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Is it just me, or does it feel like they're ripping off the iphone UI?

That's exactly what I was thinking.

"Yeah totally, all of the people in the video are selecting little blocks on screens and using a single hardware button to navigate around everything. It must be Apple."

No. This doesn't at all look like the iPhone UI. Sure, it may be gesture and multi-touch sensitive, but Apple doesn't have patents on the concepts of gesture or multi-touch sensitivity. HP and Dell been using that concept for a couple of years now.

Oh wait, it must be the fact that not all of the menus in the video were drop-down. No, I think everyone from the MS surface team to UNIX dorks worldwide has been playing with that concept for a long while.

No, it's definitely the "translate from Hindi" app and what looks like SolidWorks support. I've been dropping SolidWorks assemblies with Hindi annotation on my iPhone forever now. Wait, that's not right either...

Oh wait, it looks sort of cool, so it must be Apple because you're a hopeless fanboy/girl. I get it, yeah.

(what it is though, is Microsoft continuing to convince us that WinMobile and Surface will be pretty cool someday. I don't know if I buy into that.)

Wow, a little harsh there eh yakov?

I think we're a ways off from this becoming the pervasive reality pictured in the video.

Right on, yakov!

Some Apple users are so hopelessly out to lunch that they think everyone is "stealing" or "ripping off" Apple. Of course Apple hasnt done any of this stuff, has nothing that looks like this stuff, and has no patents on this stuff.

But it's really Apple's stuff, and MS stole their ideas to make this video? Riiiiight...

It's almost a mental illness they have where they can never accept that other companies have great ideals, products and concepts. Noooooo, all of those ideas are really Apple's and that these guys have no right to even exist. They have the worst attitudes on the internet.


As far as the feasibility of these concepts? Of course these will happen by 2020!

AT&T did a series of ads in the early 90s that detailed what they though the future would be like in, I assume now A.D.. At the time they looked pretty far-fetched.

Send a E-Fax from the beach?

Watch movies when you wanted?

Electronic car navigation?

This stuff has a way of sneaking up on us fast.

In 2000, how many thought we would have the phones we have today in 2009?

If it makes you guys feel better, Yakov and Partmeant (not that it will, because if I'm a fanboy, then you've drunk the microsoft kool*aid) I was also getting a Minority Report Vibe off that.

My point was that it didn't look New or Innovative. It looks like everything anyone has ever told us about the future.

And I'm still waiting for my hoverboard.

Geeze Yakov/PartMeant, who spilled applesauce on your pants this morning? I love how Apple fans are made out to be delusional cultists because of their love of a brand/product.

Personally, I got a more minority report vibe with hints (yes, yes...) of Apple. Microsoft has always made quite interesting concept videos of what they see happening whether or not it will actually follow through. I believe an old one had most people using tablet and UMPCs. This one seems to be an advanced concept of MSFT's Surface and another previous demo where old Bill showed his vision of the home/office/airport of the future.

Here's a link to a few of those ads PartMeant was talking about:
YouTube - AT&T 1993 "You Will" Ads

On a side note, Apple does have lots of patents on multi-touch designs, gestures, etc. The number of patents on the iPhone is ridiculous.

Nouniard

I love this vision.

PS: When did a site about elegant implementation of technology turn into a center for fan-boy inflamed poo flinging?

@Nouniard: It may not be innovative in the realm of flying cars or Minority Report dystopian visions of the future...but the seamless way the technology and user interacts is a world away from where any devices, desktops, and consumer electronics sit today.

Very true RJHD3. This was, at the risk of mentioning Apple again, where I personally saw the similarity. The interface, not so much. It was the integration of devices. How everything worked seamlessly together as if it were made that way. It's own ecosystem.

Nouniard

I think the newspaper idea is the best. I still prefer reading magazines, newspapers, and books. i just don't like reading it on a screen like the kindle. not sure if it's the format or what.

the digital credit cards is great idea too. how convenient would that be?! although, it would be even worse if you lost your wallet with that inside.

i think the apple references may have been the woman on the airplane and the man in the office 'pinching' to shrink/enlarge the image (an iphone and apple similarity). Also, I thought Apple had a patent on multitouch? at least with cell phones. that's one of the reasons no other manufacturers offer it on their phones and part of the controversy with Treo's Pre.


Either way, by 2020? maybe some of them. Could definitely see more of this happening in the future, but a little bit further out.

