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Apple Says Samsung “Chose To Copy” iPhone and iPad, Sues Them

Wowza. Think that Samsung’s Galaxy phones or Galaxy Tabs are a little bit too much like the iPhone and iPad? Apple agrees. So much so, in fact, that they’re taking Samsung to court over it.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has just filed a suit against Samsung on the following basis:

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products”

So, what does Apple want out of all of this? A bit of everything: an injunction (potentially preventing Samsung from manufacturing more Galaxy devices until the case is settled), damages (read: money), and, perhaps most importantly, being able to legally say “Yeah, Samsung totally copied us.”

The timeline, for those wondering: Apple’s first iPhone was released in 2007. By the time the second iPhone was released in 2008, the series was already quite clearly a hit. In 2010, Samsung released the Galaxy S — which, while Android-powered, was running a custom user-interface (TouchWiz) that certainly does bear a stronger resemblance to iOS than the stock Android skin does. In April of 2010, Apple released the original iPad; Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was announced in September of that year.

It’ll be incredibly interesting to watch how this case goes, as it sets a rather important precedent. We’re moving beyond enforcing patents on specific ideas here, and into the realm of simply shouting “Hey, they copied us!” when competition starts to heat up. While Apple certainly made the idea of displaying a grid of icons on a slab of glass popular, it’s not a novel one. Once that idea has been done once, there are only so many unique ways to do it.

Also interesting: Samsung makes part of the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung has supplied the processors for Apple’s mobile devices from the very beginning, from the S5L8900 in the original iPhone to the A5 in the iPad 2.

Google beware: DuckDuckGo partners with Wolfram|Alpha

search

In a time when the verb “Google” is not only synonymous with the the verb “search,” but has come to nearly replace it, the thought of a little disruption in this space makes my feet tingle.

MIT grad Gabriel Weinberg has been sitting in his basement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the past 3 years, building a search engine called DuckDuckGo (see: Philadelphia Start-Ups You Need to Know About). The site uses online crowd-sourcing to augment traditional search engine results, hoping to “clean up the clutter” and improve relevancy. The company soft launched on Hacker News in September 2008 and is solely founded and funded by Weinberg.

For the past two years, Weinberg has been using Wolfram|Alpha‘s API, but today officially marks their partnership, a partnership that should very well make Google shudder. In his blog post today, Weinberg writes,

I actually was an alpha tester [of Wolfram|Alpha] and authored the Perl API binding. I’ve also open sourced the regular expressions I use to determine if a query is relevant to send WolframAlpha. Needless to say, I’m a big fan.

So I am very pleased to jointly announce that we are now official partners. As a result, you should see an even tighter integration over time. And I will have a more official responsibility of maintaining the Perl API, which is in need of a V2 update (feel free to submit bug reports here via CPAN).

Most of the recent integration improvements have come via user suggestion, e.g. I run this or that query regularly on Wolfram|Alpha so can you make that work on DuckDuckGo? I’m in the process of going back through the Wolfram|Alpha examples as well as asking them directly for ideas, but please keep them coming as well!

Why should Google beware? Because Wolfram|Alpha, “the computational knowledge engine,” which launched in May 2009, is considered to be the biggest Internet revolution since the invention of search. In fact, many consider its goal to be the ”Holy Grail of the Internet,” a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Dr. Stephen Wolfram, the engine’s designer is a 51-year old British physicist who completed his PhD in particle physics by the time he was 20 and has recorded nearly every word that’s come out of his mouth in his professional life. According to Wolfram, the engine can compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge and answer questions like what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated in an instant.

Wolfram|Alpha is a massive data base, curated by approximately 1,000 human experts. And when teamed up with DuckDuckGo, an almost “friendly” search engine, the two companies, both incredibly young and robust, have serious potential to shake up search in the coming years.

By the way, have you ever visited Duck.com? Weird, right? I bet Weinberg was pissed.

HOW TO: Make Your QR Codes More Beautiful

qr cork image

Hamilton Chan is CEO and founder of Paperlinks. With the free Paperlinks iPhone app, featured previously by Apple as the #1 New & Noteworthy app, consumers can scan and view QR code content with a native app experience. Paperlinks also provides a powerful platform for generating QR codes, hosting content and tracking their performance.

