Acer, Samsung announce iCloud, Photo Stream, AirPlay competitors

By Georgia
last updated

It seems Acer and Samsung didn't even wait for CES 2012 to official start before announcing AcerCloud, PicStream, and SwipeIt, or basically what Apple announced in 2011. Acer was up first with a service called AcerCloud that sounds suspiciously like iCloud, even substituting PicStream for Photo Stream. Hmm...

And if that's not enough, Samsung -- who have made it something of a habit to copy Apple -- have now gone so far as it to create an AirPlay clone called -- I kid you not! -- SwipeIt.

About the only thing left is the race to see who will launch the first real Siri competitor. While third party attempts like Iris, Google's Majel project, etc. made some early noise, as did fake -- and now removed -- "Official" Siri for Android apps, it's only a matter of time before someone like Samsung or Google themselves go all in on a Siri-like service all their own.

Imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Source: Android Central

Georgia
Georgia

Senior Editor at iMore and a practicing therapist specializing in stress and anxiety. She speaks everywhere from conferences to corporations, co-host of Vector and Isometric podcasts, follow her on Twitter @Georgia_Dow and check out her series at anxiety-videos.com.

25 Comments
  • "And if that’s not enough, Samsung — who have made it something of a habit to copy Apple — have now gone so far as it to create an AirPlay clone called — I kid you not! — SwipeIt"
    You know Samsung had Allshare to play content from mobile devices before Airplay was presented, don't you?|
    Are you saying that Apple copied Samsung?
  • You're a funny guy! DLNA existed before both except that Apple actually refined it for commercial use. They actually took advantage of displaying apps on TV and screen mirroring which Samsung is evidently going to SwipeIt. Funny too that it can't even work on Google TV devices.
  • Except Apple didn't refine DLNA -- DLNA was (and is) open for contributors, but Apple explicitly chose to ignore DLNA and implement their own stack, rather than contribute to an existing open standard. Commercially, it was obviously a solid decision for Apple, but we would have had much better interoperability between iOS devices and TVs had they gone the other way.
  • No, funny is the bias and the wrong facts on this blog entry.
    And the funny thing is that Apple released Airplay and mirroring AFTER Samsung had it for their TV's so the one "copying" and "imitating" is Apple.
  • SwipeIt and AirPlay don't really sound close so I kinda miss what the author means when he said "I kid you not". Like I'm not gonna believe what Samsung is calling their version...
  • Swypeit. As in they swiped it. Duhhhhhhh
  • Seriously, what is wrong with these fanboys. If you are a write be objective; Apple didn't invent the technology they are just using it. It is like like if Ferrari developed a sports car some other company like Lamborghini will try to produce a faster car. That is just business. Siri is pretty much a gimmick and I have seen apps that can do that way before Siri. Even In days of "windows mobile" there was an app called " Microsoft voice command." It could tell you "what is your battery level and when is your next appointment."
  • voice as been included in Mac systems for YEARS, but that is not the same thing as "intelligent" commands. Recognizing a few key words, or reading a text document has been around for a very long time. Siri level "interactions" have not.
  • Hate to pile on but All of these services/abilities have been available in various forms from multiple sources for quite some time. I've been using Carbonite for about five years.
  • no thats not true how can that be possible apple did it first so how can someone be doing it before apple...lol i have been sharing contents from my phone to the tv for god knows how long.the only reason i keep coming back to this site is to see if they could become any more biased.
  • Siri was bought by Apple. Mirroring on TVs have been done before AirPlay. Google did everything iCloud did plus more.
    Now, if we're talking about the specific way such features were implemented, then yes. But just having these features...nobody is copying Apple seeing as Apple didn't come out with them first.
  • Regardless of how many companies you say had this or that before Apple, you're all forgetting one important fact - Apple will make it popular AND profitable! That you can bet on! ;)
  • Historically Apple takes existing technologies (mostly invented by Nokia in 1812) and makes the consumer friendly -- polished, packaged, and dead simple to use. Then others copy those.
    You can get huffy, claim others had the technology first, and fine. But they didn't have the implementation first.
    Apple pretty much copies iOS 5 notifications from Android. Is that hard to acknowledge? No. Android did it right.
    Same is true when they copy what Apple did right.
  • The problem is stuff like this is VERY misleading. It makes it appear that Apple created the technology and only feeds the arrogance and ignorance a lot of fanboys have. I expect a slant towards Apple on posts here but not misinformation and lies. You shouldn't need to follow up on a post to explain this sort of thing to the readers, it should be in the article.
