So last year he submits an app to the store. The employee that takes a look at it and realizes what he is looking at. He jumps up from his chair and runs into Steve Jobs office yelling I've discovered iCloud. Apple immediately formulates the entire concept and announces it one year later. Don't we really think that Apple had this concept in mind prior to his submission? I am thinking that Apple recognized how close he was to what they were doing and rejected it to avoid this situation later. Apple would have been smart to dip into petty cash and buy this student off for say one million.
Well, it is a simple explanation. No explanation needed unless one is not particularly bright.
However, a simple explanation is often not the real version of what happened.
Would Apple just "jack" some kid's app, including the logo and app name? Really, Apple is that brazen, not to mention stupid?
Apple doesn't need to be brazen or stupid. Of the 12,000 Apple employees in Cupertino, only one such employee needs to screw up to make Apple liable. To speak of Apple as a person capable of being "brazen" or "stupid" is quite ridiculous.
I don't recall Apple publicly commenting on any application it has rejected. It probably rejects thousands. Why would it publicly comment on this one? You also seem to assume a whole bunch. Namely, everything the kid says is true, and Apple must be underhanded and dishonest.
First, wi-fi syncing is not a new concept. Macs currently sync with wireless hard drives through Time Machine. Contacts, Calendars and Email also synced through MobileMe. Syncing is everywhere and offered by companies like Google and Microsoft as well.
Second, the kid does not hold a patent in any idea (at least not that has been reported), and it is highly unlikely Apple borrowed any of the kid's code as Apple's syncing works much differently so Apple hasn't committed a copyright violation.
Third, many non-developers are suggesting the kid didn't break the rules. That is from the kid. Yet, many developers are suggesting it wasn't possible to bring the kid's product to market without breaking the rules. The kid took his app to Cydia and made some money. Good for him. Doesn't prevent Apple from implementing the same feature.
Quote:
Originally Posted by now4real954
I remember this app coming out and I remember the hype and drama that ensued...and at no point do I remember Apple coming forth and saying that the App broke any rules of the App Store and I know I remember the discussion of this commentary from the Apple rep that gave him the bad news back then
so maybe Apple was working on it in the past before this guy brought his app to market...but it was not a working product and they should have allowed him to sell his app on the App Store...
he did the work and didn?t break the rules so it should have been ok and maybe this guy would have made enough money to say..."hey I can retire and Apple can have my code"
Why when Apple could just reject the application for violating its rules? Even if the app wasn't violating a rule, Apple doesn't have to have a reason for not accepting an application.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kent909
So last year he submits an app to the store. The employee that takes a look at it and realizes what he is looking at. He jumps up from his chair and runs into Steve Jobs office yelling I've discovered iCloud. Apple immediately formulates the entire concept and announces it one year later. Don't we really think that Apple had this concept in mind prior to his submission? I am thinking that Apple recognized how close he was to what they were doing and rejected it to avoid this situation later. Apple would have been smart to dip into petty cash and buy this student off for say one million.
For starters, MacDailyNews claims that this guy's logo is very similar to the iSync logo Apple began using in 2003. The question is whether some kid who copied Apple can get away with suing Apple for copying him! As for the rejected app, more facts are needed. He is assuming that his app was submitted before Apple started working on a similar concept. Big assumption.
It's not hard to imagine that Apple already had this feature in the works for the past couple years and thought this man could help bring more to the table. Unfortunate coincidence.
One of my two iphones is jailbroken. I bought his app and it did not work for crap. I emailed the guy NUMEROUS times, got "help ticket numbers" and then he never responded, EVER. So maybe I should legally attack him for putting out a piece of crap that does not work very well, oh wait correction does not work AT ALL.
"Smaller developers have faced similar situations in the past as Apple has progressively added features, such as the iBooks app and App Store recommendations, to iOS. The issue will likely be as the iOS developer ecosystem continues to grow."
WORD Perfect and Microsoft WORD, anyone?
"An Apple representative contacted Hughes to explain the rejection, saying the app didn't "technically break the rules," though it did "encroach upon the boundaries" of what is allowed in the App Store"
Complete bull. It was rejected for security concerns and use of closed APIs, pure and simple.
"According to him, the App Store representative he spoke with last year told him that the iPhone engineering team had seen his app and "were quite impressed."
DING DING! AND HUGES TAKES HOME THE SUPER-DUPER-EGO PRIZE!
He is so full of bullshit... An app that tricks iOS and iTunes into thinking the device is connected via USB vs an application that actually does a sync over WiFi without a hack, and silently in the background going off information in a user's cloud account - all of this just sounds like an attention seeking teenager getting very pissy without reading into it first. He's just seen the logo and name and went running in guns blazing.
As with all things related to the news media/blogging community, I am sure a lot of info in this article is false.
That said: This is not the first time Apple has ripped off app ideas from its developer community. That iAd app developed and submitted to the app store (and denied) was later written by Apple. Sherlock was a ripoff of Watson. The Dashoboard was stolen from Konfabulator. I am sure the list goes on and on...
