What exactly are the advancements apple has introduced with the iPhone? Icons on a background? They haven't invented the touch-screen afaik. If you consider the lawsuit legit then Nokia and Ericsson should sue the living crap out of each and every cellphone manufacturer.

They should devote their energy to fixing the POS that is iTunes OR letting me manage my music/videos with third party software like WinAmp. Seriously, Apple is the new Microsoft

Apple is great for its innovations in UI and interaction. But it is the new Microsoft. I totally agree with what Campionidelmondo said.

They seriously need to open up their platform and allow more open source content in. This Nintendo style crap of controlling applications is ridiculous. Everyone knows that iPad could multitask but they lock it down.

It's not think different anymore, its think Apple.

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@Farhad2000 - they don't need to do anything we tell them. They don't listen to the likes of us. Very few focus groups or taking cues from us chattering blogeratti. That works for them.

@campionidelmondo. Can you really look at the picture at the top of this post and say that the Nexus One isn't inspired by the iPhone? It's even more evident when you pick one up. Flick to scroll, page bounce-back, pinch zoom, etc. etc. I don't think that Apple should be sueing- but the Google Phone is definitely the sincerest form of flattery.

Anything successful gets copied by everyone else. Businesses travel in packs. Apple have been good blazing the trail for markets like ipods and iphone, but like all first movers there are plenty of problems with the trailblazing products, which clones can fix in their version.

It's IBM 100% compatible PC all over again. I'm pretty happy that IBM made the model that made the PCs what they are today, but the clone companies have a big hand in shaping the market too.

As long as Apple can keep innovating, more power to them.

(I still think the ipad is a weaker product than the iphone, but we'll see.)

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^ OK - I'll hold you to your prediction and we'll revisit in a couple of years. Here's my iPad prediction:

It's going to be huge. Much bigger in impact than the iPod or iPhone. Maybe not in total units sold, but in shaping a whole new class of device. Expect Nooks and Kindles to follow suit with devices that add movies and TV. Microsoft will also get in on the action- too late as usual, as they'll continue to push using a "windows" type environment- which doesn't translate well - but eventually they will be pulled by gravity to a windowless type UI tablet device.

The iPad- or a very similar device - will be the Mac/PC killer. We've had the the same paradigm (mouse, windows, drag, point, click) for over 20 years. It's time to move on.


>> ^gwiz665:
Anything successful gets copied by everyone else. Businesses travel in packs. Apple have been good blazing the trail for markets like ipods and iphone, but like all first movers there are plenty of problems with the trailblazing products, which clones can fix in their version.
It's IBM 100% compatible PC all over again. I'm pretty happy that IBM made the model that made the PCs what they are today, but the clone companies have a big hand in shaping the market too.
As long as Apple can keep innovating, more power to them.
(I still think the ipad is a weaker product than the iphone, but we'll see.)

I see the shape is the same...and they're both black. They also both have icons. That's like saying 2 cars are the same because they have 4 wheels, 4 doors, and windows.

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A closer analogy would be that if everyone was driving motorized trikes -and then someone invents the Ford Mustang. Then all the motorized trike makers decide to start making Camaros.

>> ^rottenseed:
I see the shape is the same...and they're both black. They also both have icons. That's like saying 2 cars are the same because they have 4 wheels, 4 doors, and windows.

Right...and all that really matters is what's under the hood (bonnet). At the end of the day, you have 2 good cars to choose from in your analogy. Google didn't invent the search engine, but what they did with it was revolutionary. It's ok to take an idea and build upon it. Your only comparison seems skin deep. Besides, in my opinion, the iphone's "look" is the lowest common denominator. It's not flashy, it's not sexy...it's a bit slippery though. It's not like they had a revolutionary design. Their design was based on simplicity. Which works. And you can't patent simplicity.>> ^dag:
A closer analogy would be that if everyone was driving motorized trikes -and then someone invents the Ford Mustang. Then all the motorized trike makers decide to start making Camaros.
>> ^rottenseed:
I see the shape is the same...and they're both black. They also both have icons. That's like saying 2 cars are the same because they have 4 wheels, 4 doors, and windows.

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It's really easy and commonplace to look to the past and say "oh that's just common sense- of course that was the right way to do it."

The truth is that no one was making a phone that was a finger driven multi-touch, all screen "the device is the screen" device.

Now everyone seems to be- and I think that's great. But credit where credit is due. The current crop of smart phones have borrowed heavily from the iPhone in just about every way.


