03.13.12
Gemini version available ♊︎Apple Likes to ‘Steal’ Stuff
“We’ve always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Summary: The real cost of Apple and great hypocrisy detailed with the aid of new examples from the news
THE CULT OF APPLE has shown no signs of denouncing patent aggression. The pro-Apple sites almost unanimously support Apple’s behaviour (often in very extravagantly shameful ways which we prefer not to link to) and the Microsoft booster says in his article about Apple/patents that “Android isn’t the only Linux-based open source project to face frequent patent threats. We’ve written about how Red Hat handles patent trolls. Red Hat is also part of an industry consortium called the Open Invention Network, which, along with IBM, Sony, Phillips, Facebook, HP, and dozens of others are building up a defensive patent portfolio to protect Linux-using members from potential lawsuits.”
What’s rather unique about Apple is its shamelessness. The company whines about “stealing” while its leader openly states that Apple has always been “shameless about stealing”. And speaking of “stealing”, watch why Apple likes Open Source:
Upon further investigation, it became eminently clear that Apple had lifted the maps directly out of OpenStreetMap.
Well done, Apple, eh? How innovative.
There is also market distortion in the Ebook market right now and the “US Government Finally Realizes That Publishers & Apple Conspiring To Raise eBook Prices Is Price Fixing”. So yet more “stealing” from the public, eh Apple? Here is the report which says:
The Justice Department is about to sue Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and five publishers for conspiring to raise the price of e-books. The warning is a game-changer in the government’s long-running anti-trust investigation—here’s an explanation of the case and what could happen next.
Apple should just quit whining about being a victim and stop Steve Jobs' war on Android/Linux. Hypocrisy makes Apple look sleazy and dishonest. █
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Michael said,
March 14, 2012 at 1:43 am
You make claims and then admit you have no links to back them up then refer to Job’s quote (calling him Apple’s leader even though he is not leading anything right now – he is dead), and then you reference a quote from Jobs you use completely out of context (as has been beaten to death).
With that said, if Apple has gone against the license of OpenStreetMap then they should be held accountable. I have read a few different takes on the “price fixing” and, again, if Apple is doing wrong there then they should be stopped. The issues, of course, is not as black and white and you present… but, as you note of hypocrisy, it shows you are “sleazy and dishonest”.
Or do you not apply that standard to yourself. LOL. Oh, the irony.
walterbyrd said,
March 15, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Where Apple stold their pinch-to-zoom “invention” (1991)
http://www.answers.com/topic/multi-touch
Where Apple stold their flat tablet with rounded corners “invention” also tap-to-zoom “invention” (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBEtPQDQNcI
Where Apple stold their “invention” of a handheld wireless device, with color icons, touchscreen input, gestures, and kinetic scrooling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg8OBYixL0
Other Apple “inventions” that were stolen:
Sharp JPN 1241638
I am not certain exactly what device this is, or when it came out. But, I think Europe eventually ruled that the iPhone is a knock-off copy of the Sharp JPN 1241638 and that Apple’s D’087 patent violated Sharp’s ’638 patent. That covered a flat black surface, maybe even rounded corners, and retangle shape.
Samsung SGH-Z610 – February 2006
- Gesture based multimedia touchscreen
- app drawer
- front and rear facing camera
- rounded corners
- 16 icons up on a desktop
- a speaker above the 3.5″ touchscreen
- physical round button w/ a play arrow icon below it
Samsung GridPad 1989
- seems that Samsung is not new to tablet devices
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6565/GRidPad-1910/
Samsung Origami Tablet PC 2006
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/08/hands-on-with-the-samsung-q1-origami/
http://www.mblast.com/files/companies/126343/Logo/JPEG/61436.ny1.jpg
Samsung SGH-F700 – 2007
- Released after iPhone, but before Apple’s 358 page long iPhone patent which was filed on September 5th 2007
Sony Ericsson 2002
- green phone icon (for that matter, don’t phone booths use a phone icon?)
- envelop mail icon
http://admiralzing.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/sony-ericsson-t68i.jpg
LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada 2006
- phone icon
- envelop mail icons
- capicitve touch screen
- what about that icon with the four dots? would that take you to a grid of icons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada
Packard Bell Navigator 3.5
- reminds me of Apple iBooks patents – books on a shelf
http://www.theverge.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analysis/#fn1
Neonode N1m – not sure about the year
- slide to unlock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonode_N1m#N1m
Apple’s gears icon
- Oreilley software WebSite had a yellow gear for settings
- Atari ST in 1986 used a gears icon for the settings control panel
- Windows 95 used Gears for settings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows-95-Start-Button.png
The ‘134 patent – text in bubbles indicated by speaker
- besides ignoring pretty much every comic book ever created, there’s a system called “Habitat” from the 1985 that pretty much like what Apple patented, in terms of the arrangement of text into bubbles, with the horizontal layout being dictated by the speaker.
http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/book/chtu/chtu1.htm#habitat
The ‘915 patent – Multi-touch scrolling and scaling
- 1994-1995 T3 – a GUI paradigm based on tabets, two-hands, and transparency
- is this an API patent?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUwYCbhFj1U
The ’891 patent – fading notifications without user intervention
- filed in 2002
- see the Windows 2000 MFC API, and notice that the uBalloonTimeout parameter. That fades out the notification without user interaction.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/systemtray.aspx
Michael Reply:
March 15th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Where did Apple claim to have invented all of these things? If nowhere, what is your point? They used things others invented to make their own innovative devices? That they did not start from scratch and invent the universe? Not sure what you are trying to get at.
Now if Apple said they invented things they did not, then they were wrong to do so. I think that is what you want to imply… but can you show it anywhere?