Apple re-writing history by claiming exclusive rights to tech

[Tiago]

so so so true !!
You gave a very good example, IBM PC (5150) 30 years ago. They did a new base that opens a new standard. It was a huge step.

We must look at what is a tablet? Years and years ago, i remember to look at Palm devices, they were great, then other more sofisticated,
i had an HP with WIN CE, it was heavy and big, but it was cool. What has the ipad so differente? Is faster and more powerfull then Palms 10/15 years ago... so what ?? It is the same concept ! A portable mini-computer-that-fits-in-your-hand. It's just a more powerfull one.

It's like Commodore putting a patent back in 1985, saying they had invented multimedia....
Apple has good products, very beutifull one, but wtf ???? who the **** they think they are???????

[Harrison]

So true. We have all known this is how Apple conduct their business for many years. Great at taking existing off the shelf technology and repackaging it up into a well designed form factor, with a polished UI, and then claiming their invented the whole concept and idea.

All companies are guilty of this, with Microsoft being one of the worst a few years ago, but I don't think any company has taken it quite as far as Apple are currently, claiming the whole multi touch screen tech as their own, when they themselves bought out another company to obtain it! And from that article, the 2 that really annoy me since their release have to be the claims surrounding the iPad and Facetime. I've had smartphones capable of 3G video calling for years. Facetime might be higher quality, but it still can't do video calling over 3G, so in my view is a useless technology and I wonder how it is different to using the built in camera as a webcam? And if you look at facetime in that way then computers have had webcams for even longer than mobile video calls. Long before even 3G existed. As for the iPad, yes it saw Apple take all the existing ideas for tablet PCs and realise the technology had reached a point that allowed it to work well, but they invented none of the concepts or technology it uses.

As for the Apple vs Samsung court cases. Apple are only going after Samsung because they are pissed at them utilising shared R&D to release a competing product. Samsung have been Apple's main manufacturer of the key components of both the iPhone and the iPad until now. Making the touch screens and much of the internal components for both. So you can see why Apple are annoyed with them releasing products that compete against them. But really can you blame them? Why tether yourself solely to the manufacture of another companies products, when you could also utilise your own manufacturing plants and technology to make your own similar devices?

[Bloodwych]

I see the point your making about why Apple have a grievance with Samsung - these are two massive companies in direct competition now just like Google and Microsoft! Apple feel they need to keep Samsung in check. Looking at Apples profits, I think they can take a little competition and hopefully we'll get some better prices.

Still, as you also highlight it has happened over and over again in the past, with Apple themselves doing similar practices so they should just live with it rather than inviting this bad press. Samsung have been in the electronics industry for a long time too, and they were always going to manufacture a similar product to the iPad. Like the IBM PC, it's not something you can guard against and gain sympathy. If their marketing department continues to perform well, people will still buy Apple anyway.

[Harrison]

And I don't think Apple have much to worry about because the imminent iPhone 5 launch in November already has the Apple Fanboi's foaming at the mouth and selling their internal organs to be first in line to own the shiny minor update to the iPhone 4.

Biggest feature rumours to date about the iPhone 5's actual improvements over the iPhone 4? Gestures to replace all hardware buttons (I personally like some physical buttons), Larger screen (now dismissed, so new rumours are that it will actually be a 4S and not a 5 this fall), Facetime going 3G (also dismissed and stated to be a feature coming "later"), 4G LTE support (of little use in the UK as 4G still looks a long way off)... and that is about it. No word on CPU, camera or any other changes. For all we know the iPhone 5 could end up containing some revolutionary new features, but I doubt it.

[Bloodwych]

s

It's like Commodore putting a patent back in 1985, saying they had invented multimedia....
Apple has good products, very beutifull one, but wtf ???? who the **** they think they are???????

Good old Commodore being first with a Multimedia computer. Also that CDTV was way ahead for the time! Too far ahead and expensive for the average users needs unfortunately.

[Harrison]

Very true. Commodore's engineers had vision way ahead of the technology available to them at the time. Imagine if they had parented the whole multimedia concept. Commodore might still be here today... but I doubt it as their bosses would probably still have found a way to bankrupt the company.

[Bloodwych]

More battles - this time a company firing back at Apple. At this rate, Apple will be spending its billion pound profits on legal expenses:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14832762

The lawyers must be rubbing their hands!

[Harrison]

Looks like Google selling patents to HTC was a very interesting move. Maybe Google wanted to try and stay out of this round and let HTC take the credit. Apple definitely will have a problem if HTC, Samsung and Google join forced in a combined offensive against Apple. This has been building for some time and I wondered when all the Android phone makers would have enough of this.

Although this latest HTC round seems as bad as Apples claims. This patent sold to them by Google seems to be concerned with wireless network connectivity. Surely that is a standard that everyone uses? The madness continues!

Wouldn't it be funny for the Android companies to be able to block the sale of the iPhone 5!

[Shoonay]

Now apple discovered cut&paste
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/artic...paste_finally/

[Harrison]

I wonder if Apple have also been trying to patent it so they can back sue Microsoft and Linux for using it first.

I also love the comments left for that article. The Mac users posting comments just show what cretins some of them really are, especially the first comment:

The author must be a Windows User or has had Windows envy.
Cut and Paste is a Windows Concept. It is not a Mac Concept.
On the Mac, files were treated as real objects. Cutting and pasting objects makes no sense intuitively. It is a confusing concept even to new Windows users.
Confusion is not the Mac way of doing things. This is why cutting and pasting objects was not implemented on the Mac for so long.

And I love how the next reply blows those comments out of the water by proving cut and paste has been a part of the Lisa and Mac since the beginning for text.

And further down the comments how another's comments are dismissed by explaining how the Windows Copy and Paste process was changed many years ago to remove the reason the Mac users were stating why it hadn't been a part of the OS. So often you just have to laugh at the Mac users and smile at the little walled world they live in.