That's equally absurd that a horizontal bar is a rip-off and that Google ripped it off. I've been running my Samsung with only gestures for months now, I can't see a reason to need something like that.

iOS navigation gestures are suspiciously similar to the gestures on the Palm Pre.

Actually it went something like this:

Palm -> meego -> xda mad scientists -> iOS -> Android

Given that Palm UI people now work for Android, this was bound to happen.

iOS and Android ripping each others' good ideas off is good for us. =)

Which bar?

Not OP, but I think they're referring to the task-switching thin line at the bottom.

The white line at the bottom.