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journal: toy
Apple Showtime: The accumulation of everything ripped off
It's good to know that the photocopiers up in Cupertino are in good working order.
Apple’s Showtime event just wrapped up, and the new products announced read like a Microsoft Windows Media feature list… circa 2004.
Let’s go down the list, shall we?
First up, iTunes 7:
Movies: Windows Media Player has been playing movies since version 7, and a several movie stores were added in version 9. WMPs movie stores have movies from several major studios, not just Disney-owned studios.
CoverFlow: This is perhaps the only truly new feature iTunes 7 has. But it is purely aesthetic.
Automatic Album Art: Windows Media Player has been doing this since version 8, five years ago.
New User Interface: All of a sudden, iTunes looks suspiciously like Windows Media Player, with songlists grouped and stacked by artist and album, with prominent cover art adorning each group. Just like Windows Media Player does it in version 11 beta.
iPod Games: Another new, yet largely useless feature. Who wants to re-buy games for their iPod when they already have them for their phone (or they have a PSP or DS which provides a much better game experience?)
iPod Summary: Well, it’s about time Apple used its iPod+iTunes “synergy” for something that doesn’t involve restricting consumer choice.
Download Manager: This is one feature I wish Windows media Player did have. Unfortunately, Microsoft leaves it to its PlaysForSure store partners to create their own addon Download Managers, and that is probably the only reason why PlaysForSure isn’t as seamless as iPod+iTunes. At least not yet.
Higher Video Resolution: It’s about time. ‘nuff said. But will Apple let you re-download your purchased video at the higher resolution for free, like Napster did when it upped its music quality?
On-screen Video Controls: Windows Media Player has been doing this since version 8, five years ago.
Multiple Libraries: This is a useful feature, which can only be done using addons for Windows Media Player.
Library Backup: Another useful feature that can be accomplished with a third-party plugin for Windows Media Player.
Gapless Playback: FINALLY! Windows Media Playrt has been doing this automatically since version 8. It’s about time iTunes did the same.
Ratings and Parental Controls: Windows Media Player 11 beta does this.
iPod:
Shuffle: Still no screen? Even the smallest, tiniest PlaysForSure players have a screen.
First-letter-display during fast scrolling: Microsoft’s Portable Media Center software has done this since 2004.
iTV:
The whole thing is just a cynical rip-off of Microsoft’s Media Center Extender, so there’s no point in elaborating further.
All in all, it’s good to know that the photocopiers up in Cupertino are in good working order.
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| UnnDunn | comments | views |
thinkback
Who did Apple copy live updating Dock icons from, including video? 
Pilky, if you get broad enough, you can say any new feature is just an improvement of an old feature.
Zero-config networking (Bonjour) - well, that’s just improved networking.
Wireless image capture - well, that’s just an improvement of image capturing.
Exposé - well, that’s just improved document switching.
Animated Help System - just an improved version of the one that was in the Mac OS over a decade ago.
I like the little things. For example, I’ve wanted the Find feature in Safari to do what it’s going to do in Leopard for ages! It’s really hard to identify a little blue highlight in an entire Web page sometimes and having a big animated graphic showing me it is brilliant.
Most of the time, it’s the innovations at a smaller level that makes life better for me. For example, that really cool font in Tiger…
No no, Windows ReadyBoost allocates part of your USB Flash Drive’s storage as RAM. So if you only have 512MB RAM, but you have this 1GB USD stick lying around, you can put it to use and help speed up your programs.
It’s like Virtual memory, only with a USB stick. And Windows is smart enough to be able to deal with the device being removed unexpectedly (though individual apps will likely not be that smart, so it’s still advisable to stop the device before removing it.)
I don’t know how anyone can discount the innovation in SideShow. It hasn’t been done by anyone like this; in an extensible, built in platform. Someone show me anything resembling auxiliary displays for a PC. Not for a phone, where the device manufacturer pre-configures everything and it only works one way.
To see your PC’s performance rating (called the “Windows Experience Index") go to Start, right click “Computer” select Properties, and click on “Performance” in the lower left.
Windows assigns five “Sub-scores”, one each for CPU speed, RAM speed, Graphics features, Gaming graphics performance and HD data rate. The lowest of these sub-scores becomes your computer’s Base Score, which is a number from 1 to 10 with one decimal point.
