Apple Newton vs. Apple iPhone 203
An anonymous reader writes "CNET UK has written a head-to-head piece entitled Apple Newton vs Apple iPhone. Despite the Newton being released some 10 years ago, and despite the iPhone being a phone, not a tablet, the site's editors believe the Newton is the more innovative of the two Apple products. The two devices were tied over four rounds, but in the 'Special Powers' element, where the iPhone was praised for its iPod capability, the Newton countered with its ability to play MP3s, connect to iTunes and 'its ability to work as a phone' because 'Blam! Not even the iPhone can do that.'"
Innovative? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd have to say that neither is truly "innovative" because that would imply something new was present in either of them, rather than a remix of existing technologies and/or incremental improvements on them (such as minaturization). The only really innovative thing I've seen out of Apple in awhile has been the touch wheel on the iPods; Which was quite a departure from existing human interface designs at the time. The word "innovative" has been quite overused in this field.
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Apple just likes the word because it begins with an i.
Would it be ironic that we over-use the word innovate, or would it be ironic if we created a new word to replace innovate?
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Apple just likes the word because it begins with an i.
I expect they'll change their name to iPple as soon as they realize they need to, to outrun their bad reputation with app developers.
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I like to ate, ate, ate... Apples and Bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat... Epples and Benenes
I like to iat, iat, iat... iPples and Bininis
I like to oat, oat, oat... opples and Bononos
I like to ute, ute, ute... upples and Bununus
I like to yte, yte, yte... ypples and bynynys (sometimes)
Innovation is not necessarily invention (Score:5, Insightful)
See, that's the thing that Apple does so well. They don't invent things. They make other inventions actually work.
Through exhaustive design iteration and engineering, they develop ideas that are "nice on paper but useless in practice" into things that actually deliver on the invention's promise. From desktop UNIX to high-capacity music players to the mobile web browser, Apple invented none of these, yet they all sucked until Apple treated each one not as a feature problem but as a design and usability problem.
That's not invention. But if it isn't innovation, I don't know what is.
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Yes, obviously the computers, mp3 players and phones simply didn't work at all before Apple came along.
Respectfully (because maybe you weren't there to see it), desktop computing before the Woz really sucked.
Re:Then all phone companies innovate (Score:4, Insightful)
Good band recognition and marketing qualify as technical innovation now?
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I guess if you don't think usability can be innovative.
Newton wins? (Score:3, Insightful)
Shouldn't the iPhone get points in this comparison for not being the equivalent of carrying a Dell laptop's giant powerbrick around in your pocket?
I know this article was written all in fun, but - you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that'd want to carry a Newton around instead of an iPhone. Or a Newton instead of even a Windows Mobile device.
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I own two Newtons. Both fit in my jeans pocket, even if they are much larger than my Android phone, or an iPhone. Of course, the first is an original Newton from 1994.
The Newton was innovative. It could do fascinating things with very low power requirements on a very legible screen, and most of the things it could do well the iPhone still doesn't do. "Assist" alone was an excellent feature that many people never saw in action. For example, you're on a blank notes page and you type "Remember Brian's bir
Newton Can't Play MP3's? Rubbish! (Score:4, Interesting)
10 Years? Try 16 Years! (Score:2, Informative)
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The original Newton - the MessagePad - was released in 1993. Heck, The Steve *cancelled* Newton more than 10 years ago. Really.
That's the submitter's error. Article says the Newton was 10 years old last time they did such a comparison, against an early windows mobile device.
21 minutes later... (Score:4, Funny)
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Hey, that's an excellent point - an article that concludes teh new hotness from Apple is inferior to a 10-year old product you can't buy is an oustanding and ingenious viral ad campaign. Color me impressed!
Re:21 minutes later... (Score:4, Funny)
Study reveals 7-bit ASCII superior to 8-bit ASCII because you get a free bit with every letter!
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Next marketing stunt for Post Cereals: Alpha-bits, now available in UTF-8*!
* not all characters are included in each box.
