乔布斯曾引用过毕加索的一句名言：“好艺术家只能模仿皮毛，伟大的艺术家却可盗走灵魂。”（Good artists copy，great artists steal），如果按这个标准来看，苹果真不是个好艺术家。

原创性极强的苹果几乎是人人模仿的对象，微软及其他公司效仿了苹果OS X操作系统的界面和设计，不少山寨手机都是苹果iPhone的翻版，新兴的平板电脑市场只有两种产品——苹果iPad以及iPad的仿制品，App Store问世后，各种与之相似的应用商店遍地开花。

当然，模仿创意与窃取知识产权是两回事，借鉴前人的成功经验，将多指感触技术运用于平板设备是件好事，但盗用代码就是不法行为了。

微软一直因Windows的许多设计都在模仿苹果而连续多年受到指责，比起苹果iOS，Windows产品看起来较缺乏讲究，苹果粉丝也因此将微软视为缺乏创意的企业。

尽管微软并不擅长将自己的发明产品化，但偶然也会在真实产品中体现其成功的创意。游戏邦认为，如果苹果愿意反过来复制微软的五项重要创意，相信苹果及其用户都将受益无穷。

Kinect for apple tv

1.Xbox Live的多人玩家模式

苹果过去在利润丰厚的游戏市场上迟到了一步，但现在因为有了iPhone、iPad和App Store，苹果几乎成了手机游戏领域的霸主（看看iOS平台上的游戏数量就知道了）。

iOS游戏很出色，其中有些游戏已经支持多人模式，但如果苹果能为该平台绑定像Xbox Live一样的多人模式游戏及沟通系统，相信iOS游戏定能成为更棒的游戏平台。

游戏邦认为，与其在音乐社交功能Ping身上下功夫，苹果不如专心做好游戏层面的社交化服务。

如果能为iOS游戏开发商提供一个连接玩家的标准服务器平台，iOS游戏定能获得巨大发展。这种多人模式系统可以让天各一方的玩家快速找到游戏，进行对决、聊天等互动，在iPhone和iPad平台上享受Xbox Live一样周到的服务。

除此之外，这种系统还可以让苹果对游戏服务器功能进行标准化处理，优化iOS游戏的运行性能。

总而言之，借鉴Xbox Live的创意更有助于推动苹果iPad的销量，让开发商推出质量更上乘，价值更高的游戏，游戏利润上升，苹果App Store的应用营收分成自然也就随之上扬。

2.Kinect体感控制技术

App TV可以为不少人的家庭娱乐系统增色，但有人反应这款苹果产品的遥控器实在是过于小巧了，这种体积很容易让它遗落到沙发的间隙或者某个角落，总是让人一阵好找。另外游戏邦认为， 该摇控器上的小按钮也并不好用，因为规格太小，用户很容易按错键。

苹果一直致力于缩小按钮和控制系统，但为何不采用微软Xbox 360的Kinect的体感控制系统，甩掉遥控器这个累赘呢？

Apple TV遥控器只能用于导航屏幕选项，控制播放、暂停、结束等操作，如果可以采用体感控制技术，相信它的功能还会更丰富。

3.Tablet PC的笔控输入技术

Tablet PC平台不受好评的原因有不少，其中之一并非它支持手写输入，而是这种操作离不开输入笔。总体上看，Tablet PC的主要缺陷在于，它基本上采用Windows操作系统，外加一个笔控输入面板。相比之下，iOS的多点触控系统显然更为出色，iPad的销量就是明证。

尽管iPad已称霸平板电脑市场，但如果能加上苹果官方推出的笔控输入技术，这个平台必将拥有更大的发展潜力。因为有些用户不喜欢使用触针来进行导航，或者控制应用操作，他们就是喜欢使用笔控输入。

