What is Digg?205 Comments
- tonicboy, on 09/15/2008, -13/+77Who cares, what does that have to do with anything? You think Microsoft ever had an original idea? They didn't even write MS-DOS. You think Linux was original? You think Nintendo invented video games? You think Google was the first one to come up with a search engine?
Consider this - you've built so much of a grudge against a company (who knows why, did Steve Jobs steal your girlfriend?) that you've actually gone out of your way to insult their customers. How pathetic does your life has to be before you care about such trifling matters as what electronics other people choose to buy?
Do you want to know what I think about your choice of mp3 players? Nothing at all, I really couldn't give a *****. And I certainly wouldn't call you an idiot for buying whatever it is that you bought, although there seem to plenty of other reasons to call you an idiot. - 89vision, on 09/15/2008, -5/+56apple was not the first mp3 player
- Spanca, on 09/15/2008, -6/+53WTF? This was on Digg ages ago, then it was on the Sydney Morning Herald site/newspaper, now it's back on Digg again.
- jezsik, on 09/15/2008, -2/+43Demonstrating, yet again, that coming up with a good idea is not sufficient - you have to turn it into a product and get people to buy it. The market rewards innovation, not imagination.
- skeletorcares, on 09/15/2008, -46/+85Someone thought apple had original ideas? Poor poor ignorant people.
- zang74, on 09/15/2008, -4/+36What's ignorant is that somehow, because this image looks similar to an iPod, that people claim he invented the "iPod".
No.
The iPod is the combination of it's hardware and it's software. It's not a look. The iPod certainly wasn't the first MP3 player, and everyone knows that. In fact, the drawings look little like the original 4-button, physical clickwheel iPod, nor does it look like the shuffle, the nano, or the iPod Touch. It really only looks like the 5th-gen/classic models, and only if you stick a half-dozen other buttons on there and remove the clickwheel.
What's worse is that the Creative Nomad II is just as similar to his original drawings, and he's not claiming to have invented it (and it debuted a year before the iPod), or the MPMan, or any other MP3/Digital Audio player out there.
He's the one who let his patents lapse. In doing so, he forfeited his claim to any remuneration.
Apple's not acknowledging that he invented the iPod. They're acknowledging that he invented the Portable Digital Audio Player. BIG difference. - Arwin101, on 09/15/2008, -3/+25Actually it's wrong. He had an idea similar to the Ipod but only similar (it could only hold a couple of minutes of music). All that has happened is that in one of there patent battles (with Burst) Apple used this guys ideas to prove that the concept had being around for a while, and that Burst didn't deserve money from apple. That's all. He did not invent the Ipod... The real innovation with the ipod was that it offered a decent amount of storage... The concept has being around for quite some time.
- Jonmad17, on 09/15/2008, -3/+24Just another MP3 player. They have been around since the 90's, before the Ipod. Apple is one of the few companies that would admit to this. Anyone else would never contact the man.
- rootnik, on 09/15/2008, -7/+27These comments suck.
- muxaulo, on 09/15/2008, -8/+26Ya, Steve got the idea for the GUI from the Xerox Parc project, amongst either things.
- gerryk, on 09/15/2008, -3/+17For the sake of accuracy, the research centre was called PARC, the project was the Xerox Star.
- orlyfactor, on 09/15/2008, -1/+13Neither was orange.
- kent1146, on 09/15/2008, -0/+12When I was a kid, I watched America's Funniest Home Videos and watched cats do silly things. Then I thought "Hey! Wouldn't it be funny if we could make PICTURES of these silly cats, and have these pictures labeled with equally silly captions?!?!?!"
It was my idea. Who do I sue? - JordanE, on 09/15/2008, -0/+12http://digg.com/apple/Apple_admit_Briton_DID_inven ...
7 days ago... - michaeldpotter, on 09/15/2008, -5/+15@ tonicboy
While I agree with you completely, it's ignorant to think you are going to impact or change the opinions of people about Apple on Digg. There are far more people who hate Apple than like it on Digg, that's obvious.
And for the record, he doesn't have a grudge because Steve Jobs stole his girlfriend, he has a grudge because Steve Jobs wears blue jeans and black mock turtlenecks. - emeraldclaw4, on 09/15/2008, -1/+10Exactly.
