Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Developer Accuses Apple Of Stealing His Breathe App (www.bgr.in)

Posted by msmash on from the fake-it-till-you-make-it dept.

On Monday at its Worldwide Developer's Conference, Apple announced a new app called Breathe as one of the new headline features for watchOS 3, the latest version of its operating system for Apple Watch. The health-centric app reminds users to take a moment and breathe. But was it company's own idea? App developer Ben Erez is accusing Apple of stealing features from his app. What's worse, he adds that the company even used the same name for its app. Erez tells BGR India in a statement: We've had the same concept, same spelling, same functionality in the App store for phone and watch for over a year. We built the app because the existing mindfulness apps were insufficient in that they all focus on intense sessions of 5-20 minutes, once per day. We wanted a mindfulness experience that was felt throughout the day in smaller bits.

109 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Moral of the story... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Come up with an original app that Apple is less likely to steal and claim as its own.

    1. Re:Moral of the story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, the moral is to come up with an unoriginal app. If you make something new and unique and useful, that is what they'll steal.

    2. Re:Moral of the story... by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Funny

      Come up with an original app that Apple is less likely to steal and claim as its own.

      Obligatory.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    3. Re:Moral of the story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We wanted a mindfulness experience that was felt throughout the day in smaller bits.

      http://i.imgur.com/44qOoU5.jpg

    4. Re:Moral of the story... by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      how is apple stealing his app? the app is still there

    5. Re:Moral of the story... by wardrich86 · · Score: 2

      Stealing his idea, and in turn, his userbase.

    6. Re:Moral of the story... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      Come up with an original app that Apple is less likely to steal and claim as its own.

      I don't know about original, but I don't think Apple will steal any of my fart apps.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    7. Re:Moral of the story... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      And potential ad revenue.

    8. Re:Moral of the story... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Even more obligatory

    9. Re:Moral of the story... by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      his idea still there too. in his head along with the bits and code he wrote

    10. Re:Moral of the story... by JeffOwl · · Score: 1

      They are only stealing it in the same sense that Steve Jobs accused the Android team of stealing Apple's ideas 15 years after admitting that Apple steals other people's ideas.

    11. Re:Moral of the story... by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      you can't steal something someone doesn't have yet

    12. Re:Moral of the story... by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      Nah, doesn't have rounded corners.

    13. Re:Moral of the story... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      you can't steal something someone doesn't have yet

      Steal the user base, steal the potential revenue.

    14. Re:Moral of the story... by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      then he should make his app better, find some other business model or sell some cups and t-shirts with his app logo

    15. Re: Moral of the story... by fermion · · Score: 1

      Or when the prior art is over 2500 years old, don't freak out when someone mistakenly thinks it is public domain.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    16. Re:Moral of the story... by JediJorgie · · Score: 3, Informative

      For now. Remember that Apple has killed many apps for "duplicating built in functionality." It has happened many times.

    17. Re:Moral of the story... by fsagx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The relevant section of the App Store Review Guidelines:

      https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#copycats

      Also interesting:

      5.2.5 Apple Products: Don’t create an app that appears confusingly similar to an existing Apple product

      Now his app can be removed for the app store for being confusingly similar to the official app which came later!

    18. Re:Moral of the story... by gnupun · · Score: 1

      Neither Picard nor Bill.G have a product featuring a touchscreen. Microsoft's 2002 tablet needed a stylus, like Palm Pilot. Pre iphone/ipad tablets were specialized PDAs for a very niche market. Smartphones, OTOH, are full blown computers having a huge spectrum of apps.

    19. Re:Moral of the story... by Drizzt+Do'Urden · · Score: 1

      A stylus like this product from 1993?