Re:21 minutes later... (Score:4, Funny)
I keep submitting this story called "How Incredibly Amazing is Apple?" With nothing but the link to the Apple Store copied and pasted 50 times over, but for whatever reason the Mods just won't post it.
What gives?
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I keep submitting this story called "How Incredibly Amazing is Apple?" With nothing but the link to the Apple Store copied and pasted 50 times over, but for whatever reason the Mods just won't post it.
What gives?
Just mention Firefox somewhere.
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1. Mention how you can access the Apple Store website On Your Iphone. That's a guaranteed way to get a story [slashdot.org].
So where's the place on the Apple Store where you can buy your way out of a parking ticket?
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Ok, I looked at the history, and there was on average exactly one iPhone-mentioning “article” per day posted, since the 14th. And before that it does not get much smaller.
So you have to wait til’ tomorrow. Sorry. How about some porn to wank to: http://images.google.com/images?q=iphone [google.com] :D
Have to agree, from experience... (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a Newton Message Pad 100 (the very first model) which I bought cheap in '94 on a whim. It was already totally outdated when I bought it. Still, in its lifetime, I printed from it, sent and received faxes from it, all kinds of stuff you'd normally need a computer for. Totally handy.
Come '96 and I'm in grad school and I take every note for the whole two years on that thing and it was GREAT. I mean really, had it been a pain would I have kept on the entire time? Having a pretty big screen meant you had plenty of room to scrawl out those notes on the screen, and as I had maybe not 'neat' handwriting, but at least consistent handwriting it worked great.
In 1996, being able to search your notes on the computer saved me so much time that I could have a band. So maybe having a Newton didn't get me chicks, but at least the band did!
Then, in 2000, I was still using it. But I accidentally left it on a conference room table after a meeting and it disappeared. It actually got STOLEN. In the 21st century.
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>
Then, in 2000, I was still using it. But I accidentally left it on a conference room table after a meeting and it disappeared. It actually got STOLEN. In the 21st century.
It apparently had an off-by-one bug.
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I used my MP2000 daily until a month ago. It suddenly lost its mind and all the data on its internal memory (stuff on my two pcmcia cards was okay, including a backup). It restored okay, but now I'm not sure I trust it. Maybe it was a fluke. I dunno. Still, there's something to be said for all that screen real estate.
"Blam! Not even the iPhone can do that." (Score:2, Funny)
I'm sure they had great make up sex later on.
Apple Iphone 1G (Score:2)
Since the first Iphone as such has become known as the "2G" and the second as the "3G", I suggest thinking of the Newton as the Iphone 1G. (OK, so there were a few different versions of the Newton itself. But at this distance in time, I think we can ignore that.)
Peter
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I suggest thinking of the Newton as the Iphone 1G
It supports various analog cell phone technologies such as AMPS? :-)
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It supports various analog cell phone technologies such as AMPS? :-)
Apparently, with the right 3rd party add-in card, yes.
Newton Users Can Run Their Choice of Apps (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing they left out in the app comparison is that Newton users can add in any apps they wanted. They're not limited to the ones approved by Apple in the gated community known as the App Store.
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Second, there are a shitload of applications out there, the vast majority are shit, but some are really useful. I never care about a machine that can't do what I don't want it to do. I don't care that my care can't go 100 miles an hour. I don't care that my fridge isn't cooled by NO2. I don't care that my pencil is not self
Nope (Score:2)
According to Apple: "The Standard and Enterprise Programs allow you to share your application with up to 100 other iPhone or iPod touch users with Ad Hoc distribution. Share your application through email or by posting it to a web site or server."
So your app can only go to 100 people. If you attempt to use the program to sell or give away apps in an adhoc manner, Apple disables your developer key and then it can't install on more phones.
On Palm, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, S60... basically every s
Incorrect (Score:2)
Palm had tens of thousands of apps available for it long before the iPhone was even designed. Many of those apps are still more powerful and useful than most iPhone apps because iPhone apps don't have access to the whole operating system and Apple won't let folks create apps that don't sit well with their business plan (which is why there's no real Google Voice on iPhone).
quality journos? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow... just.... wow
That must be the worst written article I've read this month. Or possibly ever.