As with all things related to the news media/blogging community, I am sure a lot of info in this article is false.
That said: This is not the first time Apple has ripped off app ideas from its developer community. That iAd app developed and submitted to the app store (and denied) was later written by Apple. Sherlock was a ripoff of Watson. The Dashoboard was stolen from Konfabulator. I am sure the list goes on and on...
I'd like to bring up my Word Perfect and Microsoft Word argument again.
Where to begin? Perhaps they ain't so sophisticated down in Birmingham, but let's see...
-Kid knows that if syncing a device over WiFi was the job of an app store app, his wouldn't have been the first to the table. Its an OS thing, not an App thing.
-Kid develops a shotty and poorly functioning app. I myself paid $10 for his junk, that never ever once worked. He told me where to go, personally, when I asked for a refund.
-Kid put no thought or creativity into the name, he called it WiFi Sync, which is a description of what it does, not a name. Nothing proprietary about it.
-Did I mention his $%^& never worked?
-Kid obviously doesn't know that the Cydia storefront is illegitimate, and not somewhere where you get credit for your work. Its a public testing ground, and Apple keeps a close eye on it. Apple plucks many, many useful tweaks and features from this place, and uses the idea for a better implementation in the official OS.
-Wifi sync was never one of the features Apple "watched and stole". It was a common sense feature that had been held back for a while...and eventually rolled out as part of the overall iOS 5 catch-up-with-feature-requests release.
That about covers it. Hope this kid saved some of that $500,000 he made. He's going to need every penny of it if he's actually dumb enough to challenge Apple over this.
And thank you for this, end of story.
Okay, I'm enjoying a lot of the comments on this thread, but these are annoying. Just because his app didn't work well for you does not make what Apple allegedly did okay. That's the same rational as saying "I murdered someone because he wasn't functioning well in society." I'm sorry his app didn't work for you, but he still put a lot of hard work in it. Whether or not Apple stole this is up to debate (and a very good one, might I add ), but this developer's work is not in question. Don't be naive.
One of my two iphones is jailbroken. I bought his app and it did not work for crap. I emailed the guy NUMEROUS times, got "help ticket numbers" and then he never responded, EVER. So maybe I should legally attack him for putting out a piece of crap that does not work very well, oh wait correction does not work AT ALL.
I sure wasted my money. NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT
I hope apple wipes him all over the carpet
I've seen this kind of comment all over the web from people who bought the app from him. He's just not a good developer, or a very nice guy so it's hard to have much sympathy for him even if the facts were on his side (which they so obviously aren't).
The app itself is a sort of lazy, (if somewhat clever) hack and he never even supported it beyond the first release. Now he's pissed off, but he doesn't have a case, so instead of actually suing Apple, he's just whining all over teh Internets looking for sympathy.
Hey, Apple did explained to him what's wrong with the app and why it was rejected. By selling it in the Cydia store, Apple don't have full obligation to him since Apple never approve this store and it's function for jailbreakers therefore, it is somewhat unrelated.
Get over it. Since the iPhone was first available, WiFi sync has been a major request. This is not a new idea to anyone. WiFi Sync is as generic a name as you can get. Even the logo, which superimposes Apples WiFi icon with that of Time Machines both on the menu bar, is generic at best. His arrows are poorly proportioned too. He?s just trying to get publicity for himself
Comments
Well, it is a simple explanation. No explanation needed unless one is not particularly bright.
However, a simple explanation is often not the real version of what happened.
Would Apple just "jack" some kid's app, including the logo and app name? Really, Apple is that brazen, not to mention stupid?
Apple doesn't need to be brazen or stupid. Of the 12,000 Apple employees in Cupertino, only one such employee needs to screw up to make Apple liable. To speak of Apple as a person capable of being "brazen" or "stupid" is quite ridiculous.
First, wi-fi syncing is not a new concept. Macs currently sync with wireless hard drives through Time Machine. Contacts, Calendars and Email also synced through MobileMe. Syncing is everywhere and offered by companies like Google and Microsoft as well.
Second, the kid does not hold a patent in any idea (at least not that has been reported), and it is highly unlikely Apple borrowed any of the kid's code as Apple's syncing works much differently so Apple hasn't committed a copyright violation.
Third, many non-developers are suggesting the kid didn't break the rules. That is from the kid. Yet, many developers are suggesting it wasn't possible to bring the kid's product to market without breaking the rules. The kid took his app to Cydia and made some money. Good for him. Doesn't prevent Apple from implementing the same feature.
