It's also a matter of record that Xerox sued Apple, saying that Apple ''intentionally and purposefully concealed'' the derivation of the Lisa and Macintosh software from Xerox software... and therefore were unjustly receiving licensing benefits that belonged to Xerox.
Mouse, Visual Voicemail, Multitouch.
Just because Apple buys smaller companies and slaps an Apple logo on it doesn't mean Apple invented it.
I didn't get from lightpeak comment that Apple is saying this. A cult is a group of followers, so my take on lightpeak's comment is that it referring to the Apple fan base.
Apple made it clear to Xerox that they were producing a consumer product with a GUI and allowed Xerox to profit by buying Apple stock. Xerox even approved visits from their engineers to Apple's headquarters. Xerox had nothing to complain about. They agreed to it. Xerox filed suit over this arrangement almost a decade after the fact. Xerox was happy to make a little cash off the ideas while letting Apple take the big risk on developing and marketing an actual product, but were not happy when they saw what a huge opportunity they missed out on by not doing so themselves. Their lawsuit was crap which is why it was dismissed in its entirety.
Who's saying otherwise? Do you have press releases from Apple or quotes from their execs laying claim to the invention of any of those things?
Anyone talking like that should make that fact clear, otherwise they run the risk of annoying people--especially since it seems that every 5 posts is someone making the same damn comment. And I would still say that's a strawman argument anyway. Most of the people on MR know this stuff well enough. I don't see a lot of people on this site or anywhere else claiming that Apple invented these things.
...many people tend to credit them as so regardless of this (the discussions on multitouch are a good example of this).
Anyone talking like that should make that fact clear, otherwise they run the risk of annoying people--especially since it seems that every 5 posts is someone making the same damn comment. And I would still say that's a strawman argument anyway. Most of the people on MR know this stuff well enough. I don't see a lot of people on this site or anywhere else claiming that Apple invented these things.
isn't this the case so often....
Most Apple fans would probably answer "yes" to the question "Did Apple invent USB?" in spite of the facts.
I think the point here is this: while I believe you are correct in stating that Apple has never publicly claimed in any way to have been the inventors of those technologies, many people tend to credit them as so regardless of this (the discussions on multitouch are a good example of this).
And I would still say that's a strawman argument anyway.
You put your own spin on it.