Hey, I know, let's next compare a raft made of barrels to the International Space Station and let's have the raft win because it has easier access and is cheaper to make and maintain.
Again. Just... wow
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yeah that article was seriously pathetic. Disappointing, too, as it would be interesting to read something insightful about this topic. I am still a big fan of the Newton and I wish Apple would come out with a modern version of the emate 300. I think there would be a lot of very interesting things to say about comparing these products, not as a "which is better?" smackdown but rather in terms of discussing some very promising technology from 15 years ago and the extent to which that promise has been real
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I am still a big fan of the Newton and I wish Apple would come out with a modern version of the emate 300.
Yes, so does everyone else, since it would be called a "netbook" and run OSX. You CAN get such a thing, but you have to buy the hardware from someone other than Apple and tweak the OS to make it fit since Apple sees themselves as more fit to tell you what you want than you are, and doesn't actually offer any product in that market... probably because they couldn't slap enough markup on it along with the Apple logo to justify its production.
The device you want is already here, depending on the form factor it
Re:quality journos? (Score:4, Insightful)
You never used a Newton, did you? I have netbooks, I have an Android phone, and I have two Newtons.
I can still demonstrate things that are easier to do on the Newton than on a tablet, notebook, iphone, etc. Some of them aren't even possible except on a Newton.
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Well, it was a CNET Crave article. I think Crave is intended as a (not so stealthy) stealth parody of tech media. Either that or it's Slashdot's equivalent of Idle: So intentionally bad that it makes the rest of the website look much better in comparison.
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But the joke was badly done (idiotic, even).
More work seems to have been put into the pictures than the text and the text sounds like it was written by fratboys, bot the level of humor and the quality of the text itself.
Listen, here I'm going to write a joke article headline:
Researchers found out today that the Mona Lisa is made of poo!
That was pretty bad, eh?
Both because of the joke not really being a joke (too bad to classify as one) as well as the text being poorly written, it sounds like it was written
The newton was ground breaking (Score:2)
The iphone, well, its a phone...
Why did it fail? (Score:2)
Nice article that made me very curious about one thing: why did the Newton fail? It seems like an amazingly useful and cutting-edge device that should have been snatched up by everybody.
Maybe it was just a little bit TOO new, so didn't fit well enough into people's existing workflows?
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Well there were a few reasons:
Re:ok (Score:5, Insightful)
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The iPhone UI sucks a lot harder than WebOSs, and it is no better than Android.
The ONLY selling point of the iPhone is the ecosystem. Brand loyalty, huge number of apps and huge installed base. The phone itself is bland compared to all the other offerings(most new phones are essentially an iPhone plus a couple other features, like a high res display or a physical keyboard), and the software is about as advanced as Palm OS 4.0. I don't know how Apple can ship a product in 2009 that doesn't support multitaski
Re:ok (Score:5, Informative)
It does support multitasking, it just doesn't support multitasking with third party apps through the official app store. The apple apps can multitask, as can third party apps on jailbroken phones.
Re:ok (Score:5, Interesting)
But by this logic, almost every phone on the market multitasks - e.g., my phone's built in mp3 player can run at the same time as the built in email client.
The point is that it doesn't run more than one third party application at once (which really means it's a feature phone, not a smartphone - unless you use the broader definition of smartphone that would also include all feature phones). For years, when people talked about multitasking on phones, this is what they meant - it's only with the Iphone that suddenly the terms have to be used differently, to hide the things it doesn't do, and pretend it's a "smartphone"...
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No. It does not.
"Does not" support multitasking for third-party apps through the official app store? Correct.
"Does not" support multitasking for bundled apps? Incorrect, although even those apps are subject to being suddenly terminated if a foreground app needs more memory.
"Does not" support multitasking for third-party apps on jailbroken phones? Incorrect, modulo the previous comment about sudden termination.
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If it indiscriminately terminates processes because the running app needs more memory, its not really practical to say it supports multitasking. You are just trying to redefine the accepted meaning of a multitasking smart phone to fit your fancy.
