^^^

We need a moderator to close this thread too, LOL!

Only if it gets out of control. I'm pretty tolerant as to what we can allow here, and spirited debates have seldom been off-limits.

In fact, the only thing I know how to do is delete spam and ban the spammers.

Yeah, I'm disappointed in Apple for that. They've had four years to update the Apple TV, and their leadoff feature in introducing the new model was...high definition screensavers of traffic around the world. Huh?



The nice thing about moderating this forum is that it's quite low maintenance (except for spammers).

LOL, rest of us rely on the ignore function

Samsung wasn't in the smartphone business in any meaningful sense before Apple launched the iPhone. OTOH, Samsung wasn't in the smartphone business in any meaningful sense for a couple of years AFTER Apple launched the iPhone.

If you look at Palm, Microsoft, HTC, and Nokia, all four of them were in the smartphone business well before Apple, and defined a lot of things that Apple ended up copying.

Except the stylus. No one needs a stylus. It's useless. Unless you can charge people obscene amounts of money for it. Oh wait...

Semi-on topic here. Yesterday (9/17) I saw someone wearing an Apple watch at IAD. This is only the second person I've seen wearing one. The first was a couple of weeks ago and it struck me that it's been a while, so this is certainly unexpected. Does Apple (or anyone else) have a way to measure whether the watches they've sold are actually being used?

<Mod Dad Mode>

Hi everyone - I know that Apple vs not evokes strong feelings in some. I just deleted a string of posts that were unduly personalized. You know who you are. Please keep it civil and on topic, or it will get merged into the I Hate Apple thread in OMNI, which not everyone can see.

</Dad>

Indeed.

Meanwhile, much of the "unique" stuff in the first iPhone was already out there: capacitative touch, gestures, even some of the smaller UI elements they tried to patent like slide-to-unlock. There isn't AFAICT a single major thing which Apple was first with.

Also, let's all remember that the very first version of the iPhone was hampered by no 3G data, and no third-party app support.

Apple still should get quite a bit of credit for putting all of those things together in a very nicely design package, and for setting a bunch of UI conventions up that worked well going forward. But the notion that they were a revolution in anything other than marketing is a bit much...

Apple didn't invent something completely new. They were responsible for making such devices popular though.

Indeed. I had one of these long before the iPod :-



I think it had a 5GB hard drive. Probably the best gadget I ever bought.

I had a Sony discman before my iPod

Indeed. Tablets were going nowhere, before the iPad*

* The iPad, and the OSX operating system, are really the only two products I really rate, when it comes to my view of Apple products.

Oh wait, yeah they've had those for sale in the Apple Store since the launch of the iPad. Seriously, I mean I know it's a travel site, but it is a technology forum. You might want to stick to one of the other forums if you don't actually understand the topic at hand.

They would have to break out the sales specifically which I don't think they're doing at this point. I highly doubt it's that many. Technology has to improve on real life things to be useful.

That's exactly my point. Look at the phone technology before apple got involved and look at it after. The other companies didn't magically spend money to develop phones along the lines of what apple was doing. They copied it. That people in the United States should be giving money to some, and i'll put it nicely, Koreans couldn't pull an original idea out of their own rectum is beyond stupid.

The companies that actually innovate are the only ones that matter.

Technological innovation alone doesn't necessarily make for a vibrant market or for a successful place in the market. Samsung has done pretty well in getting to where it has gotten when it comes to smart phones, regardless of how it has or has not innovated in the technology and/or marketing of technology goods/services. And Apple and Samsung have done pretty well in getting to where they have gotten by doing things that have been done by others before it, including by playing up the PR game.