Apple Adds Samsung Galaxy SIII To Its Ban List 553
After its big win against Samsung, Apple named 8 Samsung products it wanted an injunction to ban from sale in the U.S. Apple wasn't content with that, though; USA Today reports on the state of the expanded list: "The new list of 21 products includes Samsung's flagship smartphone Galaxy S III as well as the Galaxy Note, another popular Android phone. If the court finds those devices are infringing Apple's patents and irreparably harming the U.S. company, it could temporarily halt sales in the U.S. market even before the trial begins."
Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah I'm sure having all of slashdot avoid apple products will be a totally effective boycott.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
I keep saying this; it does have an effect. It's not just those of us that keep up to date about all of the bad corporate behaviour of Apple, Sony, etc, it's all the other people that come to us for opinions. It matters. The world is a much smaller place than it used to be as well.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been responsible for converting more than a dozen people from Apple to Android now, and Apple's bad acting is all the encouragement I need to redouble my efforts. Not that it takes much convincing. Basically, demonstrate the Google connectivity, show the hardware features (standard usb is a big deal for just about everybody) compare the free and open Android app scene [wikipedia.org] to Apple [stackoverflow.com] and it's a done deal. Oh and the price of course, especially the Nexus 7.The bottom line is, a Google logo is just a lot more sought after these days than a half eaten apple.
Another way to seal the deal, bring along a couple of Nexus tablets and demo a video chat using Google Talk, which is based on free-and-open Jabber/XMPP. A pair of magic videochat devices for $200 each, how can you beat that?
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Apple didn't even come close to "inventing the smart phone" as if it were a complete thing unto itself. They didn't invent the touchscreen, the computer processor, they didn't invent operating systems, they didn't invent wireless data transfer or cellular communications.
What they did was take existing tech and combine it in a new way. Not to denigrate apple's achievements; they're phenomenal. But the things they're claiming to "own" aren't really the things that allowed the smartphone revolution to occur
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps Slashdot can start by changing the Apple icon, just like we had the Borg icon for Microsoft.
For Apple, I'd say something with a snake will do.
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Just an insane worms and a rotten core visible from the outside and your done. Everyone knows exactly what this is all about Apple use corruption of the court system and patents to squeeze out an inflated profit margins from a spoilt brat fashion product, for as long as psychopathically possible. Not that Google should be given free reign, those privacy invasive buggers also need to kept a very close watch on. Who would have thunk it, Apple worse than M$, even with Uncle Fester at the helm, makes you reall
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For Apple, I'd say something with a snake will do.
I was thinking more along the lines of a certain feminine hygiene product.
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Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
That's fine, as log as you add Samsung into the list of bad corporate behavior.
Any organization with two or more people will be guilty of "bad corporate behavior" in someone's opinion. It's necessary to decide what you consider acceptable versus what you consider unacceptable.
I don't recall Samsung doing anything that I, personally, consider unacceptable. I can't say the same for Apple. Your own point is an empty one unless you elaborate.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
Any organization with two or more people will be guilty of "bad corporate behavior" in someone's opinion.
Most try to steer clear of the "actively destructive" perception that Apple is building for itself.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:4, Insightful)
How about three different convictions or case settling of price fixing? Samsung has paid over a billion dollars in settlements or fines for price fixing in the DRAM, LCD display, and mobile phone markets.
But they've got a nice shiny halo over their heads around here for reasons passing understanding.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
Wait, so you bought an consumer electronics device from them well over a decade ago, it had a feature on it that didn't work very well for your purposes, and you want to throw them in the same category as crApple? I thought that I had a grudge about Apple through their recent behaviour, ever increasingly closed O/S, and hardware that is becoming more and more difficult (read impossible) to upgrade - but your grudge is slightly alarming... and you got your money back from Best Buy!
As a former Apple employee and dedicated user of their products (I may have bordered on fanboy at one point), I've become so sick of Apple's despicable practices and direction that I've given my iPad to my wife and replaced it with a Google Nexus, replaced my iPhone (goodbye unlimited data!) with a Samsung S3, and my shiny late-2011 MBP has been relegated to a secondary laptop with a nice new Dell running Linux Mint 10... However, were Apple to change their business practices/policies I would again consider using their products as they are of exceptional quality.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, so you bought an consumer electronics device from them well over a decade ago, it had a feature on it that didn't work very well for your purposes, and you want to throw them in the same category as crApple? I thought that I had a grudge about Apple through their recent behaviour, ever increasingly closed O/S, and hardware that is becoming more and more difficult (read impossible) to upgrade - but your grudge is slightly alarming... and you got your money back from Best Buy!
As a former Apple employee and dedicated user of their products (I may have bordered on fanboy at one point), I've become so sick of Apple's despicable practices and direction that I've given my iPad to my wife and replaced it with a Google Nexus, replaced my iPhone (goodbye unlimited data!) with a Samsung S3, and my shiny late-2011 MBP has been relegated to a secondary laptop with a nice new Dell running Linux Mint 10... However, were Apple to change their business practices/policies I would again consider using their products as they are of exceptional quality.