苹果iPad 2亮相时强调的一点很值得人们深思：iPad并不仅是一个内容消费平台，它也是一个很棒的内容创造平台。

笔控输入技术可支持用户在iPad涂鸦、绘画，更重要的是进行签名。

从这一点上看，游戏邦认为苹果确实应该向Tablet PC取经。当然，iOS仍可继续采用多点触控系统来处理主要任务，只需要增加一个输入笔，让iPad更具吸引力。

4.Windows Media Center的用户界面

有用户反应，Windows平台的iTunes应用程序的运行性能实在是乏善可陈，从连接文件、同步化功能再到播客，这些功能都很不理想，很不人性化。它的运行速度也很慢，甚至要好几秒钟才能响应一个简单的鼠标点击指令。

苹果一向很擅长设计用户界面，所以这一点不禁让人产生许多联想，苹果是不是有意推出这个PC版本的iTunes，以促使Windows用户转向Mac平台。

与此同时，微软的Windows Media Center在用户界面、运行性能等许多方面均胜过iTunes。

当然，Media Center的产品定位与iTunes截然不同，它主要针对Windows PC而设计，其性质相当于Apple TV。但如果要与后者比较，当然还是Apple TV更妙。

游戏邦觉得Windows版本的iTunes的缺陷不少，假如苹果不知如何设计一个Windwos应用程序，不妨向Windows Media Center看齐。

5.Microsoft Surface的手机/平板电脑交互作用

Microsoft Surface所采用的先进技术确实很值得推崇。首先，它是iPhone问世前市场上唯一的MPG（multi-touch, physics and gestures）设备。

虽然它不是一个消费设备，也不打算出击消费市场，但Surface的一些界面元素实在是比iOS更“神奇”。

游戏邦认为，Surface平板电脑最重要的强大之处在于，它可以识别靠近它的物体，如果有人在Surface 2.0 PC上丢了一张纸片，它就可以读取这个内容。除此之外，Surface还可以识别数码相机和手机，如果用户将这两种设备扫过屏幕，它就能读取出其中的照片，支持用户将某设备中的文件转移到另一设备。

苹果产品可能不会添加这种功能，但如果能借鉴其中核心理念，让iPhone、iPoad Touch和iPad三者之间形成这种互动，无疑更能增加这些产品的竞争筹码。

可以想象，如果采用了这种技术，人们就可以将iPhone贴近iPad的某一部位，然后将iPhone手机上的文件或图片转移到iPad，或者将后者的内容转移到iPhone，甚至可以将某设备上的应用程序复制到另一者身上。

总之，Microsoft Surface的交互式功能是值得苹果掌握的一项魔法。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

5 Killer Ideas Apple Should Steal From Microsoft

Steve Jobs famously once quoted Picasso as saying: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” And by that metric, Apple is a lousy artist.

Apple is stolen from by just about everybody. Microsoft and other companies steal design and interface ideas from Apple’s OS X. Cell phone handset makers steal Apple’s iPhone design elements. The new tablet market is essentially Apple’s iPad plus the tablets that steal ideas from the iPad. Everybody has stolen Apple’s approach to app stores.

There’s a difference between stealing ideas and stealing intellectual property. Stealing winning general approaches to doing things like multi-touch gestures on a tablet device is good. Stealing the code to do that is bad.

Microsoft has long been accused of stealing Apple ideas in the many designs of Windows that have occurred over the years. Windows has tended to be more challenging to use than OS X over the years, and Windows products tend to be less elegant. Because of all this, Apple fans often dismiss Microsoft as a company without innovation.

In fact, the opposite is true. Microsoft’s research wing is an under-appreciated engine of invention, in my opinion. And while Microsoft fails to productize some of its best inventions, it’s also occasionally successful at implementing new ideas in real products.

I’ll go further. Apple and its customers would benefit enormously if Apple were to steal the following five key ideas from Microsoft.

1. Multi-player gaming from Xbox Live

Apple platforms historically lagged in the lucrative gaming market. But now, thanks to the iPhone, iPad and App Store, Apple now dominates gaming (measured in the number of titles available on the platform).

iOS games are great — and some of them are already multi-player. But an integrated multi-player gaming and communication system like Xbox Live would benefit the iOS as a game platform more than anything else I can think of.

Instead of wasting time trying to make music social with Ping, Apple should instead focus on making gaming social.