- Balanced, on 09/15/2008, -1/+9If you RTFA he came up with the concept in 1979 but couldn't get it past a few minutes of audio. The patent wasn't renewed in the late 80s.
And, of course, lots of other people did digital music players. The innovation of the iPod was doing it right*.
*Defined, for this conversation, as making one at a price point with the features and usability that attracted a lot of customers. No, you don't have to think it's a good itnerface. Lots of other people do. - bbtrev, on 09/15/2008, -1/+9Apple's actually a company, not an mp3 player....I believe they make a product that is an mp3 player...can't for the life of me remember what it is called.
Too bad the title of this article doesn't tell me :( - adml_shake, on 09/15/2008, -2/+9Since when has upping the storage capacity on a device beeg "innovative"?
- jcharak58, on 09/15/2008, -1/+8An MP3 player is not an Ipod by default. If patents expire, they're free for all. He should stop complaining and help me buy a nice lounge chair so I can sit when I listen to my Ipod
- inactive, on 09/15/2008, -0/+7lolcats were your idea? Can I please come mercilessly beat you up?
- chanop, on 09/15/2008, -11/+18Yeah, diggers HATE macs... That's why every iPhone, Macbook, iPod article ever written makes front page daily.
- avaugha4, on 09/15/2008, -0/+6Invented? no... Thought of? Yes.
- kaynesan, on 09/15/2008, -0/+6Great idea, wrong time.
- iamnobody8614, on 09/15/2008, -4/+10FAN BOY RAGE!
- eth3l, on 09/15/2008, -1/+7Hey kids:
Rio 300 ... introduced in 1998.
iPod ... introduced October 2001.
I gues Diamond Multimedia first ripped off this guy's idea. - sjmulder, on 09/15/2008, -2/+8This guy invented flash media players. It was not until the iPod shuffle, more than 4 years after the introduction of the original iPod, that Apple started making flash players.
- inactive, on 09/15/2008, -1/+7Everyone has ideas; it takes another level of intelligence and competence to bring them to market.
- Leo55, on 09/15/2008, -0/+6Come on digg people. I don't even think anyone was thinking about a music player back in 79 and much less so called "industrial design". If anyone is to "copy", its those first companies with the flash MP3 players. thats really the first thing that capitalized on the idea of a portable media player. The ipod was a respond to those and very so happen, the ipod was shaped around a hard disk which looked it like in the patents. (there is really no other way to do it, that the only most portable way...icube anyone?)
- MWeather, on 09/15/2008, -0/+6Did anyone here think Apple invented the mp3 player? Me neither. Buried.
- Balanced, on 09/15/2008, -2/+7Also for the sake of accuracy, the Lisa and Mac OS was based on some ideas from the Star project, but had a lot of stuff added, redesigned, and otherwise innovated.
Sure, this design is a portable music player, but it doesn't have a lot of similarities otherwise. - cozmoz365, on 09/15/2008, -2/+7They only contacted him to avoid getting sued.
- srg13, on 09/15/2008, -0/+5Portable music players were actually around for a long time before Apple made the iPod - they just made a really good product, and marketed it well.
- omenmedia, on 09/15/2008, -13/+18Best part of the article:
"Apple did give me one [an iPod] but it broke down after eight months."
If he managed to build his in '79, it'd probably still be running! - commiecat, on 09/15/2008, -1/+6The storage medium is irrelevant. You know how large (physically) hard drives were in 1979? There would be nothing portable about a digital media player based on a HDD at that time. It was the only option at the time of his invention.
- jburland, on 09/15/2008, -0/+5Colin Murdoch invented the plastic disposable hypodermic syringe, the tranquilliser gun, a silent burglar alarm and a childproof bottle top.
He also said "Patents give you the right to sue. They don't give you the money to sue. It just costs too much."
More over here: http://youmustbefromaway.blogspot.com/2008/06/pate ... - jazzbeaux, on 09/15/2008, -8/+13Because Jobs has a bunch of fanbois drooling over his every utterance.
- Vodd9, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4But you didn't invent Caturday.
- jo0zi, on 09/15/2008, -1/+5They only contacted him because they needed him for a lawsuit they were in with another company.
- djpray2k, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4If this looked like the iPod I may be able to feel a bit sorry for the guy but it looks nothing like one except for a screen. It looks more like a Creative Zen.
