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IOS Businesses Cellphones China GUI Handhelds Apple

Xiaomi's Next OS Looks Strikingly Similar To iOS 181

stephendavion writes Looks like Chinese device maker, Xiaomi, is taking its "Apple of the East" tag too literally. First, their CEO brazenly copies Steve Jobs' signature look, sitting cross-legged on the floor. And now, Xiaomi's latest version of Android shamelessly rips off iOS 7. MIUI 6, which is Xiaomi's upcoming edition of Android for its latest phones and tablets, looks almost exactly like Apple's operating system for iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. It features the same bright color palette and a flat design. Heck, it even does away with Google's "app drawer" and puts all apps on your home screen. It's like the CEO handed iPhones to the design team and barked: "Here, copy this!"
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Xiaomi's Next OS Looks Strikingly Similar To iOS

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  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:23AM (#47694863)
    Darn those people from the east, always copying western practices.
    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Damn i just dropped my kids off at pre-school i better let them know that sitting cross-legged is steve jobs thing with any luck i'll make it before his estate sues.

      • by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @11:08AM (#47695301)

        Does he also park in the handicap space?

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by schnell ( 163007 )

          Does he also park in the handicap space?

          I have no idea if it's true, but a story used to circulate among Apple employees that one engineer worked up the bravery to leave a note on His Steveness's windshield that suggested he "Park Different." There was reportedly an effort to track down the offending employee by Apple security but it never bore fruit.

        • Does he also park in the handicap space?

          While handicapped people make handicapped faces?

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Darn those people from the east, always copying western practices.

      They haven't.

      I have both MIUI and iOS devices and can confidently say they are very different to use. MIUI is incredibly clever and intuitive, truly thoughtful touches like a zoom bubble when you're editing text pervade the whole UI. iOS feels quite dated and primitive by comparison.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        excuse me sir but this thread is about sitting cross-legged please keep it on topic

      • And how much does Xiaomi pay you?
        • probably between 0.1 and 200 yuan per post [wikipedia.org].

          and don't be silly; xiaomi doesn't pay for propaganda in a capitalist paradise like China. i'm sure it's covered for 'free' by the government.

    • by slew ( 2918 )

      Next thing you know they'll start practicing buddhism [plos.org]...

    • Except that sitting on the floor isn't an Eastern practice, it's a Japanese/Korean practice. Chinese sit in chairs like the rest of Asia/world.

      • Everyone sits in chairs in 'ordinary' live and at work.
        But traditionally 'all' asians sit on the floor, that includes the chineese: hint watch a kung fu movie ...

  • by NotDrWho ( 3543773 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:24AM (#47694869)

    They figured turnabout was fair play.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by FRAKK2 ( 166082 )

      They paid Xerox to use it, so what s the problem ??. The fact that xeroz did not realise how big it would become is there problem. What is happening now is just blatant copying.

      • What is happening now is just blatant copying.

        And what is the problem? They are pretty clear about it not being an iPhone. Exactly what elements did Apple invent and how long do you suggest they have exclusivity on those elements for?

  • by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <`gro.daetsriek' `ta' `todhsals'> on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:26AM (#47694893)

    It is going to look pretty jarring when you launch any of Google's apps from that launcher. Material Design looks nothing like iOS.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Fortunately, MIUI is an unauthorized (no GMS certification) Android fork ala Fire OS. So no Google apps will ever touch this thing anyway.

      • by Horn ( 517263 )
        They can't ship the playstore but there's nothing stopping someone from installing gapps separately, much like you can do on the fire.
    • Actually, material design looks a heck of lot more like iOS 7/8 than Holo theme ever did. It's (material) also a recommended design pattern for iOS apps by Google. They want material design to span across Android, iOS, and html websites.

  • I don't see it.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:26AM (#47694895)

    As someone who has used both iOS and Android devices I thought all the screenshots looked like an Android device. I wouldn't of been confused at all. Is someone *trying* to manufacture a controversy?

