Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

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hamin_aus
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Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

Post by hamin_aus »

http://community.winsupersite.com wrote:iSteal: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

In yet another example of Apple ripping off user interface, the maker of the popular Delicious Library application notes, accurately, that Apple has stolen his UI:

When Apple was demoing its new iBooks application for the iPad during their keynote address, I just kept thinking to myself: this simply must have been designed byDelicious Monster, the shop behind the brilliant Mac app Delicious Library. I’m not the only one who thought that either. Delicious Monster founder Wil Shipley thought the same thing. The only problem? His shop didn’t make it.

In fact, Shipley was quite vocal on Twitter during the keynote today about the situation. “No, Apple didn’t license iBooks from me. They just copied me. Ah well,” he wrote. Later, he added, “I guess it’s not enough Apple has hired every employee who worked on Delicious Library, they also had to copy my product’s look. Flattery?” While Shipley tries to play it off as not that big of a deal, clearly he’s pretty upset about it. And he should be. I mean, the bookshelf view in iBooks is nearly identical to the main bookshelf view used in Delicious Library. Not only that, but it’s not like this is a little-known app that Apple may have missed: it has won the Apple Design Award twice, and been a runner-up one other time. Apple gives out those awards.

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“[Delcious Monster co-founder] Mike Matas was a UI designer on the iPad, [former employee] Lucas Newman is an iPhone / iPad engineer, and [former employee] Tim Omernick was an iPhone / iPad engineer but left a while ago to work on games independently.”

“But the thing about iBooks is, it’s a book-reader. So, of course they looked around, found the best interface for displaying books (Delicious Library’s shelves), and said: yup, this is what we’re doing,” he went on to say. “Although Delicious Library was the first to do it, we didn’t try to copyright the idea of wooden shelves, or of showing books photo-realistically. ‘Look and feel’ is kind of an outmoded concept, I think.”

“Now, of course Apple couldn’t contact me ahead of time and say, ‘Hey, we’re taking your idea, thanks.’ Their lawyers would worry they’d open themselves to a huge lawsuit, for one, and they’d also be leaking a secret. Nor could they write me a check. Even a token one would be an admission (in their lawyers’ eyes) that they were copying something. They are a public company — they can’t write someone a check unless they got some value in return. And if they got value, the lawyers would ask, how much was it? How was it determined?,” he continues

“So their official policy has to be, ‘No, of course it’s a crazy coincidence that these shelves look almost entirely like Delicious Library’s shelves.‘,” he concludes.


Now if I know Apple fanatics like I know Apple fanatics, they're going to turn on Shipley immediately and say that a bookshelf is an obvious idea. I mean, what better way is there to display books?
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

Post by rustypup »

apple fandom has always left me scratching my head... but the furore around their latest piece of dimwit bait, however, has plumbed new depths of silly.... depths which have left me wondering if our species is approaching the insanity event horizon which would see us being sent to pluto for our own good.... :|
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

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Mike Matas should have registered his idea as a patent. As jy dom is moet jy k_k.
And no, I am not an apple fanboi. I don't see how the stupidity of Matas relates to the ipod fans... :?
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

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Sojourn wrote:Mike Matas should have registered his idea as a patent.
well... yes... but the way the yank justice system is run means there is still a claim - prior art is in evidence everywhere at this point...
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

Post by hamin_aus »

Sojourn wrote:Mike Matas should have registered his idea as a patent.
No Shirt, Sherlock!

The Point of the article is that Apple likes to cry infringment all the time, then turns around and commits intellectual theft itself.

Just look at the massive Apple vs Nokia lawsuite thats going on right now. Apple allegedly "stole" electronic, manufacturing and power patents for use in it's IPhones and iPods.
Sojourn wrote:I don't see how the stupidity of Matas relates to the ipod fans...
This relates to iPod and indeed all Apple fans in the sense that one of their main arguments in favour of Apple was that it was not an 'evil' corproate giant like Microsoft.
Take that, dirty hippies and pretentious douchebags!
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

Post by Anakha56 »

Sojourn wrote:Mike Matas should have registered his idea as a patent. As jy dom is moet jy k_k.
And no, I am not an apple fanboi. I don't see how the stupidity of Matas relates to the ipod fans... :?
Even if he did patent the idea guess what Apple would have done? Oh wait no need to guess here the pudding as proof...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/appl ... k-dispute/
Apple and Fujitsu inevitably caught up in iPad trademark dispute
By Nilay Patel posted Jan 28th 2010 2:47PM

Well, here we go again. Apple might have stolen all the headlines yesterday with the iPad, but as we've already noted, that name has been in dispute since September -- and it doesn't look like Fujitsu, which has been selling its own iPad since 2002, is going to back down. "It's our understanding that the name is ours," Fujitsu PR director Masahiro Yamane told the New York Times. Maybe, but it's not quite that simple. Here's the deal: Fujitsu applied for the "iPad" mark in 2003, specifically covering handheld devices used in retail. (The Fujitsu iPad is a $2,000 Windows CE point-of-sale device.) Along the way, the application got bogged down because a company called Mag-Tek had already registered IPAD for its line of PIN-entry keypads, and Fujitsu's application was listed as "abandoned" in April of 2009. The notice of abandonment apparently woke someone at Fujitsu up, because the company then asked the Trademark Office to re-open the application, arguing that Mag-Tek's IPAD had nothing to do with the Fujitsu iPad. The USPTO agreed, re-opened the application, and the process continued until September, when the iPad application was published so other trademark holders could oppose registration. That's when Apple signaled that it wasn't so happy about things -- and filed its own "iPad" trademark application using a shell company called "IP Application Development."

Phew -- still with us? That leaves us at now, with Mag-Tek selling the IPAD under a valid, registered trademark, Fujitsu selling an iPad with a pending trademark application, and Apple sucking all the air out of the room with the launch of the iPad and no US trademark at all. We'll be honest: we'd always simply discounted rumors Apple would call it the iPad, because this is kind of a mess. Apple can't just take "iPad" from Fujitsu because it really wants the name -- it's likely going to have to argue that "iPad" is confusingly similar to "iPod," while still trying to register "iPad" on its own and telling the Trademark Office that it won't be confusing to people looking for the Mag-Tek device, or the Siemens "iPad" motor trademark, or potentially even Coconut Grove's trademarked iPad bras. Of course, all these problems can be solved with the direct application of cash and some nice ambient media attention, so it's likely we'll see some friendly joint PR from Apple and Fujitsu along with an agreement to share the name sometime before Apple's formal opposition is due on February 28. That's pretty much what happened when Apple bit the "iPhone" name from Cisco, anyway. But still -- why can't Apple ever learn to have these conversations ahead of time?
From what I gather from that article this is the way Apple does business. To be honest why is Matas surprised that Apple stole his idea? Its how they do business...
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

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Scum.
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Re: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

Post by ryanrich »

Yeah, Apple's reputation as an innovation company has seriously dipped lately... When watching the iPad keynote and hearing Steve go on about how "phenomenal" it is, I kept wondering if I had somehow slipped into an alternate reality. One based in the 90's where e-readers, netbooks and tablets hadn't been invented yet.

I'm still a fan of the iPhone (for the time being), but Apple as a whole? Meh. Especially the iTampon piece of crud...
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