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A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

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Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#301
post #31

"Just to drive the point home: a device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious.." I still don't buy it. This still misses the mark - it wasn't about a 'few' buttons, the iPhone was about none. All those pda's in the picture don't really mean anything to me. Sure, some of them had cell networking and a lot (most? all?) had wifi. But I would never consider the old pda's a mobile device. 'Mobile' to me comes fro…

> if it's not Linux or open source, it bad/wrong/etc. It's ideological. There is a trend in these objections in articles like this and across hacker news. They simply ignore what was unique about the iPhone and trivialize it completely and then pretend like it was obvious all along. Notice the repeated comparisons to stylus based devices as prior art for multi-touch. They don't care about the differences, as long as…

>If the iPhone wasn't revolutionary, how did Apple go from selling no phones to the selling the most popular phone in just a few years?

Has everyone forgotten about iTunes? After I got my first iPod I wanted apple to make an iPhone (years before they did) just so it would work flawlessly with iTunes and I could stop carrying 2 devices.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#302

This entire trial was a farce. The jury foreman admitted that they "skipped" prior art because "It was bogging us down."[0] > "Once you determine that Samsung violated the patents," Ilagan said, "it's easy to just go down those different [Samsung] products because it was all the same. Like the trade dress, once you determine Samsung violated the trade dress, the flatscreen with the Bezel...then you go down the produc…

> For example, they entered the PMP market when hard drives and batteries were cheap/portable enough to make the iPod a reality. Apple sold the original iPod for $399, which was the cost of the original 5GB drive to Apple. It was sold at a severe loss to begin with to push the technology and ramp up volume production of those drives. > They entered the phone market when capacitive touchscreens were cheap/large enough…

> Apple sold the original iPod for $399, which was the cost of the original 5GB drive to Apple. It was sold at a severe loss to begin with to push the technology and ramp up volume production of those drives.

I've never heard this before, do you have a source where I can read more? I've never heard of Apple willingly taking a loss on anything.

It also seems odd to me to talk about volume in an earlier era of Apple, e.g. this was when Jobs was still dead-set towards limiting the iPod to Macs (it didn't really take off until Windows support was added).

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what if you are wrong? How long do we have to wait to see if you gave your father an inaccurate reading of the situation? I mean, I remember a lot of the "Apple is at 90$ a share now, it will go down soon" crowd in the '06 in the Yahoo Finance forum posts and I'd love to see them now and sincerely ask them what were they thinking or why did they reach that conclusion back then. I'm completely serious. This kind of…

Seeing as I bought Apple in 08 I understand your reasoning :D A few factors lead to my understanding of this situation changing. 1: Mobile saturation - only thing left is more of the same and virtual/augmented reality. 2: Absolute domination of Android and the continual manufacturing dominance of Samsung 3: The move towards commoditizing most consumer electronics thanks to work done by Google and other hardware manuf…

re #2, dominance is an interesting word, and it can mean a few different things.

In terms of percentages of devices in pockets, I believe Android (including all versions) as an OS is doing better than iOS as an OS.

In terms of physical smart phones, I think Apple's phones are in more pockets than any other specific manufacture with their name on the box.

In terms of raw profit in the smartphone industry, Apple dominates.

In terms of people using smartphones like smartphones (downloading apps and using them, actually browsing the internet) instead of like dumbphones (phone calls / txting etc), I believe iOS still dominates (more people use Mobile Safari than they use Android Browser et al).

Manufacturing dominance is an interesting one. Lots of parts for iPhones are made by Samsung, but does that mean Samsung controls iPhone sales? Could Samaung halt iPhone production if they wanted too, or could Apple just go to someone else (with a ramp-up delay presumably).