The MP3 player was invented way before the iPod but it is the design and marketing that made it. Maybe if this guy actualy built one, but to only draw it, talk about giving up at the first hurdle. - Zlorp, on 09/15/2008, -2/+6someone explain to me how this wouldnt be the same as someone patenting the automobile.
- spezi, on 09/15/2008, -1/+5Well, he did not invent the iPod, he apparently came up with the idea of a portable music player (which is nice, no doubt). Nobody who knows a bit about the history of digital music players would claim Apple invented them anyway. Simply because there were other players on the market before the first iPod came out. Maybe Apple was the first company to do digital music players right though, judging by their success...
- colonelpanic, on 09/15/2008, -1/+5I was going to quote that line, but I noticed something different. The thing was under warranty for another 4 months. He could have gotten it replaced.
- ChstrCopperpot, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4@waspbr, see UNIX or MINIX
- jezsik, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4An idea is not innovation. Putting that idea to work is innovation. There were lots of MP3 players before the iPod; Apple took some good ideas and put them all together in a package people liked. Who came up with the idea is irrelevant, who turned the idea into a viable product is what matters.
- pxlpshr, on 09/15/2008, -1/+5It looks more like one of Creative's failed devices.
i guess since it's a portable music player, and the mass media is as stupid as our public then = ipod. - zang74, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4"Well it's not like he just let the patent expire. He couldn't afford the 60k pounds to renew it."
That is exactly what "letting the patent expire" is! Patents need to be monetarily maintained. You don't pay to renew it, it doesn't get renewed. If his idea was valuable in 1979, I'm sure he could've found an investor, but the fact that his patent went unrenewed and did not produce a single physical product after five years means he couldn't find investors. Odds are, his "invention" would have had an MSRP in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in 1979.
As for the 60,000 pounds, that would've been the cost to renew the patent in 120 countries, not just the UK. He could've renewed in just one single country like the US or UK, and have had a much better case for protecting his idea elsewhere. It's currently, in 2008, less than 150 pounds to renew a patent in the UK. He knowingly let it lapse. Had he truly cared about it, he'd have renewed at least one patent somewhere.
"I can't find any PDF about this Apple/Burst suit, but every article I read about Kane Kramer says something along the lines of "Apple admits Briton invented iPod". Show me something that explicitly says otherwise."
Well, his design was never actually brought to prototype (making it complete vaporware) and thus he didn't write software for it, it didn't have a clickwheel, would not be able to store more 3.5 minutes of audio and it wasn't called the "iPod". He DID NOT INVENT THE iPOD, he came up with a concept drawing for a Digital Audio Player..
The "Apple admits" BS is media hype, all stemming from a Dailymail.co.uk article, which does not quote any directly from Apple, merely stating that his designs were used as "previous artwork" in the Burst vs Apple case. Previous artwork does not an invention make. The artwork was used defensively to prove that Burst's patents and case (which, by the way, was related to the transmission of audio over a network) were invalid as SOMEONE ELSE had come up with the idea first, not that Apple themselves had. Apple is currently in talks with him for compensation related to the artwork, but that's artwork copyright, and not patent or trademark related. It's more than likely Apple wants to cover their ass in case Mr. Kramer decides to be an ass and claim Apple used his drawing for the design of the iPod (something I'm very sure Jonathan Ive would take issue with). They're throwing him a bone here for the sake of avoiding a lawsuit in the future. And again, that's COPYRIGHT, not patent or trademark.
The very fact that his patents lapsed meant the idea of a Digital Audio Player was public domain, and no longer belonged to ANYONE. Not even Mr. Kramer. Stating that he invented the iPod would also ignore every single MP3/DAP that came before it, and all that was learned from their creation. - hokie47, on 09/15/2008, -0/+4Really is a MP3 player really that big of a leap? Look at the old Sony walkman compared to the iPod. The technology has changed but basically it is just something you can walk around with and listen to music.
- Namco, on 09/15/2008, -0/+3Where's your worldwide patent?
- DarkPrincess74, on 09/15/2008, -0/+3I wouldn't say microsoft is innovative because they have 5000 patents. You say Apple buys licenses for products. Microsoft buys companies for licenses, software, patents. While Microsoft may have done a few things on its own mostly everything we know from them is from a company it acquired.
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