      --
      Menzoberranzan Networks
    20. Re:Moral of the story... by mrclevesque · · Score: 2

      "Neither Picard nor Bill.G have a product featuring a touchscreen"

      Is that only because it was too expensive at the time to include in a consumer device

    21. Re:Moral of the story... by BronsCon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Those screens also reacted to finger input. The stylus was provided for increased writing accuracy and to prevent fingerprinting the fuck out of the screen. What was different about Apple's touch screen is that it was capacitive, like your laptop's touchpad, rather than resistive, enabling it to track multiple touch points at once (but preventing it from tracking non-conductive objects such as a pointy plastic stylus). An Apple's iPhone wasn't even the first to apply multi-touch to a display; that distinction goes to Mitsubishi.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    22. Re:Moral of the story... by BronsCon · · Score: 2

      Or, Apple, realizing that thee strength of their platform is in the apps provided by third-party developers, should do everything in their power to build goodwill with those developers and avoid screwing them over, as in this case. It doesn't take many instances of this before developers begin to view your platform as toxic.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    23. Re:Moral of the story... by wardrich86 · · Score: 2

      Tell that to the RIAA/MPAA

    24. Re:Moral of the story... by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Palm Pilots used touchscreens. Crappy resistive touch screens, but touch screens nonetheless. You didn't have to use a stylus, a finger worked fine. No so good for writing though.

      Tablet PC's were available with multi-touch screens too, like the 2005 Lenovo XC60

    25. Re:Moral of the story... by msauve · · Score: 3, Funny

      "I don't think Apple will steal any of my fart apps."

      The perfect antagonist to the Breathe app.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    26. Re:Moral of the story... by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      No this is the best thing that happened to him, he can sue them for millions now.

    27. Re: Moral of the story... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Unfunny if meant as a joke, idiotic reply if not.

      A lot of apps are clones of a successful app. If someone comes up with an original app that goes viral, a multitude of clones will appear in its wake. Why? Because its easier to copy a proven money-making app than come up with an original app that may fail and not make money. With Apple being the 800-pound gorilla in the walled garden, an original app should be something that Apple is less likely to claim as its own.

  2. F'ing useless app by flyingfsck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Reminding people to breathe warrants an igNobel prize.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    1. Re: F'ing useless app by robbo · · Score: 1, Informative

      Maybe you should read up on the evidence supporting the health benefits of mindfulness tasks before you write it off as useless.

      --
      So long, and thanks for all the Phish
    2. Re: F'ing useless app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I agree - the health benefits of breathing are indisputable!

    3. Re: F'ing useless app by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      Anywhere to read up on these benefits where they aren't selling something?

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    4. Re: F'ing useless app by war4peace · · Score: 1

      Mindfulness has health benefits.
      I am not selling anything to you, kind sir, but wouldn't mind if you'd buy some of the mindfulness-related shit I have up for sale...

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    5. Re: F'ing useless app by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, right. I'm going to prove you all wrong. I'm going to stop breathing right now.

      Hum okay, I have to admit it's a bit uncomfortable.

      Actually, this is getting quite painful.

      I guess you guys were right aft

    6. Re: F'ing useless app by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      It's usefulness is irrelevant. It's simply not terribly inventive.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    7. Re: F'ing useless app by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      Yeah, right. I'm going to prove you all wrong. I'm going to stop breathing right now.

      Hum okay, I have to admit it's a bit uncomfortable.

      Actually, this is getting quite painful.

      I guess you guys were right aft

      Reminds me of a friend who decided to give up his filthy habits of pissing and shitting.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    8. Re:F'ing useless app by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When an AC on Slashdot reminds you to breathe, he's an annoying troll. But when an app on an overpriced gadget reminds you to breathe, it's big business.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    9. Re: F'ing useless app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's usefulness is irrelevant. It's simply not terribly inventive.

      It IS useful and inventive, probably even patentable.
      it reminds you to breathe ON YOUR PHONE!
      Before we'd only had:
      reminders to breathe ON THE INTERNET
      reminders to breathe ON A COMPUTER
      and of course, the original :
      reminders to breathe FROM A PERSON

    10. Re: F'ing useless app by Tharkkun · · Score: 1

      Mindfulness has health benefits. I am not selling anything to you, kind sir, but wouldn't mind if you'd buy some of the mindfulness-related shit I have up for sale...

      Stupid indian version of a english word. It's just like "please do the needful". It's please do what's necessary.

    11. Re: F'ing useless app by mbeckman · · Score: 4, Funny

      Both Apple and the whiner stole the idea from God, who created the original app to remind us to breathe. It's called Death..

