Am I the only one tired of hearing Apple "stole" this and that?

GroundZeroX

GroundZeroX

Searching for logic
It seems like the way you get a lot of attention in this forum is by claiming Apple stole something from you.

Launchbar was "copied" in Spotlight, even though Apple developed the frameworks for addressbook, calendar, itunes, iphoto, and etc, along with the Searchkit that it uses.

Konfabulator was "copied" in Dashboard, even though it is based on webkit, based off of the idea of Desktop Accessories from the original MacOS, and Konfabulator copied DesktopX, and Active Desktop.

Well I want a lot of attention too. Apple stole my idea of making the iPod's in various sizes. Can you believe it? I kept getting e-mails congratulating me on Apple hiring me because it was my idea long before there were so many sizes out.
 
very well said groudnzerox

clap clap :)

ull find that those wining are probably windoze fans so its not that weird.. ppl like kendall will allways waTch keynotes so that they can find somethin negative to say bout apple.

ppl like me will sit n enjoy the keynotes with a little pop corn to see what their favourite company has to anounce... i think u understand what im sayin !
 
I said it before and I'll say it again. If these damn developers think they have something groundbreaking and wonderful on their hands, then go patent it and prevent people from copying it. Otherwise, if you make something cool, release it to the public and fail to protect your intellectual property, then you're begging to have it stolen, and deserve it rightfully so.

When you have a good idea, you sculpt it, then you protect it, then you cultivate it. Don't show anyone else until you've covered your ass, and if you do, then you brought your own fate upon yourself.

Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke were begging for people to rip this idea off. Same goes for Watson. I'm sure the folks at Unsanity will be whining soon when Apple introduces "skinning" of the OS, but you know what? Good. Better run out and get that patent soon, guys.
 
I am also sick of developers who, seemingly carelessly, don't patent their ideas and then when something like it pops up a year later, they get cry that apple stole their idea (along with their most loyal followers)
 
In the case of Konfabulator, they probably couldn't get a patent for it because they weren't the first one to implement something like this. The only thing that is similar to Dashboard is how the things look.

As others have said many times the Windows Active Desktop used Javascript as well.
 
i love how some are so heartless about the current situation with dashboard and spotlight. i hope, assuming everyone on this board is human, that if someone straight jacked your idea, "widget for "widget," youd be a little upset to say the least.

as for patenting konfabulator or launchbar, does anyone really know how much it costs to patent something? im guessing NO since everyone throws the point out like its such a simple option. try $20+ thousand for starters. im guessing most hobbiests/developers or YOU dont have that kind of money to throw around at every great idea.

i also love how everyone is claiming desktop accessories or whatever other poorly implemented "tiny utility" is anything like konfabulator. the truth of the matter is, first off, most of you are just repeating what someone else on this forum said and second, you've never used desktop accessories. if you've had, youd know, KONFABULATOR IS NOTHING FREAKIN LIKE IT! konfabulator is truly unique, there was NOTHING remotely like it out there until dashboard. not desktopx, not active desktop!

the point is, if you're the little guy, pouring 1000s of hours into something you believe in, be it software or whatever, only to have the big guy steal it, its really a low blow.

the plain and simple truth is, sherlock killed watson and dashboard is going to kill konfabulator. when someone kills something dear to you, remember what asses you were and dont spend 1 sec feeling sorry for yourselves.

just because its happened a million times before and will happen a million times again, stealing someone elses ideas and using them for monetary gain is WRONG. its no excuse.

im tired of all the jackasses out there playing devils advocate, quoting crap they know NOTHING about and bring up points that are totally MUTE.
 
so the guy Arlo at konfabulator is pooring thousands of hours just to get 10 bucks from here and there just because he loves it ?!!

damn, apple is mean, they put it out of work now!!!

lol, is this buy beein payed by Bill to say all this cr*p ???
 
Kendall: Yes, DAs weren't what Konfabulator is. But Dashboard *IS* DAs. Surely, it's DAs on steroids, but it's still DAs. And believe me: I _did_ use DAs back then.