I might be biased though, I'm writing this from my HTC Hero with Android 1.6
Re:ok (Score:4, Interesting)
Not true. Every modern multitasking operating system will, in a low-memory situation, terminate background processes in favour of foreground processes. Other multitasking operating systems will be reduced to the performance of a snail racing through molasses in an attempt to keep everything running.
Neither approach is great from an end-user perspective, but at least when you run out of memory and the kernel kills processes to free up resources, the entire system is usable. The alternative is to lose everything because the system is so unresponsive you are forced to reboot to regain control.
When you're talking about a device with extremely limited resources, with no chance of increasing those resources, somethings gonna give, and in this case, it means that in order for the phone to remain operational the kernel will kill background tasks. It's not a limitation or fault, its a design trade-off based on the limited resources available. In my opinion its the right choice.
If your point is that the iPhone has inadequate resources to be used as a handheld computer, well then, I'd agree but that's another trade-off that Apple made in order to create the device they wanted, and its nothing to do with the iPhone's ability to multitask.
I'd be willing to bet that your Hero has greater storage resources available, either as RAM or FLASH and is therefore using some of that as a page file/device.
Yes, I have an iPhone, and yes, I'm just waiting two months for the contract to expire and I'll be replacing it with a Nokia N900.
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The N900 looks amazing. I have a N95, and I'm quite pleased with it, but it's nearly 3 years behind now. I'll definitely be picking up a N900 as well once my contract is out. Full Linux, and Nokia even encourages you to get down into the system and do your own thing. I'm sure it won't catch on like the iPhone with all its trendiness, but the N900 really seems like a kickass piece of hardware and software to me.
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Actually the Hero is somewhat limited in memory. That being said, it gives the choice to the user if they want to do something that needs more memory, unlike the iPhone which will simply terminate the other application. My point is that its deceptive to call the iPhone a multitasking phone compared to what else is out there. I have a couple apps that run constantly on my phone, one of which is an alternative keyboard. The iPhone is not capable of anything like that.
I too considered an N900 but I decided to
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My point was the phone didn't support this as sold. Claiming the iPhone supports multitasking is akin to claiming an eeepc is a gaming laptop. I dont care if you managed to get warcraft running on it.
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In most sane multitasking OSes (and even 16 bit Windows) the way it works is the application needing more memory calls malloc (or whatever your language calls "hey OS, give me some memory), and an error is thrown. The application needing more memory either handles the error or that application fails.
The kernel does not and should not go around magically killing background processes. That decision is left to the user (and it should be left to the user).
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A modern Linux kernel will, by default, allow programs to allocate memory forever, or until there's not enough kernel memory available to track new allocations. There is also an OOM killer, but I don't know if it's enabled by default.
In any event, Linux does not work as you describe.
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If a *nix box doesn't have swap space and runs out of memory, causing apps to terminate, then we can't say that OS X in general, Linux, or even Solaris can multitask.
No one is trying to redefine "multitasking" here except you.
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I'm no iPhone fan, but now you're claiming Linux isn't a multitasking OS. Linux also (optionally) kills apps just because of memory needs, the infamous OOM killer.
Android also kills background apps because of memory pressure, and does a miserable job of it sometimes but that's fixable. Its also Linux.
Re:ok (Score:4, Funny)
"The ONLY selling point of the iPhone is the ecosystem. Brand loyalty, huge number of apps and huge installed base."
Our THREE main selling points are the the brand loyalty, the huge number of apps and the huge install base. And the web browser.
Damn! Damn! I'll come back in.
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If you look at the scrolling on other phones you'll find they lag a bit, or tear a bit, or are a bit jerky. That breaks the illusion/magic/coolness.
I can imagine Steve Jobs (or a lesser incarnation) yelling the developers if they try to get away with the jerky stuff you see on other phones...