By offering iOS developers a standard server platform for connecting players, Apple would give iOS games a huge boost. Such a system would enable far-flung gamers to find games, play against each other, chat with each other and generally enjoy all the many benefits of Xbox live, but on iPhones and iPads.

Such a system would also enable Apple to standardize how game servers function, and optimize performance of iOS games.

In general, stealing the Xbox Live concept from Microsoft would enable Apple to sell more iPads, enable developers to sell better and more expensive games, and boost Apple app revenue as game titles become more lucrative.

2. Gesture control interface from Kinect

The new Apple TV I got for Christmas was a welcome addition to my home entertainment system. But the last thing I needed was another $#@!ing remote. My Apple TV remote is minimal and elegant, but it’s an additional remote to the three I already had. Its tiny size makes it harder to find and easier to lose, as it slips between sofa cushions. And the buttons on it are a little awkward to use; it’s very easy to press the wrong thing on the dial.

Apple is constantly trying to minimize buttons and controls. Why not get rid of the remote altogether by stealing Microsoft’s concept for gesture control on the Kinect for Xbox 360?

The Apple TV remote simply functions to navigate on-screen options, and control play, pause, stop and so on movies. I’d love to control all that with hand gestures and skip the remote.

3. Pen input from the Tablet PC

The Tablet PC platform sucks for several reasons. One of these is not that it supports pen input, but that input requires a pen. The whole flawed concept of the Tablet PC is that it’s regular Windows, plus a pen layer. The iOS multi-touch finger-input system is vastly superior, and iPad sales prove it.

However, now that iPad rules the tablet world, the addition of pen input officially controlled and sanctioned by Apple would benefit the platform in myriad ways.

Personally, I have zero interest in using a stylus for navigation or app control. I just want to use a pen, well, as a pen.

Apple’s iPad 2 roll-out emphasized a point I’ve been making from the beginning: iPad is not just a content consumption device, but it’s great for content creation as well.

Pen support would enable people to scribble notes, draw pictures and most importantly write legal signatures.

Apple should steal the pen input idea from the Tablet PC. Of course, the iOS would continue to use multi-touch for most tasks, and for interaction with the OS itself. But it should enable us to write stuff with a pen, just like in real life.

4. User interface from the Windows Media Center

Sometimes, in moments of frustration, I feel like iTunes for Windows is the single worst application ever written for the PC. All major aspects of it, from connecting files to syncing to setting up podcasts is clunky, backward and counter-intuitive. Performance is absurdly slow, taking literally seconds sometimes to respond to simple mouse clicks.

The whole thing makes no sense, because Apple is so good at interface design. Sometimes I think Apple makes the PC version of iTunes deliberately horrible to punish Windows users into switching to the Mac.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Media Center is vastly superior in every way to iTunes, from interface to performance.

Of course, Media Center exists for an entirely different purpose than iTunes — it’s really designed for using a Windows PC as an Apple TV type device. And for that, Apple TV is better.

But the ugly, clunky, non-intuitive train wreck that is iTunes for Windows has got to die. If Apple can’t figure out how to make a Windows application, then just steal user interface from Microsoft’s Windows Media Center.

5. Cell phone/tablet interaction from Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface deserves more attention and credit than it gets. For starters, it’s the only major MPG (multi-touch, physics and gestures) device to hit the market before the iPhone did.

No, it’s not a consumer device, and it’s not ready for the consumer marketplace. But Surface has some interface elements that are even more “magical” than iOS.

One of my favorites is how a Surface tablet can recognize objects placed upon it. If you drop a piece of paper on a Surface 2.0 PC, it can read it. Better still, Surface can recognize digital cameras and cell phones, spilling out their pictures and enabling you to move documents from one device to another by sliding them across the screen.

Apple wouldn’t need to add all this capability, just steal the core concept for connecting an iPhone or iPod Touch to an iPad.

Apple is going to add near-field communication technology to iOS devices anyway — why not use that to connect the devices to each other?

Imagine placing your iPhone on the corner of your iPad, and being given the option to grab files or pictures directly from the phone and slide them onto the iPad, or from the iPad to the iPhone. You could also theoretically copy apps from one to the other.（source:cultofmac）