I mean, do they even have a case against them? It’s not like they stole the information, or signed a contract with Apple.
Also, fuck Apple, and Google, and the rest of them. If they can’t keep a lid on their “secrets”, that’s on them.
I’m focusing on the lawsuit part, because IDGAF about new phones.
Breakthrough technology, never seen before in the mobile market. Apple, like always, surprises the word with the latest never seen before tech that will become mainstream in the near future, thanks to apple and its affordable pricing for everyday customers.
Now just slap that 2,5-3k RRP on the device and let it sell out in.
Apple’s entire history as an org has been as a fast follower, not a first mover.
The Apple Newton is a fast example of why they avoid being a first mover.
They’ve also become really, really good at outsourcing R&D to other companies. This lets them outsource the expense of trial and error, and swoop down with a mature product once everyone else has paid for it.
15 years ago they famously patented, and then leaked that they were working on a fingerprint reader authentication method, and then they watched the Android manufacturers bend over backwards to implement it so they could say they did it “first.” In those early days of smartphones, being first to implement something and then claiming Apple copied it was a big deal for people who wanted to be first movers (today they are called “techbros”). Motorola Mobility ate the cost of R&D, was never able to recoup the costs, and ended up being sold to Google for their patent portfolio. By the time Apple released Touch ID two and a half years later, Motorola Mobility was a shell of itself, and ended up being sold a second time to Lenovo.
Foldable phones have been a thing for a while, and Apple just sat back and took notes on what everyone else was doing. Surface Duo killed Microsoft’s last attempt at a mobile device. Now it’s a relatively mature market (we have tri-fold phones for two years now and tablets that fold into a laptop with a bluetooth keyboard) and now Apple will swoop in and bring the rest of the market.
The money isn’t in being a first mover; it’s in making a reliable product that everyone can use. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Apple made a trillion dollars while OpenBSD (upstream for a lot of Apple’s ecosystem) struggled to pay its light bills.
Generally true - but multitouch was a real innovation. I’m not familiar with other manufacturers perfecting touch interfaces AND design paradigms optimized for it.
“fast” follower? Are we talking about the same apple who just released 2006’s windows Vista aero theme as a new design in 2025?
Apple usually prefers to do it right rather than do it first.
Apple is what we call “Sondermüll”.
Ewwwww
Assuming he’s right (and boy, being sued by apple is a huge boost to his credibility), they’re keeping the stupid camera bump thing from the air???
It does not surprise me that the Air is literally the folding phone without the second screen.
It slightly does me, given that the Air was (apparently) a huge commercial flop. You’d think they’d revisit the soundly mocked design instead of recycling it, or at least change it? The renders may very well be overstating it, of course, but still it’s an odd feature to carry over.
It was a flop because no one really wants thinner phones, they are harder to use. The iPhone Air was also extremely overpriced and missing basic features a phone a quarter of the price has.
Yes, those are all great points that make up a good portion of why they should probably revisit the design.
The camera bump sure isn’t going away for a folding phone. cameras have fundamental volume requirements to maintain quality, if they don’t think they can justify making the normal iPhone thick enough to enclose the camera then there’s no way in hell they’ll think the folding phones doubled width can include it, if anything you’d expect it to be more prominent on a folding model
I mean, being stupid thin is something that a foldable phone has to be, so that it ends up being normal-ish thickness when folded. So it tracks that they’d design it like their ultra-thin phone.
But it’s not stupid thin, it’s got a giant lump on it?
Thinness should be defined by it’s thickest point.
5.6 - 9 - 5.6
hip - waist - bustIf it’s good enough for girls it’s good enough for phones
I’ve never heard a girl use those measurements.
Women, however, use them frequently enough.
Sorry for being pedantic but it rubs me the wrong way when people refer to women as “girls”
While noble, that was a tongue in cheek diminutive and I was including myself in that category.
how do you propose removing it?
there are two options, 1) using a smaller,shittier camera, or 2) making an extremely thick phone. neither option is very “apple”, especially for a flagship model.
considering the vast majority of people use phone cases and will never notice the bump anyway, i think this whole thing is blown way out of proportion.
making an extremely thick phone
lol how is 11mm extremely thick
The marketing about it being an incredibly thin phone was a misstep - it just looked absurd to have such a chunky lump stuck onto it, and it felt very much like they were attempting a have cake / eat cake situation by claiming it had incredible camera stats (which werent very good) to justify the bump on an otherwise amazingly thin phone, and then that giant electronics bump had an external lens on it too.
Had it just been an ugly phone, I doubt it would have met with anywhere near the same criticism, but all the adcopy about how thin it was overtop of photos where you could see it had a giant lump on it felt really dishonest, and if this article is accurate it may count among the biggest apple flops ever.
(The thickness may just need to be accepted at this point. The S25 Ultra is 8.2mm, which is thinner than the Air if you include the bump. It seems like the camera wasnt the issue then, but that they hamstrung their design team with their drive for a thin phone. What elegance might even an extra millimeter of chassis space produced?)
What elegance might even an extra millimeter of chassis space produced?
People really don’t seem to understand that in the electronics world, one single millimeter can make worlds of difference.
You absolutely can cram so much more stuff in “dumber” electronics, but phones are even more constricted in design, because they need to send and receive signals of different types, so feedback and signal noise are concerns.
Adding in even slightly more space allows for much better design, because you have more tolerances to reduce signal noise. It allows dozens of wires for camera sensors to route better. A 20% longer battery life. Heck, just being slightly more ergonomic and less droppable is a bonus to slightly thicker phones.
I didn’t even consider signal noise until I got into fpv drones and rc stuff, it can mame a ton of difference if you have a single wire 2mm out of place. (and crash your drone because the motor interfered with your antenna)
Thiner≠better.
Wildly appropriate username here. Also, 100% correct.
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The stupid camera bump thing they totally didn’t steal from Google
Edit: Yes, I’m totally butthurt about that guys. Fuck Tim Apple!!11
This folding iPhone also looks like the Pixel Fold
are we really going to start counting who stole what in all smartphone design.
“These assholes included an antenna and SIM slot again!?! HTC did that last season. So unoriginal.”
Idk, explaining how the crap iPhone is 99 % IP theft doesn’t really lead anywhere.
I sort of assumed that these days design patents are mostly ignored by smartphone companies.
After a while it just makes sense to drop the legal stuff and stop wasting money on constant lawsuits.
Man anyone else remember the Nexus 6P?
Remove the outside screen and all cameras and I’d be slightly more interested.
remove all the screens and the charging port and I’m sold.
More of a fidget toy at that point. I’m in. I’d go as high as $8.
Remove the whole phone and I’m touching grass
People who own Apple devices are instantly lower on my respectometer.
People who judge other people based on nothing other than what technology brand they use instantly are instantly lower on my respectometer.
Fuck off with that shit.
I used Symbian for years, then I used android tablets as a complement to the Symbian phones for years, then I got an iPhone for work, and when my last Symbian device died I got an iPhone as I knew the OS from my work phone. A few years later I tried an Android phone for a few months, but when the display got totaled in a drop, and I had to send the phone away, I just got back to my iPhone as it was easier to fix on the spot in local repair shops.
I am an IT guy, I don’t care about blue or green bubbles, if you are on Android, that is fine, that probably works better for you, for me iOS has so far served me well.
Stop judging others for their preference of tech brands. Apple and Google are both evil.
FTFY: People who own Apple devices and believe they are superior are morons.
I judge people on way more. E.g. on verbose comments on inconsequential asocial media posts ;)
Lucky for you, I don’t judge people for replying to the wrong comment.
See, it’s inconsequential.