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:41AM (#47695035) Homepage Journal

      As someone who has used both iOS and Android devices I thought all the screenshots looked like an Android device.

      Exactly. Arguably Microsoft was the first to introduce a really flat look with Windows Phone and Windows 8. Google had been moving that way for years too on the web and with 4.x gave Android a bit of a make-over to look similar. iOS seems to have been last to join the flat look crowd.

      This whole article is just a fanboy whining that a ching-chong-Chinese OS looks a bit like his beloved iPhone. It's borderline racist. If it looks like iOS that's only because iOS looks like Android and Windows Phone now.

      • It's almost as if the UI is changing on different platforms in accordance with current popular design trends...
      • by Bogtha ( 906264 )

        iOS seems to have been last to join the flat look crowd.

        It's not really accurate to say that iOS 7's design is flat. It actually has more depth than the earlier design, it's just that the individual items in each layer are flat.

        So, for example, the Apple application's icons on the home screen are flat, but they are floating over a parallax background that gives the feeling of depth. The buttons in the control centre are flat, but the translucent background of the control centre gives the impression

        • It's not really accurate to say that iOS 7's design is flat. It actually has more depth than the earlier design, it's just that the individual items in each layer are flat.

          And how is that different from say Android? Which is layered flat design and has its "desktop" over a parallax background and the notifications bar is overlaid atop that.

          Or from Windows 8? Which is also layered flat design and has the tiles overlaid on a parallax background and other various "layers" (charms, multitasking, etc..) are overlaid atop that.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Because "ching-chong-Chinese" is not racist?

      • All I want is my slide out keyboard and the thing to boot up to a CLI where I can type,

        Call XXXXXXX hit return and it brings up the phone app and dials. When the call ends I get a CLI again.
        Launch Store > Install an App
        Launch App

        Give me the control to only run the things I want. If I wanted processes running while the application wasn't I would buy a Mac....

        • So customize an existing device to do that. Obviously the market for such a thing is probably just you so no company is ever going to make such a thing but instead of whining about it you could quite easily just do it.
    • Did you see the calendar app? It's got the red theming and elements such as today's date being circled.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

        Looks more orange to me, in keeping with the colour scheme of the rest of the OS. Are we really at the point where "it's a similar colour and shape" = clone?

      • Did you see the calendar app?

        If that is a ripoff of iOS 7's calendar then clearly iOS 7's calendar is a ripoff of the meego calendar [techmynd.com], in fact I would say it looks a lot more like the Meego one than the iOS 7 one.

    • Right? The only one that looked remotely similar in an "almost too similar" way was the home screen, and I'd only believe that were iOS if it were jailbroken. They sure did borrow a lot of similar design patters and I can equate parts of the UI to their components in iOS (the camera app's ordering of My Photos -> Capture Still -> Capture Video, or the calendar app style), but none of it would be confusing for me either.

    • by vakuona ( 788200 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @01:24PM (#47696597)

      Which Android device did you think all the screenshots looked like? If you were referring to any Android maker besides Xiaomi, then I may have agreed. But we are talking about the one company that has copied Apple right down to the "One More Thing" slide, in a presentation that was all in Chinese no less.

      These guys could not be more shameless about copying if they tried. But in case you haven't been able to pick up how they aped Apple. I will give you a few examples.

      The Calender App is quite blatantly a copy of the iOS one in look (I couldn't say anything about the feel and how it works). Right down to the colour scheme.

      The icons are all straight out of the Apple playbook. Borderless rounded-corner squares with a symbol in the middle. Android icons tend not to have any border around the "symbol". Not even Samsung ones, which have been fairly blatant in the past.

      They even have the row of fixed icons at the bottom a la Apple. No, not the usual Back, Home and Menu soft keys on Android. Just a fixed set of four,just like Apple. It looks like they have ditched the standard soft keys altogether.

      The music icon app has the same colour as the Apple one. I can accept that a green icon for a phone is kind of obvious, but to have the same colour for the music player app is more than a coincidence.

