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The Mobile Safari tab switcher looks like a clone of Chrome of iOS/Android. Control Center? Christ, that's been in Android for ages. What irritates me is that

The Mobile Safari tab switcher looks like a clone of Chrome of iOS/Android. Control Center? Christ, that's been in Android for ages. What irritates me is that other companies get accused all the time of copying the smallest things from Apple, even microphone icons, gloss, or rounded corners. However, Apple clearly was a late comer on many of these features, and they are inspired, and in some cases, downright cloned, and they're going to get a pass. What if Google had a patent on Chrome's tab switcher and sued Apple? Or on a Power Controls setting pane? Or on cross-device open-tab sharing? There's be outrage among Apple users, because people just don't seem to see Apple building on other people's designs, because Apple presents all of them as major, radical innovations without acknowledgement of their prior existence. I wish all of the claims of theft and copying would get dropped, I don't have a problem with Apple "stealing shamlessly" the ideas of others, I just wish they'd stop going nuclear when other people do it.

sinnerswing 13y ago
>The Mobile Safari tab switcher looks like a clone of Chrome of iOS/Android. Control Center? Christ, that's been in Android for ages. You mentioned 2 features out of 1,000 Apple showed this morning. Google copied the entire concept and design of the iPhone. Big difference.
- kunai 13y ago
  I hate Google for their lack of respect for privacy, but I disagree. Copied is pushing it, definitely. I'd say "inspired". There has been plenty, plenty of innovation on Google's side. Also, the concept of a capacitive touchscreen existed before the iPhone, take the LG Prada. Apple wasn't the first to do it. They were the first to do it right, and if people are inspired to improve upon it further, I see that as a great, positive thing, not a bad thing. I don't see how you could call yourself a hacker with that kind of mentality.
  - cromwellian 13y ago
    Since I work at Google, you'll have to qualify that claim, because in my opinion, Google has more respect for user data than most other companies. The iPhone 4 actually looked like an LG Prada as well. James Hahn demonstrated many of the multitouch gestures before Apple, proving that other people were coming up with the same ideas independently as soon as the tech for detecting multiple touches accurately was available (capacitive touch) Apple did bring a lot of things together in the iPhone 1, but that shouldn't give them the right to own the entire concept of a touch screen phone, nor should they be allowed to hamper competition through stupid patents like the data-tapping patent. Imagine if IBM had patented the PC or Xerox the UI, and aggressively sued anyone who tried to use them, as well as refusing to license at a reasonable rate. The entire PC revolution, which was kicked off by cloning and free-form building on the work of competitors, might have been hampered. Apple stands on the shoulders of giants too, and they should not attempt to cripple those that want to stand on their shoulders.
    - twistedpair 13y ago
      IBM did quite the opposite of Apple. Remember that they invented the FFT? They patented and released it into the public domain. They wanted you to use more computers and FFT's required computers. Quite far from the ambient retrotacular patent land grabs like Apple just now patenting NFC POS payments with a phone that have been out for many years.
  - sinnerswing 13y ago
    This is how Android looked like, before and after the iPhone was introduced. http://www.designer-daily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iphone-before-after.jpg http://www.designer-daily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iph... Let's get the timeline right: 2002 - Steve Jobs started thinking about working on a Phone 2004 - Apple Engineers started working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced Steve Jobs that they could build a similar interface for a phone. 2005 - Partnership with Cingular(AT&T) Early 2006 - Work on the iPhone started. Dec 2006 - LG Prada was released. <=============== Steve Jobs Announced the iPhone Jan 2007. June 2007 - iPhone released http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_ipho...
    - corresation 13y ago
      Here's what Android looks like today - http://www.motorola.ca/consumers/MOTOROLA-DEFY-PRO/m-Motorola-Defy-Pro,en_CA,pd.html http://www.motorola.ca/consumers/MOTOROLA-DEFY-PRO/m-Motorol... Android was built as an amorphous, multi-form factor OS from the very outset. That "before and after" picture is completely dishonest and only plays on enthusiast sites.
- Zikes 13y ago
  Android was backed and later bought by Google in 2005, and unveiled in November 2007. The first iPhone was released in June 2007. They were developed simultaneously, Apple was just first to market by five months.
- corresation 13y ago
  Where "entire concept and design" encompasses the totality of "touchscreen". That is it, and comparisons between iOS and Android 1.x are almost comical. To take that even further, Google didn't so much copy (because there were many other touchscreen smartphone devices pre-iPhone), but rather learned from Apple's commercial success. Don't let the anger of the late Steve Jobs guide reality.
Zikes 13y ago
The common defense I hear for this is that "what matters is that Apple was the first company to get it right".
corresation 13y ago
because Apple presents all of them as major, radical innovations without acknowledgement of their prior existence I don't think that happened in this case. Indeed, the presentation seemed to have an awkward elephant in the room feel where Apple needs to both embrace functionality that their competitors have long had (e.g. Control Center for iOS is a close to identical clone to what Samsung has had in TouchWiz for years, later to be adopted by Google into Android...but swiped from the bottom rather than top), only celebrating that it is now available for iOS. Apple is absolutely stealing a lot of functionality from Android for this release. There was one point early in the demo where they showed an iOS 7 lockscreen and I actually thought they were showing a Galaxy S4 lock screen. Bizarre. And there is nothing wrong with that. And as a current Android device user, if they can pull that off with excellent Apple execution, it may just induce my next purchase.
twistedpair 13y ago
Rather than "stealing shamlessly" we could call many of Apple's actions and assertions "hypocritical." Do they have nice products with a massive amount of advertising to shill them. No doubt. But the (recently fading) Cult of Jobs' bombastic claims were stultifying to anyone that was familiar with the industry and technology of the time.

