Microsoft tries to get creative
Microsoft has yet to establish for itself a reputation for not making billions from the ideas of others but judging from a US patent filing last July it looks as if the Redmond technology giant may have thrown caution to the wind and had an idea!
The patent is titled “Extensible filtered lists for mobile device user interface” and contains some diagrams. Now before you look at these please make sure you have nothing in your mouth first — I’d hate you to have to clean your monitor in order to see the other half of this post.
Now doesn’t that look a little familiar? Not got it yet? Here’s a clue:
And that’s not all. Here’s Microsoft’s totally-new-and-not-copied-of-anyone-else design for a voicemail interface:
And here’s something similar from … another technology company:
It looks like those nasty people at Apple may have stolen these ideas from right under Microsoft’s nose!
Bad luck, Microsoft!
October 12th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
[...] The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Microsoft has yet to establish for itself a reputation for not making billions from the ideas of others but judging from a US patent filing last … July it looks as if the Redmond technology giant may have thrown caution to the wind and had an idea! Microsoft copy button (more…) Apple, apple ipod, iphone, iPod, ipods, ipod touch, microsoft Posted in Machines that go Bing! ( 12 links from 10 sites) by meteorit [...]
October 16th, 2007 at 4:33 am
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Well, for the first example I will admit that Apple did have quite a flash of creativity when they bought CoverFlow, but for the second, umm, I’m pretty sure the whole “vertical arrangement of information” wasn’t exactly Steve Job’s brainchild.
Though, you know, if you’re right I really could have made some licensing money off both companies a few years back if I’d thought to patent the notes I take on what I need from the store. You see, this one time I wrote “milk”, and then on the next line I wrote “carrots”, and then get this! In a flash of inspiration on the NEXT line I wrote “ding dongs”. I think I would have called it a “list”. Damn, I coulda got paid.