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Sunday, February 11, 2007
Pretty much every Mac geek knows the story behind the Macintosh teams visit to PARC prior to the birth of the Mac. Lots of goodies were there that Xerox wasn’t smart enough to turn into product but Steve Jobs was. Basically taking what he had seen there in that lab in Palo Alto, Steve Jobs made the Mac what the Mac became famous for: an easy to use interface. Mouse and all. Mac forefather Jef Raskin pretty much concurs with this in his Holes In The Histories post.
So, the question is did Steve Jobs do this again with the iPhone? Maybe. An NYU student showed off a very similar multi-touch interface at last years TED in Monterey, California nearly a year before Jobs showed off the “pinch” move in Moscone Center last January. TED, a place where many of the brightest minds come together to show off their incredible inventions, can lay claim to publically displaying the first “pinch” maneuver to a live audience. Just view the above video to see what thousands of amazed people got to see that day in February of 2006. Jeff Han stunned them. Did he stun Jobs?
It’s been reported that Jobs did in fact attempt to hire Han. Han declined the offer and ended up creating his own company, Perceptive Pixel, that hopes to bring his invention to Hollywood and has already found success with parts of the military. Han also has been found patting Apple on the back for the iPhone, telling the TED Blog, “The iPhone is absolutely gorgeous, and I’ve always said, if there ever were a company to bring this kind of technology to the consumer market, it’s Apple. I just wish it were a bit bigger so I could really use both of my hands.” I guess if Jobs did steal the idea, Han is cool with it. In fact, Han wants to buy an iPhone the minute it comes out.
So let’s say Jobs did see Han’s presentation and drove back to Cupertino and issued the order to replicate it to all the iPhone engineers. Is it wrong? Think. Many Mac lovers bitterly accuse Microsoft of ripping off the Mac UI for Windows. What would make the multi-touch interface any different on the iPhone?
Now it is entirely possible that Apple and Han by coincidence came up with the same idea for enlarging objects on a screen and such. I don’t want to falsely accuse anyone of doing any wrong doing, but it just makes you wonder. You know?
Truth is, I really do love the pinch move. I mean really love it. And, I am glad that Apple is bringing it to the masses. I also hope Han’s interface comes to the masses, too. No more mouse would be great.
February 11th, 2007 at 7:24
I was thinking the same thing… although this sword can cut both ways. A post last week reminded me of Apples long talked about “Piles” OS. Hans demo seems to be a direct rip of that concept of a desktop with interactive stacks of documents. Perhaps that is why he is so calm about the iphone.
ERIC
February 11th, 2007 at 8:02
This multitouch technology is even older than you guys think: http://www.fingerworks.com. Only that did not combine display and keyboard. It also features “pinch” gestures, even multiple ones: open/close, copy/paste. Depends on with which fingers you pinch.
And they probably weren’t the ones who thunk it up either…
February 11th, 2007 at 10:40
Sven, take off the tinfoil hat. Multitouch has a long history dating back to at least 1982 (University of Toronto) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch It is true that Apple bought Fingerworks(its patents and a lawsuit) in 2005 and its founders Dr. Westerman and Elias went to work for Apple. The Deal closed in June 2006.
February 11th, 2007 at 11:31
Geesh. How long is the Xerox myth going to be perpetuated. Go to folklore.org and get the real story (with photos of both interfaces) from the people who did it. Lisa and the Mac’s interface have NOTHING to do with the work at PARC!
February 11th, 2007 at 14:32
The iPhone has been in development for the last 2 1/2 years, as explicitly explained by Jobs himself during the MWSF keynote.
February 11th, 2007 at 18:29
As noted above, but perhaps not so clearly, Fingerworks has been rumored to have been sold to Apple. When Steve referenced “200+ patents” it’s very likely he was refering to much of the intellectual property he acquired as well as the tech developed in-house.
Additionally, there was a former Apple engineer, who shortly after the MW iPhone announcement, showed his own prior artwork from the 80s, where he illustrates the pinch and actually names it, “the pinch”, while he was doing research at Apple. This info was posted on the web, but not widely.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:10
Okay, enough everyone. Let’s all stop drinking the “Apple are good guys in a business world full of bad guys” Kool Aid. Apple makes snatch products, no doubt, but they’re at least as shady in their business practices as any other successful company of their size in America. Stevie J is a big jerk and seeing a cool piece of kit tech and ordering his soldiers to replicate it is well within his repetoire. That doesn’t mean they make a living out of it — Apple innovates in the purest sense all the time — but no doubt they’ve passed more than one or two of someone else’s cool ideas off as their own.