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Comment by nitrogen | Hacker News Reader

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nitrogen·

...all consumer electronics can now defined as "pre-Apple" or "post-Apple" just by looking at them.

So the Braun T3 radio[0] and LE1 speaker[1] are definitely post Apple, right?

[0] https://barryborsboom.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/172_721-ra...

[1] https://barryborsboom.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/mac-speake...

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Apple products are not designed in a vacuum. Their designers take inspiration from many sources, and Braun is one of them.

There is a big difference between being inspired by a design, and blatantly ripping it off.

There is a big difference between being inspired by a design, and blatantly ripping it off.

Indeed. Apple is now famous for both (Inspiration: LE1 speaker->iMac; Ripoff: Swiss Railway clock->iPhone clock). If the iPod design is "inspired by" the T3 radio design, and not a blatant ripoff, then current Samsung phones are definitely not ripoffs of the iPhone design.

You are comparing a radio and a speaker with an mp3 player and a computer. Not everything is design.

This whole deal is about design patents (or registered designs, depending on jurisdiction), basically the look of the box that the electronics are housed in; the content ot the box is immaterial in this respect.

Osmium made the claim (which I quoted) that Apple's rise to power marks a dividing line in history, with consumer electronics from before and after that line recognizably different. My reference to two decades-old products that look far more similar to Apple hardware than a Samsung phone does to an iPhone is meant to address that specific claim.

Also, seconding what pbhjpbhj said, design is all that matters in the context of a design patent/registered design.

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