    12. Re: F'ing useless app by Huge_UID · · Score: 1

      NO CARRIER?

    13. Re: F'ing useless app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      People that practice mindfulness tend to use visual or aural aids to focus on.

      Whether it is some weird ASMR tracks, a metronome, a candle, white noise generator, binaural beat generator, all of them are used for focus.
      Even music works as long as it isn't distracting or induces complex thought.

    14. Re: F'ing useless app by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Cool. I'm going to make an application called 'Avoid Death' that reminds you to breathe. Maybe in VR this time.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    15. Re:F'ing useless app by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I'd buy it.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  3. Greater concern... by tvadakia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd be more worried that Apple used Deepak Chopra as a "credible" source.

    --
    Unique.
    1. Re:Greater concern... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Deepak Chopra is a highly credible source for certain things. For example, who would be more credible than he for answering "What color are Deepak Chopra's underpants?"

    2. Re:Greater concern... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well. apparently it wasn't enough that their previous leader died because he believed in bullshit, now the new leader(s) want their customers to "benefit" from
        dangerous medical advice as well.

  4. Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to steal by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember when Microsoft kept getting flak for developing applications that replaced the apps that third-party app developers built for their platform? (e.g., remember WordPerfect, Lotus 123 or Netscape Navigator?)

    This is just Apple following the model of all platform developers: let individual developers take the risk and initial revenues of developing a hot new app, and then build your own version of the most popular ones to collect all future revenues from that type of application.

  5. Read the fine print apple owns the rights to your by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Read the fine print apple owns the rights to your code and ideas.

  6. Re:That's Capitalism Dude! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Would the little guy have been justified in getting a patent?

  7. Information doesn't want to be confused by tepples · · Score: 1

    Mozilla's first choices for the name of its web browser now known as Firefox were Phoenix and Firebird, but Phoenix was already a BIOS with an optional web browser, and Firebird was already a free database management system. Trademarks exist to reduce user confusion, including confusion between one free software project and another.

    1. Re:Information doesn't want to be confused by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Did he have a trademark that Apple are infringing upon?

    2. Re:Information doesn't want to be confused by tepples · · Score: 1

      Probably common-law rights in the unregistered mark "Breathe" in the field of smartwatch apps.

    3. Re:Information doesn't want to be confused by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Probably common-law rights in the unregistered mark "Breathe" in the field of smartwatch apps.

      "Probably" isn't good enough. And even if he did that still doesn't mean Apple was infringing upon it by using it in the way they did.

  8. Re:Read the fine print apple owns the rights to yo by SB5407 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but if not, mind citing the relevant parts?

  9. You know what they say... by vbguyny · · Score: 1

    Good artists create...

  10. Compute damages... by DriveDog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    like RIAA/MPAA do.

    1. Re:Compute damages... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      And then multiply the damages with Verizon math.

    2. Re:Compute damages... by green1 · · Score: 2

      And then have better lawyers and more money to throw at the court system than Apple does... oh wait... you don't have that?

  11. Breathe by rossdee · · Score: 2

    Breathe in the air
    don't be afraid to care

  12. Re:Information wants to be free by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

    the mega corp's information wants to be free. the little guy's info wants to be his

  13. Remember by M0j0_j0j0 · · Score: 2

    Mindfullness, remember this, it will be your next most hated keyword for the 2016/17 season.

  14. No breathe, no life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Mr. Miyagi was unavailable for comment."

  15. Think by Pascoea · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have an idea. It's a new app called "think". Every hour it reminds you to stop and think. That way when you are writing a piece of shit app, your watch will alert you to stop and think "do I really need an app to remind me to breathe?"

    We can have ones called "shit", "drink", "eat", and "fuck", that way you don't forget about any of the other basic human needs.

    1. Re:Think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or improve from stop and think to stop, collaborate, and listen.

    2. Re:Think by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I have an even better idea. It's called "Watch". Every hour it reminds you to stop and watch your wrist, stare at your watch. That way you can remember how much money you wasted on a watch.

    3. Re:Think by hraponssi · · Score: 1

      I have an even better idea. It's called "Watch". Every hour it reminds you to stop and watch your wrist, stare at your watch. That way you can remember how much money you wasted on a watch.

