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With due respect, I think Jobs was pissed about, and talking about, "realized, specific implementations" and details thereof, and not basic, obvious, system-level ideas.

Android has arguably stolen many such details from iOS. You can debate whether that should be legally actionable or not, but the ideas were copied, nonetheless.



Completely agree. Do we need to be reminded of what Android looked like before the iPhone existed?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/11/androi...

The whole concept of Android shifted once iPhone was introduced. What the Google team had been working on wasn't even close.


This is more of Android adapting well to society's needs. Isn't that what RIM and Nokia are trying to do? What's wrong with adapting to a new general idea on how to operate on a phone - from keyboard to more touchscreen?


You should check out "In the Plex", the authorized Google biography.

It details this and how Google had been working internally on two paths for Android. They were originally going to go for the Blackberry style phone at first, but internally were working on "The Dream" which was the G1. Apparently, Android had been working on this pre-acquisition by Google. Levy wrote something to the effect of -- when Apple announced the iPhone, the Android team knew they had to ditch their plans and focus on the G1 to be competitive in a post-iPhone world.


Your screenshot is one of a browser and a settings window, and a status bar at the top. My current android phone (running Android 2.5) has a browser and a settings window, with a status bar at the top.

My desktop browser can also point at google.com. It also has a status bar at the top, unrelated to the browser. I can also open up a browser-specific settings window and overlay it on the browser.

The guy on the macbook pro next to me also has a browser he can point to google, with settings overlay if he wants, and an unrelated status bar at the top.

Your screenshot does not make an argument.


How about the fact that everything is button based, instead of touch screen based? Do you still have to go through a menu dialogue to input a website on your Android phone? The screenshot demonstrates that pre-2007, Android was along the lines of Palm and Windows Mobile. Post 2007, it was along the lines of iPhone.


Fair point, but welcome also to evolution. Yes, the iphone was a big step forward in public access to touchscreen phones. It was an awesome product - the only problem is that people credit it for outright invention of far more than was actually invented.

But 'do I still have to go through a menu dialogue to input a website'? Well, yes. Once I'm at a site, the URL bar disappears, and I have to interact with the phone to get to a point where I can enter it again. It's not specifically 'a menu', but it is 'reveal to me this interface'


A better example than the music player would be the Mac and Xerox PARC's WIMP. Pretty cut and dry there.




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