    How about "Apple didn't create cloud technologies but they have refined it to the point other companies are now taking notice and launching their own services which are obviously inspired..."
    Its not that hard to cover tech news and be a little less blatant about your biases. I know this is an ieverything page so its to be expected but once in a while a post like this comes through and I'm just blown away by the slant in the article.
  • why is it that this sites articles always says COPIED and why not just say its an alternative cause thats what it is,like you said most things apple do is refining and had already existed way before apple,example airplay is a friendly version of things like samsungs dlna apps such as allshare and apple just made it easier but if technologies like that didnt exist before apple then apple may not even have had anything to refine...the way this article writes is apple were the first to offer these features when in fact companies like samsung,google etc offered these features before apple even if it wasnt as simple,the fact is they still existed before apple and all they are doing is refining there own technology....everytime you read something about alternatives to apples products on this site its always x copied apple etc etc and there is always alot more than a hint of bias and fanboyism..i can guarentee the same thing will happen with siri when google update there voice control,you lot going to write google copied siri etc
  • So Apple creates a second, more consumer-friendly, implementation, and that somehow gives them better standing?
  • according to ifans and imore if apple imroves it then it means they can claim to have invented and have the right to use it only.
  • So Acer and Samsung announce their own version of cloud services that already existed and were widely used before iCloud was even a blip on the radar, but we're changing history to make Apple the grand inventor of cloud services too? Give me a break.
    Samsung/Acer may be going a longer distance to make them appear more consumer friendly, but varying degrees of cloud functionality have been an inherent part of Android from the get-go thanks to Google's various services and back-up options.
    Why does it seem lately like all the female writers on this blog are trying so hard to either be sensationalists or tabloid-quality click-grabbers? Do they feel they have something to prove by being jerks?
  • Dan Lyons puts it quite well
  • DORA: SWIPER NO SWIPING, SWIPER NO SWIPING, SWIPER.....WTH?
    "BANG"
    BOOTS: I TOLD YOU DONT SWIPE FROM ME SWIPER.
    (picks up bullet casings, wipes fingerprints)
    gets into getaway car with Pico.
  • i primarily use windows phone 7 and i dont hate apple ianything but i think its just wrong to say apple invented something they didnt is wrong but if you said apple reinvented something in a way that everyone would use at least theres more truth in that i believe if im not mistaken it was google who did it right first and wp7 released skydrive a year ago so how did apple invent the cloud? now im basing this on the article itself...
    "It seems Acer and Samsung didn’t even wait for CES 2012 to officially start before announcing AcerCloud, PicStream, and SwipeIt, or basically what Apple announced in 2011. Acer was up first with a service called AcerCloud that sounds suspiciously like iCloud, even substituting PicStream for Photo Stream. Hmm…
    And if that’s not enough, Samsung — who have made it something of a habit to copy Apple — have now gone so far as it to create an AirPlay clone"
    Clone Seriously?
  • This is a worthless piece of trash of an article, there were plenty of cloud choices before iCloud. Seriously, you are saying AcerCloud sounds similar. It's the cloud, the word cloud wasn't invented by apple, nor was attaching a moniker to common words. Seriously, this is a terrible piece of reporting. Stop making us Apple users look bad, moron.
  • Funny that when I talk about this kind of writing from the TiPB(change the name back) staff during the podcast and the visceral reactions it gets from the fans of the site, I'm labeled a troll. I guess a troll can be right even when trolling.
  • It seems you guys forgot that before iCloud webs had its own little cloud service which worked the same way as iCloud but better because it didn't have to be done over wifi.... This was what 3/4 years ago. Not sure about all the other companies but palm was waaaay ahead of the game on that one. My memory may be a bit murky but I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons the cloud kicked off do well for the mainstream consumer was because of the webos cloud and sync services which garnished a lot of attention in the mobile tech world. But hey what do I know I just use the stuff. You guys at iMore are the ones whose job it is to look up facts and report news, whether a bit biased or not with some ounce of truth to them.......
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