I remember this app coming out and I remember the hype and drama that ensued...and at no point do I remember Apple coming forth and saying that the App broke any rules of the App Store and I know I remember the discussion of this commentary from the Apple rep that gave him the bad news back then
so maybe Apple was working on it in the past before this guy brought his app to market...but it was not a working product and they should have allowed him to sell his app on the App Store...
he did the work and didn?t break the rules so it should have been ok and maybe this guy would have made enough money to say..."hey I can retire and Apple can have my code"
So last year he submits an app to the store. The employee that takes a look at it and realizes what he is looking at. He jumps up from his chair and runs into Steve Jobs office yelling I've discovered iCloud. Apple immediately formulates the entire concept and announces it one year later. Don't we really think that Apple had this concept in mind prior to his submission? I am thinking that Apple recognized how close he was to what they were doing and rejected it to avoid this situation later. Apple would have been smart to dip into petty cash and buy this student off for say one million.
End of Story.
I sure wasted my money. NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT
I hope apple wipes him all over the carpet
WORD Perfect and Microsoft WORD, anyone?
"An Apple representative contacted Hughes to explain the rejection, saying the app didn't "technically break the rules," though it did "encroach upon the boundaries" of what is allowed in the App Store"
Complete bull. It was rejected for security concerns and use of closed APIs, pure and simple.
"According to him, the App Store representative he spoke with last year told him that the iPhone engineering team had seen his app and "were quite impressed."
DING DING! AND HUGES TAKES HOME THE SUPER-DUPER-EGO PRIZE!
He is so full of bullshit... An app that tricks iOS and iTunes into thinking the device is connected via USB vs an application that actually does a sync over WiFi without a hack, and silently in the background going off information in a user's cloud account - all of this just sounds like an attention seeking teenager getting very pissy without reading into it first. He's just seen the logo and name and went running in guns blazing.
If I see him in person, I'll pimp slap him.
...jailbroken... ...did not work...
And that's the risk you take. Get over it. It was five dollars.
That said: This is not the first time Apple has ripped off app ideas from its developer community. That iAd app developed and submitted to the app store (and denied) was later written by Apple. Sherlock was a ripoff of Watson. The Dashoboard was stolen from Konfabulator. I am sure the list goes on and on...
As with all things related to the news media/blogging community, I am sure a lot of info in this article is false.
That said: This is not the first time Apple has ripped off app ideas from its developer community. That iAd app developed and submitted to the app store (and denied) was later written by Apple. Sherlock was a ripoff of Watson. The Dashoboard was stolen from Konfabulator. I am sure the list goes on and on...
I'd like to bring up my Word Perfect and Microsoft Word argument again.
Where to begin? Perhaps they ain't so sophisticated down in Birmingham, but let's see...
-Kid knows that if syncing a device over WiFi was the job of an app store app, his wouldn't have been the first to the table. Its an OS thing, not an App thing.
-Kid develops a shotty and poorly functioning app. I myself paid $10 for his junk, that never ever once worked. He told me where to go, personally, when I asked for a refund.
-Kid put no thought or creativity into the name, he called it WiFi Sync, which is a description of what it does, not a name. Nothing proprietary about it.
-Did I mention his $%^& never worked?
-Kid obviously doesn't know that the Cydia storefront is illegitimate, and not somewhere where you get credit for your work. Its a public testing ground, and Apple keeps a close eye on it. Apple plucks many, many useful tweaks and features from this place, and uses the idea for a better implementation in the official OS.
-Wifi sync was never one of the features Apple "watched and stole". It was a common sense feature that had been held back for a while...and eventually rolled out as part of the overall iOS 5 catch-up-with-feature-requests release.
That about covers it. Hope this kid saved some of that $500,000 he made. He's going to need every penny of it if he's actually dumb enough to challenge Apple over this.
And thank you for this, end of story.
Okay, I'm enjoying a lot of the comments on this thread, but these are annoying. Just because his app didn't work well for you does not make what Apple allegedly did okay. That's the same rational as saying "I murdered someone because he wasn't functioning well in society." I'm sorry his app didn't work for you, but he still put a lot of hard work in it. Whether or not Apple stole this is up to debate (and a very good one, might I add
One of my two iphones is jailbroken. I bought his app and it did not work for crap. I emailed the guy NUMEROUS times, got "help ticket numbers" and then he never responded, EVER. So maybe I should legally attack him for putting out a piece of crap that does not work very well, oh wait correction does not work AT ALL.
I sure wasted my money. NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT
I hope apple wipes him all over the carpet
I've seen this kind of comment all over the web from people who bought the app from him. He's just not a good developer, or a very nice guy so it's hard to have much sympathy for him even if the facts were on his side (which they so obviously aren't).
The app itself is a sort of lazy, (if somewhat clever) hack and he never even supported it beyond the first release. Now he's pissed off, but he doesn't have a case, so instead of actually suing Apple, he's just whining all over teh Internets looking for sympathy.
Wah! sucky baby.
Cheers !
What's with the euphemisms? Appropriating? [R]ipping off? I read articles about this on other sites and most say apple accused of stealing?
Please tell me that was just a very deliberate troll XD
...that of Time Machine...
That of iSync. Time Machine doesn't have squat to do with syncing or the icon.
He?s just trying to get publicity for himself
Agree 100%.