      I like your idea. I think I am going to develop an app called "Watch the Watchers". Every hour it will tell you to stop and watch the watchers watching their watches. We gonna be rich, sir.

  16. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Remember when Microsoft kept getting flak for developing applications that replaced the apps that third-party app developers built for their platform? (e.g., remember WordPerfect, Lotus 123 or Netscape Navigator?)

    This is just Apple following the model of all platform developers

    Except it's not. Microsoft only competed with Third Party developers... you still had to purchase the software and install it. Apple made this guy's app a part of their OS and even named it the exact same thing, basically guaranteeing that no one will ever buy the guy's app. Imagine if Microsoft had bundled Office directly with all versions of the OS and named each one "WordPerfect", "Lotus 123", and "Navigator"... The only one that comes close is IE being integrated into the OS and that caused MS a lot of grief.

    Apple is now 10x more evil than Microsoft ever was.

  17. The legacy left by Steve by cristiroma · · Score: 1

    "Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal"

    1. Re:The legacy left by Steve by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That's a poor paraphrase that doesn't capture the spirit of the original.

      Ironic that...

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    2. Re:The legacy left by Steve by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      That's a poor paraphrase that doesn't capture the spirit of the original.

      He left a quote not a paraphrase. But anyway, the full version is:

      Ultimately it comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what youâ(TM)re doing. I mean Picasso had a saying he said good artists copy great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  18. Re:"Mindfulness" app that reminds you to breathe by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    I've used a 6 minute interval timer for a a few years along with magic dots (see the book Elementary Data Analysis for details) to improve my ability to focus on a task for a long time. It isn't mindfulness, it's psychology - quasi-reinforcement - understanding how the human brain responds to stimulus. The idea came from a psychology professor doing real research in this area. http://blog.sethroberts.net/20...

    Yes mindfulness is sprititual terminology loaded on top of run-of-the-mill mental tricks to stay focused and complete tasks.

    The breath app sounds like an interval timer to me. I used to use the Orztek timer, which turned into the Hourglass app that's currently available. Doing it on a watch doesn't make it new or original. I really want it running on the machine into which my headphones are plugged in, so I hear the beep and take a second to do the interval task that has been shown to cause the quasi-reinforcement effect to happen.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  19. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

    microsoft used to bundle their own versions of the shitty shareware people used to write back in the 90's. they would wait for it to be popular and then code in their own version into the next version of windows. saved a lot of people money

  20. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    Yeah, this is about like Windows solitaire.

    It's much less like whatever Apple is calling it's own productivity apps these days.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  21. Problem with this suggestion by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is just Apple following the model of all platform developers: let individual developers take the risk and initial revenues of developing a hot new app, and then build your own version of the most popular ones to collect all future revenues from that type of application.

    Developer dude's app doesn't run on Apple Watch OS. It only runs on iPhones and IPads. Also, his app is free. Apparently there is some kind of special version of it you can pay $1.99 extra a month for. So yes, I'm sure that Apple saw the tons of revenue that this free app was getting from all 20 crazy people who actually think it is useful and decided that they just had to have some of that sweet cash for themselves.

  22. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Remember when Microsoft kept getting flak for developing applications that replaced the apps that third-party app developers built for their platform? (e.g., remember WordPerfect, Lotus 123 or Netscape Navigator?)

    Wordperfect is still with us, 1-2-3 persisted until 2014, and Netscape was horribly uneven for a time, it wasn't all bundling.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  23. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    Microsoft still does that too. For example:

    15 System Tools You Don’t Have To Install on Windows Anymore
    http://www.howtogeek.com/165522/15-system-tools-you-dont-have-to-install-on-windows-anymore/
    The Windows 8 (now 10) list includes AntiVirus, Firewall, Disc Burning, PDF Viewer, etc.

  24. Re:That's Capitalism Dude! by Carewolf · · Score: 1

    Would the little guy have been justified in getting a patent?

    For breathing? I am pretty sure I have encounted prior art..

  25. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Apple's version of "Breathe" is built-in, how does it brings revenues? You really think people will buy a USD$550 watch to remind them to breathe?

