Apple's designer accuses copycats of theft

Apple's lead designer Sir Jonathan "Jony" Ive has hit out at companies he believes copy his firm's products.

Speaking at an event hosted by Vanity Fair, the 47-year-old said: "I don't see it as flattery, I see it as theft."

He was responding to a question from the audience about Chinese tech maker Xiaomi, but was referring to Apple's competition in general.

Xiaomi has been accused of copying before, but the company has said the suggestion was "sensationalist".

Hugo Barra, who was poached by Xiaomi from Google, said the Chinese firm was "an incredibly innovative company".

But the company has come under fire from people who believed its designs appeared similar to Apple's iPhones and iPads.

Sir Jonathan, who was born in Chingford, London, was at the San Francisco event to discuss his career.

But when asked about his feelings towards copycat manufacturers, he said: "I have to be honest the last thing I think is, 'Oh, that is flattering.'

"All those weekends I could've been home with my family - I think it's theft and lazy. I don't think it's OK at all."

Learn from mistakes

However, some argue that Apple itself is not immune from picking up design and hardware inspiration from its competitors.

"Every Apple product is an evolution of a product that has come before it," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davis Murphy Group.

"They are rarely the first to come to market with a product.

Xiaomi's Mi 4 smartphone has been compared to the iPhone 4

"They sit back and see what mistakes happen. That's what they did with the iPod - they let others steam in with early mp3 players and make a mess of them."

But Mr Green said he felt the Apple designer's comments were a sign that Apple wanted to be seen as vigorously defending its work.

"When it comes to defending intellectual property based around software and appearance, it's very hard to defend that in court and to argue your position over that - rather than something that is more physical like a chip.

"They have to be seen to be defending their position."

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Taylor Swift Looked Awesome Wearing Bold Neon Pink Sweater In London

Taylor Swift Looked Awesome Wearing Bold 

Neon Pink Sweater In London

Friday, October 10 2014:

Credit:Splash News
Taylor Swift looked so pretty wearing a bold neon pink sweater and khaki skinnies while out and about in London. We love how she gave her look an added edge with some black rhinestone-studded flats!

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Taylor Swift’s Perfect Red Lip In Paris Copy Her Color!

Taylor Swift’s Perfect Red Lip In Paris Copy Her Color

A little rain couldn’t stop Taylor Swift from rocking the most perfect red lip of all time! (Take that, Kanye!) Get her favorite red lip crayon below!

Taylor rocks a red lip like no other celeb. Along with her bold lip color, she also rocked her cat eye liner.

Taylor Swift Reveals Favorite Red Lip Color

Taylor told People magazine in May about her favorite red:

 

Nars

“Right now [I'm using] Dragon Girl by NARS … I’ll go through different phases with makeup and always try new things. Except I never really get too far from red lipstick, do I? I guess I just think my face looks worse without it. That’s pretty much the only rationale behind it.”

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Taylor Swift Teased New Announcement on Instagram And Clarified it On Twitter Herself

Taylor Swift Teased New Announcement on Instagram And Clarified it On Twitter Herself

Billboard 

Taylor Swift is teasing a new puzzle on Instagram

Alongside the message, Swift posted a photo with "5" and "Woods" with a pinterest-worthy picture of a forest with many fans speculating that means that the next tune would be the already-discussed "Out of the Woods," dropping in five days. 

Correction: Originally this post had a headline touting a new single by Swift. A rep for Swift told Billboard that that conclusion isn't true, so fans will just have to wait five days to see what Swift's news is. 

Update: Taylor Swift has clarified the Instagram news herself on Twitter. Originally reported as a new "single," Swift clarified it's not a "single" but a song.

Whatever Swift's announcement winds up being, we can't wait to hear more from1989.

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Sony cuts the price of its 'Digital Paper' and now it's only $1,000

Sony cuts the price of its 'Digital Paper' and now it's only $1,000

Richard Lawler

Engadget

If the only thing keeping you from Sony's electronic paper replacement was the price, you're in luck. According to The eBook Reader, these days anyone can grab the flexible 13.3-inch E Ink display from Sony's online store (previously it was restricted to legal or banking professionals), and the price just recently fell $100. We're still not sure if dropping under the $1,000 barrier is enough to make reading PDFs and signing A4-sized documents is enough to make it worthwhile, but there are probably some folks who will find a use. Sure it doesn't do color, but the display is high res (1,200 x 1,600) and it has a three week battery life. Who needs two Xbox Ones anyway?
Source: Sony Store