I have Samsung laptops, washing machine and dryers, vacuums, etc. All top top quality products. I had other samsung products (cell phones and TVs). All top quality. The one time some small electronics failed, I got an RMA after I quoted the date of purchase and the serial number on the device. They sent me a new one.
If it was for a TV or washer, they have certified repair organizations. Can't beat that.
Now for the major factor. Their products performs better than the average. Like all manufacturers, from car to home appliances, etc. they buy a few of the competing products, figure out how they can do it better and sell a better product. It also happens to them, as you can bet a thousand dollars that Apple did that same thing with Samsung and their other competitors.
Samsung Galaxy performs better than does Apples overly priced product. Price gouging, is price gouging, and using the courts in every possible way to harm competition (they learned from MS), is not what I consider acceptable.
Apple is temporarily on top. I think it will be a me too company within 5 years. And all the competitors with their patents will combine to make sure Apple dies a torturous death.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
The font was small and had no background box, making it unreadable in many scenes and useless for my then fiance.
That's in large part the fault of your DVDs rather than the player. DVD subtitles are bitmap overlays which don't generally have any kind of background box. Whilst some DVDs do support old-fashioned closed captions, a lot of DVD players don't handle outputting them because they use a really old and quirky and US-specific data format in the vertical blanking interval that's really hard to support (and apparently can't be supported at all on high-definition outputs).
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Aren't DVD captions images, not text?
Many DVDs have 2 types of captions. If you use handbrake, the image based captions are referred to as VOBSUB while the text based ones are referred to as CC.
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles [handbrake.fr]
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. Blatant copying is OK with me.
Otherwise nothing will ever get done because EVERYTHING builds on something else. If you think otherwise then you are just a pathological narcisist.
Although I don't accept your premise.
BOTH devices are blatant copies of any number of other devices that came before them. This is how progress occurs.
Ownership is not supposed to be assigned to "what" but to HOW. That HOW needs to be non-trivial. It needs to be something that can't be replicated by some student.
Patents need to be real inventions, not college homework assignments.
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(Shrug) Sure. If life itself can be said to have a purpose, it's making copies. That's what we do.
Anyone who tries to interfere with that process will spend their lives in struggle against fundamental, inexorable forces that they don't even see, much less comprehend.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
The real question is, how many Slashdot readers actually will stay away from Apple? A pretty large number of IT, CS, and other technically-minded folks seem to like Apple's products (and they are generally apathetic when it comes to Apple's tactics, licenses, or how Apple is pushing for the destruction of PCs), and quite a few Slashdot readers are big supporters of Apple. If the world's technical communities were united on this issue, there would be no problem -- Apple would be facing mass resistance (see e.g. SOPA/PIPA). Unfortunately, we are not united; a lot of people in these communities like Apple's products and are going to deride people who boycott Apple.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
I do avoid Apple products. However, if someone comes to me and asks for advice, I cannot in good conscience tell them to say away from Apple without also explaining why I feel that way; and, let's face it, these kinds of ethical issues are far from universally agreed upon. It's something that everyone must decide for themselves. Sure, you can provide them with context, but making the choice for them would be immoral.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
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Are you sure they really understand the issue at hand fully?
Most don't fully get it or see the importance, but that doesn't matter either because they will easily get the fact that Android devices deliver a lot more value for the dollar and have a lot more good quality free stuff.
But let's face it, say "Google" and the average person is already basically sold.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
Most don't fully get it or see the importance, but that doesn't matter either because they will easily get the fact that Android devices deliver a lot more value for the dollar and have a lot more good quality free stuff.
That's a matter of opinion.
I went from Palm to Windows Mobile to Apple to PalmOS to Android. Apple absolutely delivers the best experience, followed by PalmOS, then Android.
I hated Android. Seriously, with a passion. I loved the idea--a modern, open-source phone where I could install anything I wanted. In practice, I never found anything worth installing that wasn't in the market, the free apps were all ad-laden (taking up valuable screen real estate and slowing things down), the source was incomplete (drivers) and the phone vendor tried to lock the phone (and claimed that overriding it would void the warranty.) I couldn't even find paid versions of some classes of app that I wanted in order to avoid the ads because free apps are a race-to-the-bottom (on both platforms.) Paid apps seemingly have a hard time competing when there's any free version out there that isn't just a demo. The scrolling was horrible--I felt like I was using gestures to perform unrelated actions rather than directly controlling the on-screen elements. This probably sounds like a minor gripe, but UX is a rather important part of any design. I understand most of the UX is fixed in ICS. Maybe I'll give it a shot when my contract is up. Probably not, though--I'm practically locked into the ecosystem such that I the cost/benefit skews more in Apple's favor.
