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Apple Borrows iOS 5's Wi-Fi Sync From Rejected App Submission
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A couple points to remember:
The first-gen Apple TV synced over wifi (or a network cable) with iTunes and did since its release -- so this is not necessarily new technology for Apple. It also pre-dates the app mentioned...
The only question I have is why it took Apple so long to add this feature to iOS synching. I'm only going to guess that they decided they had higher priorities and since synching with a cable worked well enough, it wasn't as critical as other items. They probably wanted to test and optimize it-- wifi syncing the 1G AppleTV could be very slow, and often quit working (you'd have to re-boot the AppleTV or re-install iTunes to get it to come back)...
The first-gen Apple TV synced over wifi (or a network cable) with iTunes and did since its release -- so this is not necessarily new technology for Apple. It also pre-dates the app mentioned...
The only question I have is why it took Apple so long to add this feature to iOS synching. I'm only going to guess that they decided they had higher priorities and since synching with a cable worked well enough, it wasn't as critical as other items. They probably wanted to test and optimize it-- wifi syncing the 1G AppleTV could be very slow, and often quit working (you'd have to re-boot the AppleTV or re-install iTunes to get it to come back)...
I can't believe this is actually an article. Kind of sad. If the article showed that Apple lifted segments of code, line for line, then I would be interested. But the name and icon and feature. Please. We all knew it was coming and they are generic icons and terms.
If anything, I'd say that Greg Hughes was inspired by Apple's iconography when assembling his logo to Wi-Fi Sync. Of course he wanted it to have an Apple-like icon. So, he did a good job of predicting what Apple created for its icon.
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Damn right! Of course this developer will like to take some credit but it was an obvious forthcoming feature. The logo is just iSync + AirPort Signal Icon. Apple did not borrow, steal or anything here.
jdfwarrior said:
Damn right! Of course this developer will like to take some credit but it was an obvious forthcoming feature. The logo is just iSync + AirPort Signal Icon. Apple did not borrow, steal or anything here.
Exactly what I was coming to this thread to say, so I am glad to see yours was the first response to the article.
Neither the idea nor logo was stolen from the other app, and given that the plans for this feature have no doubt been in the minds of Apple since the iPhone was first created, I can fully understand why they rejected the original app from the AppStore. The only way this is underhanded is if Apple copied the code of the other developer, which I have no clue if they did of course. But if I'm Mr. Hughes, I am going to do everything I can to find out.
The creator of the app (who did something cool and I hope saw some success) borrowed Apples WiFi and Sync icons to make a WiFi Sync icon (not that others havent used those symbols too).
Its absurd to think that iOS would never cut the cord as it evolved; that was inevitable regardless of the existence of this app. It was always a matter of time.
And its absurd to think that Apple should not have used their already-existing WiFi and Sync icons in combination, just because someone else already combined them! Should Apple have made up two entirely new, unknown symbols for this purpose, not matching the rest of Apples products?
Whose eyebrows are being raised by this?
It may be absurd, but if the creator of the Cydia WiFi Sync took Apple to court for it, he could probably win a case. The court would not consider the absurdity of not reusing their own logos.
I used Wifi Sync at one point from cydia but I had to uninstall it because there was an issue with restoring my device. It always provided me with an error no matter what I did. I did some research on google and found out that I was not the only one with this issue and the culprit was definitely Wifi Sync.
I would have reinstalled it if it wasn't such a huge pain in the ass to uninstall.
I would have reinstalled it if it wasn't such a huge pain in the ass to uninstall.
It would be a very brave 20 year-old student to take Apple to court I'm pretty sure the court would recognise the name 'Wi-Fi Sync' is far too generic and not that this is a patent case, but there is plenty of 'prior art'.
Apple would only have had the app binary, not the source code. Apple would have had to implement it from scratch, not that that would have been a problem for them
I guess Apple can never introduce new features into the OS because someone, somewhere has thought of it.
The idea of Wi-Fi syncing is not unique.
Exactly, if they weren't entitled to screw over devs we wouldn't have had QE antialiasing (Silk, on OS X 10.1.5), Dashboard (actually that would be really nice! Konfabulator, etc. OS X 10.3.9), plenty of others I'm forgetting, volume button for camera shutter in iOS5
.Someone should take the Samsung lawyer approach - devs need to see what you're planning for the future so they know what not to pre-emptively copy
!
If Jonestown had apologists as good as these, they would never have had to drink their Kool-aid.
Wifi Syncing is a feature that has been widely requested by users for many years, Apple going through with it does not mean they are stealing...
as for the icon...
as for the icon...
yeah some sort of place where original ideas could be, perhaps, Patented?
Kind of like http://www.ipo.gov.uk and http://www.uspto.gov/ then yeah?
I hope you were being sarcastic...
What was the icon supposed to look like?!?
And syncing over wi-fi- I'm sorry, but what part of that is the "Oh holy crap that's amazingly original and I never thought of that" part?
This was an obvious evolution of sync. Apple probably could have scored some P.R. points and hired the kid or bought the app, but to be honest, his app was pretty inconsistent- I bought it.
I really think they need to allow multiflow, sbs settings and lockinfo in to the app store. Seriously.
Navigate from maps, mark read, mail rules... there are about a dozen others I am eagerly awaiting a jailbreak for iOS 5 for. But Wi-Fi sync, while useful, was not a groundbreaking idea that was not obviously going to be implemented in a future version of iOS.
And syncing over wi-fi- I'm sorry, but what part of that is the "Oh holy crap that's amazingly original and I never thought of that" part?
This was an obvious evolution of sync. Apple probably could have scored some P.R. points and hired the kid or bought the app, but to be honest, his app was pretty inconsistent- I bought it.
I really think they need to allow multiflow, sbs settings and lockinfo in to the app store. Seriously.
Navigate from maps, mark read, mail rules... there are about a dozen others I am eagerly awaiting a jailbreak for iOS 5 for. But Wi-Fi sync, while useful, was not a groundbreaking idea that was not obviously going to be implemented in a future version of iOS.
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I felt like the developer of the Cydia app is the one that "stole". Thousands of us paid $10 for this app that never worked, and waited patiently for an update that never came (2.0). Apple will have the intellectual capacity to do this right. Greg had a great idea, but couldn't pull it off.
tempusfugit said:
I felt like the developer of the Cydia app is the one that "stole". Thousands of us paid $10 for this app that never worked, and waited patiently for an update that never came (2.0). Apple will have the intellectual capacity to do this right. Greg had a great idea, but couldn't pull it off.
I think this is why Job's had a hard time keeping a straight face, and every one else at the WWDC laughed their a4ses off when he announced it.
+1
Possibly, but then Apple would drop a trademark infringement suit on his ass for using their Wi-fi logo
This Greg is just annoyed that Apple rejected his app, that could never exist because of its reliance on private APIs.
And as everyone is saying, this feature is so obvious, seeing as Zune had it ages from day 1 (so did Greg not copy Microsoft?)