    Just remember that this app also runs on the $22,000 gold iWatch and if you are stupid enough to spend that much on a watch with a one day battery which will be obsolete in a year then you may need a reminder to breathe otherwise you might forget and then Apple will have lost a customer who spends $22k/year.

  26. Re:That's Capitalism Dude! by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    It may be more useful to make an app that reminds people to think, since there sure are not many that knows how to do that.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  27. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    Well, it makes sense if you consider that the price of the watch took their breath away.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  28. No morals to be found there by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess it's time to remind the technical community of Apple's behavior with regard to Konfabulator / Yahoo Widgets again.

    Have a great idea, beware Apple.

    Of course, then they'll screw it up royally, just as they have with Aperture, Logic Pro, Final Cut, Dashboard, and most notably, Finder itself.

    Not that such helps anyone's trampled business model any.

    Apple's tech approach: "embrace and fuck up"

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:No morals to be found there by rgbatduke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Apple's tech approach: "embrace and fuck up"

      Ahhh, it reminds me of the good old days of piracy on the open seas, when Microsoft ate Borland and Lotus and Wordstar and...

      It's simple economics. Apple, like Microsoft, has a huge stable of code monkeys that they have to feed and water occasionally with Jolt cola and potato chips. In order to have enough spare capacity to be able to fix a critical bug in a timely way, maybe, they have to have maybe 50% overcapacity the rest of the time (and besides, hiring the best keeps them out of M$'s unholy hands even if they do nothing but social media all day). So they look for little projects for them to do.

      There, they follow the tried and true M$ path. It is bone simple to wait for somebody else to take all the risk of inventing and developing a new concept or product, and then just use your spare cycles to clone it and make it your own. Since there are a zillion ways to write code, and since it is very difficult to get a software patent these days (and pretty easy to work around it or double dare them to sue you with their finite and your infinite pockets even if there is one) it is zero risk, and since you literally own the operating system and hardware and direct marketing channels, you simply cannot fail to take over anywhere from 1/3 to all of the market. M$ did it over and over again, sometimes leaving the risk taker alive but squeezed down to a tiny market (why kill the goose that lays golden eggs, after all) and sometimes just having goose for dinner. They would even do things like break the code of competitors (but not their own) when releasing OS updates. Who could compete with that, given all of the sales staff to remind customers of how "unreliable" a product has become but not to worry, ours is rock solid...

      But this is evolution in action. Anyone dumb enough to develop for Apple or M$ who ends up being eaten alive after taking all of the risk is just being selected against for stupidity. The best you can hope for is that their developers are busy fixing bugs in their OS and that the parent company decides that it is faster to buy you out than it is to clone you and put you out of business.

      rgb

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    2. Re: No morals to be found there by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      The old canard that Apple stole the idea is not true. The idea of pressing a key and having small widgets show up was done as part of the Apple //GS GUI in 1986.

    3. Re:No morals to be found there by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What's strange is that Apple could turn things into a real positive. "We think this app's idea is so great we're adding it's core functionality into our OS." And add that they've either gave its creator $1,000,000 to buy the app, or gave the creator $500,000 as a thank you for spotlighting a need in our community.

      I mean, it's chump change for the relatively few things they do it to, the PR is great, it means people would be competing to get noticed by Apple, and they could get that same company to try for a second hit by making them feel good and promoting their next apps aggressively.

      Instead, they poison that well

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    4. Re: No morals to be found there by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      karit, key presses aren't at issue here. Nor, more generally, are programs starting because "user input." That's not what either Konfabulator or Dashboard represent. They are entire ecosystems under which other small applications run, keypresses or no, either on the desktop or in an offset environment.

      It's not a canard. It's a bloody fact.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    5. Re: No morals to be found there by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      Third parties could also add small desk accessory style apps with Apple //GS.

    6. Re:No morals to be found there by thoughtlover · · Score: 1

      Yes, I remember how Apple shamelessly stole not only the functionality, but the look of Proteron's LiteSwitch. Sure, Proteron took the concept from Window's alt-tab window-switching behavior, but they added new functionality that allowed users to control apps' behaviors in ways that weren't thought of. They also included mouse drag-and-drop functionality.