Regardless, due to the customizations, philosophical differences between vendors, and varying degrees of carrier influence, it's really not fair to compare Apples to Androids. You really need to compare specific phones (and specific OS versions). You might say Android is better, but I could show you phones being sold in stores today which offer a vastly worse experience and are as locked down as the phones being sold by Apple today. At the top end (best Android phone in all categories compared to best iPhone), things get tighter, but the price also get closer, if not exactly the same (16GB GS3 and the 16GB iPhone 4s cost the same.)
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
A pretty large number of IT, CS, and other technically-minded folks seem to like Apple's products (and they are generally apathetic when it comes to Apple's tactics, licenses, or how Apple is pushing for the destruction of PCs), and quite a few Slashdot readers are big supporters of Apple.
It is changing. In our clinic we were in the process of transitioning towards an "all Apple" environment (iphones, ipads, Macbooks, imacs and mac minis). However, witnessing with great concern Apple's customer hostile approach worsening rapidly over the last couple of years we decided to reverse the process. In phones it was easy - the Galaxy S3 is a vastly better device. In laptops it is not easy, we still find Macbooks unrivaled in build quality and features, and there is nothing on the market we could find that would come close to the desirable specs of a mac mini.
As a result, we are now transitioning to a mix of generic PC hardware and Mac hardware mostly running Linux (some desktops still running OSX), and Galaxy S3 phones and soon the new Galaxy note tablet too. While it is a slow transition, I can see many like minded people in my area making a similar transition - the walled garden walls have become far too high for many, the sun is not coming through any more.
Only two years ago I probably would have still praised the advantages of the OSX ecosystem. Nowadays, they have become as disgusting as Microsoft had 10 years ago - and that was the last time I used any Microsoft products. The writing is on the wall for Apple too - instead of keeping innovating they merely try to maximize their profit through litigating any competition and locking their existing customers completely in. When corporates become intolerably arrogant it is only a matter of time before people turn their back.
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And just what/how are you restricted on your OSX system?
I like OSX and feel in no way restricted by it. A month ago I bought an iPad however, and I am hugely disappointed about how primitive iOS is and at all the things it can't do. It feels like a 21st century device with the capabilities of a Commodore 64. On the iPhone I don't notice the constraints of iOS so much but I expected the iPad to be sort of a laptop without a keyboard. But it's completely unusable if you approach it like that.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
Did MS seek injunctions against products from being sold? No.
Do they get some money from Android units sold? Yes.
MS is certainly bad. Apple is far worse.
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MS negotiated with the infringers and both parties came up with a deal to license the patents. Every. Single. Time.
Apple and Samsung couldn't come to an agreement. We can't know what Microsoft would have done at this point. Apple had three choices--ask for damages in the amount of the profits made by the infringing products, ask for an injunction, or drop the suit.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
Asking for money is one thing. Seeking to ban products is quite another. Most patent cases between active tech companies get settled out of court, usually in a cross-licensing deal. Google's lawsuit will probably be settled that way, and both companies will continue on - no products banned.
Apple, on the other hand, just doesn't believe in real competition. They obviously aren't secure enough in their own products and capabilities, so they seek to ban other, arguably better, products from the market.
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I'm not defending Google, so stop harping on this. Chewbacca defenses work on South Park.
Apple can't compete, so they seek injunctions. Now they are choosing something that is very much NOT like an iPhone to try and ban. If they succeed, consumers lose.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft patents troll Google for money. Google patents troll Microsoft for money. They make agreements and continue to be. That is basically a zero sum game. Obviously it helps no one but the lawyers but it does not harm the consumer.
Apple is trying to patents troll Samsung into oblivion so they don't need to compete anymore and can have a legal monopoly over smartphones and tablets, and US courts apparently are fine with monopolies and Crony Capitalism so they get away with this.
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Yet the iPod went nowhere until those related criticisms were addressed.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
Already done. Will NEVER buy an apple product and actively work to undermine their market share.
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I've been doing this as well. It has been working. I've convinced no less than 5 people in the last 3 months to seek anything that is non-apple.
Apple's prices on their notebooks does the rest.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:4, Insightful)
Add all Apple devices to you own ban list today !
That solves nothing. Companies will continue to abuse intellectual property law and ideology to limit consumer choice. Every company has to -- that's how the game is played. Singling out Apple for being the most successful player doesn't change the fact that its the game that's fucking you, the consumer.
You can ban, cry, shout, scream, boycott -- but it's not the players that are the problem, it's the game. If you really want to make a difference, stop buying products designed or produced in the United States, and only buy from companies based in countries that do not buy into intellectual property (like China). It seems strange to advocate purchasing from a communist country with a long list of human rights issues and no labor rights to speak of -- but I'm of the opinion that supporting slave labor is superior to supporting intellectual property.