      Check the colour scheme of the calculator app. Again, quite a blatant copy of Apple's.

      The camera app has a round soft button as well. Just like, wait for it, the iOS 7 camera app.

      Of course, it is not an exact replica, but at first glance, it could easily fool anyone.

      In fact, I challenge anyone to put stock Android (KitKat), iOS and MIUI side by side, and it would be quite clear which two are most alike.

      • Seriously who cares? So what if they used the same color schemes or whatever?

        Of course, it is not an exact replica, but at first glance, it could easily fool anyone.

        And what exactly are the dire consequences of being fooled at first glance? I mean it clearly isn't an iphone, it has the xiaomi branding on the front along with the standard Android capacitive buttons.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I wouldn't of been confused at all.

      Wouldn't have. You wouldn't have been confused at all.

    • by poity ( 465672 )

      Me neither. It's just a white background with pastel hues. XiaoMi isn't doing anything out of the ordinary when it comes to "borrowing ideas".

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      As someone who has used both iOS and Android devices I thought all the screenshots looked like an Android device. I wouldn't of been confused at all. Is someone *trying* to manufacture a controversy?

      Because IOS7 looks so much like Android 4 that people are getting confused.

  • by Rigel47 ( 2991727 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:28AM (#47694911)
    cried out at once in terror that their over-priced Apple "innovation" was merely rounded corners and off-white color.
  • I used to use MIUI when I had a compatible android device. I absolutely loved it. Google themselves should take some design ques from them...

    • I have to agree. I found Miui significantly more straight forward to use than stock android, and infinitely better than those half-assed UIs that various android manufacturers feel compelled to slap on top.

      Is it a rip off of iOS? Maybe. Do I care? Not in the slightest.

      Under the hood, a phone may be a full fledged computer with linux, but that doesn't mean I want to use it like one.

  • Okay, then... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:35AM (#47694979)

    ...who's going to make the obligatory, in-poor-taste cancer joke?

  • I do not like (Score:2, Interesting)

    by yezhan ( 3788143 )
    I do not like xiaomi,even if i am from China.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Saint Gerbil ( 1155665 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:42AM (#47695047)

    The home screen is a list of 4x5 apps with 4 apps on the hotbar.
    The compass seems to have ripped off the look of a compass.
    The settings menu has been taken more from the samsung S5 than the iphone
    The camera has a take picture button.

    Does apple own having a reasonable number of apps on a grid ?

    Of course its proven at least once that its "invented" things other people made first.
    http://apple.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
    http://www.patentlyapple.com/p... [patentlyapple.com]

  • by Assmasher ( 456699 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:43AM (#47695051) Journal

    ...seriously, why wouldn't they?

    It is charmingly naive to think that morality/ethics would prevent a CEO (in ANY country) from doing whatever they thought would generate them the most money with the smallest risk...

  • Here, copy this! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by james_van ( 2241758 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:43AM (#47695063)

    It's like the CEO handed iPhones to the design team and barked: "Here, copy this!"

    there's a pretty good chance that's exactly what happened

    • I've handled one of these phones and holy crap... Until I dug down into it, I *thought* it was running iOS. It's a straight up, shameless copying on the entire interface, down to the configuration menus. Even then, unless you knew what you were looking for, an end user would just assume it was iOS.

      I can't imagine Apple not going to the WTO and waving their hands ineffectively as the Chinese make a mockery of international copyrights.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    MIU5 was released before IOS7, so apple is copying miui, this update doesn't change that much to skin/theme.