>> ^rottenseed:
Right...and all that really matters is what's under the hood (bonnet). At the end of the day, you have 2 good cars to choose from in your analogy. Google didn't invent the search engine, but what they did with it was revolutionary. It's ok to take an idea and build upon it. Your only comparison seems skin deep. Besides, in my opinion, the iphone's "look" is the lowest common denominator. It's not flashy, it's not sexy...it's a bit slippery though. It's not like they had a revolutionary design. Their design was based on simplicity. Which works. And you can't patent simplicity.>> ^dag:
A closer analogy would be that if everyone was driving motorized trikes -and then someone invents the Ford Mustang. Then all the motorized trike makers decide to start making Camaros.
>> ^rottenseed:
I see the shape is the same...and they're both black. They also both have icons. That's like saying 2 cars are the same because they have 4 wheels, 4 doors, and windows.

I will gladly eat my words, if I'm mistaken. But I really, reeeally doubt it will be a mac/PC killer. It will be an alternative product - maybe laptop killer, but it cannot replace what desktop machines do (games, development, typing). It's basically the beginning of the paperless newspaper, I think. But I think the fact that it is bigger than your pocket will be a factor.

>> ^dag:
^ OK - I'll hold you to your prediction and we'll revisit in a couple of years. Here's my iPad prediction:
It's going to be huge. Much bigger in impact than the iPod or iPhone. Maybe not in total units sold, but in shaping a whole new class of device. Expect Nooks and Kindles to follow suit with devices that add movies and TV. Microsoft will also get in on the action- too late as usual, as they'll continue to push using a "windows" type environment- which doesn't translate well - but eventually they will be pulled by gravity to a windowless type UI tablet device.
The iPad- or a very similar device - will be the Mac/PC killer. We've had the the same paradigm (mouse, windows, drag, point, click) for over 20 years. It's time to move on.

>> ^gwiz665:
Anything successful gets copied by everyone else. Businesses travel in packs. Apple have been good blazing the trail for markets like ipods and iphone, but like all first movers there are plenty of problems with the trailblazing products, which clones can fix in their version.
It's IBM 100% compatible PC all over again. I'm pretty happy that IBM made the model that made the PCs what they are today, but the clone companies have a big hand in shaping the market too.
As long as Apple can keep innovating, more power to them.
(I still think the ipad is a weaker product than the iphone, but we'll see.)

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Sure, there will always be a place for PCs - just like we still have high end "mainframe" servers today. Just don't expect to see PCs in the living room for too many more years.
>> ^gwiz665:
I will gladly eat my words, if I'm mistaken. But I really, reeeally doubt it will be a mac/PC killer. It will be an alternative product - maybe laptop killer, but it cannot replace what desktop machines do (games, development, typing). It's basically the beginning of the paperless newspaper, I think. But I think the fact that it is bigger than your pocket will be a factor.
>> ^dag:
^ OK - I'll hold you to your prediction and we'll revisit in a couple of years. Here's my iPad prediction:
It's going to be huge. Much bigger in impact than the iPod or iPhone. Maybe not in total units sold, but in shaping a whole new class of device. Expect Nooks and Kindles to follow suit with devices that add movies and TV. Microsoft will also get in on the action- too late as usual, as they'll continue to push using a "windows" type environment- which doesn't translate well - but eventually they will be pulled by gravity to a windowless type UI tablet device.
The iPad- or a very similar device - will be the Mac/PC killer. We've had the the same paradigm (mouse, windows, drag, point, click) for over 20 years. It's time to move on.

>> ^gwiz665:
Anything successful gets copied by everyone else. Businesses travel in packs. Apple have been good blazing the trail for markets like ipods and iphone, but like all first movers there are plenty of problems with the trailblazing products, which clones can fix in their version.
It's IBM 100% compatible PC all over again. I'm pretty happy that IBM made the model that made the PCs what they are today, but the clone companies have a big hand in shaping the market too.
As long as Apple can keep innovating, more power to them.
(I still think the ipad is a weaker product than the iphone, but we'll see.)

The iPad. Still sucks. I can see Jobs having another purpose for it besides it just being a large iPod Touch, and I'm thinking that would (or should!) involve tv and movies. I would hope he's thinking of something more than what it currently will be. Otherwise it will fall into the land of misfit toys like the Apple TV, the powermac g4 cube, Apple's weird iMac "hockey puck" mouse and the Newton.

Either way, if it fails it won't hurt the company. Apple has created a fantastic array of tech toys and computers. My Mac Pro Tower is awesomely fast! The MacBook Air is great for typing while I shit, which I'm doing at the moment. And you're welcome for the image.

I own a Droid and my gf owns an iPhone. I still like aspects of the iPhone's usability and interface better. I wouldn't want an iPhone, though. I like my Droid, and it has things that I like that Apple's Iphone doesn't have. I can literally press a button, say "map to tacos" and have the first Google searched result come back as a map that I can then send right into their built in GPS! That's brilliant! Also it makes phone calls. Okay, time to wipe.

I been clicking on icons on a background since 1994

Look, I'll just be honest here. I don't dislike apple. I just wasn't impressed with the iphone. In fact, I downright dislike it. Could've been done a lot better. And plenty since have come out with adaptations to the touch screen phone. As far as a rectangle with a button...I don't see anything groundbreaking there. In fact, I like a couple more buttons. Maybe like 3 buttons. Like a mouse should have. I like "properties" and I love dicking around with them.