It's simple, really: We all learn by copying each other. This is neurological and hardwired. When you see someone performing an activity, you may be unaware of this but the same muscles they are using to do it will tense very slightly. These clusters of 'mirror' neurons, along with their connection to the limbic system, form the basis for learning. Intellectual property is a barrier interposed between ourselves and the environment which limits and manipulates that natural process so that industrialists can profit off of it.
It has to be stopped, or it'll stall out human progress for centuries to come -- our technological progress which up until now could be plotted exponentially upwards is rapidly flattening and we're going to have another Dark Ages on our hands if we don't stop this, and our children will live in some dystopic world where they are materially better off, but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically enslaved. Our bodies will be comfortable, but our souls won't.
Re:Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)
Just because the rules of the game allow you to play in a certain way, does not mean that everyone must actually do so. IRL we have laws, and then we have conventions. When people don't follow those conventions, we call them assholes and shun them, but we don't lock them up and don't rewrite the laws.
Similarly here. Not saying that patent reform isn't needed, but hey: of all the companies on the mobile device market today, Apple is the only one engaging in blanket bans on their competitor products and refusing to license some of their patents outright, forcing others to remove features from their phones (including even those already sold, as was the case with S3 and Nexus). So, as far as limiting my choice as a customer goes, they are the worst offender by a large margin. Of course I'm going to bash them more.
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I'd be more interested in how you know that statistic, frankly.
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Social groups share things?
Seems odd that I'd have to say that, but this is slashdot.
Universities and Apple Products (Score:5, Insightful)
http://potpiedeluxe.com/files/2011/02/apple-think-different.jpg [potpiedeluxe.com]
Suggesting that universities promote a free/libre OS is met with all sorts of derision and skepticism, usually of the form, "Yeah but nobody has any familiarity with that, and it is hard to use, and this is a university so students do not have the time to learn something unfamiliar!"
Re:Universities and Apple Products (Score:5, Insightful)
Note the absense of Apple in business and government. They aren't interested in meeting anyone's standards but their own.
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Note the absense of Apple in (...) government. They aren't interested in meeting anyone's standards but their own.
You've not spent much time working in National Science Labs, I take it.
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I hope you are not limited to an understanding of standards being limited to file formats. There are other standards such as "to be eligible for government procurement, there must be more than one supplier of any given component so that there may be competition and the government can be assured of getting the best possible price." That particular standard resulted in the creation of AMD as we know it and because of it, the public benefitted from increased technological development and a nearly steady incr
Re:Universities and Apple Products (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, but using Mac OS X is nothing like GNU/Linux or even the BSD on which Mac OS X is based. When last I checked, X11 was not even installed by default these days, and the terminal is not immediately available from the base install (yes, I am sure it is not terribly hard to find; it is also not hard to find in Windows, but when I install something like RHEL, the out-of-the-box DE has a terminal icon right there, ready for me to explore or to use). It is absurd to think that any but a small minority of Mac OS X users will discover a "better Unix," because only a small minority of Mac OS X users will ever see anything even remotely Unix-like when they use their computer.
Universities are no exception to what I said. It is not as though they are encouraging students to use Mac OS X, then teaching them how to write shell scripts as part of some "basic computer usage" class. When a student is having a problem, they just bring their computer to the help desk and have someone else fix it for them. If a student cannot find the program they are looking for, they just go to the computer center to find out what shrink-wrapped off-the-shelf software they should buy, assuming their teacher did not tell them already. We are not raising a generation of Unix hackers when we encourage our college students to use Macs.
Yes, your CS department is different; there, the students are learning to program, so they will find their way to a terminal one way or another, and there are hackers in every CS department who will show people how to install a free OS. Even within CS departments, you see an awful lot of Apple customers these days...
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Apart from issues of corporate ethics and marketing tactics, Mac OS X provides a GUI on top of Unix and what is underneath is definitely Unix
Yeah, and underneath TiVO, you have Busybox/Linux, but clearly TiVO presents an abstraction to the user that is not even remotely "Unix like." The same applies to Mac OS X, unless you take the time to get past the abstraction that comes out of the box. Yes, some of the abstraction that you see is derived from Unix (e.g. files are streams of bytes, programs are stored as files) but how you interact with the system is very different. The terminal is not integral to using Mac OS X; when you see answers to
Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has been evil on Slashdot for a long time.
For some, it was what they did to Franklin. For others, it was how the screwed over Apple records where they allowed Apple to use their name with the agreement that they never go into the music business. (They are now big in the music business with iTunes.) There are lots of reasons Apple is evil. The Apple vs Samsung thing is only the most recent reason.
Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Do your research on the Apple Corps vs Apple. Apple bought out the Apple Corps rights and name for $500M US and licensed back the record label back to them.
Apple only bought out the name after Apple Corps sued them for trademark infringement and breach of their settlement agreement in the previous trial, and this was well after Apple had gone into the music business having previously agreed not to.
Re:So Apple is Evil now?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Apple is evil, period.
Not only on Slashdot, everywhere.