    • Not so much (Score:4, Informative)

      by MoronGames ( 632186 ) <cam@henlin.gmail@com> on Monday August 18, 2014 @11:19AM (#47695393) Journal
      Here are some comparison screenshots between MIUI 5 and 6: http://www.gadgetsofworld.com/... [gadgetsofworld.com]
      • by hnjjz ( 696917 )
        IMHO, these screenshots confirm that both MIUI 5 and 6 "features the same bright color palette and a flat design", which is what Xiaomi is being accused of copying from iOS 7, even though MIUI 5 actually significantly predates iOS 7.
        • by gnupun ( 752725 )
          Sorry, from the webpage it appears MIUI 5 had 3D effect icons with dimmer colors (like iOS6 and before) whereas MIUI 6 has a flat icons/look with bright colors similar to iOS 7. I personally don't like the iOS 7 look and feel and whoever copied it must have no design sense to copy an inferior look and feel.
    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by hnjjz ( 696917 )
      You're right. This video from April 2013 (nearly half a year before the release of iOS 7) shows MIUI V5 using "the same bright color palette and a flat design" that iOS 7 later adopted. They should be suing Apple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • I'm sure China has stolen iOS's source code just like they've stolen every other Western (no longer) secret.

  • by gunner_von_diamond ( 3461783 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @10:56AM (#47695185) Journal
    Look at the screenshots! The text is in chinese! It's clearly different!


    It just looks like an Android phone with a makeshift iOS theme on it. If that's what the demand is for, why not supply it?
    • There is a young chinese girl on the screen with her breasts showing. That is clearly not what Apple would do. Apple uses stoners. [youtube.com]

  • by Chas ( 5144 )

    Seriously. Stealing there is a way of life.

    • by celeb8 ( 682138 )

      Seriously. Stealing there is a way of life.

      I know I hate how Chinese people are always so racist oh wait that's you

      • by Chas ( 5144 )

        No. But thanks for pulling the race card moron.

        I'm stating a simple fact of doing business over there. Sooner or later, regardless of the precautions you take, someone working for or with you in China is going to fuck you over and steal your stuff.

        Period.

        Several of my clients, who've never DONE business in China have had their entire COMPANIES cloned.

        Suddenly they're getting parts in that don't match any of their specs, and, eventually, entire units that their company has never produced from disgruntled "

  • ...allow protection to UI design? Put legislation around it, negotiate them into free trades agreement and try to enforce them?
  • by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @11:39AM (#47695617)
    Jobs might have picked up the posture on account of being a buddhist. I associate "sitting cross-legged on the floor" with the band Chicago from their song "25 or 6 to 4."
  • In my language, "Mui" = "Blowjobs".
    Ahem...

  • by ilsaloving ( 1534307 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @12:24PM (#47695989)

    Why is it that whenever Apple comes up with something, every else has to copy it (although Microsoft may have started this fad of flatness, I can't remember the timeline anymore)?

    Apple is not the be all and end all of industrial design. This fad of flatness is really annoying, and IMO counter intuitive. It's no longer clear what widget is a button, for example. The user now has to guess, based on proximity of a given thingy to the other thingies on the screen.

    When the gumdrop iMacs came out, I was eeing transluscent plastic micro waves, clothes irons, you name it.

    Thank Dog that companies haven't en masse copied Apple mouse designs. Half the continent would have RSI by the end of the month.

  • The difficult part of pushing a design to market is building the thing. Once you have a factory, cloning a design and shipping a product is quite easy.

    In fact, much of the industrial learning and knowledge comes from managing manufacturing processes.

    This was always going to be the end game in the China manufacturing experiment. The USA closes its factories and exports the manufacturing process, but, holds on to "design" and "branding". China clones design and branding. The USA, unable to recreate the fa

  • by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Monday August 18, 2014 @12:24PM (#47695995)

    I mean, how many ways are there to present a touch interface on a small screen anyhow? When one company copies another it's the closest thing we can get to a standard. Android and iOS copy each other all the time. All that really matters is how well it all works together, not which icon someone is using for the Calendar app.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    /.ers are just going overboard. They simply copied KDE Plasma 5.

