Existing users, 
Is Apple stealing ideas from iPhone developers?
Posted 19 September 2008 @ 4pm in News, Opinion
Another useful tool banned from the iPhone App Store
Apple is doing a good job at driving developers to circumvent the official App Store sales mechanism and motivating users to jailbreak their iPhones. The company has rejected another useful application, Angelo DiNardi’s MailWrangler, because it “duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail.”
In a post to his blog, DiNardi says his application, which allows users to add and access multiple Gmail accounts “simply directly loading and showing Gmail inside of an application,” adding “How you can confuse Gmail with Mail.app I’m not sure.”
MailWrangler also lets users see threaded views and google contacts, archive (quickly), star messages and more–functionality missing from Apple’s Mail.app.
Apple previously rejected Podcaster-–an iPhone application that lets people download podcasts directly to their devices without going through iTunes-–from the App Store. It also removed NetShare, an application that allows the iPhone to be tethered (used as a wireless modem), encouraging some users to jailbreak (enable unofficial application installation) their phones and install the easy-to-use iPhoneModem tethering tool.
DiNardi quips “I guess I should just write another flashlight or glowstick application to actually get published. That’s the only apps Apple seems to want in the store.”
Feedack? http://www.iphoneatlas.com/contact.
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11 Comments
Posted by Chas_IC
19 September 2008 @ 5pm
Okay… Zdiarski is probably being willfully ignorant of the basic facts, it takes months of work before a patent filing is released. Apple had this concept designed and patent pending long before Intelliscreen even existed as a concept.
Posted by jonmir
19 September 2008 @ 5pm
This might be the first time Microsoft - the home of “not invented here” - was ever accused of being there first. And they might not even have invented it, but…. I have been using PocketPC phones for at least 5 years and this stuff was standard on the opening screen. So neither Apple nor this Zdiarski guy invented this. They just made it work on a superior device.
Posted by shaneblyth
19 September 2008 @ 6pm
intelliscreen was available back at least as far as 1.1.4 i know i used it for a while…
Posted by isights
19 September 2008 @ 10pm
According to the original Apple Insider article, the first filing, made in December by members of Apple’s iPhone software development team, proposes a new global preference pane.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/18/potential_iphone_usability_and_interface_improvements.html
The article then states that a “second filing, made a few months earlier, discusses improvements to the iPhone’s notification dialog that informs users of missed calls, text messages, and voicemails when they’re away from their phone or the phone is locked.”
That would place the original date of the patent somewhere in October, 2007. Software update 1.1.4 was released February 26, 2008, or about five months later.
The earliest mention of Intelliscreen, as near as I can tell with Google searches, was May 14th, 2008. Since the patent application had to be written well before the date of submission, Apple’s technology existed eight to nine months BEFORE Intelliscreen was developed and released.
In fact, one could well make the case that Intelliscreen was based on Apple’s patent, and not the other way around.
Posted by isights
20 September 2008 @ 12am
More here: http://www.iSights.org/2008/09/is-apple-steali.html
Posted by exNewt
20 September 2008 @ 5am
Zdziarksi’s a twat - his statement is fallacious and support of his software is non-existent.
I had installed a beta version which hosed my OS 1.x iPhone. I was not mad (it’s beta after all) and politely wrote for suggestions on perchance a fix could be done manually by SSHing onto my now locked-up iPhone.
No reply.
Posted by architect323
20 September 2008 @ 6am
have we forgotten that jailbreaking an iPhone is against the terms and conditions of use of the iPhone and the OS?
I would tend to agree that Apple patent is merely an improvement upon their existing design of their own notification screen, but to top it off, in order to use Intelliscreen, you need violate the license/terms for using the iPhone. I find it tough to hold any sympathy for the developers of Intelliscreen.
Any patent lawyers out there that can shed some light?
Posted by John B. Kendrick
20 September 2008 @ 6am
I’ve been an iPhone and iPhone 3G owner since each of their original release dates, and I can tell you that with an application that will need to be integrated to this extent on the iPhone, I would prefer that Apple did it.
A close look at applications developed by third parties for the iPhone thus far, compared with Apple implementations, makes me feel more comfortable with Apple taking on the notifications screen. I know there is a great deal of controversy in the developer world, but speaking as a user, I want Apple to continue to control what can go on the phone as reliability and stability are my most important features.
I do love many of the applications, web and native developed so far, and have over 3 dozen on them on the phone at this moment. And If you’re interested, you can read about my experiences with many of the web and native apps I’ve used since my original iPhone and more recent iPhone 3G purchases on my blog at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com Just click on the index for a complete listing. John
Posted by cnet.aaron
20 September 2008 @ 10am
This certainly wouldn’t be the first time Apple has been accused of ‘borrowing’ from a developer. Some of you might remember a few years back there were similar accusations regarding the inclusion of widgets with OS X. There was already an existing product called Konfabulator that provided the same functionality. Then of course there was the Sherlock/Watson debacle…sound familiar?
http://news.cnet.com/Developer-calls-Apples-Tiger-a-copycat/2100-1045_3-5250692.html
How’s that old saying go? “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.”
Live and learn, I guess.
Posted by jameskatt
21 September 2008 @ 10am
Ideas that are not patented are free to use by anyone. Period. Duh.
Konfabulator COPIED Apple’s idea of Desk Accessories - which were present in Mac OS 1 to 9.x.x, since 1984.
Dashboard is a return of Apple’s Desk Accessories. Dashboard uses stardard HTML, CSS, and other Web Standards as its basis. This is why one can crop a webpage and create one’s own Dashboard Widget.
Konfabulator has it’s own framework. It is very different.
The idea of locked screen notification goes back to Windows Mobile. Intelliscreen is a COPY of Microsoft’s idea. Duh. It is so obviously so.
Further, the developers of Intelliscreen have to BREAK Apple’s SDK rules to create it. Thus it will NEVER be sold on the App Store. The developers KNOW this and can’t thus complain about it.
Every artist borrows from those before him or her. This has been true since the dawn of time. Even Mozard and Beethoven borrowed ideas from others.
Unless one patents the idea, then that idea is free for all to use. Period.
Posted by jameskatt
21 September 2008 @ 10am
Obviously, Podcaster ALSO stole ideas from Apple.
But Podcaster also BROKE Apple’s SDK rules - including the one prohibiting apps from duplicating Apple’s own services. The developer shouldn’t complain. He just did not read the rules.
Of course, if you don’t like Apple’s rules, you can develop for the tons of other platforms - Windows Mobile, Palm, Android, Linux, Symbian, etc.
And good riddance to you.
Other developers, such as the guy that made Trism (which is on track to make 1.2 million dollars for him in one year alone) will then have less competition and will laugh all the way to the bank.