Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 303 There's good food and a hunting rifle.

Twenty minutes later, the Apple team, led by a grim-faced Steve Jobs, toured floors 55-57 and arrived at the Singularity headquarters conference room on the 58th floor.

They had seen all three business levels, except for a few mysterious rooms without nameplates that were not open to them.

The company's strength far exceeded their expectations.

The hardware department, the network company, the software department, and then there's the meticulously divided "Kunlun" systems department.

The Apple team almost all guessed what they were researching in the rooms they hadn't been shown in.

Mobile phone processor.

That's all we have.

These are projects that they haven't started yet.

"Tell me, how do you want to acquire us?"

The young Eastern president spoke these words with a gentle expression, his English accent still quite fluent. But to the ears of the Apple team at this moment, it no longer sounded like a barbaric accent; upon closer listening, it even had a hint of the elegance of an Oxford accent.

This company is not the country bumpkin they imagined; it must have learned a lot about the architecture of advanced technology companies around the world.

"If you offer me five billion dollars, I might seriously consider selling to you, but I absolutely will not allow you to directly copy my phone."

Chen Xuebing has just recorded the system interface and some software functions of the iPhone feature phone in the laboratory, recorded the shooting date, and also the scene of Steve Jobs himself being present.

With irrefutable evidence in hand, he felt quite relaxed at this moment.

Jobs still hadn't seen what the Kirin phone looked like, and vaguely realized he'd been tricked. He laughed angrily, "That's laughable! You're blatantly plagiarizing! Go ahead and release the video! At tomorrow's meeting, I'll explain everything to all my colleagues! I'll expose your ridiculous phone that only exists in advertisements!"

He didn't know what the Asian man wanted to do with the video, but such a conspiracy had to be exposed as soon as possible.

The last sentence is where foreigners are applying military strategy.

The Kirin phone launch event had already run advertisements, so Jobs certainly didn't believe it didn't exist; he was just provoking him to produce it to prove it.

However, it can only be said that foreigners really lack talent in this. The provocation tactic either requires a good grasp of the opponent's personality or making the opponent lose their temper. If the opponent is even slightly rational, it will not work.

Chen Xuebing had just demonstrated it once, but Jobs still couldn't learn it.

However, President Chen didn't want to teach him. He chuckled and waved his hand. Soon, someone walked in with eight Kirin phones and distributed them to the Apple team, one for each person.

The other party was taken aback.

Chen Xuebing reached out his hand to Steve Jobs.

Jobs instantly understood what he meant.

Technical reconciliation.

He hesitated for a moment, then opened the Kirin phone in front of him. After a quick look, he confirmed that it was genuine. He then took out the iPhone from his pocket and pushed it in front of Chen Xuebing, who was sitting opposite him.

Everyone's going to be holding press conferences soon, so there's nothing left to hide.

Chen Xuebing smiled with satisfaction. If it weren't for what happened in the lab just now, which forced Jobs to bring out the iPhone prototype, who knows how long it would have taken.

He handed the iPhone to Lu Weibing.

"Take a good look."

The other executives stood up and surrounded Lu Weibing.

Everyone immediately noticed the similarities: the same HOME button and the same slide to unlock.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then none of them rushed to make a sound.

After that, the situations of the two sides began to differ.

Lu Weibing and the others quickly got the hang of Apple and played it smoothly, while the people on Apple's side would occasionally look up at the other side, as if they wanted to ask for help.

Not knowing how to play and not understanding Chinese, I could only ask my translator for help and slowly compare the functions.

Jobs was also a little confused. Following his own logic, he played with the Kirin software and accidentally swiped his thumb up after opening the music player. He found that he had lifted the program and created a horizontal page.

His eyes lit up slightly. He pressed HOME to exit, then double-clicked HOME, and the horizontal menu reappeared.

Two sets of interactions!

One set of HOME buttons was exactly the same as his own, while the other set featured a completely different, pure-screen interaction method that he had never seen before.

He can sense these things instantly because they considered too many options during the research and development process.

He thought that swiping down would take him to the program menu, and tried swiping down from the top.

Another page has been scrolled down!
It features flight controls, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, and below that is a large music player interface.

He concealed his nervousness, his fingers secretly fumbling with the back cover, rubbing it a couple of times, but finding he couldn't open it, his eyes darkened.

He wanted to say it was plagiarism again.

But that seems a bit unreasonable.

The other party's feature design seems to have much more features than his.

There's a feeling...
It seems to be backward compatible with iPhone.

Soon, the Apple team discovered that the other party's modular design was slower to respond and had slightly weaker colors than the iPhone, but its system software was richer than the iPhone's.

Furthermore, there is an app store.