It's time to FSF to restart its Boycott Apple program from 199x. The things Apple does are far worse now than back then.
Thanks Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
Not about hate, not a choir (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is Apple the bad guy?
Because they're basically out to force Android phones off the market.
And being critical of Apple doesn't make you an Apple hater, any more than pointing out all the problems with Android (version fragmentation, lousy development tools) makes you an Android hater. Some of us simply want to have a serious alternative to iOS devices that only run what Apple says they can run,
Re:Not about hate, not a choir (Score:5, Insightful)
You can use a Blackberry, Windows Phone, even Samsung's own Bada OS.
Oh great, I can switch to an outdated platform that nobody's writing applications for, or I can try to forget my previous bad experiences and hope that MS has finally figured out how to do a mobile OS. Thanks a lot.
I'm not going to cheer for a for-profit company over another, no matter how less "evil" they look.
As I think I've already made clear, this isn't about hating Apple or loving Google. This is about Apple using bad IP laws to obtain market dominance. This is a bad thing.
Which is not to say that other companies (including Google) don't also do bad things. It's just that this bad thing is the one a lot of us really care about right now.
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What, you're admitting you're wrong? Begone! There's no place for you on Slashdot!
Re:Snore. I really don't get the Apple Hater Choir (Score:5, Insightful)
The LG Prada, the Palm Treo, and The BlackBerry are all lined up outside and would like a word with you about copying others.
Re:Snore. I really don't get the Apple Hater Choir (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Thanks Apple (Score:5, Informative)
What you just described - making a new product by slightly altering an existing one - happens in the food world all the time with no legal issues at all.
What you didn't describe but probably intended to - copying a bread recipe - also happens all the time with no legal issues at all. When either of these things happen, the baker is thrilled. Some of them actually publish books helping you infringe on their own products!
In short, your metaphor fails to map to the primary event in every way possible. Please stick to car metaphors in the future. It's traditional.
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. If I steal some brad from a baker
Isn't slavery involved here somewhere?
Re:Thanks Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolute bullshit. Can you imagine the state of the automobile industry today if there had been a patent on the 'look and feel' of the original automobile, and Ford had aggressively sued other automobile manufacturers? Apple are probably the richest company in the world and they are using their excessive funds to cripple any competition with frivolous patent trolling. It will become less important to Apple to innovate if there is no competition, is that what you really want?
Re:Thanks Apple (Score:4, Informative)
Can you imagine the state of the automobile industry today if there had been a patent on the 'look and feel' of the original automobile, and Ford had aggressively sued other automobile manufacturers?
Actually Ford would be the one being sued to hell and back by Daimler-Benz. His mass production on an assembly line was revolutionary but he did not in any way invent the automobile.
Re:Thanks Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
Never heard of enabling technology (such as high-quality low power displays)? Never heard of convergent evolution? Never noticed that many technical product categories come into existence almost overnight due to economy of scale effects?
Apple clearly benefited from work at Xerox. Without Xerox, we'd still be using text consoles. I'm not so sure Samsung benefited from work done at Apple. What Apple established was credibility of consumer demand for a new class of expensive toy.
Do they own that? Or is it just the nature of business that everyone piles on to a hot new product category?
A small thought (Score:5, Interesting)
In the long term, would the best outcome here be for Apple to *succeed*? I mean, if they manage to get their main competitor banned in the States, they look like a unbridled predator competing not with quality, but lawyers. (I know generally /. thinks that already, but general public perception is more important) If the reaction for those wanting a Galaxy III is going to be something along the lines of "why can't I have the shiney thing?" and turn their ire on Apple / lawmakers.
Apple might want to be careful what they wish for... the rest of the world will steam ahead unrestricted, and the case for software patents being harmful will get stronger.
Re:A small thought (Score:5, Informative)
Customers are fickle (outside of the the fanboy spectrum) and will jump on whatever is "hot" at the time. That's the whole purpose of the "walled garden" that Apple - and yes, Google "Play Store" also - encourages. It's an attempt to lock people into a specific set of devices (ones that you profit from) by discouraging change. Who wants to lose music, games, etc just because there's a new device out that is a little better? The better they can convince people to stay, the more money they can extract.
So yes, outside of the walling of the gardens, I suspect people want those choices. I would find it really interesting to see people genuinely upset that they're getting taken away from them.
Re:A small thought (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the whole purpose of the "walled garden" that Apple - and yes, Google "Play Store" also - encourages. It's an attempt to lock people into a specific set of devices (ones that you profit from) by discouraging change. Who wants to lose music, games, etc just because there's a new device out that is a little better?
Uhm, no. There's nothing stopping Apple from installing Android on the iPhone 5. Hell, Apple could have a dual boot phone and offer some real choice. Google Play Store doesn't prevent you from buying or installing software from other sources. However, Apple will not let anyone install iOS on a Non Apple device, and actively works to prevent others from selling software to people who own iPhones.