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Google Now gets a conversational search upgrade, learns to use OpenTable

Google Now gets a conversational search upgrade, learns to use OpenTable

Sean Buckley

Engadget

Nothing makes voice recognition software shine more than good conversational algorithms -- and the natural search function in Google Now just got a minor upgrade. Not only can use your hotel confirmation to find nearby restaurants, but now you can casually ask it to show you the resturant's menu or book a reservation via OpenTable. You'll still have to do a little work to complete the reservation, however (Google only gets the booking started), and it's still perfect: if a given restaurant doesn't support the OpenTable or doesn't have a menu online, the process kind of falls apart. Still, it's a nice upgrade, assuming you've already come to terms with the fact that Google's algorithms are skimming your email.
[Image credit: Google]
Source: Google

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Taylor Swift Is Releasing a Harry Styles-Inspired Song Next Week and Fans Can't Wait

Taylor Swift Is Releasing a Harry Styles-Inspired Song Next Week and Fans Can't Wait

Our Swifty queen dropped a (very obvious) clue that she will be releasing a song next week, in five days to be exact. But not just any song. It's one of the songs that's supposedly about her relationship with Harry Styles and is titled "Out of the Woods."

According to the Rolling Stone piece on Swift and her new album 1989, "Out of the Woods" is the "frantic tale of a relationship" that Taylor described as an everyday struggle.

"Forgetting making plans for life. We were just trying to make it to next week," she said.

"Out of the Woods" is also the song that references a secret trip to the emergency room after a snowmobile accident with (assumed to be Harry), with lyrics like: "Remember when you hit the brakes too soon/ Twenty stitches in a hospital room."

Needless to say, fans are going apes--t over the news that not only are we getting a new Taylor Swift song in five days, but it's one of the tracks that fans have been dying to hear since the Rolling Stone interview.

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A Nokia Lumia 1020 powers this automated 3D-printed telescope

A Nokia Lumia 1020 powers this automated 3D-printed telescope

Mariella Moon

Engadget 

There are many, many people who've always wanted a powerful space telescope in their backyards but can't exactly afford one. For avid makers and DIY enthusiasts, at least, that's not such an absurd dream anymore -- not when someone has designed an automated 3D-printed telescope that's powered by a commercially available phone: the Nokia Lumia 1020. The device is called Ultrascope, and it stands one meter tall when assembled, with a base that measures 65 centimeters wide. It was created by Open Space Agency founder James Parr, who promised to upload the current design and future iterations to his organization's website once the ongoing beta testing's done.
Here's how the robotic telescope works: first, your Windows laptop locates the ISS and forwards its location to Ultrascope's Arduino shield to move its motors. After the telescope positions itself, the 1020 starts snapping images and sends them to the cloud for post-processing. Parr hasn't revealed how powerful Ultrascope is exactly, but it's worth noting that the 1020's 41-megapixel camera blew us away when we tested it. It'll sadly take a while before you can find out for yourself, though, as OSA's busy working with Microsoft at the moment, developing an app that connects Lumia phones to the device.

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Apple fashion push puts its Watch on the cover of Vogue China

Apple fashion push puts its Watch on the cover of Vogue China

Mariella Moon

Engadget

Would you buy an Apple Watch if the fashion industry names it the "it gadget" of 2015, even if couldn't care less about what it can do? See, it's slated to grace the cover of Vogue China's November issue, merely a month after it made its first public appearance at Paris Fashion Week -- so clearly, Cupertino wants to present it as a chic device for the tech-savvy fashionista. According to Vogue China EIC Angelica Cheung, she met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and head designer Jony Ive way before the watch's September 9 unveiling, hinting that the company always meant to put some focus on fashion when it comes to marketing this particular product. If you're wondering which variant gets the honor, it's the fancy 18-karat gold one (check out the image after the break), though you'll see other versions in the editorial spread inside.

Source: Business of Fashion

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There Are Now More Mobile Connections Than People in the World

There Are Now More Mobile Connections Than People in the World

Lauren Walker

Newsweek 

Active mobile devices now outnumber people for the first time.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that there are nearly 7.2 billion people on Earth, growing at a rate of 2 people per second. But according to GSMA Intelligence—a global trade association conducting real-time mobile network analysis—there are now more than 7.2 billion active SIM cards in the world and the number is increasing five times faster than the human population.

Since around half of the world population has access to a mobile phone, where are these active SIM cards coming from?

Some people have more than one cell phone, possibly for business, while others have a tablet or similar device that uses mobile data. The number of mobile connections is expected to continue trending upward as the technology becomes even more integral to modern life and is adopted by a more people in the developing world.

