http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/ Engadget Comments for Creative's latest: The Zen Patent http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
Holy Crap! You know what, Apple is in trouble because they ALSO used words in their user navigation.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
The most pathetic thing about most patents filed lately is thatcompanies are spending money in that stuff, money that they could spend in improving their products, or even better, release the actual products without unwated bugs (hello Creative)]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
This doesn't prove that Apple copied Creative. This just shows that Creative is a company that doesn't have much going for it and hopes to screw some people over with this patent.

Patents like this are worthless. Everyone uses this sort of UI for their music players, so it's nothing special.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/K drive->Music->name of album->chosen song) to select a song when on my "PMP" aka laptop aka notebook.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
Soooo... Neutral Party, what are you saying? Is it that Creative invented the concept of "hierachy"? I have to give Creative Labs absolutely no credit here. I just don't get it. I mean crimeny, once you select something ("ooooo... maybe they invented the concept of "selecting"), you then have to go select something else (ie. open, close, details, etc.) to actually activate it. How intuitive and ingenious is that? Jeebus, they even screwed up the whole concept of hiearchy. I like Apples UI that they made a great deal more.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
The court will flush it all out and determine if this thing is valid/unique/etc...(trust me apple will fight it -- they file patents too you know so they arent innocent in this matter) not a bunch of people making comments about a patent they havent even read.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
There is a fine line between protecting IP and stifling innovation. This patent jumps up and down on that line and spits in the face of every portable MP3 player manufacturer out there (except for Creative of course)]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
So the granting of the patent if (and it's a big if) it's even valid is irrelevant.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
"In its press release, Creative said Apple had filed for a patent for a user interface in a multimedia player in late 2002, but its application had been recently rejected."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4198360.stm

frivolous indeed]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
One other thing, if the patent is truly as crap as most would believe, maybe to the Apple fanatics, it's worth to know tat Apple tried to file for the patent, sadly it was REJECTED.

Had Apple won the patent, i'm sure u Apple fanatics will probably say "Yeah, Apple deserved it blah blah blah"

If anyone else won the patents, u Apple fanatics will say "The patent is a worthless piece of shit blah blah blah..."

Ask any true neutral parties and they will tell u the same. Having said that, allow me to reiterate i got NOTHING against Apple iPod. I think it's an elegant piece of hardware. I juz can't stand the crazy Apple fanatics who seemed to worship the ground Steve Jobs walks on. I mean, see past the light, the world is ALOT more than just the apple...

Thanx for reading...]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
According to the press release:
"Creative applied for the Zen Patent on January 5, 2001 and it was
awarded on August 9, 2005."
"We shipped the NOMAD Jukebox to U.S.
retail customers in September of 2000"
"The Apple iPod was only announced
in October 2001"

I guess we'll have to wait and see how it shakes out. Interesting how many other patent apps may be out there and not even on the radar yet.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
For example, after choosing a track from a hierarchy, the track begins to playback. On a computer file system, only that particular track is added to a playlist. However, in the design presented by this patent, all tracks in the subcategory of the hierarchy would be added to the playlist. Those of us familiar with digital audio players are familiar with this feature, but according to this patent, this is one innovation Apple copied from Creative, or perhaps invented apart from Creative, but at a later date.

Another example is the dynamic nature of the hierarchy presented herein. Again, in a computer file system, if the folder structure is ArtistAlbum, then it is impossible select all tracks of a particular genre, because the folder structure does not take into account genre. If the folder structure is GenreArtistAlbum, then it would be impossible to select all tracks by a single artist, if that artist's tracks are split into different genres. The hierarchy in the patent solves this problem by dynamically allocating files into any desired order of hierarchy. This is another innovation that Creative made before Apple, according to this patent.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
And to #21, who said that the Macintosh wasn't invented at Apple... shame on you... a group of Apple engineers 20+ years ago by all accounts devoted their lives... spent months barely sleeping or eating... they worked nearly to madness to create the Mac back in 1984... and you trivialize engineering so badly when you deny them the credit completely.


Even if Apple didn't invent the GUI, they slaved over their product like no one else had ever done, working 90 hour weeks under the iron fist of Steve Jobs... As an engineer, i give them mad props... but to you, because of some illogical hate for Apple, just say "they stole it."

Guh...

Apple may not have invented the GUI, but in those critical months where all of their engineers were at full steam, they did invent a lot of things we take for granted now... this window that you're reading from right now...say it's overlapping another window below it... move the top one aside... notice how what was behind the window is now revealed? Someone at Apple had to invent that....]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
Apple tried to file the same patent 20 months after Creative and they got rejected.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
A patent of something like the clickwheel is something totally different. A patent of something that is more or less unavoidable by competitors is *drumroll* stupid.

For patent infringement fun look up a certain story between Matsushita and IBM.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
And it's evident that for Apple fanatics here, the issue is not about the whether patent holds substantial value. It's about Anything-iPod-is-good and Anythin-Creative-is-bad. Apple din get the patent so pls dun sour others who got it. Apple can by all means, patent everything they invent, and i will not discredit them for it. But if they think that Creative is stupid to file such patents, say that to their precious Apple coz they did exactly the same, only failed in their attempts.

One way or another, i am NOT directing this to the Apple supporters at large. I'm juz perturbed by some of the "Apple iPod extremist"...Their support for iPod is so extreme sometimes it feels like terrorism...

Thanx for reading again...]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
No offense meant or anything, but taking a look at the thread there is more extremism against Apple, than for it. Every time we have a story like this, we have 30 posts hating on Apple, and like 4 zealots. Then we have your post saying "omg Apple zealots is liek terrosim!!!".

]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/
Maybe u might wanna check out other threads featuring Creative-related products. U'll noe what i mean...All is in plain sight...It's like 100 posts hating Creative for all sorts of reasons without basis...]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/creatives-latest-the-zen-patent/ Your description of the patent was nicely done...Though everyone knew the logic and how it works, very few managed to actually see thru the brilliance of the idea, and how it had actually helped in navigation...

One thing to add, though a little out of topic here, is tat i wish Creative's Sim Wong Hoo would just keep quiet and concentrate on developing their players. Verbally bashing against iPod is NOT gonna boost sales. It might even generate bad publicity. My 2 cents worth...]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM