one of my messages, and he called back, asking, "what did you mean by 'eat up Martha?'"
Whatever.
Yes. The lack of cut-and-paste is an usability triumph.
Furthermore, it is an ergonomic breakthrough to have to tap nine times through the alternate keypad to merely create an ellipsis (...).