A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 26th Aug 2012 10:28 UTC
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless In light of the jury verdict in Apple vs. Samsung, the one-liners and jokes flew back and forth. One in particular, by Dan Frakes, has been copied and pasted all over the web, and it goes like this: "When the iPhone debuted, it was widely criticized for having no buttons/keys. Now people think the iPhone's design is 'obvious'." This is a very common trend in this entire debate that saddens me to no end: the iPhone is being compared to simple feature phones, while in fact, it should be compared to its true predecessor: the PDA. PDAs have always done with few buttons.
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RE: How easy it is to forget...
by Thom_Holwerda on Sun 26th Aug 2012 12:10 UTC in reply to "How easy it is to forget..."
Thom_Holwerda
Member since:
2005-06-29

When the iPhone came out it was heavily criticised for not having a hardware keyboard (was often to compared to the then successful Blackberries); the author of this article was on of them.


Excuse me? I was? I'd love some evidence for that.


Edit: Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy - here's my item on the announcement of the iPhone. Not a single negative remark about the lack of buttons.

http://www.osnews.com/story/16902/Apple-Announces-Apple-TV-iPhone-N...

Edited 2012-08-26 12:17 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 5

bowkota Member since:
2011-10-12

I detest interfacing with machines without getting tactile feedback.


One of your comments from your link.

If I'm not mistaken you made similar comments on the lack of a physical keyboard in the months after its release. I could be wrong though, there were so many people with the same issue.
And when they finally realised that physical keyboards were a nuisance they came up with the lack of SDK and then the lack of copy paste etc etc.

Reply Parent Score: -1

Thom_Holwerda Member since:
2005-06-29

I still detest not having feedback. However, that is not at all what you claimed I said.

I see you have nothing to back up your claims. Good to know.

Reply Parent Score: 2

some1 Member since:
2010-10-05

You can have tactile feedback without buttons with vibration. All modern Android devices do this, and the idea predates iPhone too.

Reply Parent Score: 2

bouhko Member since:
2010-06-24

I don't think I'me really and Android *fan* (I don't really give a shit about a huge corporation losing some billion dollars, be it Apple, Google or Samsung), but I'm an open source software supporter, so I prefer Android over iOS.

Now, given the state of the software and design patent laws in the US, I don't find the outcome so surprising or outrageous. This is because it seems there was some evidence (notably Google telling Samsung not to copy Apple) that Samsung was actually trying to copy the iPhone with their Galaxy line. Even the homescreens look the same, it's really f--king stupid. I mean Android vanilla homescreen is pretty different from iPhone's.

Now, most other Android phones I've seen are pretty different from iPhones. For example, I don't see Apple winning a case against Google's Nexus brand or against HTC (I've got an Evo 3D). The hardware isn't similar and neither is the software. Plus, Apple also copied some stuff from Android (notifications come to mind).

So in the end, the least innovative phone line in the Android ecosystem got punished.

That being said, I still think the whole patent system is broken, but that's another discussion.

Edited 2012-08-26 15:42 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

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BallmerKnowsBest Member since:
2008-06-02

A small initial point: I love the reduction of the role and significance of the Newton in your timeline to just a throw away reference in parenthesis. At least you are consistent.


I love the way you don't actually try to offer any counter-argument & just throw out some substance-free snark instead. At least you're consistent.

I could argue the toss about this forever with you Thom, and with other motley bunch of techies,


Not that it would take much effort, since you basically just copy-paste the same talking points over & over again.

Apple haters


Still borrowing rhetoric from Twilight & Justin Bieber's tween fangirls, I see.

and Android fans who try to counter the absurd mythology preached by iFanboys, describing a self-serving fantasy-world where smartphones didn't exist before the iPhone.


There, fixed that for you.

The endless repeating of 'it's not fair' in ever more complex and well researched ways takes the debate no where.


....remind me again, how many times now have you re-posted almost the exact same "but... but... Google is advertising company!!!!!" spiel? You can guesstimate if you like, probably easiest to round to the nearest thousand.

Reply Parent Score: 5

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