My PC scores 1.0, mainly because of the crappy GPU I have (an Intel Integrated part.)
About the Automatic Network Detection… Windows will automatically figure out if you’re on your home network or your work network (or a different, unknown network.) If you connect to a network it doesn’t recognize, it will ask you whether the new network is Public (eg. a cybercafe of public wi-fi hotspot) or Private (home, work, trusted friend’s house, etc.) Based on your answers, it will enable or disable File Sharing, Printer Sharing, Media Sharing, network discovery and a bunch of other stuff.
It is very user-friendly in a way that not even Location Manager was.
| UnnDunn | Sep. 14, 2006 | |
| 8:41 pm |
Bonjour is just Apple’s implementation of a standard. Exposé is new because it’s window switching in a completely different way to what was there before. ReadyBoost is pretty new but I doubt it would offer much of a speed increase, rather it would prolong the life of a HD. USB 2.0 is still very slow compared to the internals of a computer.
And the Automatic Network Detection, as I said, is just an improvement on Location Manager. Location Manager lets you change your location in a menu and it’ll update your settings and automatically set things up.
Innovation now a days isn’t about making something new, about making something a lot better than what is currently out there. I would consider Time Machine innovative. It sure as hell isn’t anything new but the restore system is very innovative.
| Sep. 15, 2006 | |
| 2:33 am |
“Bonjour is just Apple’s implementation of a standard”
A standard Apple developed and then released under an open-source license, for what it’s worth.
references:
http://www.answers.com/topic/zeroconf
http://developer.apple.com/networking/bonjo ur/specs.html
Apple TV Set-top box from the mid-90’s:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Apple_Set_Top_Box
In the mid-1990s, Apple made an attempt at a Cable Box type device that would be able to download content from cable networks, view TV, and work like a computer. The project was never completed or any of the units sold, but a good amount of prototype machines are floating around. There is not a lot of information about these devices, but there were at least three major revisions.
I/O ports
Composite Video Out
Stereo Composite Audio Out
S-Video Out
Apple Serial port
ADB port (On front side of machine)
SCSI
Ethernet
Power
Two SCART ports
Coaxial In (for cable TV)
Coaxial Out (out to TV)Tidbits
The Apple Set Top Box was never released and is a prototype.
There are “Do Not Remove” labels over the two SCART ports on the back of the unit
The Apple Set Top Box is black in color
Apparently, according to it’s sticker on the bottom of the unit, the Apple Set Top Box was not FCC approved at the time.
There is an On/Off switch on the Power Supply in the back of the unit, and a Power button on the front of the unit.
Pippin, nuff said.
No, that’s not enough. You rarely say enough. You need to make a point. Nobody is going to do it for you. You are on the “I know you are but what am I?” level.
Anyone who thinks Apple is ripping off MIcrosoft’s idea of a computer integrated with TV is ignorant.
In 1993, Apple introduced the Mac TV:
http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtml
Around this time, they had a set-top box prototype that would download cable TV content and work like a computer too.
So this is where you guys have to change your argument to, “Well, gee, OK. But Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition out in 2002 does DVD and Apple’s didn’t in 1993 before DVD existed.”
No, this is the part where we say that in your quest to vindicate yourself and Apple, you’re grasping at the thinnest straws you can find.
If you want to go all the way back like that, then Microsoft had a product in 1997 called Microsoft WebTV for Windows which not only allowed you to watch TV, complete with Program Guide, but also let you access interactive content, enter chatrooms about the show you were watching, and watch TV in a window.
And then, of course, there was the set-top-box product called WebTV which allowed you to access the web on your television.
Then there was the DishPlayer product which was the original DVR, before TiVo and ReplayTV released their first products. DishPlayer was developed by Microsoft for use with Dish Network.
Later, Microsoft took the DishPlayer DVR technology, combined it with the WebTV web-surfing and interactive TV technology, and came up with UltimateTV, which was designed for DirecTV.
And later still, MS took UltimateTV, made it into a software product, revamped it and called it Media Center. To sell it, it built a version of Windows XP around it and created a PC specification to run it properly, and PCs meeting that specification are called “Media Center PCs.”