Cheers,
M

wow. what is it with this blog and bloggers. are you all anti-pc and that you all think apple rules everything. PCs are commonly used in businesses, and unlike apple it is more software friendly. it is easier to create programs in it and be able to use it in any other platforms. the idea behind this video has been out there in the pc world for quite awhile now. however, it is not easily available to the public because there is not much inexpensive hardware that will support this features. and like the video implies, this is the future, and as another day comes by the closer this thing will be available to everyone. just bcoz the apple iphone is famous now doesn't mean that everything in it is all apple. they have only made it available to the public by putting it in a commonly used gadget(the cellphones). i surely agree with the thoughts of yakov and partmeant. no offense to any professional apple users here but apple is mainly for electronically iliterate, meaning their ui is made so that these kind of users will easily understand and use their products. which sucks tho is that apple has dragged down microsoft into the same idea just to reach the apple customers. but over the years microsoft has been known for both business and home computing.

if you guys read articles from wired.com you will see that some of the ideas here are already out there but are still concepts. an example would be the e-newspaper, they're developing a paper-like material that will display texts and images on it. and the touchscreen windows is already out there too. windows 7 and the hp touchsmart has the touch feature in them, also the tablet laptops are the closest thing to this idea that we already have.

@Mr. Programmer

I don't think anyone here is anti-PC. It just seems a lot of the writers here are Mac-heads and therefore post about Apple a lot. If anything it's the PC crowd that gets pissed off. You don't see anyone getting mad at PC posts. Why so serious? You have a majority market share. Enjoy your life.

Unfortunately your comments (and writing style in general) on Apple are old and outdated. This comment especially: "no offense to any professional apple users here but apple is mainly for electronically iliterate, meaning their ui is made so that these kind of users will easily understand and use their products". Wow, I haven't heard that in a serious conversation since middle school. I didn't know things had to be hard to be serious business computers.

Shows what I know.

Nouniard

well you're right they are mac-heads. but to say that microsoft steals ideas from apple is just stupid. and it seems that mac-heads don't see or appreciate the innovations of pcs. i'm not saying i dont like apples, coz i own an ipod. but what i notice is that since the iphone came out the mac-heads became more cocky with their apples. what i think of macs are overpriced clone computers. its not a personal computer at all since there are very limited ways to personalize a mac.

I think the electronic newspaper thing is silly. Although there may be a use for a foldable screen that's paper-like. I think reading your news on a small screen like the Kindle's e-ink screen is more plausible.

And I told myself I wouldn't get sucked into any PC vs Mac comments on this site...

@Mr. Programmer: personalization of a Mac and a PC for the average user is equally available. There may be richer/easier tools available for significantly advanced users on the PC, but the same things can generally be achieved on a Mac.

I use a PC at the office, and a Mac at home, which is also a PC thanks to Virtualization software and the Windows 7 Beta. The fact that Windows runs so well on an Apple computer, and with far fewer reliability issues compared to say...a Dell...makes the choice easy.

Back to the point of the post...

@Matt M: Whilest not a patent attorney, Microsoft shipped the Surface in nearly the same timeframe as the iPhone and multitouch gestures are now included in many HP PC's. Microsoft has also publicly shown multitouch gestures which stretch beyond the screen surface...so implementation isn't proprietary. Oh, and the video is inspirational, not product specific; but I totally agree on the coolness of the gestures with the newspaper.

@Nouniard: Apple's integration is okay, but far from seemless. Apple's support pages have volumes of pages on issues where people who thought things would work easily don't, and because with Apple it's either simple or you're in a command line, they're stuck. The whole industry is several generations from having its collective stuff together in order to achieve any of the seemlessness shown above.

My own personal pet peave...the fact that I can't get an AppleTV to talk to a storage device without hacking the AppleTV or leaving a computer on in the other room.

@Mr. Programer

The people that write these blogs aren't saying Microsoft steals. It's some readers. There is a big difference...though I disagree with Microsoft not stealing things. There is also a difference between PC innovation and nice concept videos.

For someone that says Mac users don't appreciate PCs, you obviously don't appreciate Apple (and saying "coz" I own an iPod doesn't mean anything...I own MS products and will soon get a 360. Doesn't mean I like Windows) with comments like "what i think of macs are overpriced clone computers. its not a personal computer at all since there are very limited ways to personalize a mac.". This is like the chicken and the egg. What came first? I know in the computer side of things the Mac did. So Apple is cloning...Apple? Ok, sure. You might want to re-look up the definition of Personal Computer.

Yes you pay more for Apple but it's no different than the premium price you pay for Sony's PCs. The difference is, Apple makes the software that goes with the hardware making it a complete solution. I like the ecosystem that is created. Everything just works together seamlessly. It isn't for everyone. If you like to spend more time modifying your computer with an Bible length A-Z list of parts and/or put neon lights everywhere inside a see-through case...sure you probably don't want a Mac. It's like death for the anti-minimalist (or hardcore gamer).

