Groklaw nails it: "In other words, [Apple and Microsoft] want to disarm the companies that got there first, built the standards, and created the field, while the come-later types clean up on patents on things like slide to unlock or a tablet shape with rounded corners. Then the money flows to Apple and Microsoft, and away from Android - and isn't that really the point of all this, to destroy Android by hook or by crook? The parties who were in the mobile phone business years before Apple or Microsoft even thought about doing it thus get nothing much for their earlier issued patents that have become standards. Apple and Microsoft can't compete on an even field, because the patent system rewards the first to invent (or now, after the recent patent reform, the first to file). Neither Apple nor Microsoft got there first. Samsung was there, since the '90s." To illustrate: Apple is demanding $24 (!) per Samsung device for design patents, while at the same time, Apple also demands that Samsung does not charge more than $0.0049 per standards essential patent per device. This is absolutely, utterly, and entirely indefensible. And then Apple and its supporters have the nerve to claim Samsung is ripping them off. Yes, this pisses me off, and no, that's not because it's Apple doing it (Microsoft is just as guilty). It's because this is plainly, utterly, clearly, and intrinsically unfair.
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Member since:2005-09-01
Member since:2005-07-11
Did you want me to review it? ;-)
I'll just say what I said earlier,
I'm a Mac fanboy, have been since 1980 when I used my first Apple ][ (48k beast) and then even more so with the //c and first Macs...
I have not liked Android in it's earlier incarnations. It felt unfinished, slow, and just unwieldy. I didn't like it because it wasn't iOS, I didn't like it because for me, it was lacking so much. Anyone using 2.n needs to check out 4.1.n
So, with all that base work in place, let me say...
Android 4.1.1 on the Nexus 7 is brilliant. I didn't expect to like it and came out loving it. It's passed iOS 6 (which I have as an Apple Dev) in many areas. I would recommend a Nexus 7 as a tablet without hesitation (if you don't need 3G). Even if it was priced $100 more it would be a bargain.
Google as done a lot of work to get it where it is now. There are a few things I don't like, but that's true of iOS too...
Back to the article.
I wish wish wish Apple (I don't have much hope for M$) would stop this patent trolling thing and just go back to what they do. I might write a letter to tcook@apple.com and politely ask what is going on (without expecting an answer), maybe all of us here who believe Apple is heading down a path we don't like should - maybe if enough people wrote he might do something (we can but dream can't we).
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:
2005-06-29
I can review a product perfectly fine without having company policies affect it (see my Apple and Microsoft reviews). A product is a product, and is created by people who have nothing to do with legal departments and who are proud of their work.
The iPad 2, for instance, got a very positive review from me because it simply was (at the time) the best tablet on the market, Apple product or no. Same for the iPhone, iMacs, MacBooks, and so on.