The Singularity team also found that this phone completely continued the style of the iPod, smooth, incredibly smooth.

They didn't realize how bad it was until they compared it to the iPhone. After experiencing the iPhone's handling, they discovered that their previous arrogance had many flaws that needed reflection. If the chairman hadn't repeatedly improved the phone's specifications and insisted on adding software ecosystem development, they would have been utterly defeated.

One member of the Apple team got up and whispered something to Jobs, summarizing the similarities between the two.

Jobs nodded and said in a deep voice, "Mr. Chen, I have to tell you that we have patented many of the designs of your phone. You must modify them as soon as possible, otherwise we will file complaints in various ways after your phone is released."

"patent?"

Chen Xuebing laughed.

Twenty minutes later, the meeting room was unusually quiet.

Each of them held a copy of the other's patent register.

Apple's patent has 364 pages, of which 293 pages are technical illustrations.

It includes a circular Home button on the front, an earpiece at the top, volume buttons on the left side, a lock screen switch on the right side, a camera, speaker, and microphone layout on the back, and a data and charging port at the bottom.

Multi-touch interaction logic.

Basic framework for gesture operations such as swiping and pinching.

Hardware integration architecture, user interface paradigms for the collaborative design of screens, sensors, and processors, etc.

The location was quite accurate; almost all the important parts of the iPhone were registered.

Singularity's patents are 266 pages long, but the illustrations are numerous and small, and it contains more than three times the number of patents as Apple.

First, unlock it.

Apple's slide-to-unlock patent was actually registered by Singularity first, and by a full six months.

In addition to swipe to unlock, Qidian has also applied for more than a dozen unlocking methods, including gesture pattern unlock, swipe up to unlock, area touch unlock, double-tap password unlock on HOME, etc.

It also features capacitive screen development with pressure-layered touch algorithms, swipe gesture interaction, stackable application icons, gesture-command mapping tables, remote locking via SMS commands, shared memory pool for background services, automatic switching between indoor/outdoor modes based on base station signal strength, and adjustment of ringtone and brightness, among other functional designs.

In addition, there are various 26/9 key keyboard layout designs, SDK (developer toolkit), app store design, and multiple functions for waking up the physical HOME key with single click + button/double click/triple click.

Apple was also shocked to discover that the other party had several design sketches that had been applied for more than a year ago. One of them was highly similar to the latest design sketches of the iPhone. Another sketch included a candybar design with a glass back (iPhone 4), which was the optimized version that Jobs and his team envisioned for solving the antenna layout problem.

Moreover, Apple applies for patents in the United States, primarily using PCT patent contracts, which only apply to invention and utility model patents.

Singularity uses the Paris Convention, which covers all types of industrial property rights, including inventions, utility models, and designs.

The Paris Convention has a priority basis, and the international publication date of a PCT application may be later than the direct national application date via the Paris Convention route.

how to say.

Apple has protected the present, with multiple patents giving it the right to compel Singularity to modify its existing designs.

But the singularity cannot die.

Singularity, on the other hand, has monopolized the future.

Jobs couldn't imagine how a company that had just started developing smartphones could come up with so many design ideas and complete international registration.

“This is deliberate monopoly,” Jobs finally said, annoyed. “It’s impossible for one company to use so many patents. We can file a validity dispute with WIPO.”

Lu Weibing immediately replied in fluent English: "Mr. Jobs, you are wrong. We are not only a mobile phone manufacturing company, but also a solution provider. There are currently 56 factories in Huaqiangbei that have signed contracts with us to purchase mobile phone design solutions. We can license our patent applications to them at any time to form de facto standards."

Huaqiangbei.

That place that sends cheap Chinese manufacturing to third-world countries.

Jobs finally remembered the intelligence from Foxconn: Singularity had previously relied on the Huaqiangbei market for survival.

He was immediately at his wit's end.

Apple's advanced solutions have not yet been released, and it not only has to face Kirin, but also a large group of strange and uncontrollable third-rate mobile phone manufacturers.

"No, no, no, Mr. Chen, you're a smart man, you shouldn't do this!" Jobs finally softened his stance and even offered a hint of advice.

Chen Xuebing remained noncommittal, then stood up and said with a smile, "I'm hungry, I'm going to eat. Steve, I think we should leave the reconciliation to them."

Ren Ying also stood up and extended an invitation to Jobs to have lunch together.

Jobs was completely focused on business and immediately accepted the invitation.

Apple's top executives had lunch with the team, and the team members also became reserved. Patent protection battles are never a matter of life or death.

Once the capabilities of both parties are determined, the boundaries of their respective behaviors will also be gradually defined.

Go downstairs and get in the car.

The car drove for a long time.

Chen Xuebing remained silent the entire way.