(I own a Samsung android phone and am happy with it, in case this post comes off pro apple and people wonder about my "allegiances" [because apparently everyone must have one])

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#304
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those have a touch based UI. Touch means finger touches. Very different from a stylus which is only touching one or two pixels at a time. This is very easy to sense because the stylus pushes two layers together physically and effectively is closing swithces. A touch is much difeferent, a finger is an amorphous blob over many pixels of a varying shape, and Apple had to figure out how to resolve that into a sin…

> Touch means finger touches. According to who, you? Feel free to argue around the technological improvements Apple have brought, but to argue that everything everybody has always called "touchscreen" isn't that... makes no sense. And even by your strange definition of a "touch based UI", were Apple the first company to create capacitive touch screens? Hell, I don't think they were even the first to create phones usi…

> I remember correctly LG beat them to it with the Prada?

You remember incorrectly. Regarding the Palm as well. In fact, your claim is a lie. It doesn't rebut the point I am making, and instead is making a post hoc ergo proctor hoc fallacy in order to knock down a strawman.

>You know what I expect from HN? Civilised discussion.

A key component of civilized discussion is reading what someone says, thinking about it, figuring out what they said and why they said it. Then thinking about where their error is, if you disagree with them, and presenting an argument to the point that addresses that error.

It doesn't involve spewing logical fallacies and then characterizing them in a derogatory fashion.

>All I've seen from you is rudeness, arrogance and a holier-than-thou attitude that could be summed up by the last part of your profile description.

One of the problems with Hacker News is that people often interpret the act of thinking differently, or presenting evidence that disagrees with the belief they'd like to hold, as "rude, arrogant and holier-than-thou" or other derogatory terms that they then feel comfortable throwing at people.

I can't count the number of times on this site I've gotten personal attacks, such as yours, responded by not calling them names (as I have not called you names in response) and merely illuminated what they were doing in the hopes that they could see their errors (I named your logical fallacies above, for instance) only to have it escalate.

Unlike you, I don't expect civilized discussion from Hacker News, because as a minority, I've found that the voting mechanism gives bullies a feeling of superiority and free reign to attack others.

I often leave this site for months at a time because I've been subjected to stalking, personal threats, harassment, and name calling.

But here I am in a thread where I know I'm the minority. I haven't gloated, I've tried to explain. When I've seen repetition of very obvious fallacies, I've asked, with genuine wonderment, if people are simply not aware of these things or not. (I mean, really, you cite the LG Prada... are you not aware of the details of that phone? You say "If I remember correctly", so it sounds like you could simply be repeating what you've heard from others.

Do you realize that almost all of the claims made in this thread of prior examples of work that negates the assertion that Apple is innovative are being made by people repeating claims they've heard elsewhere without understanding the context? (There's only two possibilities when someone tells a falsehood-- either an intent to deceive, or an error. I'm presuming an error here, which I suspect is what you call "arrogant", but the alternative is to presume dishonesty.)

So, yes, I'm not ashamed of my profile description. It's an explanation of why I'll just drop out of discussions and why I won't just roll over and repeat the falsehoods that would garner me much more karma.

Do you realize you never made an argument against the point I was making? You expressed some conclusions that, even if they were accurate, don't argue against my point.

For there to be discussion, you'd need to address my point, right? But you didn't. Near as I can tell you responded because what I said didn't agree with your ideology (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems to be the motive, since you didn't respond to the point.) And in an ideological response like that, you're going to cite "proof" that usually amounts to talking points. "The palm had it!" "The Prada Had it!" But that isn't argument.

You didn't notice that the "it" is not the same, and that the it your talking about is not the same it I'm talking about.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the most successful IT company in the world and they are the most profitable in the phone industry and have the greatest market share in the tablet and music player industries. So not sure how you come up with this ludicrous idea that they can't compete. Also "open systems" always win ? Linux would like a word with you.

Don't you think I know that? I've owned their stock since 08. But the past isn't what matters - but chances for future growth. Success always comes before the fall - Apple can either stabilise or fall. They will fall. Linux won - Android is Linux. Consumer electronics are Linux. Servers are Linux. Everything runs on Linux. Microsoft is done. Google wins. I own Google now.