It's not that apple shouldn't be credited with starting a trend, it's just that they've been surpassed when they should be leading the way. I mean they've had 3[?] upgrades since it first came out...yet those upgrades weren't anything special that'd keep them on the leading edge.

I was shown this article, which is interesting and related http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/

why do people jailbreak their phones and itouch

I'm not a fan of Apple, but I am glad they exist. Innovation from anyone is a good thing, and competition tends to motivate innovation.

I love touchscreens, but I hate having to look at the letter I'm aiming for. Until we get flawless computer-brain interface tech, I'm keeping my mouse and keyboard. Voice input is nice where available, but I'd rather not use it with other people around.

The iPad is a great idea, despite its surprising intentional limitations, but I don't see it "killing" anything. The days of computers coming in any type of "standard" format are gone. Laptops and Netbooks can still do lots of critical things that iPads cannot, and the iPad is more convenient for other things. Smart-phones do things that no tablet/PC do and also fit in your pockets. None of them obsolete the others.

The iPad form factor it great for certain things so we will see more products with similar uses, but it is hardly the first product of its kind (though Apple will inevitably get credit for it). I'm glad Apple exists, but I very much hope that their business model is not the one that takes us into the future.

I'm no Apple fan but the iphone clearly stirred things up in the smartphone market, something that needed to happen. Up to then the combination of hardware and services was utter crap and a poor deal for consumers. The downside is that once they get in there it's all about protecting the platform and wringing it dry for every penny. If you as a consumer want all those lovely forbidden features then it's time to start jailbreaking.

Looking at those pics I have to say the Nexus looks terrible. The iphone is much more appealing.

Having said that I don't care for them. This is my current phone - http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Dec2005/702NKII.jpg

It was released in 2005! What can I say, it works and I don't like spending too much each month on a phone.

BTW I think the ipad will not be a major success. I can see the early adopters and people with niche computing requirements getting it but the limitations of features, dodgy ergonomics and the fact is hasn't got a KEYBOARD doesn't help it.

Maybe if you could hang it up on a wall in the kitchen it would be of use as a drive-by device. Have an icon for the local weather, some reminders pushed from the pc etc. I suspect that would require a more joined up kind of software design that you're not going to get from MacOS though.

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^Old Nokia phones were fantastic. They had a good build- the UI was simple and worked well. They put a lot of thought into the software and hardware design. Sometime around 2005 or a little before- Nokia kind of went nuts. There were suddenly 10X the number of models - and the tight UI and build quality started to fall apart. This was the best dedicated phone I ever owned.

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Nice little article on TUAW today about Apple products that everyone knew would fail:
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/10/dont-trust-the-critics-four-apple-products-they-thought-would/#continued

Time's a revelator haters.

Well to be fair, people have also said that stories of Apple demanding too much control over their users were exaggerations.

On the iPad front... I don't see how a device touted as being a supreme media watching device can be 4:3 ratio... it's utterly insane. And yet their ads show Star Trek being watched full screen... hence pan and scan... yay! welcome back to TV of the 90s.

Indeed the iPhone has somewhat 'standardised' how people expect to be able to interact with a touchscreen phone, but that absolutely doesn't mean they should be going lawyer crazy on everyone... it just is not productive.

They didn't invent multitouch
They didn't invent the gestures they use
They make a huge deal of adding things to their devices which others have had for a long time previously.

Hurray for Apple making products, hurray for competition... but the iPad is hardly revolutionary as people like yourself Dag, like to make out. It will do OK... and it might even do very well a few versions down the track when Apple can be arsed actually making it a decent product.

The million bloody tablet pcs out there at present do not excite me in the slightest, not the iPad, not any other manufacturer. The million bloody eReaders are similarly boring to me.

As I've said many times here, the rumoured Microsoft Courier is the form factor and functionality I want in 'a larger than a phone' portable device... something like THAT would get me excited.

All these other tablets are merely half arsed products with no clear goal AT ALL as to what need they're filling. The iPad falls into that same hole... if it really was trying to be a little portable media hub then it SO would not have been 4:3 ratio.

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@spoco. I agree that I can't understand what they were thanking with that aspect ratio. Both movies and books have longer form factor- it doesn't make sense to me.

On the other points- I disagree- but you know I do. I'm putting this on the official record- that I think the iPad is going to be huge.

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On second thought- maybe they did think about the aspect ratio and figured it worked best like this:
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/12/apple-rolls-out-ibooks-feature-page/

>> ^dag:
On second thought- maybe they did think about the aspect ratio and figured it worked best like this:
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/12/apple-rolls-out-ibooks-feature-pag
e/


I don't see how that excuses anything, it would work just as well with a widescreen display... and it still ignores movies, which they like to show so much in their ads.