The QR code: A thing of beauty or an eyesore? The magical barcodes that can be scanned by a smartphone to launch an offline-to-online experience are often criticized for their black and white checkerbox appearance. Those who doubt that QR codes will go mainstream are quick to point out that the look of QR codes will deter marketers and advertisers from using them.

Fortunately, QR codes are malleable and can be redesigned in truly extraordinary ways, while still maintaining their scanability. The truth is, QR codes no longer have to be checkerbox in appearance. We’ve entered a new phase of “designer codes” that can be integrated into marketing campaigns in an attractive way that isn’t an eyesore.

QR codes have so much potential from a design perspective, so let’s take a look at a few tricks and techniques you should keep in mind when designing a code to enhance your brand and appeal to your audience.

1. Add a Color Palette

The easiest way to add branding power to your code is to add color to it. Your QR code does not have to be standard black and white in order to be scanned. You can embed multiple colors and apply a color gradient without affecting scanability. The only rule of thumb is that the code color should generally be dark and placed against a light-colored background. Make sure the contrast is sufficient, or the code will be difficult to scan.

A “reversed out” code, where the background is dark and the boxes are light colored, is generally not recommended. Only a small handful of QR code readers can treat such codes as a film negative and properly interpret the data.

2. Soften Hard Edges with Round Corners

blue qr image

One of the QR code’s greatest aesthetic flaws is its numerous hard edges. You can dramatically lessen the severity of this look by strategically rounding some corners. It is not necessary to round all of the corners, but softening up the edges will definitely make the code appear more friendly and approachable.

3. Incorporate Dimensionality for 3D Impact

One high impact way to brand your QR code is to obstruct some of the boxes with imagery, such as a logo. By placing an image in front of the code, you imbue the code with a sense of depth. An ordinary barcode suddenly becomes a form of artwork, and you can really make a statement with the way you melt boxes together or choose to obstruct aspects of the code.

Fun ideas include adding a logo to the center of the code, but you could also add interesting elements to the corners or the sides for an even less standard look. Adding images or characters between the boxes is another playful way to dress the code with personality and style.

4. Use QR Codes With 30% Error Correction

green qr image

If you decide to add in a logo to create a 3D feel for your QR code, you need to decide which part of the coding to obstruct with your logo. The key to creating these eye-popping designer codes is to take advantage of the fact that up to 30% of a QR code’s data can be missing or obstructed, and still be scanned. QR codes can be generated with 0%, 10%, 20% or 30% error correction rates built in. Building in the 30% error correction rate adds more noise (extra boxes) within the code, but those extra boxes within the code can then be removed to make way for a logo or other interesting imagery.

If you use a QR code with 0% error correction, the code will look more streamlined, but opportunities to brand the code by adding in a logo are very limited. Removing or obstructing a single box within a 0% error QR code could render it unscannable.

Apply a Trial-and-Error Process

cork qr image

Technically, it is possible to mathematically compute which boxes in a QR code are the buffers that can be removed, but such computations are generally unnecessary. By applying a simple process of trial-and-error, anyone can begin applying their design techniques to a code and then test for scannability.

Be sure to test your code’s scannability with multiple QR readers, ideally three or four. Some readers may be able to overcome some stylistic elements of your designer code, whereas others will not. Deploying your code without testing for scannability is designer malpractice and can cause serious heartache with clients. It is true that even with reasonable precautions, designer codes may still be difficult to scan, so you must always weigh the costs of scanning difficulty against the benefits of designing a code that is eye-catching. If a designer code takes more than a few seconds to scan, it probably needs to be redesigned.

Conclusion

In the end, creating branded QR codes is as much art as it is science. The mathematical qualities of a QR code and the impact of a clever design can truly elevate a QR code to the point where the code becomes the central artwork of a piece of marketing collateral. Applying designer best practices will enhance scanning conversion rates and effectively augment an offline item with online capabilities.

It is only a matter of time before QR codes hit mainstream. Knowing how to innovate both in technology and design, and how to implement a QR code in the right way for your business, will keep your brand on the cutting edge of marketing and technology.

Interested in more QR Code resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

More About: 2d, code, design, Mobile 2.0, qr code, tech, technology

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