It's stuff like that t
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most new phones are essentially an iPhone plus a couple other features, like a high res display or a physical keyboard
And either being bigger and clunkier, or having a smaller screen. iPhone's screen size compared to form factor has unequaled for a long time. It was the only phone with multi-touch for a long time. It really was a very excellent device for its time. It's only the in last few months that other phones are surpassing it left and right.
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"The iPhone UI sucks a lot harder than WebOSs, and it is no better than Android.
The ONLY selling point of the iPhone is the ecosystem. Brand loyalty, huge number of apps and huge installed base. The phone itself is bland compared to all the other offerings(most new phones are essentially an iPhone plus a couple other features, like a high res display or a physical keyboard), and the software is about as advanced as Palm OS 4.0. I don't know how Apple can ship a product in 2009 that doesn't support multitask
Re:ok (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ok (Score:5, Informative)
That's the point - there's nothing special about the Iphone, apart from being one in a long line of high end phones from various companies.
There are few other phones of this decade that have so revolutionized the marketplace. Ok, before the iPhone how many other captive touchscreen phones were there? How many phones with good browsers? With a large amount of apps? With a decent UI? The success of the iPhone kicked Android development into high gear, that in turn influenced major phones on every large network save for AT&T, the success of the iPhone also gave rise to millions of clone devices, or similar devices. About the only phone that I can think of with the same impact was the Motorola Razr (and perhaps that old monochrome Nokia phone with Snake on it and those exchangeable faceplates, but I think that came out before 2000)
But for some reason, even years later, all we hear is Iphone Iphone Iphone, and never about any of the interesting developments from major players like Nokia.
Um, perhaps because there hasn't been -any- interesting developments from Nokia? I mean, aside from the N900, most of Nokia's phones have been relatively uninspired. The other major players have been uninspiring, yeah, the BlackBerry is great if you want E-mail, but it relies on the aging BlackberryOS, still lacks polish, and their last major redesign (Storm) was a failure (yeah, Storm 2 is better, but the original Storm sucked), Windows Mobile is still crap. And Android is moving ahead but still lacks the polish/apps/support of some of the other phones.
If you want a browser, get the iPhone. If you want a phone that has promise, get Android. If you need something super-reliable get a BlackBerry. If you for some odd reason need an obscure Windows Mobile app get Windows Mobile.
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Nokia may have a larger marketshare, but not many of those phones are in use.
This is absolutely true. I know plenty of people who go out and spend their hard earned money on Nokia phones and then just throw them away.
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in browser stats Apple has -nearly half- of browser marketshare for smartphones
As another posted noted, those stats are only for the US. The US has been slow to take up mobile phones for several reasons, so it's not representative of the global market.
But anyway. I'd like to quickly address the assumption that mobile web browser stats can be used as a way to measure mobile phone market share. I have a Nokia 5220, a simple GSM/EDGE phone with an S40 interface. I rarely use the built-in (WAP?) browser because the screen is small and loading modern web/wap pages over EDGE is still quite
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the drag-to-edge copy and paste implementation
Proof that Apple does indeed know how to implement copy/paste.
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I hate Java with a passion, so not having it isn't a lack for me. However, I run non-Apple approved apps and I multitask them all the time.
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The iPhone's only selling point is that it has a UI that sucks a lot less than most of its competitors.
That's a pretty big selling point, though. Before the iPhone, smartphones sucked. In fact, any non-make-a-phone-call functionality on any kind of phone sucked. iPhone showed the way in slick, easily navigatable UIs. Nowadays everybody's doing it (or trying to), but in simple, easy to use UIs, the iPhone did show the way.
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I'm going to Verizon Real Soon Now, for real phone service, and getting a real GPS, so my locator service will actually work when I need it, not just 1/3 of the time. Those are the two things I really wanted o
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Well, if it needs a new home, I'd be willing to taking it off your hands, sans SIM card.
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Why would GPS service be better on Verizon's network?
I won't contest that Verizon offers better coverage in many parts of the country, but the GPS network is mostly separate from the cell network. I honestly haven't heard this listed as a common complaint among iPhone users.