      Apple took it all, except some of the power-features --probably to avoid a lawsuit, I assume.

      Apple has long-lost the devotion of the artists and power users... this I attribute to their overt focus on mobile.

      --
      No sig for you! Come back one year!
    7. Re:No morals to be found there by rgbatduke · · Score: 2

      I agree. Apple is just weird, sort of a kinder gentler flakier version of M$. They run Unix as their OS, sort of, rely on the open source community for a pretty good chunk of their back-end Unixoid software at least, do HAVE a decent amount of OSS available, but at the same time they emulate the empire of evil at inopportune times.

      I keep wondering if one day they are going to learn the Sun Microsystems lesson the hard way. You can be a hardware company, or a software company, but if you try to be both you are just asking for it. Apple has survived balanced on that line, but only because they stopped being a "computer company" for the most part and focused on the children of the humble PDA rearranged into PAD or POD. There (including their phone) they've been able to continue to make consumers buy Apple Koolade -- for now. But they (like Sun) are a high margin sales company. They survive only as long as they remain a premier brand that people will pay a premium for, because you PAY a premium compared to Android devices built much more along OS lines. M$ has failed repeatedly to get any suckers to buy their even more overpriced hardware with integrated software.

      We could be moving solidly into the next phase of the small digital device, where one cannot really add more functionality than they already have, where they are already fast enough to do almost anything most people want them to do, where the only dimensions for added value are things like longer battery life or better screens. In the PC world that was signalled by a crash in prices to where survivors survive on the thinnest of margins and where once mighty "name brands" can only eke out a continued, marginally profitable existence but can no longer pay for a dedicated premier sales force and so on. Such a market change could crush Apple (as it crushed Sun, DEC, and countless others during the great Unix shakeout a decade or two ago) and maybe even M$ as well. But M$ still has what remains of the "real computer" world by the balls with its sales agreements, and even though it isn't high margin sales any more, it is nearly free money that they can continue to extort from system vendors indefinitely, and they obviously plan to transform their OS into a rental commodity that you have to renew annually instead of something you buy once to monetize it even after it leaves the store.

      A brave new world, where we pay the M$ tax not once, but every year, with Apple not far behind (I'm sure). But what do I care? I've used nothing but Linux for decades at this point -- even my WinXP VMs haven't been booted for over a year. With Steam, even the game issue is largely moot, although coverage is far from perfect or universal. Don't have much time for games these days anyway, sigh.

      rgb

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    8. Re:No morals to be found there by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Does he expect a exclusive license to apps that remind you to do things? The guy wrote an app that reminds you periodically to breathe. I could write that in about 20 minutes. If the app is so simple that someone can re-write it then it wasn't very novel to begin with. If you write something that's so tricky or detailed or time consuming then the idea protects itself naturally. I think the saying is: easy come, easy go.

      Unless someone copies the code or assets verbatim, which is not what we are talking about here.

      I mean really do you want to live in a world where developer A writes say the flashlight app, and from then on holds a license to the "idea" and one else is able to write a flashlight app?

      Apply that logic to the Real World. Like sandwich shop A has a guy stand on the street corner and wave at cars, and we prevent sandwich shop B from doing the same because A thought of it first?

    9. Re:No morals to be found there by prowler1 · · Score: 1

      Apple's tech approach: "embrace and fuck up"

      Ahhh, it reminds me of the good old days of piracy on the open seas, when Microsoft ate Borland and Lotus and Wordstar and...

      It's simple economics. Apple, like Microsoft, has a huge stable of code monkeys that they have to feed and water occasionally with Jolt cola and potato chips.

      rgb

      Wait... what? They still make Jolt cola? I haven't seen that on the shop shelves for years.

    10. Re:No morals to be found there by rgbatduke · · Score: 1

      http://www.beveragesdirect.com...

      Enjoy. Expensive, but enjoy...

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    11. Re: No morals to be found there by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The idea of pressing a key and having small widgets show up was done as part of the Apple //GS GUI in 1986.

      Is that the one they stole from Xerox, or the one based on the one they stole from Xerox?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    12. Re: No morals to be found there by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      If by "stole" you mean Apple paid Xerox in stock to tour Parc, I guess you're right.

