Posts by Ivan Headache 897 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jul 2007
Thank you chr0m4t1c for understanding the difference between IP and trademarks.
None of the other commenters had obviously read what I had quoted. Proview's lawyers are claiming that Apple are abusing their IP when in fact thay are abusing the trademark (yet to be proved).
For those who posted above Microspoft is not IP. It is a company name, registered as a company name. Microsoft's IP is in its products - not its name.
What IP have Apple allegedly misappropriated from Proview?
“Apple is such a Goliath and has a good image, so people wouldn’t imagine that Apple could possibly infringe on our intellectual property rights,” Xiao Caiyuan, a lawyer for Proview at Guangdong Guanghe law firm, told the Financial Times. “People always think it’s small companies infringing upon large companies’ IPR.”
Surely this is a simple trade-mark issue - but then only assuming that Apple's iPad logo is identical (or similar) to the Proview logo.
What IP is there in a name?
During the summer, the lovely Ivana and I were enjoying tea with a pair of very nice Taiwanese girls.
One was midway though a marketing degree at a London university, the other had just finished a Masters in electrical engineering, (also in London).
The girl with the Masters was looking forward to her dream job back in Taiwan - at Foxconn.
which is a far more realistic way of guaging phone acceptance and useability as people tend to get their phones out when they settle down (for whatever reason)
2 nights ago on a train out of Euston (7pm ish), in my immediate field of view were 10 people. 3 of them were using a phone and the rest were either dozing, reading The Standard or a Kindle.
Of the phones - iPhone 2, BB 1. others 0.
When the train reached my station I got up to leave and to my suprise the 6 people in the seats behind me were all using iphones (4 or 4s) for either games or email/text as were 2 more standing in the doorway. Other phones 0.
Yesterday I made 5 train journeys and 1 bus ride. and saw something like 50 phones being used. Without itemising each individual journeys I can honestly say that iphones (both 3 and 4 versions (can't tell an s version just by looking)) outnumbered every other type of phone something in the oprder of 8 or 9 to 1.
So according all the detractors above all the iphone users are sheep and idiots. That is patently not the case as they ranged though the entire gamut of normal people and ages.
In fact at one station, a middle-aged black guy in a business suite, burberry-syle mac and briefcase got on and sat down beside me. after getting comfy, he pulled out an iphone 3 and started playing backgammon. Nothing about him looked like a sheep.
I never count myself in with these numbers as that would slew the figures (on some journeys that would only be by a very small amount though).
In conclusion I would claim that it is not us iPhone users that have a problem. it is the detractors who have the problem. We made our choice and we like it. Get used to it.
Does it not occur to them that people actually like iphones
The Sinclair Neoteric 60 was very highly rated by HiFi News and The Gramophone at the time.
I've been trying to find one for ages but not many were made. Apparently they were very difficult to make because of their small size and that caused reliability issues with overheating.
Still. I'd have one if I could find one.
haven't seen my binmen.
They wear hi-vis tabards with no metal straps or buckles that swing (if they had those they would be a H&S hazard in their own right).
The driver never leaves his seat - therefore does not wear any gloves. None of them wear hard-hats (why should they? the sky isn't likely to fall on their heads) and the majority (there's only 2 bin-men per truck (plus the diver)) appear to wear trainers or 'normal-looking' footware (possibly the safety sort) though).
I can't say I've noticed that they wear heavy riggers gloves, and in any case they don't apear to press anything while doing my street. They just move the bins to the back of the truck and the automation does the rest.
Thinking about your post, your LA must have tried really hard if they bought dustcarts with controls that couldn't be operated with gloves. Ours have levers with knobs the size of golf-balls and push-button emergency things the size of tennis balls.
I like Dockers trousers (another Levi brand for those that don't know)
The Dockers I have bought in the US are much better quality than those I have bought in the UK, they last longer (I have a bony arse and get though trousers at an alarming rate) - and they're cheaper too of course.
I'm not sure I fully understand what you are trying to say. I certainly did not say (or imply) that society had to reward the first mover - nor that it was it Apple.
I'll paraphrase - tablets - been around a long time - sold in very small numbers - niche markets - difficult to use.
Apple launches iPad - sells in huge numbers - very easy to use - worldwise market - changes the game.
