On the results of the Apple vs. Samsung ruling.

I originally sough to simply point people to Engadget's excellent roundup of their editors' opinions, but I have to expand beyond what they've laid out. The Apple win against Samsung is a validation of the utter failure of the patent system.

That "bounce back" patent of Apple's iPhone, is a simple translation of some basic mathematical formulas from the days of using Flash for UI interaction on the web -- stuff that you'd pick up from reading any Flash-based animation book.

The layout of icons in a tile fashion, as anyone who uses Android knows, is not the primary means of interacting with the phone; using your widgets and quick-launch icons on your home screens, is.  But the layout of icons, when wasn't that a design that was obvious?  The old PalmOS phones had rows of icons; almost every feature (read: non smartphone) phone has rows of icons.  And when Apple argued that a phone icon from anyone else should not look like a phone, I had to shake my head in disgust.  What next, a design patent for a light bulb representing a light bulb or an idea?

The shrillness of Apple fanbois is absolutely vile, because of the stupidity of their ignorance.  You would have thought that Apple invented the idea of a row of icons, if you listened to those Apple fanbois -- I think most of them are probably too young to know anything about the Palm Pilot.

Compare Android screens from mycolorscreen.

Android is much more flexible and customizable than iOS, period.

Apple is just a screen of icons, and one that has been uglified by its users.

I think this is what bothers me the most. Apple was not revolutionary; it was beautiful at the time that it was introduced, with minimalist design.  But Android allows you so much flexibility that you can create your own minimalist phone from the lock screen to the home screen, including your icons.

You can't get to a Neon Genesis phone from the iOS or Windows Phone platforms.

NTT DoCoMo phone, via Gadget City

Apple took advantage of the idiocy of the patent system and beat Samsung.  With the first-to-file rule recently implemented under the guise of patent reform, the trolling will only get worse.