Apple saw an in-house, "experimental" GUI at Xerox, had permission (thru stocks & $$$) to use parts of it, Apple greatly enhanced, added to it and made it the first viable, usable, consumer friendly GUI.
MS had access to the Mac GUI while developing Mac apps. Gates saw it, loved it and basically threatened Apple ("give me the GUI crown jewels of no software for you!") and stole it (like MS does many other technologies) and still did a p_ss poor job of imitation.
Question of who copies who... which OS today looks more like the original (or other) of years past?
Does todays Mac GUI look more like the original Mac v1 or Windows v1 OR... does todays Windows (just rotated 180 degrees so as not to be completely obvious) look more like the original Mac (which has been fairly consistent thru the years)?
Even most Windows fanboys say WIndows 95 was the first decent, usable version (ie, it looked and worked most Mac-like).
Also, re the LG touch screen. When did photos of that model originally come out? I don't recall seeing any until after the "iPhone" launch.
There have been numerous ideas and "mock ups" of a potential Apple phone for months (years?) and many play off of the basic iPod shape and design (with wide (possibly touch)-screen).
Another question... does the "iPhone" and LG Prada model look more like any previous Apple product or more like any previous LG model (or design direction)? (see GUI question above)
Many have tried to cash in on Apple industrial design, particularly the various iPod models. The "iPhone" was a logical extension of the iPod and may be an indication of the actual (or rumoured) wide-screen iPod, along with the multi-touch GUI for navigation. (does the LG have similar functionality or just a touch screen?)
>>> Oh I see, when everyone else copies something it's known as "stealing", when Apple copies something it's called "innovation"
>>>
No, that would be "when MS copies something, they call it innovation" (see Vista and all the Apple/Mac envy behind much of it's development - see Iowa trial MS emails)
When it's usually a one-way street, that's how it goes