But another game changer is the increasing number of active connections between machines (medical appliances and cars, for instance). They make up a quarter of a billion of the world’s SIM cards at the moment—a number that is expected to skyrocket as the Internet of Everything connects more of our devices.

But be careful, these connections come with a risk. Just ask Dick Cheney.

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With Z3, Sony brings phones to US faster

With Z3, Sony brings phones to US faster

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Sony is launching its new Xperia Z3 waterproof smartphone through Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, and T-Mobile. The phones are hitting U.S. stores on the heels of their unveiling last month at a trade show in Berlin, as Sony ramps up efforts to expand its tiny market share by getting to the American market faster.

Its Xperia Z1 phone took months to arrive, by which time it felt old. Sony never found a U.S. wireless carrier for the Z2 this spring.
The Verizon phone comes out Oct. 23, just a month after Apple's new iPhones and a week after the Oct. 17 release of Samsung's new Galaxy Note 4. A release date for the T-Mobile version hasn't been announced.

THE PHONES:
T-Mobile is carrying the standard version. For the Verizon model, dubbed Z3v, Sony is adding the ability to charge the phone wirelessly with an optional accessory, without needing to plug in a traditional USB cable. It's a capability coming to many smartphones, but often requires buying a special back cover on top of the charging accessory. The two models have slightly different dimensions, even though both screens measure 5.2 inches diagonally.
Both versions let people play Sony PlayStation 4 games through the phone while on the porch or in another room from the TV. The phones are waterproof and have 20.7 megapixel cameras.
The Verizon version will sell for $200 with a two-year contract. Other pricing hasn't been announced yet.

THE LANDSCAPE:
Sony has had a tough time breaking through the highly competitive smartphone market. Sony's market share doesn't even rank in IDC's lists of top 5 smartphone makers. In the trend-setting U.S. market, Sony has suffered further from late releases.
It took time for Sony to figure out what customers and carriers want, says Ravi Nookala, president of Sony Mobile Communications' U.S. business.
Technical and feature requirements tend to be stricter in the U.S. Getting the endorsement of Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, should help.

THE PROSPECTS:

Nookala says target customers in the U.S. include owners of Sony TVs, headphones, cameras and PlayStation game consoles.
"Consumers are used to getting the best experience from Sony technologies," he said in an interview. "We're bringing all the best of Sony into the smartphone now."
But gaining market share will take time, given the dominance of Apple and Samsung.
"We are here for the long play. It's not that we just launch one phone and disappear," he added.

WHAT ELSE IS COMING:

Sony is also releasing a third-generation smartwatch. Unlike previous models, the SmartWatch 3 will have GPS capabilities for more accurate tracking of outdoor fitness activities.
The SmartWatch 3 will sell for $250 and will run Google's Android Wear system. That means the software experience will be similar to many rival watches, but it paves the way for a wider range of apps to extend the watch's functionality.

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Mobile wallet adoption years away: eMarketer

Mobile wallet adoption years away: eMarketer

AFP

Industry tracker eMarketer on Thursday said that use of smartphones as wallets will jump in the US next year, but shoppers won't be quick to abandon cash or credit cards.

"The more things change in the US mobile payments space, the more they seem to stay the same -- at least in the short term," eMarketer analyst Bryan Yeager said in a release.

"Despite a wider range of available technology and adoption from more merchants, consumers remain tepid about paying for goods and services with their phone at the point of sale."
The amount of money spent using smartphone wallets will climb in coming years, though, especially as consumers begin using them for big ticket buys, according to eMarketer.

A report authored by Yeager forecast that US consumers this year will consummate $3.5 billion worth purchases using smartphones, and that the amount would jump 150 percent in 2015.

A mainstream shift to mobile wallets in the US is still years away, climbing to $27.47 billion in the year 2016 and then quadrupling the following year to $118.01 billion, according to eMarketer.
Apple adding Apple Pay mobile wallet to its newest iPhone models and eBay splitting off its PayPal online financial services division have captured attention in recent weeks, but the overall market remains fragmented, the report indicated.

"Apple Pay will do a lot to bring consumer awareness to mobile payments, but it still has to work," Yeager said.

"If new Apple Pay customers get excited to try the product and there are hiccups the first time they use it, that's going to be a negative experience, and they might think twice about trying it again."
No matter how well smartphone wallets are designed, winning people over often depends on how well and how broadly merchants incorporate the payment systems into the check-out process, according to eMarketer.

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