Apple wins design patents
Apple picked up quite a few pending design patents this week -- most of them are pretty old, for products that have released but were simply waiting on the official patent. You can see the whole list over on Macsimum News -- they've got the iPod classic in there, the Apple remote, and quite a few patents for handling various functions of iOS or OS X. One of the more interesting ones is patent number 7,7645,236, which seems to describe a broadband antenna, much like the one currently used around the edge of the iPhone 4. Obviously, that's been an object of contention on the new iPhone, but the patent was approved, so Apple owns this design, whatever it is.
The wording on the patent is kind of interesting in hindsight -- the patent describes a ground and a resonating element that may lie on the same plane, and they may "be separated by a gap that lies in the common plane." The patent summary then says that, "Electronic components such as the integrated circuits, display, and battery can be mounted in the handheld device so that they do not overlap the gap between the ground element and the resonating element." Guess Apple didn't actually consider your fingers to be "electronic components."
It's kind of incredible to think of all the various innovations Apple is churning out. So many patents get filed and never get used again, but Apple's laying claim to some pretty big developments here in somewhat sizable numbers. It makes you wonder just what things are like around the engineering offices in Cupertino -- there's a lot of solid innovation going on there these days.
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Apple picked up quite a few pending design patents this week -- most of them are pretty old, for products that have released but were...
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Truth is that Apple is driving innovation in the technology market. Multi-touch, backlit keyboards, iPhone, iPad, magic mouse, magic taskpad. Hell, Windows Vista/7 design is directly inspired by OS X. Apple's product announcements are major events for a reason and not just for the Apple fanboys. Every media outlet covers their announcements. Dell? HP? Hell....Microsoft? Nope. Would Android exist with iPhone? No. Would all the rumored vaporware tablets have even being mentioned without the iPad?
Right. Apple doesn't innovate. That's just stupidity incarnate.
You just discovered the maximize button with the release of Windows 7? Wow.
August 02 2010 at 2:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBulls***. I'd love to see Apple actually innovate instead of just telling everyone they do.
Every hour I log on my MacBook Pro I feel the sting of not having the legitimately innovative new takes on usability that Windows 7 brought to the table, and every second I spend on my iPhone I miss the subtle luxury of WebOS.
Although I'm VERY excited for the new trackpad, because Apple refuses to innovate and add better gesture support it'll feel half baked just like their laptop trackpads do. Come on Apple! Step up to the plate and start delivering on all of the bs promises you've made over the last ten years. Own it.
If you think Apple isn't innovating and you honestly, frankly believe Windows7 or WebOS is going to make your life easier, then stop using OS X and iOS.
While Windows7 might have some usability features OS X does not, I think most people would agree that OS X is a far superior OS in terms of usability. Still, you're free to chose your OS.
HOWEVER. You saying that Apple hasn't been delivering on their innovation promises for the last 10 years is MASSIVELY STUPID. Apple has innovated more than the next 100 computer companies together, both in hardware and software. Besides, they didn't actually promise anything...
They do own it. They own al $47 billion dollars of it.
I'd love to hear about some of these great innovations you're talking about.
And if you're seriously going to try to argue that OS X provides even the same ballpark of usability Windows 7 does, either you've never used Windows 7 or you're another apple zombie who will blindly regurgitate marketing speak without ever questioning it.
I'm a fan of OS X, but it completely strikes out on usability and interaction design. It's 2010 and Safari doesn't even have a fullscreen mode!! There's no ability to maximize a window. You have to find sweetspots on the windowing chrome to be able to move or resize a window! All of the application context menuing is disparate from the app itself, causing exponentially more mouse travel and wasting screen real estate. The metaphor of the finder confuses the crap out of people because it looks like a running application, but can't be interacted with like a normal application. There's no ability to put the dock at the top of the screen which is where usability studies have shown is the ideal place for it. Honestly I could go on for hours about where OS X goes wrong. Windows 7 isn't perfect, but it makes running and managing applications wayyyyyyy more fluid than any other OS out there, ESPECIALLY OS X.
And I actually have stopped using OS X for work. I'm now on a Xeon workstation with 3 27 inch monitors running Windows 7 and loving it more than I ever thought possible. That's another thing, OS X's multi-monitor support is terrible. I mean you can't even disable one of them?!! To be able to use your MBP on an external monitor you have to basically trick it into waking from sleep with an external peripheral. "Massively stupid" fail.
But I still rock a MacBook Pro and 27" iMac at home. And like variety anyway.
AND YES THEY DID PROMISE EVERYTHING. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEIR COMMERCIALS AND KEYNOTES IS RIPE WITH FALSE PROMISES.
"The world's most powerful personal computer"
"The best web experience you've ever had"
"We're a few years ahead of the competition"
It's all bulls***, and people believe it because people trust what they see on a screen.
Now that Apple has more money than god, it's time to really start innovating and delivering best-in-class products instead of just telling everyone that you do.
The iPhone was launch in Canada on Friday and the issue is very real for me and many more if you read the blogs or twitter. I was using the phone in the same way I used the 3G and 3GS and got "no signal". I was hoping that this was just something that the American press had blown out of proportion.
Also there are many others who can't reproduce it. Maybe, maybe there will be a recall for a specific lot of phones. In the mean time, I am no longer using the phone naked.
So it's cool Apple got a patent for such an innovative and useful antenna design.
The rest of earth is very happy indeed
From an Australian perspective, since the iPhone 3G. You'd have to say that it's simply the Loudness of American centric news and blogs that dress up these issues as global in scope. From "exclusive carrier", to battery life, reception, speed and call drops. I even read news angry at Apple for inventing 3G.
The rest of the world has been strangely quiet on all these issues. Same phone, different network but also people used to 3G phones and networks.
iPhone 4 hit Oz on Friday. It sold out. News media has been the opposite of the US experience. Telstra has approved it for regional and remote use (with bumper).
I spent 30min with one in a store, I tried every type of grip I could, I even wet the gap and my hand. Best I could do was that either nothing happened or one bar went up or down. Yup it seemed at times to improve signal (which it should). It was so subtle that it was just as likely normal signal variation.
Personally I'm waiting for the white version.
Dudes, after reading the incessant Complaints from America for a third year running. It's not the phone. It's your network (which the rest of earth already knew).
I'm going to guess that's what the problem is for those that are having major issues with the phone. Average failure rates for consumer electronics is I believe 10% - 15% and average manufacturing defect rates are around 1%.
I've seen only two iPhone 4's so far and neither owners said they are experiencing any of the antenna problems.
http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Business-general/Apple-reorganizing-faces-sales-drop-struggling-computer-maker-expects-periods-revenue-to-hit-three-y.html
I don't think a company losing money at the time doesn't see that kind of investment as having "nothing to do with their financials"
150 Million is a large investment in 1997. That August saw the largest trading volume in Apple stocks in years and until Sep 99. I don't think 150 million dollars is financially irrelevant.
Dave
Having never owned a device running Newton OS, it's hard to comment. I imagine however if they had made the form factor similiar to Palm's it would have been more successful. During the Newton era they also introduced Cyberdog, eWorld and Pippen. Bad things do come out of good companies :(.
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