What do you have to say in response to that?
| UnnDunn | Sep. 23, 2006 | |
| 1:49 pm |
What do I say to what? That four years after Apple put out a computer that let you watch TV in a window while you were computing, Microsoft did it?
What’s funny about you, UnDunn, is you think I’m the big fan boy touting innovations from Apple that others have done and it is you who keeps doing it. You really think Microsoft was the first to come out with a DVR?
Educate yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_ recorder
The first DVR was tested on July 8, 1965, when CBS explored the possibilities of instant freeze-frame and rewind for sporting event broadcasts. Ampex released the first commercial hard disk video recorder in 1967. The HS-100 recorded analog video onto a digital hard disk and could store a maximum of only 30 seconds.
The two early consumer DVRs, ReplayTV and TiVo, were launched at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Although ReplayTV won the “Best of Show” award in the video category, it was TiVo that went on to much greater commercial success. The devices have steadily developed complementary abilities, such as recording onto DVDs, commercial skip, sharing of recordings over the Internet, and programming and remote control facilities using PDAs, networked PCs, or Web browsers.
And what about WebTV?
http://www.about-the-web.com/shtml/WebTV.sh tml#History
September, 1996, Sony and Phillips introduced the first WebTV set-top boxes from WebTV Networks, Inc. They became known as WebTV Classic, sometimes called the WebTV Internet Terminal. In December 1997, a second generation of set-top box was introduced, which is known as the WebTV Plus. The new unit includes a TV tuner and integrates the TV and Web worlds.
In August of 1997, Microsoft Corp bought WebTV Networks, Inc. In December 1998, Microsoft began expanding WebTV Networks’ offering by offering television-based software platform products and associated network services in order to deliver a complete digital solution for cable system operators and broadband service providers.
Microsoft bought WebTV. Wow. Good for them.
And here’s the juicy part:
from a press release dated January 6, 2000:
“WebTV is proud to join with EchoStar to deliver the future of television - today,” said Bruce Leak, president of WebTV Networks. “DISHPlayer with WebTV services gives consumers the ultimate enhanced-TV experience. From digital video recording and ‘live’ TV Pause to interactive programs that allow them to participate with their favorite TV shows, plus Web surfing, e-mail and e-commerce, one box does it all.”
Hmmmm, I think 2000 comes after 1999. So what’s all this crap about Microsoft developing anything and offering the original DVR? Give us all a break.
What do I say to what? That four years after Apple put out a computer that let you watch TV in a window while you were computing, Microsoft did it?
What’s funny about you, UnDunn, is you think I’m the big fan boy touting innovations from Apple that others have done and it is you who keeps doing it. You really think Microsoft was the first to come out with a DVR?
Maybe you should read the links you posted. MacTV didn’t let you watch TV in a window as you were working. MacTV also didn’t provide a program guide or interactive TV functionality; those were Microsoft innovations.
Again, you grasp at straws by citing a device developed in 1965 which was nothing more than a proof of concept. Sheesh. I suppose if that’s the case, then Apple ripped off the iPod Nano because it’s just a repackaged Diamond Rio 300. :rolleyes:
And from the WebTV page you linked… I’m sure you conveniently forget to read this paragaph:
In January 1999, WebTV Networks, Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. announced the WebTV Personal TV service for Satellite. Also, WebTV Networks, Inc. announced its continued work with industry leaders in advertising, broadcasting and content creation for the acceleration and adoption of interactive television. HBO, KCTS-TV, MSNBC and The Weather Channel have now committed to developing new or extended interactive content and services &emdash; directly related to their popular television shows &emdash; for the Microsoft® WebTV Network™ Plus service and the WebTV™ for Windows® feature of Windows 98.
WebTV Personal TV was the service used by the DishPlayer (the same way a TiVo box uses the TiVo service.)
TiVo, ReplayTV and WebTV Personal TV were all announced in early 1999. WebTV Personal Internet came out first.
| UnnDunn | Sep. 23, 2006 | |
| 3:40 pm |
UnDunn, it looks like you don’t even know what a DVR is. You think Microsoft innovated when they didn’t. Let’s recap:
1. In 1993 Apple releases the Mac TV with a remote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_TV
2. In 1994 and 1995, Apple developed a prototype set-top box:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Interact ive_Television_Box
The set-top box was designed as an interface between a consumer and an interactive television service. The unit’s remote control would allow a user to choose what content would be shown on a connected television, as well as to provide functions of fast forward, rewind and so on. In this regard it is similar to a modern satellite receiver or TiVo unit. Unlike the TiVo, the STB would only pass along the user’s choices to a central content server instead of issuing content itself. There were also plans for game shows, educational material for children and other forms of content made possible by the interactive qualities of the device.