  • Well, you can't blame him. It's clearly worked for Samsung. Samsung's devices have always been significantly more similar to Apple devices than any of its major competitors' have been. And guess what, they've also been the most successful. It's only logical that the competitors should move in this direction as well. Some would even say that it is fair to make things the same way as Apple has done them, on the basis of that Apple already found the best/öbvious way of doing things from the start. E
  • sitting cross-legged on the floor

    He is violating Apple Patent #032185: A method or system for sitting directly on a surface such that one leg is crossing the other in a diagonal fashion.

    And his knees better not be rounded when he's sitting like that.

  • Maybe I've missed them domestically, but I think that the IVR synchronization may be as useful and as game-changing in some ways as Visual Voicemail was for the original iPhone. Its a great way to mirror digital presentment with traditional capabilities.

    Having said that, yeah the overall theme is totally iOS derived.

  • Y'all should check out the Redmond theme on your linux desktop. I guess it has to be Chinese malware because no Westerner would do something so outrageous...right?
  • Are the side by side images suppose to be comparisons of each os gui? http://gizmodo.com/xiaomis-nex... [gizmodo.com]

    If so can I plz have your drugs? They don't look anthing alike...

    • Take a look at the settings app. A settings app that's a grey grouped listbox with separation rules going part way across the screen and rightward facing chevrons indicating that a tap will pan in another screen from the right. Almost identical pallette. And whilst they've changed the icons there from rounded squares to circles, the symbols are mostly the same. Look at the "Do Not Disturb" item. Identical "moon" concept, drawn in the same way, other than outline rather than filled in. And exactly the same c

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Tell me that's coincidence or not copying, and I say you're the one in drugs.

        I'd ask for some of your drugs, but I've got to drive home.

        If you think those are the same colour, you must be legally blind.

        It's far closer to Android 4 than IOS7 (OK, to be fair, IOS7 ripped off so much from Android 4 that people get confused).

        • If you think those are the same colour, you must be legally blind.

          They're both purple, asshole. I wasn't saying they were the same RGB, HSV or fucking Pantone.

          There's nothing intrinsically purple abut "Do Not Disturb". It COULD just be a coincidence without the fact that the image is the same (only differing with bing filled in or not), and the fact that most of the other icons share the same color (in the non-asshole meaning of the word.)

          It's far closer to Android 4 than IOS7

          You're an idiot or a liar. Don't you realise you're not fooling anyone, you just make yourself look bad.

      • Wow imagine MTB bike companies fussing over tiny similarities.

        • Point out that the similarities are widespread and it's just denied by Android fanboys. Get down to specific examples, and they are called "tiny similarities".

          There's no accident here, there is widespread copying.

          Not sure what MTBs have to do with it. Maybe it's your hobby. But it's an even worse than the usual car analogies. Unless you want to be specific about specific aspects of two models.

  • is that Xiaomi, and many other chinese phone makers, are using FoxxConn. So, Jobs funded a company, so that they can produce even more competition at a lower price that will steal any and all trade secrets from Apple.

    Apple made the same mistake with Samsung and continues to do it in China.
    • by NoKaOi ( 1415755 )

      This is about the software. Did FoxxConn develop the OS for the iPhone? And even we were talking about hardware design, did FoxxConn design it, or are they just manufacturing it? I'm pretty sure they're just manufacturing it. Did Apple come up with any innovations to manufacturing processes that FoxxConn is now copying to make other devices with? I doubt it.

      Ironically, the article flames a company for copying Apple's UI. Conversely, and the sort of article we usually see here, if Apple were trying to

      • No, it really is NOT about the software. It is about a company that is not only copying an interface, but using all of the IP that others developed. It was Apple that FOOLISHLY moved their production, but then taught foxconn how to do it cheaper and with higher quality. Now foxconn is doing the same work for other companies, such as Xiaomi.

        The more information that companies with MBA's send to CHina, the faster that they will get unfair competition that will destroy them.
    • by aybiss ( 876862 )

      Erm... Foxxconn was around LOOOONG before iPhones were.

  • So you mean it has things like a background, icons, and a screen you interact with by touching it? FFS would you also like a patent for those rounded edges?

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