"First of all the iPhone has patented innovations which are legally considered to be inventions."
You're talking about several small parts of the iPhone, not nearly the iPhone in its entirety. Saying the iPhone is an invention because its OS is an invention is like saying the first car that had a catalytic converter was an invention. The catalytic converter was an invention, the car that used it was NOT.
You'd really think it wouldn't be so hard for people to understand this but apparently it is!
don't really care if the I-phone is the best invention there ever was
I don't need it in my life that fancy of a phone .
and even with the cost reduction I heard they were giving it I live in kansas I suppose if you lived in the rat race like NY or LA .
it would be somthing great to own but in kansas I own A motorola thats pretty darn neat and the fact the oil companies want all my money to run my cars and heat my house the I-Phone is not even somthing we think about besides we just got fiber optics two months ago I'm not even sure and I-phone would work in middle kansas even know its finally getting better mid west still needs to catch up in the rural areas all I and my family needs is the cell phone to be a cell phone and the boy can tech message his brains out with his friends and now we even have reception in kansas it just doesn't get any better - folks who work for alltel thank you
Calling the i-phone a new invention is like calling the florecent light bulb a new light source. Calling the i-phone a new invention is like calling the flat screen TV the new invention of a TV. The subject has already been invented. Sure everything has its' modification and in it's own wright, be declaired as an improvement but not to be declaired as the inventor of something that already existed. The television has already been invented but through the years, modifications has been made to see it in color, then distortion free, then more pixeis has been added then it was boosted to the plasma level. But no one person declaired it to be a new invention or declair it a television again. It was just modifies. So as for the i-phone, all that was done was improved its' service. No new invention was made, or it would not have still been called a "PHONE".
steve jobs says innovations. see!
Time magazine is not the sole arbiter of the "Invention of the Year", but they are being treated that way by those who are pleased/upset by their desigation of the iPhone as such.
After all, Time named both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton men of the year not once, but twice, so their track record on this sort of thing is pretty poor.
"Man of the Year" is not an honorary award, it's given to the person or thing that generated the most news that year. For instance past winners have included Adolf Hitler and Hurricane Katrina.
I think those of us who are upset by this feel like there have probably been a lot of fantastic inventions in the realms of science or technology or health that should have gotten the praise and exposure that comes with this award. TIME clearly just went for something that would generate publicity for their magazine article, like when they named "You" Person of the Year a few months ago. Though it was a bit corny, at least then they were pretty much right.
Invention of the year? NO!
Product of the year...Ok.
Invention of the year winner should require tougher criteria.
Palm has been doing all this with Treos for years. Treos do have touchscreens. When I got my latest model almost a year ago; I immediately downloaded a program called iphony that totally makes my treo look like an iphone. For months, some folks thought it was a special Canadian iphone.
Also: With 60 and 80 gig ipods; how come the phone is so limited?
No, not invention of the year. That apple has a worm.
Not only did Apple not invent the "Cell Phone," they didn't even invent the "Smart Phone." Seems that Blackberry had the forsight to put a cell phone and a PDA together.
That being said, Apple HAS improved the software technology by several rungs on the ladder. I do think that this phones technology is at the top of the class. Unfortunately, I understand that AT&T has this phone locked up for a couple of years. Too Bad. I understand that another phone with similar technology will be available from Alltel soon.
sorry, Blackberry didn't put the cell phone and PDA together, either. Handspring did that back in 2000 (or earlier) with the VisorPhone module for their Handspring Visor PDAs. (You could call it the Treo's grandfather). I'm still using my VisorPhone. The main reason is I don't want to part with the Graffiti interface for text messages, organizer and other input. I don't do thumb piano, thank you. I just wish Treo would bring back a model with a Grafitti interface like the 180g was. Unfortunately, Handspring sold out to Palm and Palm punked out on the Graffiti interface for cell phones (or whoever it is that's making the cell phones that bought the Palm O/S for the organizer part...)
As many other people have already written, the iphone is not a new "invention". It is the combination of a bunch of other technologies in one device. That doesn't mean it's not cool though.
Even though it's cool, I didn't buy one. I need my phone for work and not just watching movies or listening to music. My main purpose for a device like an iphone is to use email remotely. The iphone allows you to read your messages great, but it takes forever to write a message with the touch screen. The blackberry's actual keypad is much easier to type out a long message. I have the 8800, and it also lets me watch movies and listen to music. It's not as nice as the iphone, but gets the job done in one device. I wish it had wireless internet access though. The wireless internet is really nice on the iphone.
I guess it's all what you're looking to do with the device as to which one you should purchase. Internet, music, and movies with email as a nice feature, iphone. Email as your primary purpose with those other things as nice to haves, some other device
This whole debate is hair-splitting at best, unless legal liability can be established.
Wast of time!!
I think there's a very bright line between an "invention" and an "innovation."
In order for an invention to be patentable it must be new as defined in the patent law, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if: “(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,” or “(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States...”
Clearly, smartphones which do what the iPhone does have been around for a long time. No one is disputing that the iPhone may do it better than others, and that their marketing machine is genius. But is it "new"? No, it is not new as defined by patent law. It is a convergence device containing a music/video player, web browser, email client and cell phone. Those already exist. Apple's design can be patented, but the invention of a convergence device that does all those things could not be granted a patent by Apple, since it's already been done for years.
I'd suggest they win "Design of the Year" or "Product of the Year," but not "Invention of the Year."
The iPhone with Files2Phones and other remote computing applications is amazing. The ability to launch large applications such as AutoCad or view large medical x-rays with the iPhone on my remote PC is awesome.
A device's ability to do something better than other devices does not qualify it as an "invention," but as an "innovation."
The question was whether or not the iPhone should have been named "Invention of the Year."
Al Gore invented the iPhone years ago.
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