That sounds like On-Demand, doesn’t it?
3. In 1994:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebTV_Networks
Steve Perlman built a thin client for surfing the Web using a television for a display. Steve Perman was a former principle scientist for Apple Computer where he led the development efforts for much of the multimedia technology in the color Macintosh, including QuickTime. Steve recruited Phil Goldman and Bruce Leak, who also worked at Apple. They joined together and formed WebTV Networks. WebTV Networks went live in 1995. This box did not use Microsoft software at all.
4. In 1995, Bandai sold Apple’s Pippin set-top box:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin
The Apple Pippin was a technology for a multimedia title player marketed by Apple Computer in the mid 1990s. It was based around a 66-MHz PowerPC 603e processor, and ran a cut-down version of the Mac OS. The goal was to create an inexpensive computer aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia titles, especially games, but also functioning as a network computer. It featured a 4× CD-ROM drive and a video output that could connect to a standard television monitor.
5. In 1997, Microsoft buys WebTV Networks and WebTV Networks continues to work as an independent company from Microsoft.
6. Sept. 1997, WebTV Plus box is announced. It now has a hard drive. It is not a DVR. WebTV Plus lets you record your shows to a VCR.
It still has no Microsoft software in it.
7. In January 7-10 1999, TiVo and ReplayTV show their DVRs at CES. Work on TiVo started in 1997.
8. In January 1999, WebTV Networks and EchoStar announced WebTV Personal TV for satellite. This was not a DVR! This was WebTV for satellite. This is about interactive TV content.
9. On January 6,2000, WebTV joins with EchoStar and announces DishPlayer with WebTV services. This is a DVR. Still no Microsoft software in it.
10. In 2001, WebTV Networks sold their subscriber base to Microsoft and the corporation was dissolved. Microsoft’s MSN unit took over the WebTV subscribers.
UnDunn, you are trying to sell us the idea that Microsoft created the “original” DVR. That’s complete BS.
The idea that Apple’s iTV is in response to a Microsoft “innovation” is complete BS.
Mac Fan, you can post all the links you want and try as hard as you can to marginalize Microsoft’s work, but the fact remains iTV is a direct rip-off of MCE. Anyone who has used a Media Center Extender will readily tell you this.
The day after Apple announced its iTV product, I went to my Xbox 360 which contains a Media Center Extender, used it to browse my PCs media library, went online to MovieLink, downloaded V for Vendetta, ordered in some Chinese food and watched the movie, all from my couch on my HDTV using the remote I got with my Xbox 360.
Devices with the same functionality have been available from Microsoft and its partners since 2004.
Please explain how the iTV experience will be better… or even different. Please. Unless you do that, I will continue to assert that iTV copies MCE.
Furthermore, Apple’s limited forays into TV-on-PC software are nothing compared to Microsoft’s work. Media Center and Extenders are a Microsoft innovation. To discount that because other companies came up with some of the ideas used within it is disingenuous, and if you’re going to do that, surely you will also accept that Spotlight isn’t an Apple innovation since it’s basically Indexed Search which databases have been doing for decades.
Also, if you really want to go there, I can talk about Microsoft TV, which is an end-to-end delivery platform for cable and phone companies to deploy pay-TV networks. Something Apple will never touch. If you watch the webcast for Microsoft’s keynote address at CES 2005, Microsoft showed off an amazing demo with SBC (now AT&T;) and its Uverse service where you can do things like watch 4 user-selected baseball games at the same time and have a data feed of scores and stats on one side of the screen, automatically switching between active games, recording the whole thing for review later, and so on. All of that is Microsoft innovation. Where’s Apple in this space? Where’s TiVo or ReplayTV?
