Apple vs Samsung (or Google/Android)

[Lenny]

To back up something I said a couple of days ago:

In the grander scheme of things, however, Apple are only winning in the US - they've sued Samsung in as many territories as possible, and nearly all of them that have come to a decision have ruled for Samsung (or at least against Apple). The only other decision that could be seen to favour Apple came in, I think, South Korea, but that court obviously thought the case was stupid and ruled to punish both companies.

A court in Mannheim, Germany has just ruled that Samsung (and Motorola - although they recently lost a case in Germany over a bounce-back patent. However, this is in part of Motorola's custom skin, and can be easily bypassed by them implemented the stock Android glow) don't violate a touch event patent held by Apple, taking the same view that made Apple lose out in the UK and Netherlands: the patent is just too broad.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/21/...t-motorola-samsung-dont-violate-apple-patent/

 

[DrMclony]

The reason apple persists in fraudulent patents on common sense interface items is that they have limited claim to the patents on their hardware. Perhaps if they designed and manufactured their own products, there would be a very different situation.

*gets into asbestos suit and hides behind a wall until the apple fans have left*

 

[Gordian Knot]

No need to hide, and besides the asbestos suit won't do you any good at all against my death ray. Bwah-Hah-Hah-Hah!!!!

Ahem.

I am an Apple fan, and even I do not like the direction the company is going. They learned their lesson from Microsoft back in the day all too well. Then Microsoft was the Big, Bad Corporation. Sure they allowed their OS to be used on other machines, but they wrote their code so that Microsoft programs ran faster on Windows than other companies software. They kept the edge for themselves.

Now Apple is the Big, Bad Corp. in the voice and video peripherals market. They Got It. When you lock in the market people either play by your rules or they go elsewhere. Time will tell if this will hurt them more than help them, but up until now it doesn't seem to have hurt them much.

Microsoft, Google, Android & all the rest are trying to play catch up; some are doing better than others. But they all share the same dream. To be the proprietary device winner.

Which makes all of us losers, to my way of thinking. The more rigid the structure, the less freedom for the end user. This new frontier of phones, pads, portables, etc. is a huge step backward for end users. Unfortunately I do not see anyone of the Big Corps interested in going back to more open market devices.

And the worst is just coming along. The muchly vaunted Cloud. Talk about locking in the end user! Each companies Cloud is proprietary, which means if you buy onto Microsoft's Cloud, and at a later date wish to switch to the iCloud, it is going to be a b*tch of a problem. As I understand it information management on the various Clouds is completely incompatible with each other.

Welcome to the Brave New World!

 

[billhafan]

Bruce Willis is worried that, upon his death, his exstensive i-tunes library will not be passed to his children but rather the owenrship will revert to Apple. I think this is an area that Apple seem to be too strict upon. It seems that the songs you have bought from i-tunes do not actually belong to you (your copy of them anyway) and so they cannot be passed onto loved ones after your death. Bruce has 'many many ipods' so he is trying to ensure his children will inherit them without Apple reclaiming them.

We are currently looking to purchase some kind of music system that will play our mp3s but I am reluctant to get an ipod, although most systems that have docking stations work with ipods rather than generic mp3 players I have my music as mp3 and not through i-tunes. We have had problems trying to copy songs from sonia's laptop (i-tunes) to my PC for us to play through our TV as some of the i-tunes songs have a password on and others don't work in the mp3 format. It seems silly really. I know that technically when we buy a CD we don't own the songs in any other format and that it is illegal to rip them off the CD into MP3s, but we buy most our music in CD format (I have only bought 1 album as an MP3 - Gorillaz Plastic Beach) but I then also bought it as a CD to play in the car (rather than burn the mp3s into a CD format) it can be frustrating and Apple's walled garden policy doesn't help things.

For in your house, check out a sumvision cyclone micro 2+ on ebay - bought mine and never had a problem - plays everything, and I mean everything! Also has a surround sound output and HDMI up-scaling. Video and audio quality is A1, no video stalling or sync issues. I plug in an external 2.5" 500GB HD with audio and video on it. Straight forward, good remote, and cheap as chips.

 

[Moonbat]

Hmm, not sure, as that will require a stereo system as well, which we don't currently have.
I'm actually torn between a squeezebox and a Sonos play:3.
I'm leaning towards the sonos, but I want to see one in real life before I buy, so I'll have to find a shop that does one soonish.
I will keep the cyclone in mind, and maybe check it out too.
I'm am amazed at how expensive these things go, some people must be mad to spend that much on speakers, I can honestly say I haven't ever noticed better sound with speakers that cost £1000 to those that cost £100, but maybe I'm just not enough of an audiophile. To be honest I think most of it is just audio w**king, but maybe I'm being harsh.

 

[billhafan]

The Cyclone is under £30, and if you've got speakers on your TV, you've got a hi-fi You can also connect it to any hifi in the future. I have 2 in my house, and travel with one for Hotels abroad etc. where it's worth it's weight in gold. Worth checking out, but the Sonos does look nice

 

[Moonbat]

ah, we can already play CDs and Mp3s through our TV (mp3 through a USB connected External Hard drive), but it is in the other room.
We want to have a hifi in our lounge (which doesn't have a TV atm) so that we don't have to have the TV speakers blaring away in the other room if we want to listen to music whilst we play scrabble or entertain guests.

 

[billhafan]

Makes sense Good luck with the Sonos if you go down that route.