Cell phones: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year"
- 11/7/07 1:26 PM
Elaborate; "...Entirely New."
by MrGadgetman - 11/7/07 8:11 PM In reply to: Inventions ALWAYS build on the current state of the art by KaplanMikeWhen you say, [The "invention" part is how it brings together existing technologies in an innovative way to create something entirely new.] ...well, what is new about a touch-screen PDA that plays music and can display photos (portrait or landscape), send media and work on a digital network? Well, other than having cool transitions and animations between functions.
I have to agree.
by schlice - 11/7/07 11:14 PM In reply to: Elaborate; "...Entirely New." by MrGadgetman> how it brings together existing technologies in an innovative way to create something entirely new.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big iPhone fan. I just wish it supported our corporate e-mail and I'd be all over it, but I'm afraid I don't understand what makes it an "invention."
I can't see what's so new about it. What I think it does is uses new technologies and UIs to do the same ol' thing:
Listen to music
Watch video
Talk on the phone
Surf the Web
We've been doing all those things on many, many other phones and devices out there. Granted, not a single one of them is nearly as cool as the iPhone, but an invention, it is not. It's an innovation, an improvement, an enhancement. But certainly not an invention.
An invention may use items of the day, but they come together to do new things (or amazing, never-been-done-before things). Bell used items of the day and created something that had never been seen before: a way to transmit and receive voice signals over a wire. Edison took very common items and created an incandescent light bulb (never been done before). Wright brothers, same thing.
The iPhone doesn't do anything new. It does all the same stuff in very innovative and pretty ways, but at the end of the day, it's all the same stuff. To me, that just does not qualify as an invention.
nothing new
by thesimulacra - 11/8/07 6:12 AM In reply to: Inventions ALWAYS build on the current state of the art by KaplanMikeThe core part of your argument is that an invention creates something new. The iPhone did not create anything new - you can get all of those things on other smartphones. They only thing "new" that they did was putting it into a nice little sleek package. And if that's an invention then anybody who puts a custom paint job on their car is apparently an inventor.
defenitly
by x.killeddestiny.x - 11/7/07 4:06 PM In reply to: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year" by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Name one thing that came out in 07 thats better, and more fun to hack.
That still doesn't make it an invention.
by schlice - 11/7/07 11:15 PM In reply to: defenitly by x.killeddestiny.xI think it should have been named the "Product Of The Year," not the "Invention Of The Year."
(NT) Iphone not an invention but Innovative Technology
by lhridley - 11/7/07 4:10 PM In reply to: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year" by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
ford ?
by vnatar - 11/7/07 4:13 PM In reply to: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year" by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Someone here was saying that ford did not invent car but he made something out of bunch of things...
FYI ...
ford did not collect parts from existing cars and make a new car.
when ford made a car there was nothing in this world called CAR !
when apple made iPhone was there nothing in this world called a phone ? oh my gosh ... what was that slim & shiny thing with the number pad with speaker and microphone that i carried in my pocket daily ? a bomb ? oh gosh ... somebody call the FBI ...
@Vnatar - you really should look stuff up before you post
by KaplanMike - 11/7/07 5:24 PM In reply to: ford ? by vnatar"FYI ... ford did not collect parts from existing cars and make a new car.
when ford made a car there was nothing in this world called CAR !"
Are you kidding, or are you just remarkably misinformed? Cars had been around for around two decades before Henry Ford opened his own small factory in 1903, assembling components made -- wait for it -- by others. Ford's innovation came gradually over a ten-year period as he developed the assembly line and mass production techniques invented by others and used them to produce cars.
FYI - the car was originally developed by Europeans in the 1870s and 1880s. There was no one inventor: lots of people contributed advances in the various technologies needed. Similarly, there's no one "inventor" of the computer: lots of different people worked on lots of different components, building on current technology to make incremental improvements. William Shockley built the first transistor in 1947, but the concept had patented 20 years earlier.
If you don't like the iPhone, that's fine. If you think there have been better inventions this year, post some alternates. But try to stay on point, okay?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company
Car is a bad example, but it makes a good point nontheless..
by schlice - 11/7/07 11:27 PM In reply to: @Vnatar - you really should look stuff up before you post by KaplanMikeI agree, Henry Ford is no inventor. But he was an innovator. Who else before him used a moving assembly line to build cars? (hint: no one) He didn't invent the assembly line, but he used it in an innovative way.
What did Apple invent? If you say a new UI, that doesn't make the iPhone as a whole a new invention, just as Henry Ford's use of a moving assembly line doesn't make the Model A a new invention.
The iPhone is very cool, but it is not an invention.
Here are examples of *TRUE* inventions, and their inventors:
The light bulb (Edison)
The telephone (Bell)
The self-propelled airplane (Wright brothers)
Wireless radio (Marconi)
None of those things were done before they did it. That makes their devices inventions. We were talking on phones that surfed the web and played movies and video long before the iPhone was released. We certainly weren't doing it with as much style as we did with the iPhone, but that only makes it a style enhancement, or an innovation.
But certainly not an invention.
A Big NO... its Phoney
by vkp7 - 11/7/07 4:13 PM In reply to: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year" by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
They've just improved the interface.. nothing more nothing less..
Windows Mobile devices are far more sophisticated than iPhone. WM Devices are heavily customizable where as iPhone ain't supportive of customization.
i agree with vkb7...
by joeseph0404 - 11/7/07 4:30 PM In reply to: A Big NO... its Phoney by vkp7I have a PPC 6700 and I feel that the use of it's key pad is MUCH easier than trying to typing on the iPhone (trust me, I've tried). Also, WM devices are supported by almost ANY software that you can think of whereas apple doesn't make it easy to control your own programs...
THE BOTTOM LINE
User friendly: Yes.
Customizable: No.
Innovative award: Maybe.
Invention award: Definitely not.
Worth "Invention" award: Definitely Not.
Product HYPE of the Year
by Crash2100 - 11/7/07 6:02 PM In reply to: A Big NO... its Phoney by vkp7>> "A Big NO... its Phoney"
I thought that was hysterical.
Apple just has a unique way of working the system. Especially the media. They make their products look pretty and make it seem sophisticated, but simple, so it appeals to the clueless. Then it gets on the TV news, and at the same time, they pay TV show and movie writers to work their products into their productions. Then the idiots say "Ooh! That's in style, I have to get one of those!" This is a lot like how the sports car manufacturers like Ferrari and Corvette have tons of people thinking that a big sports car is the ultimate thing to have.
Improved ???
by john3347 - 11/8/07 10:15 AM In reply to: A Big NO... its Phoney by vkp7vpk7 states that the user interface on the iphone has been "improved". I question the rating of "improved". Changed, certainly, but improved???? - - Quite subjective! I also feel that the requirement of "useful" eliminates the overpriced toy from the definition of invention if nothing else does.
Calrifications
by vkp7 - 11/22/07 11:34 AM In reply to: Improved ??? by john3347Hi John...
When i say "improved" ,I'm trying to convey that IPhones have worked on the Touch interface..WM devices have been Touch enabled for a long time now.. so when you compare from that aspect..its improved.. and not changed !
You cannot call this as an "invention". its basic functionality is To make calls and listen to music. It hasn't "Changed" the way we live our lives dramatically..
one final note .. HTC touch is a far more sophisticated and powerful device than the aggressively marketed iphone
Regards,
Varun
"Time" magazine's fuzzy thinking
by rpeter1thegreat - 11/7/07 4:14 PM In reply to: Poll: Time naming the iPhone "Invention of the year" by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I believe that the Iphone qualifies as the most innovative technology of the year, but not as the invention of the year.
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