I'm sad seeing HN fallen down to reddit level of trollfest between apple fanbois and apple haters. Off-topic, but it had to be said.
Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
91–100 of 123 posts
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right that the execution, which involves taking an idea thru the difficulty of solving all of its problems to fruition is what really matters. However, the problem is that after Apple does this, and then everyone and their dog copies it, a few years later, people pretend like it wasn't Apple who actually had the idea, developed it, solved all the problems and then brought it to market! Its as if, because there…
They exist in the same embrace-and-extend industry as every other technology company. It's just as irritating that so many people believe Apple invented the MP3 player.
No, most people don't even know what an MP3 player is. The only people I hear that from these days are nerds. Everyone else says iPod. The same way we say 'kleenex'.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#93Somewhat related: You know how we in the startup world are constantly chanting, "It's the execution that matters, not the idea?" Well, many of the discussions around Apple seem to boil down to one person saying that Apple copied/stole the idea, or the idea was inevitable, and the other person saying "Yeah, but Apple pulled off he execution ." To the extent that all of Apple's ideas in GUIs, mobile devices, music reta…
It's more subtle than that. Jobs had a preternatural ability to determine when a technology was sufficiently mature and when people were ready to accept a well-executed solution. Some would argue, for example, that Newton was executed well (but people weren't ready for it). I would imagine a lot of startups find themselves in a situation where people simply aren't ready for the solution that is brought to the table.
I wouldn't call it preternatural - they've had a few flops which have seemingly been conveniently forgotten by people. Give the man his due, but let's not imply that he's some sort of force of nature.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
They exist in the same embrace-and-extend industry as every other technology company. It's just as irritating that so many people believe Apple invented the MP3 player.
No, most people don't even know what an MP3 player is. The only people I hear that from these days are nerds. Everyone else says iPod. The same way we say 'kleenex'.
Replace MP3 player with any of these: all modern desktop metaphors, the smartphone, the concept of an app store. I'm sure I'm missing some.
You could even go with the automobile, the assembly line, the light bulb, the telephone, and any number of frequently misattributed inventions and innovations if you need to move outside modern technology to see the point.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#95I really don't understand the need to denigrate Apple. It almost seems as this spawns from an instinctive respect for the significance that Apple, and Steve Jobs specifically, have actually had. Apple invented the GUI (using some ideas they licensed from Xerox), as part of a project that Steve Jobs led. The NeXT cube inspired the web to some extent and made the first browser much easier to write. Apple invented the t…
Microsoft?
Enterprise software. They still own this area
HP Excellent quality servers and network hardware. It's hard for that to be sexy because it doesn't have a touchscreen, but just because the masses don't know about it doesn't mean that they're an also-ran.
Dell Perfected mass-marketing of PCs, bringing computing costs waaaay down for everyone.
Lenovo Meh, they bought IBM's line of laptops only a few years ago. I notice that you studiously avoided the "so, what has IBM invented that's significant?"
Samsung Dunno, I'm sure someone will come up with something.
Sony Yeah, Sony have never pushed the envelope with things like the Playstation. Combined with Microsoft's Xbox, these guys have pretty much created a massive market where previously there was none. Not to mention the bunch of other stuff that the multi-tentacled Sony has done.
The cell networks I was unaware that we were looking to service providers to change the way we use computers.
The reason why people denigrate Apple is because Apple fans invite it. They keep on about the company like it's something amazingly special and everyone else is somehow daft for choosing something else. I've seen this referred to as "the Apple Smug Field". You've done it here by saying (or strongly implying) "Apple is awesome, what have those other guys done? NOTHING!", which, of course, is monumentally self-centred and irritating.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#96I think this article gets the nexus of failure wrong. Apple didn't change everything because, ultimately, the Apple idea didn't spread. I'm a big fan of Steve Jobs and how Apple has approached products but the fact is that it's pretty much just Apple . Beyond Cupertino there's the same players and the same issues you had before. You can't change everything if everything refuses to change.
Apple's ideas did spread. Every android phone is an iPhone counterfeit.... it is a copy of the iPhone. Like the GUI, which Linux and Windows copied, Apple's ideas do spread... the problem is the people who steal them get away with the theft.
I believe you are a troll at this point, but it's hard to tell given how fanatical some Apple fans are in their historical revisionism. I would suggest you watch what Jobs himself has to say on the GUI.[1] And read some of the other links that have been presented to you, you have been factually wrong numerous times throughout this thread.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi, welcome to the 90s, when patents were already "bogus and a bad idea." Remember GIF? JPEG? LZW? RAR? S3TC? MP3? MPEG-2? AAC? MPEG-4? h.264? I'll understand if you've forgotten all of these. After all, when a software patent only inconveniences people making Free Software, it doesn't really count as "bogus and a bad idea," right?
I'm always at a loss as to whether I should try to parse thru these snide comments to try and figure out what the argument you're trying to make is, or if I should just ignore them. At the very least, your putting words in my mouth so I don't have to defend them.
Please don't make snide comments and then complain when others reply in kind.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
>[Google fans] want to believe that it is ok for google to rip off the iPhone and give away a counterfeit operating system I love how in one breath Apple fanboys call Android a copycat and in the next claim it's so much harder to use than iOS. Which is it?
Where's the contradiction? Google didn't spend 7 years working out the kinks to get the usability right. Also, since they license to anyone, most of the hardware is crap hardware, thus the pointing accuracy is way off. Also, Apple takes a 72 pixel, roughly, finger contact area and turns it into a touch point with pixel level accuracy. That's not easy and that's not easy for Google to copy (probably because Apple hasn…
Figuring out the precise centroid of a 'blob' has been around for at least 20 years - this calculation was used in optical research to determine where the centroid of the pupil was in video taken of someone's eyes.
To suggest that this kind of algorithm is something special and new that Apple invented for the iPhone is just plain insulting.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#99There is a good argument to be made that Google is a more influential company than Apple, but this article doesn't present it. Once you take away the unsubstantiated (at least in the article) fluff, such as "Google preaches openness because it benefits the company", here are Google's concrete accomplishments, according to the article: 1) Their core technology, Google search. 2) The fact that they bought YouTube. This…
I'd throw in Gmail too.
Re: Apple changed everything? Yeah, right.
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually agree to the part where it says that Apple has not been the different change-maker. A very large part of the world population is still unaffected by Apple Products. MS for that instance has a much larger impact on the world of personal computing. Apple did produce some incredibly cool gadgets, but that was about it. iPods and iTunes was probably insanely popular in US (and Europe), just like iPhones and iP…
[Any particular reason for downvote(s)?]
Someone here correctly commented how this post showed Reddit level discussion and team based upmanship. You cannot trace the level of influence in a one-dimensional number line, of any two successful people or companies. Who has had more influence, Facebook, Twitter or even Friendster? pg or avc? Such questions are stupid, just like Erdos-Bacon numbers. They are good for friendly banter, but don't have any real meaning.
I replied to nirvana about how the word inventing does not mean anything. And yet he and you kept on debating on minutiae. Many techie people from India look up to MS and Google as opposed to say Apple or Amazon, partly because their influence is more apparent, so I understand your affinity for them. But attributing invention or success to something which can be attributed to random events and network effects, is a bit off by standards here.
I did not down vote anyone, just making a general comment. Things are never so black and white, grab a good book, read some scientific (non-CS) papers, you will probably have a broader perspective. I would recommend starting with the massive bibliography at the back of The Black Swan (Taleb).