Also be warned that Verizon's customer support is among the worst on the planet, that Android's app ecosystem frankly sucks (and the platform isn't particularly pleasant to develop for), and that Verizon have continued their time-honore
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Sometimes packaging is the innovation (Score:5, Insightful)
Um what? If the iPhone was nothing new, when it was released and even now, you wouldn't have competitors scrambling to catch up. If there was no innovation, there wouldn't be anything to catch up to.
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Er, they're not scrambling to catch up on. Or okay, I'll bite - what are they scrambling to catch up? (And before you reply, I want actual features or objective examples, not undefined things like "Well it does it better, it just does", because obviously there's no way we can discuss or measure that.)
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Re:ok (Score:4, Interesting)
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And SCSI. And FireWire.
Apple invented SCSI? News to me. [storagereview.com] FireWire, yes, but SCSI, no. They may have adopted it to a greater extent than other personal computer makers, but they didn't invent it.
Re:ok (Score:4, Interesting)
Hypercard ?
Quicktime ?
Finalcut ?
Desktop publishing ?
All seem pretty innovative to me.
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I'm almost a fanboy (transcoding video on one mac and moving 900GB on another, while updating linux mint on an old xp box and posting on a win7 netbook ATM) but have to point out that Apple bought FCP, then made it theirs.
But Hypercard still rocks.
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Iknow we're comparing Apples to Apples, but are we really comparing apples to apples? I mean... you know what I mean...
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Which isn't a problem. What I don't like is the part where they turn around and proclaim themselves as innovators.
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Microsoft has been doing the same for years now. Anyone that believes corporate propaganda should go out and get some fresh air.
Re:ok (Score:4, Interesting)
And they are routinely derided for it. Like when they suddenly claimed that they invented symbolic links. Apple is not. It's not really the propaganda isn't what annoys me, it's the mindless worship from their fans that gets to me. And I LIKE Apple products. I think that right now they make the best computers out there. But I'm not going to switch that like to the company. A company is a piece of paper filed with the state.
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history and every industry that exists today would beg to differ.
Not everyone is successful with innovation, but innovation (and invention) are what can enable success.
Re:ok (Score:5, Insightful)
The bigger issue here is the narrow definition of "innovation"* so often used at /. and other tech-centric places, in which innovation only means innovation in a strictly technological/programming/hardware sense of the word. Behind this conceit lies the assumption that the only innovation which matters is purely technological innovation, and all of the other aspects, including making these innovations easy to use and accessible for wide range of people, are looked up on as somehow less than.
Hence the constantly renewing Year of Linux on the Desktop, which ignores the fact even the best-packaged Linux distros are at best a mixed bag when it comes to usability. Hence the constant claims that the iPhone/iPod will soon fall from its perch because its focus is ease of use and accessibility and not "innovation". Hence the boiling down of the wide variety of things which must go into a successful product as "cool" or "marketing", etc.
Apple's particular current genius lies in its ability to take technology and package it for use by a wide variety of people who don't care about the technology per se, and a big part of this is the iPod Touch/iPhone's UI, which makes it so easy even your grandmother can tweet away to her heart's content. And I think the reason Apple catches so much flack here, and elsewhere, is that by giving the "sheep" access to the technology, it take away from the n3rd world the special acclaim they have given themselves for having access to that technology.
That thought aside, the fact that so very few tech companies are able to do what Apple does should tell you how incredibly difficult it is to do, and why it is as innovative as any other tech achievement. Microsoft has, quite literally, money to burn and the best they can do is constantly bandage over the larger usability nightmares in Windows and Windows Mobile. Palm had to almost die before they came up with WebOS. Gnome and KDE have a (relatively) large installed base and access to talented people and the best they can come up with is a model which, sometimes, is easier to use than Windows. YOur average cel phone UI is a nightmare of menus, submenus, confusing icons and deeply-buried features. And on and on.
Making technology easy to use is incredibly difficult and every bit as innovative as writing a new OS or designing a new chip. And, while Apple has made, and will continue, to make stupid decisions, when it comes to what they do, they do do it so very well.