I wouldn't exactly confuse Google with Linux. They're linked because of Android, but if some company innovated on the search engine front and took Google's monopoly, Google would be in a rough spot.

Linux was winning before Google arrived, and Google still would've won had they used BSD instead. Nobody cares what OS is running underneath google.com

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#306
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cnet article was the original source for the Groklaw quote. The juror in the quote didn't mention anything about possibly going back to the issue. We don't know if cnet didn't run that part of the quote (why would they, they get more clicks with more controversy), or if the juror just didn't mention it. We do know that he isn't quoted as saying, "oh yeah, we never got back around to it". And since they explicitly…

My understanding is that there were two jurers who were unconvinced about the prior art thing. It seems to me like what actually happened is that, rather than trying to convince those two jurers (i.e. coming to a unanimous decision), they just went with "majority rules". Of course, there's no evidence to suggest that's what they did, but equally there's no evidence to suggest that they eventually went back to that qu…

Instructions are advisory. They are meant to help jurors who are unclear of what the law says. However, they are not shackles on the jurors. Jurors are free to ignore them, and should ignore them when justice requires it.

For example, Jurors have the right to find a guy not guilty when caught red handed with marijuana simply because the law is unconstitutional. They have that right and that is intentional in our system. Judges on the other hand, tell jurors in their instructions that they "have to find them guilty if they believe he possessed the drugs". When judges do this, I consider it jury tampering, and unfortunately for innocent pot smokers, too many jurors listen to the instructions.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#307
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Touch means finger touches. According to who, you? Feel free to argue around the technological improvements Apple have brought, but to argue that everything everybody has always called "touchscreen" isn't that... makes no sense. And even by your strange definition of a "touch based UI", were Apple the first company to create capacitive touch screens? Hell, I don't think they were even the first to create phones usi…

> I remember correctly LG beat them to it with the Prada? You remember incorrectly. Regarding the Palm as well. In fact, your claim is a lie. It doesn't rebut the point I am making, and instead is making a post hoc ergo proctor hoc fallacy in order to knock down a strawman. >You know what I expect from HN? Civilised discussion. A key component of civilized discussion is reading what someone says, thinking about it, f…

I'll be honest, after that first paragraph I didn't bother reading on.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#308
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bespoke touch oriented UI systems have been around for a very long time, some of them surprisingly sophisticated and innovative. A mate of mine used to do interfaces for touchscreen information kiosks, for instance.

100% agree. I used a touchscreen kiosk back in 1982 at EPCOT. It wasn't resistive, could have been capacitive, probably was infrared or surface-wave.

And thus it is completely irrelevant to this discussion.

You're making the "graham invented the telephone so there was nothing invented to make the cellphone" error.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#309
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I remember correctly LG beat them to it with the Prada? You remember incorrectly. Regarding the Palm as well. In fact, your claim is a lie. It doesn't rebut the point I am making, and instead is making a post hoc ergo proctor hoc fallacy in order to knock down a strawman. >You know what I expect from HN? Civilised discussion. A key component of civilized discussion is reading what someone says, thinking about it, f…

I'll be honest, after that first paragraph I didn't bother reading on.

No good deed goes unpunished. I responded to your insults in a civil manner. But you cannot be civil. I'm not surprised.

Re: A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious

#310
post #11

This has been spoken about over and over (refer to the heated discussion yesterday which wasn't my intention - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4431382 ). The core of the article again - looks at the concept of obviousness. Refer here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventive_step_and_non-obviousn... - "One of the main requirements of patentability is that the invention being patented is not obvious, meaning that a…

> No one is trying to stop them from selling smartphones, all we're saying is: make your own. Make your own designs, make your own phones, and compete on your own innovations. A world where every product is completely differentiated from its competitors is neither possible nor desirable. You can't stop Samsung from making smartphones, they're significantly entrenched already, but you can stop a startup. This ruling i…

That's competition. It's supposed to foster innovation and invention.
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