It seems a lot of PC users have trouble saying anything good about Apple. It's as if they think they'll get some cult disease. When the iPhone was released and various companies started making copy-cats, the non-Apple people whined saying "It's not like Apple invented the touch screen/multi-touch" yadda yadda. Well no, they didn't. But it took Apple to make one before every other company jumped on the bandwagon. Same with the iPod. They weren't the first. But everyone else joined in afterwards.

For me, there is just a fit and finish with Apple products that you just don't see very much.

Now that I've finished my sermon and everyone here thinks I'm kissing Steve Jobs' butt, I'll go back to work. :)

Nouniard

@Nouniard

I think the issue many PC have with this site, despite how much we enjoy it, is that it is so heavily skewed to Apple this, Mac/iPod/iPhone that, that it starts to look less like a blog about technology in the home but more like a blog about Apple products in the home. I was shocked to see in the past week, several stories that actually talked about PCs, or had a PC pictured. It was like I wanst on the same site.

I personally would like to see some balance. Unless they blog writes offically turn this into iUnplggd.com, then that isnt too much to ask.


"It seems a lot of PC users have trouble saying anything good about Apple..."

Not really. But get a group of Apple fans together and see how many good things they can say about non-Apple stuff. I know some of these types, they are as narrow as the opening of a straw, and are PROUD of it.

We can say lots of good things about Apple. But why complement them when they spend their time bashing what we use, and us as well?


"...When the iPhone was released and various companies started making , the non-Apple people whined saying "It's not like Apple invented the touch screen/multi-touch" yadda yadda. Well no, they didn't."

Now you get it. The LG Prada folks certainly didnt care that Apple did their own spin on an idea that they released before them. As I recall several Apple fans posted to the effect that the design of the LG Prada was too simple for Apple not to "adopt", which is the word they use when they dont want to use the terms they use for with other companies like "copy-cats" and "ripoffs" and "knockoffs".

Apple, and their fans, should not care when others try their hand at it too.

But sadly, as I'm sure you seen with them, Apple fans, once Apple release a product, NO ONE is allowed to try their own version. When it's the other way around, it's ok.

"...electronically iliterate"
No more so than people who drive an automatic transmission, use an inkjet/laser printer rather than typesetting, or recognize any other refinement of any idea for the sake of simplicity. Do you still light fires rubbing two sticks together? Because although I would personally find that an impressive feat, I wouldn't fault the person who just strikes a match to achieve the same result. Do you care about the fire or are you obsessed with how the fire itself is made? It seems nonsensical to rail against people for leaning toward simplicity and ease, when one of the first tenants learned in design school is aiming for simplicity in design. That is why designers and engineers work together, and also why both sides are often apt to judge the deficiencies of the other without acknowledging the necessity of either camp.

Consider the reason why you see a great deal of Apple products or accessories on the site is because we're users ourselves (like a great deal of bloggers) and thus interested in those products. So are a great deal of people in the creative and design world; that's just a fact, not a strategic bias. Because if you ask me, I'm very hopeful that Microsoft comes roaring back with an excellent version of Windows, that PC manufacturers can really take advantage of the netbook movement and that any and all tech is better integrated with the home and design.

And just to be clear, the Unplggd team is mostly PC users. I myself started off as a DOS/Windows user and have always maintained an interest in any development or products that help move forward good design, both from the perspective of UI and industrial design. That's our focus here. If Apple happens to produce some of the best industrial design, that's just how it is. No amount of hysteria about bias is going to change the fact that Apple products are respected inside and outside the world of design.

I wonder if Braun had this problem when they designed the best home electronics and appliances?

Nerd Fight!

@PartMeat

Someone that can speak reasonably. I'll partially give you the Prada, though in reality, Apple has patents on it that stretch back almost 2 years before the iPhone was released so unless they had spies inside LG...plus, apart from the home phone menu, the likeness of the two phones stop. The LG at launch had no mention of a web-browser, email, applications, music, etc. on it's grayscale screen. It didn't have the multi-touch capabilities either. Apple isn't the only innovator and has stolen ideas before, but it never turns around into a cut and paste or worsened product. That's copying. I still stand by my statement that it often takes Apple to release something before everyone else joins in. They don't have to be first.

I don't preach that Apple is all original and doesn't look at anyone else's stuff. That would be naive...though it sort of re-emphasizes an old Apple motto taken from a Picasso quote: "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

@Gregory
Good points. I too hope Microsoft can pull itself up. Competition is good. As for the writers...ah! Shows what I know about their computers of choice. ;)

I would hope this didn't happen to Braun. Eh, here's to many more well designed products from all manufacturers!

Nouniard