Other companies - Aagh
The other companies manage to come up with a tablet of their own - except for Samsung who appear to copy Apple's design and packaging.
To clear your misunderstanding I'll modify my out and about line because nowhere have I said that Kindle and Sony have copied Apple. The readers are (in case you haven't noticed) completey different products and don't look anything like an iPad - but they are tablets.
I think you missed the implied irony in the catch-up comment.
If I see a tablet it is either an iPad, a Kindle or an e-Reader - i.e. it is NOT one of the other makes.
It's all the others trying to compete with Apple - and seeing that Apple outsell all the others........
Go back a bit. Tablet computers have been around for quite some time but (as commenter have pointed out in many other Reg trreads) they never got out of their very tiny niche market. Most of those that I saw (and I've probably only seen about a dozen over 10 years) were as thick (or thicker) as laptops, very heavy and used a stylus for input and didn't appear to be that eay to use.
Out of the blue Apple launches iPad - a tablet that smashes all previously tablet concepts and is instantly useable by anyone that picks it up - even tiny children.
Oh it will never take off! - Apple is pouring money down a black hole!. It's not a real computer! Who would buy something that can't run Flash?
A few months later all the majors are scrabbling to get a tablet out of the door as they suddenly realise that Apple has changed the game. There is a market for tablets and if they don't do something quickly Apple will run away with the market.
After a few hiccups most of them managed to get something out - only Samsung just copied Apple's product.
The competition still has a way to go to beat Apple. While I'm out and about I see quite a few tablets now - iPads or Kindles.
I know there have been many comments about prior art in one way or another - so here's another.
I have a Cambridge z88 portable from 1987. I use to use it on the train each day while I was working on a book. When I got to my station I switched it off - when I got to my desk I switched it back on again and within a couple of seconds the cursor was flashing at the end of the line I had written on the train.
Traditionally when an updated OS comes out the stock is shipped with the existing OS and a CD in the box with the upgrade on it.
Seeing that the upgrade is a download only - and appears to need Snow-Leopard (I may be wrong) in order to install, I'm not sure how they would do that.
We'll just have to wait and see.
we had a 2-stroke SAAB 96.
It was a fabulous car but it had one big issue. You never knew for certain which way the engine was running! The number of times I engaged 1st and shot off backwards, I'm amazed I didn't kill myself - especially on the 3rd floor of the multstory in Scunthorpe.
Sorry - too late!
BT sends me a bill each quarter. I open it, peruse it, take a walk to the post office to pay it.
At the post Office, the man says "you do realise that BT will charge you an extra £6 for paying this here don't you?"
So I go to my bank and pay it there. "Sorry. You'll have to go to the Post Office. BT makes a charge if you pay it here."
So I go home and log on. BT says pay your bill by direct debit OR ELSE.
Surely what they are doing is illegal. When I challenged BT they said that 'It was standard industry practice to charge this fee"
Seeing that they ARE the industry they are effectively making it up.
What would happen if I refused to pay the charge - sorry, penalty?
Red Bull - in all its varieties - about 6 foot of shelf space spread over 2 shelves
Tesco Own-brand bull - about 2 feet of shelf space - BELOW the Red Bull
Another Brand (can't remember its name) - about 2 feet of space on one of the same shelves as RB.
In my eyes Tesco are pushing Red Bull OVER their own-brand product.
Judging by the prices they probably make about 50p a can on the OB but probably £1 a can on RB (Wholesale price of RB to a typical corner shop is 90p - to Tesco it's probably 80p or even lower).
If you were Tesco - which would you push?
Tesco's own brand products are always cheaper. The fact that you can see the two products adjacent to each other is clear evidence that Tesco is NOT pushing their brand over Red Bull.
Out of curiosity, how many cans of own brand were there compared to RB?
If Tesco ONLY sold own brand and NOT RB (or any other overpriced soft drink) then you would have a valid point.
I don't understand why you bring Sainsbury in to this argument. It stands pretty well on Tesco alone.
However, Tesco don't push their brands 'over' their competior brands - which in this case are Heinz, McVities, Birds Eye, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble etc. - NOT Sainsbury, Asda or Morrison.
A good example is the washing products aisle. The product getting the most exposure is that of either Unilver or P&G. Tesco's own brand stuff gets about the same space as Ecover.