  29. Re:Really? by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 1

    They didn't call it iBreathe or add any Zs or whatever marketing does to trendify names nowadays. A more important question, did he trademark the name? If so, he has a valid legal case against Apple.

    I'm pretty sure you can't trademark common verbs, hence the i's and the z's.

  30. Re: That's Capitalism Dude! by jovius · · Score: 1

    Even better: let's quickly make an app where people can create all kinds of reminders, not just to breathe every once in a while. Perhaps even with a feature to set up periodic reminders. Oh waitâ¦

  31. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by Tharkkun · · Score: 1

    Remember when Microsoft kept getting flak for developing applications that replaced the apps that third-party app developers built for their platform? (e.g., remember WordPerfect, Lotus 123 or Netscape Navigator?) This is just Apple following the model of all platform developers: let individual developers take the risk and initial revenues of developing a hot new app, and then build your own version of the most popular ones to collect all future revenues from that type of application.

    Yup. It happens everywhere. Look at the gaming industry. Every single company borrows ideas from others and then integrates it into their own game as they see fit. What Apple does is no different.

  32. You can't copyright an idea... by mbeckman · · Score: 1

    Or a dictionary Word. Just ask Microsoft.

  33. Join the club by AgNO3 · · Score: 1

    I cant think of them all at the moment but growl was straight up stolen by Apple for notifications.

    --
    OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink :-(
  34. Re:That's Capitalism Dude! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No, that's corporatism, and it is scummy as fuck and needs to be banned.

    Corporations should not be running the world.
    Never mind American ones with their zero regulation, or regulatory authorities THEY create and pay for. (like most of the banking industry do)

    There's nothing wrong with capitalism here and there, but Pure Freedom Is Bad. (in before a hundred anarchist kiddies come screaming by)

  35. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by Amouth · · Score: 1

    I wish i had mod points

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  36. Easy by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    All he has to do is modify his app to remind you to breathe.. and then present an image of a naked woman.

    Then sit back and profit.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  37. Apple's well know for this... by Zanadou · · Score: 1

    It's Steve Christensen's SuperClock (plus many others) all over again.

    And.

    Again.

  38. iMind by JesseEnjaian · · Score: 1

    Apple invents mindfulness and mental well-being. Think Better.

  39. IANAL by tepples · · Score: 1

    "Probably" isn't good enough.

    "Probably" is as good as you'll get for a legal question posed to a public forum, because most of us don't want to spend beaucoup bucks to hire a lawyer just to reply to a comment on Slashdot.

    1. Re:IANAL by exomondo · · Score: 1

      "Probably" isn't good enough.

      "Probably" is as good as you'll get for a legal question posed to a public forum, because most of us don't want to spend beaucoup bucks to hire a lawyer just to reply to a comment on Slashdot.

      What I mean is that the eligibility depends on a number of factors, you dont know enough to say either way. More to the point you can't even say whether Apple would be infringing even if he did have it.

  40. Regardless this is an INSULTING feature! by ecartman12 · · Score: 1

    This really is one of the most insulting features Apple has put into their devices. They are basically saying that we are incapable of breathing without their products! APPLE THINK WE ARE DUMB AS SHIT!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  41. Re:Duh...app stores exist to develop ideas to stea by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Apple is now 10x more evil than Microsoft ever was.

    Apple has 10 convictions for being a monopolist? The things you learn on the back of Hatorade containers....

  42. No shortage of Hatorade, here by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Of course, then they'll screw it up royally, just as they have with Aperture, Logic Pro, Final Cut, Dashboard, and most notably, Finder itself.

    Brining a list of products that Apple has purchased or developed themselves into an Apple-rips-people-off meme? Okay.

    I guess it's time to remind the technical community of Apple's behavior with regard to Konfabulator / Yahoo Widgets again.

    From your own link:

    • The Yahoo Widget Engine (Konfabulator) has a very flexible application programming interface (API) based on JavaScript with many features useful to developers.

    So they used a programming language, to make some apps.

    Er. Ma. Gerd.

    I guess it's time to remind the the technical community of the Apple Newton, which was all about running small apps, long before Konfabulator or smartphones came around.