Your constant Microsoft bashing is getting tiresome.
| UnnDunn | Sep. 24, 2006 | |
| 10:45 am |
ordered in some Chinese food
Ah, but iTV also offers Indian, Mexican and Italian food. All via iTunes. The food is kept hot with Apple’s revolutionary MacBook heating system.
In all seriousness though, I doubt that either Apple nor MS were first with this. You often find that small companies are the first with things like this. Apple had media sharing in 2003, MS put a dedicated interface on it in 2004(?) and Apple will put it in a dedicated box in 2007. I doubt the original idea came from either of them
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| Sep. 24, 2006 | |
| 10:57 am |
Your constant Microsoft bashing is getting tiresome.
You are the one with a blog about Apple ripping off Microsoft.
Get over yourself, UnDunn. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see you have a serious chip on your shoulder when it comes to Apple.
You try to portray me as the zealot, but you are. You are here telling us all that Microsoft innovated the “original” DVR. I proved you wrong and now you are going back to iTV being a copy of Microsoft’s media extender idea.
I already proved to you there were media extenders from several companies at least a year before Microsoft did it.
Microsoft’s iPod is going to come out this Christmas and UnDunn is going to tell us it’s the original iPod.
Please explain how the iTV experience will be better… or even different. Please. Unless you do that, I will continue to assert that iTV copies MCE.
LOL! You are such an Fing hypocrite.
So with that logic of yours, Vista’s Instant Search copies Spotlight.
Five “new” features in Vista:
Album Art and Picture browsing mode in Media Center
ReadyBoost
ReadyDrive
Superfetch
Hybrid Sleep
DX10 with unified shader model, geometry shaders, and GPGPU
Transactional File System
Windows CardSpace
Meeting Space
A brand new file system
Brand new file system? When did this happen? Last I heard Vista was still using NTFS
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| Oct. 07, 2006 | |
| 12:41 pm |
exFAT is a new file system for flash media. Very fast, extensible without breaking backwards compatibility, supports huge file sizes and I believe it is also designed to preserve the life of the media as well.
26.
Windows ReadyBoost; insert a USB flash drive and use it as extra RAM.
Using RAM instead of your hard drive to access files faster? Um, that’s not new at all. Hell, I was doing that in the classic Mac OS over a decade ago. It was called “RAM Disk”. Mac users would put their browser cache folder on that so your browser would access the cache faster than the hard drive.
So Microsoft takes that idea and uses a thumb drive. Wow!
Windows PowerShell: Object-oriented highly scriptable command line.
Object REXX from OS/2. Applescript.
Windows SideShow: Display quick-access information (weather, email, etc.) on an auxiliary display such as an external LCD panel on a laptop or a digital picture frame somewhere else in the house.
Oh, you mean a flip phone with data in an LCD on the outside without having to open your phone? (rolls eyes)
You mean an engine that runs on both mobile devices and computers? (rolls eyes)
Windows Vista will benchmark your PC and assign it a single, easy to read Performance Rating. Software makers can put a minimum performance rating on their boxes, so you can tell at a glance if your PC will run said software well or not.
This is a very good idea. I’m surprised the gaming industry didn’t create a standard for this already. They put the built in benchmarking into games now and then adjust the settings of the game to fit your system, so why not do what Microsoft’s doing?
Question - is it just one number? There’s CPU speed and then there’s GPU. How does it handle that? Some games don’t need a $700 video card, for example, but do need a powerful CPU.
Automatic network detection: Windows Vista automatically detects which network you are on, and changes your network settings as appropriate (including things like file-sharing settings, not just IP addreses.) This is another feature I bet Apple copies, either in Leopard or in a subsequent release, and the Mac zealots will say Apple came up with it first because of Location Manager.
You are right that Location Manager already changes everything you need from one location to another, but it doesn’t do it automatically.
Things Location Manager changes:
Auto-open programs
Default printer
Extensions
File Sharing on/off settings
Networking settings
Sound
Time Zone
3rd party utility for OS X that has auto-detect and also is extensible so you can have your application settings change based on your location:
http://homepage.mac.com/locationmanager/
This is one feature I bet Apple will copy in its next notebooks, and people like Mac Fan will come in and laud Apple’s innovation… :rolleyes:
OK, show me one example of me doing that. Leopard was just shown, so you must be able to find dozens of posts from me talking about how Apple invented all those features. Can you?