I get what you're trying to say, but maybe you've never used Linux? I can add multiple "App Stores" (PPA's) to my OS, then get all the benefit of having trusted sources of software, and the choice of deciding who to trust for that software... There is a way to do "Walled Gardens" that allow you to unlock the gate, and visit other gardens, and even make your own garden. Android .APKs are cross platform bytecode, you can take the .APK from the repository, and install it on multiple devices... even a new one you just got. I do fault Google with not giving us easier file system access to the Android devices to make such software migration issues simple. One of the issues is that Davlik VM modifies the bytecode on installation to fix byte order, and static linking on a per machine basis, and you don't really want to keep an extra installation .APK on the system for every program you install. Side loaded apps don't have this problem, but it's not a failure of the "walled garden" / Software Repository System itself -- I frequently mirror my package cache to multiple machines on Linux so public facing bandwidth for updates is only consumed once.
DRM and 3rd party Streaming are what creates the planned obsolescence and vendor locking you're speaking of with songs and software no longer being available. However, My own DRM system is merely PKI that allows the User to accept or deny game mods made from others -- That type of DRM that puts the User in control is Good. I use a streaming system on my desktop machines that lets me stream all my media to any device -- That type of streaming where the user is in control is Good.
It's when the User is not in control of the systems they personally use and rely on that you have problems. I encourage you to read up about Free Software: RMS may be fucking weird but he's damn right.
TL;DR: You just need more control over your software -- Can you access the location where the files are and copy them to another device? If not then that's Treacherous Computing, not a "Walled Garden".
Re:A small thought (Score:5, Interesting)
If the Galaxy SIII is on everyone's list (looks like it's a popular phone right now), and somehow the ban goes into effect, there will be tons of pissed people who will remember that Apple told them they couldn't buy a phone they wanted. (Regardless of who implements the ban, the courts, etc... it's Apple's wish, so it's Apple's fault.)
Telling a customer "Apple banned the sales of that phone here in the US" will piss them off for a long time. It's not good to tell someone they can't buy something. :) Apple should realize this by now... but they're just trying to kill off competition (this isn't about patents... it's about market share...) The top dog (now Apple) is taking a page from every other top dog's playbook and litigating their competition now that they're #1 (or perceived as such....) It's not exclusive to Apple, of course... lots of companies do it. Steve Jobs thought Android copied his iPhone, so this is a natural extension of his nerd-rage. Trouble is, Steve's dead... the RDF is fading... people aren't going to be pleased... and Apple may reap the benefits sooner rather than later of the old phrase "don't shit where you eat."
Best advertising *ever* (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Best advertising *ever* (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Best advertising *ever* (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Best advertising *ever* (Score:5, Insightful)
The OS nothing but an app launcher. Only people who have nothing better to do than endlessly tweak stupid shit focuses on the OS over the app.
In that measure, Android wins. iOS is much more restrictive than Android in what it will let apps do...
Re:Best advertising *ever* (Score:4, Insightful)
I want to see a map of drone strikes in Pakistan. I want to tether my netbook to my cellular data plan. I want to run an NES emulator. I want to run a torrent client. I want to get music and apps but hate iTunes. I want to play games with violent and/or pornographic content.
The iGarden most certainly does not do what I need and want it to do, simple as that.
Re:Best advertising *ever* (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear Apple: (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny how Jobs once said Apple has always been "shameless in stealing great ideas." Yet when you think someone else has done the same thing to you (regardless of evidence or prior art), you clowns get your panties in a bunch and start stamping your feet, crying to the courts, and whining about "going thermonuclear" on Android. Well, guess what, idiots. You can't shamelessly copy ideas then cry foul when you believe you're the one being copied. It doesn't work that way.
To close, Jobs was a great businessman. But he was also a COLOSSAL douchebag with no sense of perspective or grip on reality. I thought when he died that rational heads would prevail in Cupertino. Apparently I was wrong. This fucker's cult of personality is so strong that even now people worship him like he was some sort of deity.
So yes, Apple. You can go fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, because you're pissing away whatever good-will you may have had left. One day, the drooling iZealots will wake up and get off of the trend-whore treadmill.
--Pretentious signature about what device I'm posting from. In this case, my Galaxy S3
Re:Dear Apple: (Score:5, Insightful)
They can, they should, and they must. They have a legal obligation to maximize profits. ... If they don't, they can be sued by the shareholders, and the entire board of directors could be thrown out.
Bullshit. They have an obligation to represent the interests of the shareholders. I am a shareholder in several companies, and I am interested in ethical behavior over profits.
That aside, I don't even think it's a good strategy to maximize profits: it may work short term, but turning the patent cold war into a shooting war is going to hurt everyone in the arena long term, Apple included.
Re: (Score:3)
Bullshit. They have an obligation to represent the interests of the shareholders. I am a shareholder in several companies, and I am interested in ethical behavior over profits.
And you speak for all the shareholders?