I _also_ think Apple should _buy_ the products they want to copy/steal/whatever rather than just copying them. But with Dashboard, I see other roots within Apple's developments than Konfab only. And to say Spotlight's like LaunchBar (I'm using LB since very early in its development and LOVE it for launching apps - but not the rest) is just plain stupid, because all it might have in common is that you enter 'keystrokes' and get a 'popup menu'. You might agree that the Spotlight _technology_ has nothing to do with LaunchBar. Now how would you suggest Apple should have implemented it system wide? I think the menubar's the right place for it, and I think a pulldown-menu's the right choice for showing the results.
 
$20+ thousand for starters
Click to expand...
That would be like 1000 people registering Konfabulator IIRC. I think many more have done that, so the cash wouldn't be a problem IMO.

I agree with GroundZeroX: Apple makes the OS and all the wonderful system utilities under the hood that are being exploited by 3d party developers. Hey, OmniWeb switched to WebKit: did they "steal it"? Did Apple bankrupt OmniWeb and Opera by bringing out a free browser? Are all the competing free browsers (Camino, FireFox) dead? No: there is healthy competition. The idea of tabs is being copied in one direction, the idea of "open as tabs" in the other: everyone is getting better this way. It's an exchange of ideas and inspiration. Did Watson go out of buisness? No: they are being bought by an undisclosed big company (M$? Apple after all?). Konfabulator could go open source, it could go Windows (js is js after all). Many options. Whining is pointless, especially in the light of overwhelming prior art, which is the true problem here, not the money to patent an idea.
 
GroundZeroX nailed it... Congrats! And GrounZeroX as you see, you are not alone on this...

Thank God!

†† AmeN ††
 
I wonder how long it will be before Apple gets in trouble for bundelling all this stuff in with the OS.

It's fair enough that they're producing things like this, but they have an unfair advantage in bundeling it in with the OS.

Microsoft have got in trouble in Europe for bundelling Windows Media Player in with the OS and so killing off the market for other media players; they've got in trouble everywhere for the whole bundled IE thing; I wonder if Apple will get in trouble for similar practices too.
 
probably not since they dont have monopoly in the OS-world.
my take on the whole thing: nobody would have complained had the "widgets" had brushed metal look, but just cause they use silly colors everybody thinks about konfabulator. we have had stickys and calculator for decades, now they pop up with help from apples own technology (exposé) and you dont have to waste dock-space on them.

but i do think that apple could have had the intelligence to realise some peoples reaction and given the konfabulator developers some symbolic sum. i have not checked the facts if this ever happened, but some forum member said that the developer of konfabulator had been in court against apple before (regarding kaleidoscope). maybe apple disslikes him from that experience.
 
Well said, GroundZero. I'm frankly getting a little fed up with the current trend towards blaming anybody who creates something for stealing the idea.

I am currently trying to patent a product that I believe there is a significant market for worldwide. One of the downsides in my plan is that the product is something almost implicit, even inevitable, and it is only a matter of time before another company releases it. The point is though, that even though the product is implicit in existing technologies, its up to me to actually develop it because no-one else is doing it. I'm not looking forward to people telling me that I ripped the idea off from x or y.
 
Apple will only start to get in trouble for bundling this stuff once it becomes a 50 billion dollar company, and they have 95%+ of the computer market.

Groundzerox. Well said.
 
Hear Hear!!!

And as an added bonus, let's not get all that riled up the next time our favorite Megalith in Redmond goes about trying to improve the user experience by copying Apple ideas either.

Even when an idea is copied, it's the implementation that matters, how well is the concept brought into reality. If Dashboard sucks, what shall we say?

From the "Said it Before" Archive - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Arlo - consider yourself flattered.
 
kendall said:
as for patenting konfabulator or launchbar, does anyone really know how much it costs to patent something? im guessing NO since everyone throws the point out like its such a simple option. try $20+ thousand for starters. im guessing most hobbiests/developers or YOU dont have that kind of money to throw around at every great idea.
Click to expand...

Hardly. Try a few thousand dollars. Some things/ideas you can patent for under $1000.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fees.htm
 
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