Jobs felt it was unnecessary to travel so far for a meal, and besides, he couldn't eat much anyway, but he still didn't object.

Until we arrived at a beautiful place, which seemed to be a park, with a rather ancient architectural style.

Walking further in, I saw a temple.

Jobs then understood the other party's intention and a smile appeared on his face.

If he has any longing for China, it is undoubtedly for its temples.

"Mr. Chen, this temple seems quite new. Is there any story behind it?"

"This place is called Hongfa Temple. It was rebuilt by the municipal government in 1983 and is now the largest temple in Shenzhen, a branch of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism."

As Ren Ying walked and explained, Jobs had no trouble understanding some of the terms related to Buddhist concepts.

Steve Jobs was exposed to Buddhism more than 30 years ago and even considered becoming a formal disciple. He studied under Otogawa Kobun, a Japanese monk of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism. Many of his minimalist design concepts and insightful cultivation were related to his long-term meditation.

Zen Buddhism had a great influence on him. He was a staunch vegetarian, and even refused surgery when he was diagnosed with cancer, not wanting to give up any part of his body.

"I brought you here not because of the history of Hongfa Temple, but mainly because the vegetarian food here is delicious."

Chen Xuebing said with a smile, then pointed at Ren Ying: "She said it."

Ren Ying has been visiting temples all over Shenzhen these past few days, trying all the vegetarian meals offered there. She finally chose this place, donated a lot of incense, and even invited a chef to learn at the temple's canteen to prepare a unique vegetarian meal.

"Oh, thanks."

As he approached the entrance to the mountain, Jobs stood solemnly, clasped his hands together, bowed deeply, and his mind finally calmed down.

The three of them did not enter the main temple, but went to a separate courtyard with beautiful scenery and the smell of incense.

After sitting down, Chen Xuebing smiled and said:

"I admit that the design of the Kylin phone borrowed some ideas from the iPod."

"In a way, we are very compatible. The concept behind my phone is named 'Tao,' which, along with Buddhism, is one of the two major religions in China, both containing concepts close to nature."

Jobs raised an eyebrow, but shook his head and said, "Your design isn't natural. It's a bit too complex, encompassing too many things. To someone with a design soul, it looks strange. Do you understand?"

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "I know, I will improve."

With Apple and Android combined, how could it not be complicated?
If only he had a full-screen display
However, Steve Jobs probably won't see it.

The food was served within minutes, and a chubby monk came in at the same time.

Ren Ying introduced the monk's name to Jobs; it was Yin Zhen.

"I heard you once ate only carrots for weeks, which is not good for a patient. Try to enjoy Chinese vegetarian food."

Chen Xuebing picked up the chopsticks and handed Jobs two wooden spoons.

Jobs, however, said he could use chopsticks and laughed, saying that Chen Xuebing's understanding of him was wrong. He said the news media liked to exaggerate the facts to attract attention. He liked to eat sushi made with eel, but it had to be cooked eel. Cooked eel could be considered vegetarian. His wife also ran an organic food company to provide him with some delicious food.

Ren Ying not only translated for Steve Jobs, but also for the monk next to him.

The monk Yinzhen listened with a broad smile.

Chen Xuebing also felt that Jobs' thinking was indeed bizarre. Processing eels and then considering them vegetarian is just ridiculous. What kind of logic is that? Is it due to excessive heat?

However, based on my understanding of Jobs' life in my previous life, I learned that after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in his early years, he resisted modern medicine, tried to "starve the virus" with fruits and vegetarian food, and even consulted a spiritual medium. He only gave in after the cancer developed and had part of his pancreas removed, but he still insisted on a vegetarian diet, disregarding comprehensive nutrition.

This person reigns supreme in his own mental world.

"Organic food company, delicious food, I can't associate those two words together. China has a two-thousand-year-old vegetarian culture. You should try our vegetarian food before you talk."

As Chen Xuebing spoke, one vegetarian dish after another was served.

Vegetarian roast goose wrapped in tofu skin, containing shiitake mushrooms, diced bamboo shoots, and carrots.

Vegetarian dish made by slow-cooking dried bean curd sticks, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and cabbage in a clay pot.

The dumpling wrappers are filled with eight kinds of ingredients, including shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts. After steaming, they are drizzled with a vegetarian broth sauce.

Cold mixed shredded vegetables, stir-fried greens, vegetarian braised eggplant, vegetarian fish, and vegetarian Dongpo pork.

Four people, eight dishes—Steve Jobs was somewhat dumbfounded.

"Does Buddhism in China allow the consumption of meat?"

"This is a mock meat dish."

Ren Ying explained to Jobs what "mock meat" was.