That aside, I don't even think it's a good strategy to maximize profits: it may work short term, but turning the patent cold war into a shooting war is going to hurt everyone in the arena long term, Apple included.
That's nice. But you're one guy, with a few extra dollars, saying it's a bad idea. There are tens of thousands of lawyers who say it's a good idea. There's hundreds of thousands of pages from various court decisions, legislative works, and contracts, that support that notion. There's millions of workers that go to work every day to make sure that notion keeps right on ticking. And there's hundreds of billions of dollars backing that notion.
While I admire your devotion
Good? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is partly because of Samsung's stuff they stuck on top of vanilla android, right? I have an HTC phone and hate the Sense stuff. It would be great if this prompts phone manufacturer's to ditch their own UI "enhancements" for vanilla android, thus leaving any UI patent problems on Google's lap.
What I want to know is (Score:4, Funny)
What happens when the level of ridiculous goes above 100% ?
Do smartphone lawsuits instantly get replaced by something even funnier?
It sucks monkey balls to live in the US! (Score:5, Insightful)
You got Apple dictating what is and what isn't acceptable to be sold in the US. Now you'll have to smuggle the goods from the rest of the world.
Fucking pathetic!
Irreparably harming Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems it would be a hard argument to make that anything was doing irreparable harm to Apple when they are currently the largest publicly traded company in the world.
Re:Irreparably harming Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know who's irreparably harming Apple? Apple.
Banning them will make them more fashionable (Score:4, Insightful)
Flaunting something not available for sale in the US definitely has a lot of "bling" value. Just like banning songs from radio broadcast in the UK would increase the sales of records. Hollywood stars, rappers and such will flash them around.
So it might be illegal in the US to sell them. Will it also be illegal to posses one? Will the folks smuggling drugs in a tunnel under the kids on my front lawn, switch to smuggling banned phones?
If I was a South Korean diplomat in the US, I would smugly hand Samsung phones out as diplomatic gifts.
Ban the 'phone designed by lawyers'? (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember what the press was saying when Samsung debuted the SIII?
The Samsung Galaxy S III: The First Smartphone Designed Entirely By Lawyers [google.com]
And now Fruit wants to ban this lawyer-designed phone? Well smoke me a kipper, either the reality distortion field seems to cause lasting damage or they are communicating with St. Steve through an Ouija board. In any case it does not make sense. And they think they can gain what by doing this? Respect? Money? Time? What, exactly?
As far as I can see all they earn by going on a sueing spree is ridicule, contempt and hatred. For some reason many people seem to get almost religiously attached to their mobile gadgets, and Fruit now acts as if they are the Church of Scientology. Bad fruit. Soon anonymous will start staking out their sales churches.
Before the trial begin? (Score:3)
The trial is almost over. The evidence was presented, the lawyers rested their case. The jury deliberated and returned a verdict. And they found that the Galaxy Tab did not infringe Apple's patents. The judge hasn't completed post-verdict processes and issued a final judgment, but it's late in the day for Apple to be adding devices to this case. Maybe we're talking about another case?
SIII != iphone (Score:5, Interesting)
The SIII is like twice the size of an iphone. Nobody would ever confuse the two, no matter how rectangular or rounded or rows of icons. Microsoft never even took douchebaggery to this level.
Apple's continuing douche-baggery (Score:4, Insightful)
That is basically a list of things you aren't allowed to do. Now, individually, those traits aren't worthy of a lawsuit. It's the combination of those things that will send Apple Legal over to kick down your door. The Galaxy SIII was designed from the start to not infringe on any of the above; yet Apple, in their continuing douche-baggery, has now brought up more ridiculous patents to use against the SIII.
Fuck You Apple!
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:4, Insightful)
They seek nothing less than a complete monopoly on the smart phone market.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal" - Steve Jobs, 1994
well... they want the parts cheaper, it's no good if they have to compete for cpu production capacity with samsung. but in the end apple by this way is going to end up the same way as many calculator assembly companies did.. when chip manufacturers like ti&others started making their own calculators - apple has been trying to avoid that a bit, but just a bit(don't quote bullshit how they have their own chip, pls). if they could really force everyone else with their "oh boy we've patented it(but don't ask exactly what!)" to stop producing phones.
the next iphone better do blowjobs and come with a 20g bag of coke for people to buy it - if they're now injunction happy because they don't have anything new than a new screen size then it doesn't really bode that well for apple(not that I care, they're closed garden snobby shithole platform with super short self life for their platforms).
I just wish nokia would have taken them to injunction city instead of ceding into the unholy 3 way circle jerk party-truce in exchange of some cash(from apple) with ms and apple(that's the plan - ms+apple duopoly in desktops, tablets and phones, because android started crashing their party like nothing before on computer-like consumer devices).
but complete monopoly is no good for either of them, they learnt that big way in the '90s.. fake competition whilst blocking everyone else from the market is much better.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:5, Funny)
Apple already has a 100% monopoly in the iOS market.
