[tack]

Alright, I'll say it.


When I first saw the PlayBook OS, the first thing I thought was webOS. Based off purely the looks, there are some striking similarities.

Same here. I find it funny who people are so at both ends of the spectrum on these issues. Motorola puts a keyboard on a phone and there are many posts about how they ripped off RIM, lol! PB copies many WebOS concepts and people are like "who cares, it is from RIM and we like them. Plus WebOS sucks and has no market." Man that is funny. A little bit of hypocrisy goes around.

I agree that all OS's start to look similar over time. I also think RIM raised the level of app switching with the live previews, much like Os X years and years ago, but on a tablet. Palm should have done an Apple and patented the "card" app switching interface early on if they wanted to defend it later. No doubt RIM or QNX took parts of that concept, but welcome to technology. Innovation is not inventing. It is combining things in ways that create new market or new concepts/combination. QNX so far looks innovative to me in several areas.

I think WebOS is one of those technologies that at the time of its release was the best OS concept on the market. Combined with an ailing company and unappealing phone, it went no where. HP has a long way to fight back to make themselves a player in the phone and tablet spaces.

[dkingsf]

Apple can say anything it wants that is within the law, doesn't have to be true. I remember getting my hands on a windows XP tablet before the ipad was ever announced

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yep, when I bought my condo the home inspection company used WinXP tablet and portable printer to enter the data, then printed out a nice, complete home inspection report. The entire setup fit into a larger than normal briefcase.

That was back just before the original iPod came out. LOL

[lnichols]

Yeah but those are tablet PC's with keyboards and things attached to them, and you don't see many of them out there. Also my wife has one of those tablets for work because she has to have clients sign doc, had one with Vista and it a huge POS that crashed all the time. She traded it in for a netbook with a separate signature device and it sucked too. Then her IT dept said that the same model tablet she had with Windows 7 fixed all the issues. Well she still gets blue screens all the time. Her IT dept probably sucks but their isn't a lot of software loaded and she doesn't have admin access to mess things up. When she gets home she uses my older first gen Macbook air to do the rest of her work because it is stable and works better with the web portal than the company supplied gear, and also when she needs to do remote desktop for time sheets and e-mail the Mac RDC for Windows works better too.

[Intosh]

So Palm ripped off Apple with the row of icons at the bottom of the homescreen. And Apple ripped off RIM with the magnet activated on/off. And Palm ripped off RIM with categorized apps pages.

See what I did there?

[BBThemes]

apple had a `card` style system in iOS`s web browser before webOS happened.

[dwadwa]

Is the WebOS concept patented?

If not, suck it up and shut up.

If yes, sue RIM and shut up.

[Mr Bigs]

apple had a `card` style system in iOS`s web browser before webOS happened.

Not the same at all !!!! Do some research,it's for running apps not web pages.

[BlackStormRising]

Is the WebOS concept patented?

If not, suck it up and shut up.

If yes, sue RIM and shut up.

In the meanwhile, there's NTP....

US Appeals Court To Consider NTP's Wireless-Email Patents - WSJ.com

[BBThemes]

Not the same at all !!!! Do some research,it's for running apps not web pages.

i know what its for, my point is simply that style of switching from one open panel to another has already been done, webOS could easily be said is an expansion on that conecpt, and QNX a further expansion on that.

i dont need to research when my comment stated it was webpages in iOS, the `look` is effectively the same basic principle. what its running is of little consequence.

[UrbanGlowCam]

Just to put it in perspective, whatever your opinion on their similarity/differences are.

Windows 7 Aero Window Switcher


Apple OSX Expose


Palm WebOS Cards


Playbook Tablet OS Task Switcher


Ubuntu Shift Switcher Add-On

[BBThemes]

Just to put it in perspective, whatever your opinion on their similarity/differences are.

haha nice

ya forgot the older (win xp etc) alt+tab switcher vs OS5 task switcher too!!

someone once said immitation is the best form of flattery. gotta agree with that

and you must admit the principle is very close to webOS/PlayBook app switching, TIPB seemed to think so
iPad competitors: Will the true multitasking please stand up? | TiPb

[Intosh]

Not the same at all !!!! Do some research,it's for running apps not web pages.

Claiming they are different because one was for webpages and the other was for running apps is just splitting hairs.

The only thing new about Palm's "cards" is the name. A list of windows sitting side by side is nothing novel, innovative or new.

[Mr Bigs]

Claiming they are different because one was for webpages and the other was for running apps is just splitting hairs.

The only thing new about Palm's "cards" is the name. A list of windows sitting side by side is nothing novel, innovative or new.

As long as Rim doesn't use flicking to close apps they could get away with it.

[soulwolf]

As long as Rim doesn't use flicking to close apps they could get away with it.

they do you flick the top bezel to close but still oooooo someone uses the same motion to close an app like someone else. thats like saying since mac's can use mice with both a left and right button they infringe on the copyrights of Microsoft. i don't think you can copyright a motion anyways if so someone would have copyrighted every hand gesture and NJ would be in worse shape then it already is because we would be paying middle finger tax every .4 secs. but makes you wonder maybe the reason its not released is someone has them in court over some bull like this? the only reason i say that is they do have from what we saw working models with little to no issues.

[Intosh]

As long as Rim doesn't use flicking to close apps they could get away with it.

You mean similar to swiping left or right to go through a list of windows... or album cover-arts? Someone used that first too and it's not Palm, and probably not even Apple.

[lnichols]

In the meanwhile, there's NTP....

US Appeals Court To Consider NTP's Wireless-Email Patents - WSJ.com

I hate patent holding houses that only have a lawsuit business model. You should only be able to sue over a patent if you have said patent AND are using/implementing said patent. Unfortunately buying ideas to sue similar ones is legal. NTP just has a drawer full of patents and a team trying to figure out who is actually doing something useful that is similar to one of their patents, even though they have no intention of ever implementing anything themselves.

[slbailey1]

As long as Rim doesn't use flicking to close apps they could get away with it.

On the Playbook you can close apps by flicking up or tapping the "X". Look at any of the Playbook videos.