“This is too complicated and doesn’t align with Buddhist principles.” Jobs’s expression was complex, but he wasn’t entirely dogmatic. He picked up the magic bag and took a bite.

Upon tasting it, there was no oily smell that he was extremely sensitive to.

Unexpectedly delicious.

But he didn't show it, because he had already given a negative review, and then stubbornly said, "This is adulterated vegetarian food, the taste is too strong."

At this moment, Yinzhen suddenly said in slow English, "Salty has a salty taste, and tasteless has no taste. This is something Master Hongyi said, do you know it?"

Buddhist teachings often use "koans," which are metaphors for the exemplary words and deeds of famous monks.

Jobs nodded with some surprise: "I knew you could speak English?"

Yin Zhen made a palm print with one hand and bowed: "This humble monk attended university before taking refuge, with a bachelor's degree."

This sentence is in Chinese, and Ren Ying translated it for the university student.

The two started talking.

Yin Zhen pointed out that Jobs' obsession with purity was itself a form of discrimination. He also talked about the wisdom of the middle way in eating, based on the quantitative standard of "two-quarters of the stomach should be filled with food, one-quarter with water, and one-quarter empty" in the Vinaya Pitaka.

Yin Zhen's English level was also average, so Ren Ying mainly translated for him, and the conversation was very slow.

Later, we talked about the transitional system between medicine and food, and how food nourishes the five senses.

Since the death of Kobun Otogawa a few years ago, Jobs had not received guidance from any orthodox monks, and he listened very attentively.

It wasn't until Yinzhen suggested that he could teach Jobs a set of Linji Buddhist "breathing methods" that could promote gastric juice secretion through abdominal breathing and be applied to light labor, and train him to "prevent the mind from deviating from right mindfulness and making mistakes, especially emphasizing vigilance against greed, anger and ignorance" to suppress his compulsive aversion to "unclean food".

After listening for a couple of sentences, Chen Xuebing understood: to exercise, you should eat anything when you're hungry.

But when he explained it with some Buddhist principles, Jobs was amazed and thanked him repeatedly.

"Master, why don't you take this foreign disciple as your own?" Chen Xuebing said with a smile.

Yinzhen politely replied, “This benefactor is not a Zen disciple. He entered the sect to learn the Dharma. I will teach him some Dharma. He is not in good health, so he can take yam paste and five-element porridge to regulate his body. Zen tea can also relieve his dependence on caffeine. I can give him some.”

To arrange this meal and invite this university monk who specializes in Zen Buddhism, Chen Xuebing donated 20 yuan to Hongfa Temple. Giving him some small gifts is nothing special.

After Ren Ying translated, Jobs showed an expression that said, "The master understands me," and thanked her again.

Jobs ate with increasing gusto, saying no but his body language betrayed him.

Chen Xuebing understood this very well. In his previous life, he had extra flesh on his thighs and tried to lose weight by controlling his diet. During that time, he even had to choose the largest eggs to cook.

Foreigners have never eaten good food, let alone vegetarian food. The West has never made any delicious vegetarian dishes; they just process them in factories or fry them.

In China, it's cooking.

After the meal, Jobs was taken to a small room by Yin Zhen to experience breathing techniques, with Ren Ying acting as the translator.

Chen Xuebing was enjoying the cool air outside the courtyard.

I originally wanted to visit a temple and pray to the Buddha, since I was already there.

But then I realized I have no Buddhist heart, and even if I worshipped the Bodhisattva, my heart wouldn't be sincere, so there was no need for it.

Even though he was a reborn person, he didn't believe in these things. He preferred to believe in reasons like technology and sought the way of technology.

However, those who practice Zen meditation really can sit still; we chatted inside for three hours.

As he came out, Jobs said to the monk Yinzhen, "See you tomorrow."

Chen Xuebing laughed when he heard this: "See you tomorrow? The High-Tech Fair is tomorrow, aren't you going?"

Jobs' memory returned, and he shook his head awkwardly: "I'll come after the meeting."

Chen Xuebing noticed that Jobs kept glancing at the room where they had just eaten, and he couldn't help but laugh.

I wonder if this person came to listen to Zen or to have a meal.

When Jobs left the temple, he had a hearty meal and was in the mood to appreciate the scenery of the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden. He looked around and found that the scenery in China had a unique charm, stopping to look at it in several places.

After walking for a while, Chen Xuebing said leisurely, "Steve, we Chinese have a saying: 'We welcome friends with good food, but we meet enemies with shotguns.'"

Jobs' thoughts immediately returned to his work.

Mr. Chen, feel free to speak your mind.

Chen Xuebing smiled.

"No, no, no, I think you haven't grasped the situation yet. It's not that I want to speak, it's that you and Apple are at odds over it."

(End of this chapter)