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing is, that Apple by the very definition of their business model, will never be able to reach a 100% monopoly. As a GNOME developer was pointing out, all the success that Apple is having only gave them about 7.5% market share on the desktop, they have been surpassed already by Android on smartphones and their only remaining bastion is the iPad which I think with Windows 8 devices, will truly have a run for its money.
Stop worrying so much, since at best, Apple can be like the Prada or Gucci of computers. Expensive, well designed items that fill a certain niche, but very unlikely to become mainstream but for the shortest periods of time.
Re:Misattributed quote. (Score:5, Interesting)
Both of you are correct, pretty much. Pablo Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" in 1934. And here is a link [gizmodo.com] of Steve Jobs saying "Good artists copy, great artists steal" in 1996.
Funny how the profit motive so strongly affects the moral belief system.
Re:Misattributed quote. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, he even stole that quote.
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:5, Informative)
That may or not be true, but the fact remains that someone may have violated another's patent. If you don't go after them, then you lose rights to said patent. Besides, if you are a company and feel someone is violating your IP, it would be silly not to do something about it.
You are confusing patents and trademarks. Please get your facts straight before commenting.
And most of that IP is considered as such only because of the crappy US patent system.
Re:Apple will not stop until they have 100% monopo (Score:5, Insightful)
Regardless of why, its still IP that they must defend. Don't like it, change the laws, until then shut your pie hole.
True, you have to defend trademarks, but you must defend patents too.
That's total BS, no law says you have to defend your patents, especially the bogus ones for obvious ideas. Well, unless you are a patent troll, in that case I agree, you absolutely have to do that.
IBM is an example of company that never sues for patents unless being sued by others.
And I believe it's you, sir, who definitely must stuff all your shiny itoys into all of your iholes, and stop insulting others' intelligence with childish replies.
Re:What? (Score:4, Funny)
This summary doesn't make grammatical or syntactical sense.
So you're not contect?
Re:A more fitting punishment (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd rather Samsung be allowed to sell its products in the US.
No AND.
Re: (Score:3)
If only the "originals" were anywhere near as good.
Re: (Score:3)
Seriously.... The iPhone sucks....yes it is popular but it is a pain in the ass to use for people who are not super computer literate.
I see a marketing opportunity here: "Blackberry: So easy a CEO can use it!"
Re:Thermonuclear (Score:5, Interesting)
No, "thermonuclear" would be Google mustering all of its available resources to get Android ported to the iPhone 5 within a month of its release, complete with "Nexus A" boot animation featuring an Android eating an Apple and pooping out a phone whose display expands to fill the whole screen at the end of the animation.
Apple would still be selling hardware, of course... a lot of it, in fact... but Google would be skimming 100% of the "Market" revenue and "Maps ads" revenue from any iPhone 5 reflashed to Android. Apple is probably selling iPhones at a small loss, with the expectation of making back the difference from other fees. Imagine if they found themselves in the position of Sony -- selling devices at a small loss like hotcakes, knowing they'd never see another cent from those same devices once they left their hands.
The goal, of course, wouldn't be to just make iPhones a first-rate Android hardware platform -- it would be to goad Apple into locking down new iPhones against jailbreaking and reflashing really, REALLY HARD. As in, "Motorola hard". Instantly, Apple would alienate their most influential and enthusiastic group of hardcore users, and drive them away from the platform. Consumers would scramble to buy new old stock iPhones that weren't locked down, and angrily return the ones that ended up being locked down anyway. More consumer ire.
Keep in mind, Google would lose nothing from this. A phone running Android is a phone running Android, insofar as Google revenue is concerned. It would be a bit of a gamble, because it would obviously horrify Samsung and HTC (who might, or might not, buy into the logic of using the move to force Apple's hand and goad them into totally locking down IOS devices against reflashing unapproved firmware). Ultimately, though, this isn't about money for Apple -- it's about control. If it were just about money, Apple would shake down Samsung for royalties and move along to HTC & LG. I can't think of any single act of guerrilla terrorism Google could do to Apple that would more effectively undermine the control Apple is determined to exercise than porting Android to Apple's newest and best hardware.
Re: (Score:3)
How did this get modded insightful? It's well known that Apple makes obscene profits on their hardware sales. Do you seriously think that they became the most profitable company in the world by
Re:US Patents lead to technological backwater (Score:4, Informative)
I've been following this on Groklaw for a while, and it's obvious yet again how badly the US patent system is broken when Apple can patent a rectangle with rounded corners and succeed in banning devices of the same shape, and yet refuse to licence the basic technology that is needed for the phone to actually behave like a phone and make calls.
You may be glad to hear that the "rounded rectangle" patent, design patent 504,889, was actually NOT found to be infringed, meaning Apple can NOT patent a rectangle with rounded corners.
Re:US Patents lead to technological backwater (Score:5, Informative)