Live data from Hacker News

Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

techcrunch.com

211–218 of 218 posts

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#211
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say what you may about operating systems then and now, but with experience I can tell you this, these devices were phones first and computers second. They are computers first and phones second now. [Warning - Personal anecdote. #include ] Even in Nokia land, SonyEricsson land, what ever crap may have happened on the system you were ALWAYS able to attend phone calls. Even if the whole damn os came crashing down becaus…

You bring up an excellent point, which accurately describes my first experience with a windows smart phone. I didn't get back onto smart phones for a while (buying my next only three years ago), once the crop of non-smart phones finally hit rock bottom for my personal tastes. I do despise how often my phone fails to act as an actual phone. I also despise the lack of hardware buttons to answer calls. The most frustrat…

I'm generally the bastion for cutting edge tech whenever I buy any gadget. I don't mind spending ridiculous amounts of money for that _one_ specific feature or niche that I want, because I'm not going to spend money again for a very very long time.

Believe it or not, my first Android smartphone was only bought last year, and that too, because there weren't premium dumbphones. Most of them were cheap plasticky crap. Even Nokia seemed to have lost focus so I thought, "Hey why not?" and jumped in. It was hard to transition from blind messaging and blind dialing to actually giving a damn to what's going on, on the screen. I mean, it's just a slab of glass. They could've atleast had hardware Send and End keys like the HTC HD2... Otoh Google wants to go completely buttonless.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#212
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would consumers be better off if Microsoft could have puked out an iOS/Android clone instead? No, and I'll tell you why: if Microsoft felt they could have made an UI that followed the new design language that is about to become canonical for smart phones, more consumers would be tempted to buy Windows Phones. If Microsoft were to make a comeback and become a dominant player it is 100% guaranteed to result in zero i…

Incorrect. Microsoft invented XmlHttpRequest during the time that they had the dominant browser. They also brought Windows from 95 to NT, 2000 and 7, with plenty of innovation, during the time that they had the dominant operating system.

Yeah, that really moved the goalposts further afield.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does not sue Palm/HP or RIM, because they are not threat. They are almost non-players. The only lawsuit Microsoft had against Android vendor was Barnes and Noble. Which was settled out of court (by investing into B&N to shut them up). Other vendors license things like exFAT and ActiveSync. Some vendors (notably Motorola and Sony) do not pay anything to Microsoft.

IIRC, HTC settled up and is paying a license fee. There is no way for Barnes and Noble to be the only one paying, since it is widely known that MS makes more from Android makers than it does from Windows Phone.

I wrote "lawsuit", not "licensors".

There was only one lawsuit, and it was settled before information was leaked. Others license voluntarily, but we still don't know, what exactly. It is just educated guess that it is exFAT and ActiveSync, because exact licensing conditions are under NDA.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorola (Mobility) doesn't exist as a separate entity anymore. It is part of Google now, and as such Google is technically the one doing the suing. Google owns Motorola.

It does still exist, just as a subsidiary of Google.

note that i said "... as a separate entity"

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#215
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just gave me my reference. The video in that article was released almost a year after the iPhone. It's pretty obvious that the touch UI in it is also a very early version of the Android we have today. Just one glaring example is how the application menus are navigated by using the hardware keys on the device and not by touch. The touch targets are tiny. The UI is embarrassingly laggy. It probably isn't a coincide…

I own five Apple devices, and no Android devices :) From the article, QUOTE The interesting thing here is that the release of the SDK with support for touch and large screens, as well as the release of this video and hardware reference design took place one month before the infamous photograph of the BlackBerry-esque device. This means that Google wasn't working with just one prototype, but several, which really shou…

Well, I certainly can't say that as a fact since only the Android team would know the truth. However, from the video in question it's pretty obvious that if a touch-screen version of Android was in development at the same time in 2005, the UI was not anything like the touch UI we have on Android or iPhone today. It was the same unintuitive, clunky and slow trash we had on resistive screens for ages.

That is where the "iPhone ripoff" claim comes in. Ripoff is too strong of a word, but it certainly had a huge influence on the direction of Android.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#216
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> iOS'es most fundamental feature, notifications, was ripped off from android. I won't dispute whether notifications was ripped from Android, but calling Notifications the "most fundamental" feature of iOS is an incredibly huge stretch. If you ask 10 iPhone users what the most fundamental feature of iOS was, you'd probably get 6 or 7 different answers.

It's the centerpiece for interacting with apps. It's key. In fact, I'm betting it contributed to people confusing android with ios, it's that similar and pervasive. Before they were ripped off the biggest complaint about the iphone was it didn't have android-style notifications. There were many different knockoff apps since people disliked ios notifications so much and apple ended up hiring the lead dev from one of t…

Mobile Safari cannot reflow Text on zoom. So it is useless for me.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#217
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple isn't currently suing HTC, LG, or other manufacturers of Android phones.

What? They are suing at least Samsung (the most successful Android vendor) all over the world.

I meant aside from Samsung.

Re: Google Sues Apple, Seeks To Block iPhone, iPad & Mac Imports To U.S.

#218
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would consumers be better off if Microsoft could have puked out an iOS/Android clone instead? No, and I'll tell you why: if Microsoft felt they could have made an UI that followed the new design language that is about to become canonical for smart phones, more consumers would be tempted to buy Windows Phones. If Microsoft were to make a comeback and become a dominant player it is 100% guaranteed to result in zero i…

Incorrect. Microsoft invented XmlHttpRequest during the time that they had the dominant browser. They also brought Windows from 95 to NT, 2000 and 7, with plenty of innovation, during the time that they had the dominant operating system.

Microsoft invented XmlHttpRequest during the time that they had the dominant browser.

Ability to make HTTP requests from JavaScript can hardly be described as innovation -- all the other languages had this far earlier. The innovation, though, was using XHR to create highly dynamic web applications without refreshing page, and it wasn't Microsoft that started doing it at large scale.

Post reply on HN