sinnerswing 13y ago

>The Mobile Safari tab switcher looks like a clone of Chrome of iOS/Android. Control Center? Christ, that's been in Android for ages. You mentioned 2 features out of 1,000 Apple showed this morning. Google copied the entire concept and design of the iPhone. Big difference.

kunai 13y ago
I hate Google for their lack of respect for privacy, but I disagree. Copied is pushing it, definitely. I'd say "inspired". There has been plenty, plenty of innovation on Google's side. Also, the concept of a capacitive touchscreen existed before the iPhone, take the LG Prada. Apple wasn't the first to do it. They were the first to do it right, and if people are inspired to improve upon it further, I see that as a great, positive thing, not a bad thing. I don't see how you could call yourself a hacker with that kind of mentality.
- cromwellian 13y ago
  Since I work at Google, you'll have to qualify that claim, because in my opinion, Google has more respect for user data than most other companies. The iPhone 4 actually looked like an LG Prada as well. James Hahn demonstrated many of the multitouch gestures before Apple, proving that other people were coming up with the same ideas independently as soon as the tech for detecting multiple touches accurately was available (capacitive touch) Apple did bring a lot of things together in the iPhone 1, but that shouldn't give them the right to own the entire concept of a touch screen phone, nor should they be allowed to hamper competition through stupid patents like the data-tapping patent. Imagine if IBM had patented the PC or Xerox the UI, and aggressively sued anyone who tried to use them, as well as refusing to license at a reasonable rate. The entire PC revolution, which was kicked off by cloning and free-form building on the work of competitors, might have been hampered. Apple stands on the shoulders of giants too, and they should not attempt to cripple those that want to stand on their shoulders.
  - twistedpair 13y ago
    IBM did quite the opposite of Apple. Remember that they invented the FFT? They patented and released it into the public domain. They wanted you to use more computers and FFT's required computers. Quite far from the ambient retrotacular patent land grabs like Apple just now patenting NFC POS payments with a phone that have been out for many years.
- sinnerswing 13y ago
  This is how Android looked like, before and after the iPhone was introduced. http://www.designer-daily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iphone-before-after.jpg http://www.designer-daily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iph... Let's get the timeline right: 2002 - Steve Jobs started thinking about working on a Phone 2004 - Apple Engineers started working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced Steve Jobs that they could build a similar interface for a phone. 2005 - Partnership with Cingular(AT&T) Early 2006 - Work on the iPhone started. Dec 2006 - LG Prada was released. <=============== Steve Jobs Announced the iPhone Jan 2007. June 2007 - iPhone released http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_ipho...
  - corresation 13y ago
    Here's what Android looks like today - http://www.motorola.ca/consumers/MOTOROLA-DEFY-PRO/m-Motorola-Defy-Pro,en_CA,pd.html http://www.motorola.ca/consumers/MOTOROLA-DEFY-PRO/m-Motorol... Android was built as an amorphous, multi-form factor OS from the very outset. That "before and after" picture is completely dishonest and only plays on enthusiast sites.
Zikes 13y ago
Android was backed and later bought by Google in 2005, and unveiled in November 2007. The first iPhone was released in June 2007. They were developed simultaneously, Apple was just first to market by five months.
corresation 13y ago
Where "entire concept and design" encompasses the totality of "touchscreen". That is it, and comparisons between iOS and Android 1.x are almost comical. To take that even further, Google didn't so much copy (because there were many other touchscreen smartphone devices pre-iPhone), but rather learned from Apple's commercial success. Don't let the anger of the late Steve Jobs guide reality.

Zikes 13y ago

The common defense I hear for this is that "what matters is that Apple was the first company to get it right".

corresation 13y ago

because Apple presents all of them as major, radical innovations without acknowledgement of their prior existence I don't think that happened in this case. Indeed, the presentation seemed to have an awkward elephant in the room feel where Apple needs to both embrace functionality that their competitors have long had (e.g. Control Center for iOS is a close to identical clone to what Samsung has had in TouchWiz for years, later to be adopted by Google into Android...but swiped from the bottom rather than top), only celebrating that it is now available for iOS. Apple is absolutely stealing a lot of functionality from Android for this release. There was one point early in the demo where they showed an iOS 7 lockscreen and I actually thought they were showing a Galaxy S4 lock screen. Bizarre. And there is nothing wrong with that. And as a current Android device user, if they can pull that off with excellent Apple execution, it may just induce my next purchase.

twistedpair 13y ago

Rather than "stealing shamlessly" we could call many of Apple's actions and assertions "hypocritical." Do they have nice products with a massive amount of advertising to shill them. No doubt. But the (recently fading) Cult of Jobs' bombastic claims were stultifying to anyone that was familiar with the industry and technology of the time.