There hasn't been anything moving towards touch-screen since the first complex remote control hit the market in 1975. The first remote EVER for TV was a wired "Lazy Bones" by Zenith in 1950 which "allowed you to change channels without getting up to touch the television."

Heh heh. The look of the TV is totally not important. The interface is what will be interesting. Once you get the screen down to 1/2" thick with virtually no borders as Samsung and others have done, there's not a lot of innovation necessary there. It's all about the interface.

JP

I am still on 4.4 (have not downloaded 4.4.1 nor 4.4.2 yet) and I have used Netflix sub-titles.

Jim

Was planning a road trip and asked Siri "Where is the Grand Canyon?". First she answered, "I can't find a place called Grand Canyon in Denver". When I asked "Give me directions to the Grand Canyon" she said "I can't find a place called Grand Canyon".

Shoot. Hope I don't drive into it accidentally when I go.

She does know her Starbucks though. A sign of our culture?

Jim

Diversity receiver antennaes have been used in many applicatios for a couple of decades. Automotive (as pointed out above) and wireless mics (Shure etc) of note. I am not aware of auto-switching for transmission (although I am by no means well versed in this area). That could be innovative. I'm sure Apple knows what it is getting into.

Jim

Well, this announcement is more of a spin control. Word came out Friday that they lost over 1,000,000 subscribers since their price hike. I think they FINALLY realize that they tried to cover a lot of their true motivation with BS in previous letter.

Jime

You can't claim Samsung is "resorting to childish tactics" unless you know all the claims that Apple is filing. If Apple is claiming rectangular form factor with flat screen and flat back and thin borders, then in my book, that's pretty obvious. If 30 years ago somebody asked me what would a "computational tablet" look like in 2001, I don't think I would have said "make it a circle with wide useless borders and a lumpy back".

Prior art is exactly that: art. Samsung doesn't need to find and present the "real" Kubrick tablets. In fact, prior art doesn't have to be public. If an engineer presented a lab notebook created and properly dated documenting designs from years ago, that would be sufficient to qualify as prior art.

Too many patents are obvious and a hinderance to innovation.. not preserving it.

Jim

I ordered 6pm on Launch Day. Promised April 1 shipdate for iPad. April 8 shipdate for cover. Cover shipped today. ;-( No iPad shipment.

Jim

I stopped by Apple Boulder last night and asked if they would be opening an hour early this morning. They said "9am tomorrow would be a very good time to check back with us". So, like a freakin' lemming, I waited for an hour this morning along with about 100 others. At 9:05 an employee came out and said "no iPads today, maybe tomorrow".

Forget it. My last apple line. RSBell is right. When I order a $5 cable from Amazon I know every town and bar the FedEx or UPS driver stops at on the way to delivering. And Apple doesn't know when a pallet of iPads will show up????? From China???? I think they just like the lines.

I ordered online and it is scheduled for mid-April. I'll just wait.

Jim

Just called the AT&T store in Golden, CO where I bought my iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4... they don't have any iPads and won't be getting any for a couple of weeks. The AT&T dude said that the store in Belmar (south Denver) is the only AT&T store in the state that will have any iPads today.

Jim

There are two ways to use Light Peak. If all devices have Light Peak connectors, you can daisy chain them all together as in the video demo. Each device uses the protocol that it needs simultaneously... the Monitor is speaking video HDMI-like protocol and the hard drive is speaking something closer to a data protocol over USB or Firewire.

Or...

You could connect a breakout box via Light Peak that has USB 2, FIrewire, Ethernet, HMDI and USB 3 ports. Then you use standard HDMI connector for monitor, USB 2 for hard drive and Ethernet connector for network.

Either way, you only need one connector on your PC/Mac. Then, either a daisy chain for "new devices with Light Peak Ports" or a breakout box and standard connectors.

If you want to use current Monitor/Keyboards/Drives: use the breakout box.

Or buy new devices next year when they arrive on the market with Light Peak connectors.

Jim