That seems to apply in all the supermarkets even Lidl.
How much profit each supermarket makes is based on how mch stiff they actually sell - regardless of the brand.
The argument about Google is (as I see it - so I may well be wrong) is that G is pushing its own retail outlet over all others.
Using the supermarket analogy again. I'm looking for tinned beans. I go into Tesco and I can find six or seven brands of beans - including Tesco's own. I go into Sainsbury and I find the same brands except that Tesco's have been replaced by Sainsbury's own brand - and so on at Asda & Morrison.
If I go to Google and look for tinned beans - I only get Google Beans pushed at me and the other brands are pushed down the results.
Transfer that to the travel market, where the income an agent makes is purely the commission they get on sales from Airlines and hotels and you should be able to see the problem.
Hope that makes sense.
Have you ever had a kid sit in front of a screen where there are buttons facing them - especially and on-off button?
No. I thought not.
Why is it so important to you that it's easy to see? You press it to turn it on on a Monday morning and that's it 'til going home on Friday (and you don't use it to turn tha machine off anyway) Good design decision? Yes it is.
You comment about the keyboard being no good for touch-typing is OK - for you. I've plenty of clients who claim that it's the best keyboard they've used in years for touch-typing.
Personally I prefer the loget wire keyboard because I use the number keys a lot and over the years have gone away from using the top row.
The mouse is definitely love/hate. Some of my clients think it's fabulous, I'm not so convinced (but it looks great!)
On the screen - I do think it looks amazing but I do wish is wasn't so shiny. However, a good design studio will not be equipped with bright lights everywhere so it is not quite the problem that some claim.
I'm not sure why you would need a trip to the manual to find out how to click. That strikes me as the comment of a person who has no idea what a mouse is for or has lived in a cave since 1984.
I read somewhere (here I think) that airline pilots were starting to use iPads to lighten the load of paperwork they had to lug around. I heard also, from someone who flies biplanes for fun, that Jeppesons flight charts are now certified to be used for flight-planning on iPads.
Shortly after the iPad came out - there were rumours that it could be used as an under-camera-lens teleprompter with a bit of jiggerey-pokery. This year I've seen kit availabe that does away with the J-P.
One of my clients is a very successful radio & TV producer. She was telling me (and I know from experience) that the biggest problem in radio drama is page turning - some actors can do it almost silently and some can't. At a recent recording one of the actors (a famous name) turned up with his script on an iPad. The following day so did another. No noisy page turns for them.
As yet I haven't come up with a niche of my own so I haven't bought an iPad - but then I was never enticed into buying a netbook either.
has a very nice commerce site built with iweb (not by me) and hosted on MobileMe.
She can make alterations with one click and the site changes in seconds.
iWeb itself will still work as a site creation tool but the one click update will not if this email is true.
She is going to have to find a new host and learn learn how to FTP stuff etc. And that I think is going to be a big issue for lots of folks who use the mobileme hosting system.
Most of these people (like my client) are non-techies and are going to find it rather difficult to do.
I wonder what the logic of ending the hosting is.
Without a doubt that are many thousands of sites out there created with iWeb. Ok, not as many as those created with other tools - but still, a very significant number (and no, they are not all hosted at mobileMe).
Most of the mac users that I know that tried chrome ditched it.
Many tried Firefox - and quite a few stayed with it, but the majority use Safari - and find it a very pleasant experience.
(Mac trainer - knows hundreds of mac users - so not talking out of his .... nevertheless he will no doubt get down votes)
(Harry Potter's uncle Vernon, Uncle Monty in Withnail and I and Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky) has stopped mid performance on the London stage three times to berate mobile phone users who have interrupted performances by letting their phones ring.
Oh the number of times I wished he could have been in my carriage on the train home of an evening.
Is that they are paying for Applecare to give an extended warranty for Apple Products. Not for the products of some Russian scam-artist.
Your 'best' analogy about wallpaper is pretty pathetic - instructions for changing wallpaper are in every mac (and you know it) - And Applecare would tell you how to do it if you didn't know - because switching it is 'part of an Apple product'.
What Applecare won't do (along with DellCare or AsusCare or SonyCare etc) is fix your MS Office when it screws up again, or your CAD package or your Adobe package or your Epson printer.
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