As a former Apple fan-boy, and a current user of a myriad of Apple products around my home and office (iPhone, Apple TV, Macbook Pro, etc.) I'm starting to come down off the Apple high that I had just a few months prior.
It all started with a cracked iPhone screen but in recent weeks it's spiraled out of control with reports of Apple suing to keep voice technology as well as auto-correct technology off of the Galaxy S3 and it culminated with reports that Apple has successfully patented the "wedge" shape of it's Macbook Air. Ridiculous.
I fully understand the desire to protect intellectual property. I have no desire to see great ideas stolen by other companies, but you can't stifle creativity in the process. I mean, is the wedge shape really the reason people are buying the Macbook Air? No, of course not. It's light-weight and super portable. It has little to do with the shape.
Okay, before I go off on a full-blown tangent, let me tell you what got me started down this road. I went in to the Genius Bar (Apple's customer support desk) and tried to get the screen repaired on my iPhone 4s. After finding out that it wasn't covered under the warranty (screen repair constitutes abuse), I found out that I'd have to shell out $199 to replace the screen. This is the price I paid for the entire phone (with 2 year contract). Luckily, after a few minutes of searching, I found an iPhone repair website that did the entire repair under $100 and had my phone back to me in just a couple of days.
This got me stewing, but the reports of the lawsuit against Samsung for using voice technology sent me over the edge. Apple didn't invent voice technology, and it's been around on cell phones for years.
