TWiP #270 – Apple’s Clone Wars

This podcast has become This Week with Apple Sycophants, there is a world outside Apple’s walled garden, which is becoming quite interesting and – in my opinion- faster moving, and more innovating. Maybe you should include guests with some other devices to give a more unbiased opinion, or maybe stick to photography only.

I am always miffed by the fact that the show gives more coverage to nikon and apple. guys we know you have brand loyalty but they are not paying you any more (or are they). first story should have been the android cameras not apple vs android [relevant but not as important]

PS – pinch zoom and gestures existed before apple in gesture keyboards. Apple also stole the idea (loosely)
dslr android linkage, check these out, they need your coverage and encouragement:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dslrremote#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwiZGUuZHNscnJlbW90ZSJd

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.dslrcontroller&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImV1LmNoYWluZmlyZS5kc2xyY29udHJvbGxlciJd

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.zig.dslr&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInVzLnppZy5kc2xyIl0.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.strickling.cameratimer&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zdHJpY2tsaW5nLmNhbWVyYXRpbWVyIl0.

Great interview with Matthew Jordan Smith – and nice to hear from a non-canonikon shooter. Would be great to get him as a host on the show some time, to get another perspecitve.

Regarding the “Apple Clone War” as you put it, the only thing Apple did right was actually patent certain things in the smartphone that felt obvious and as mentioned, patents issued in a broken system. But the iPhone did NOT start the smartphone touchscreen innovation as you mentioned in your podcast. The LG Prada did, it was the first touchscreen phone. It was the first phone with the innovation of using your finger and not a stylus. It was announced in December 2006, but not released until May 2007. Whereas the iphone was announced January 2007 and released June 2007, of course R&D periods are further back before that. Apple only marketed their product better AFTER copying the LG Prada. So now of course, everyone forgets that Apple copied some other phone, improved on the concept and marketed the product better to the masses. Then they get butt hurt when Samsung makes a phone that does better than their product.

As for the actual rulings, many of those patents should have never been awarded to Apple. There has been prior art proven for many of those claims Apple had. BUT the case hinged on Samsung’s own UNIQUE UI that is built ON TOP of the base Android OS. The vanilla Android OS experience does not have any of the features found in the rulings found in that case as the statement from Google provided days after the ruling. On the other had though, that new OS 5 feature you got…the notification bar up top…that is an original Android OS feature that Apple COPIED into iOS. The cherry on top though was the interview(s) of the jury foreman in which he has pretty much put his foot in his mouth by first claiming that he was not biased and did not let opinion influence his decision, but later in the interview he does let it slip that he did use his opinion and bias in his decisions and then influenced the other jury members to his viewpoint.

You know what’s the funniest about the Apple/Samsung saga? One of the claims was that people could not tell the difference between a Samsung phone and an Apple phone because of the 4 icon rows across the home screens. You’ve seen the photo comparisons right? Well, what many people may not realize is that the Samsung phone pictured showing the 4 icon rows on the screen is the APP DRAWER! Not the home screen! If the Samsung home screen was shown, even a child will tell the difference. And that is what is great about Android, you can make every phone different from the next by customizing your home screens by using not only icons and folders (which is another thing Apple copied from Android), but you can put widgets on your home screen. So your phone can be different from someone else’s phone who has the same phone.

Now bashing the Nook and Kindle tablets…because the are based on Android OS…is just extra bashing from biased Apple people. You cannot claim that you couldn’t do this that or the other on the Kindle tablet or Nook because you had to root or do this or do that just to do what ever it was you were trying to do in the first place. Realize that both the Kindle and Nook have their own locked down custom UI’s on top of the Android OS. If you used a true Android OS tablet with no UI overlay, for example a Nexus 7 or what I have, a Motorola Xoom….there is NO NEED to root to do this that or the other as you put it. Once a manufacturer puts their custom UI on top of the Android OS, they will always make it unstable and cause bugs or take away features found in the plain vanilla Android OS experience just to make their product work. Both the Kindle and Nook are first and foremost an E-Reader and not tablets like the ipad or other Android OS tablets. If the Kindle Fire or Nook Color include the features of apps, surfing the web or checking email, that is just basic function capability made possible by the Android OS. The ipad and Android OS based tablets are supposed to be used for all that other stuff first, but then will also function as an E-reader. I didn’t buy my Xoom because of the E-reader function, I bought it because I could surf the web, email, keep up with the blogs I follow, watch movies and listen to music. And anyone who buys the ipad wouldn’t buy it either only because it is the E-reader, that’s just an added perk of the fully functional tablet.

Like the other comments before mine….stick to the topic and not put in the biased commentary. Otherwise, put in views from both sides of the table. Granted, once you invest $$ into an environment like the apps (iOS or Android OS), you may as well stick with the OS. But leave the opinions out of the comments.

I love the show always and particularly loved this week’s interview. Thanks to MJS for sharing his wisdom. “Choosing the Picture that looks like I took it” was an invaluable piece of advice.