*There is a further conceit here, as to the true nature of innovation. There seems to be the idea that "true" innovators are the geniuses who come up with a wholly original idea, develop that idea, get it to market and retire to sleep on a bed of money. Look at this history of technology and you will see that almost never happens. Almost every innovation you can think of is either an improvement on an earlier idea or a new combination of previously established technology and ideas. Henry Ford, to pick one at random, didn't invent a damn thing. He took the idea of assembly lines and interchangeable parts from weapons manufacture, combined it with a newly available urban workforce and clever marketing (any color you want as long as its black) which was actually based on sound logistical planning, and created the modern car industry. It's the same with the computer industry. Progress is the story of incremental improvement and assembly of ideas and not sudden advances out of nowhere.
Or that's my $0.02
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Of course the iphone is innovative. Who else but apple would think it's a good idea to blindly execute whatever program it receives by SMS?
Android? [blackhat.com] (They hadn't finished testing Windows Mobile as of when they published that paper.)
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Actually you'll probably be modded down for continually posting whiney little rants.
Re:Daily Apple Slashvertisement again. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Us fanboys need those articles. Otherwise we get shaky and irritable. And sad.
Right now is an especially bad time what with the holidays, the recession, the War in Afghanistan and the vague status of the iTablet (not necessarily in that order).
Have some mercy.
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With the first Pandoras likely getting shipped in early December, this is clearly going to be the best Christmas ever. I mean, screw recession, wars and the Apple rumor treadmill. Pandora fanboyism is like crack cocaine on more crack cocaine these days.
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I don't block this, but you can use Yahoo Pipes to setup a filter, it's nice. You just have to drag a "fetch" module and fill the source feed URL, then connect it to a "filter" modules and choose the keyword(s), and finally connect it to "Pipe Output" and save, afterwords it'll provide you an URL you can use on your reader. I use it for embedding cartoons in feeds which only provide a link to the cartoon, like Explosm.
I think Google as something similar, but I've never used it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, I've been seeing this exact same comment on a lot of tech sites lately. Heck, there's quite a few of them on this article alone. At first, I was like "Welcome to what it was like for us Apple guys 5-10 years ago", (not that I ever posted that, I just thought it). But the more I think about it, I think it just means that the iPhone, iPod, Apple, etc., is going more mainstream. I don't think its a purposeful marketing strategy on anyones part (maybe it is and I'm too blinded to see), but more or les
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And sure enough, just after I post about how people here seem to have no idea of the phone market, one comes along:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if there was something coming out of MS, Verizon, Dell, or the likes that was interesting
Well, what about all of the interesting phones that are coming from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola etc? Virtually zero coverage, it's been that way for years - so yes, I'm correcting you that you are wrong :)
Unless for some reason, there's something special about MS, Verizon, Dell and
Re: (Score:2)
Hear hear. (And actually, I'm surprised that there's only one today, for once.)
It's particularly odd, given the small market share of the Iphone. If it was the Ipod, sure, I could understand - the largest in that market. Hell, even Macs have a larger market share, yet there are only occasional stories about them. But for the Iphone, there are quite literally daily stories - with virtually zero coverage of any of the other mobile phone companies (e.g., Nokia, who have about 40% of the market).
And the viral m
Jeopardy! (Score:2)
I am a big company with a monopolistic agenda and a marketing-driven corporate culture.
(Actually it's a trick question. You cannot possibly know if this is Microsoft or Apple, unless you know in which category you are playing: "Evil" or "Cool").
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if the daily Apple story isn't as much about the Haterz as about the fanbois? Slashdot posts an Apple story and the first thing that happens is that the Haters all pile into the thread and spew vitriol all over the place. Then the fanbois wade in and start bashing around with bats and mod points, and then before you know it: voila, 300 posts!
They don't post these stories just to soothe the fanbois, they post them because people, love it or hate it, are passionate about Apple. The haters need their
Re: (Score:2)
The funny thing is that I clearly remember reading an article from the early 1990s about Newton application developers complaining about having to write all their apps in Apple's scripting language with a limited API.