Here's the thing. Appearance designs are not copyrightable or patentable in ANY other industry.
Oh yeah? Form a soft drink company and sell your product in a bottle shaped like this, and see how long it takes a cease and desist letter to arrive.
Trade dress is applicable in more than just the computer industry.
A software platform vendor enableing a rich ecosystem of hardware vendors eating the lunch of Apple's combined OS+Hardware approach. Apple knows how it ended last time
Yeah-- last time, the company that copied Apple's stuff got away with it.
Which is why this time, they patented everything about the iPhone that they could, and why they are suing the shit out of the companies who still attempt to copy it.
Why do you think cell phone plans are so fucking expensive in the US?
Because the cell service providers are fucking greedy pigs-- which has been true since before the iPhone ever existed.
Fuck off.
~Philly
What idiot modded this troll? It was right on point.
Windows and Office are cash cows, yes, but other than Ballmer's incompetence they're the biggest part of the problem-- everyone at Microsoft is afraid of doing something that might threaten Windows or Office. That's why Microsoft spent years trying to stuff bloated desktop Windows into tablets and phones-- and why they were made to like complete asses by Apple.
And XBox? Pfft. They bought their way into the video game market, plain and simple. IIRC they haven't yet reached the break-even point because of the billions they pissed away at the start. XBox is the last time you'll ever see them be able to pull that move, too. No more showing up late with a mediocre product and coming out on top only because they can outspend their competitors.
And Sharepoint is just another product designed to increase corporate IT inertia and maintain Windows' dominance on enterprise desktops.
~Philly
> Selecting the device has not been a standard operation for universal remotes for over 15-20 years.
Every remote I've ever owned that was capable of controlling more than one device required you to first press the button for the device you want to control, and then press the button(s) to issue commands to that device.
The TV in my basement dates to 1994, and that's how its remote works. So did that of the since-replaced TV in my master bedroom that was bought on the same day. I've got another universal remote on the desk beside me right now that works the same way and dates to about 1997 or so.
So, yes, IME selecting the device has been pretty standard for almost 20 years. I don't know why dude had to be so insulting about it, but he is technically correct. And we all know that's the best kind of correct.
~Philly
I'm sorry, where in my post did I say anything about Linux? Oh, that's right, nowhere-- because I wasn't fucking talking about Linux.
Microsoft set computing progress back by decades because they destroyed many fledgling companies that developed or were developing an advanced product or technology that was perceived as a possible threat to the Windows monopoly. I'll let your apparent ignorance of this slide, since based on your childish name calling you must not have been born when it was going on.
Oh, and Mr. Anonymous Coward says I'm the cowardly one. Classic!
~Philly
The Gates Foundation exists solely to whitewash his reputation for the history books. Gates is nothing more than a latter-day robber-baron. The ruthless tactics he used to line his pockets and squelch any perceived threat to Windows set computing progress back decades.
It sickens me how everyone seems to conveniently forget that, and lines up to kiss his ass because he decided to take the ill-gotten gains amassed via twenty years of unscrupulous business practices and buy respectability for himself.
~Philly
"I say we take off; nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." - Corporal Hicks, in "Aliens"