cabron Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 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. “[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? Source: PT Supersite Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoL Veteran Posted January 30, 2010 Veteran Share Posted January 30, 2010 Classics app for the iPhone use the same interface too. Classics is even closer to iBooks. http://www.classicsapp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabron Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 Classics app for the iPhone use the same interface too. Classics is even closer to iBooks. http://www.classicsapp.com/ Also the Commodore 64 for the iphone use a similar UI: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyX Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Also the Commodore 64 for the iphone use a similar UI: I know it's off-topic, but the picture you gave us directly told me that emulators for older consoles on the iPad will totally rock!!! I agree with the developer of the Facebook app, the iPhone had great potential, but it was limited to the size of the screen. On-topic : When I saw the Book shelf in the keynote, I immediately thought about Delicious Library... I like Apple's version a little more, but yeah they really copied it. But then again, every app on the iPad seems to be more realistic, the book shelf where we store the books is one example, the contacts app really looks like an address book, the calendar app really looks like a calendar, the photos app is basically piles of photos that represent events, and so on. I think it was inevitable that they would choose a book shelf to make their app look closer to reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted January 30, 2010 Member Share Posted January 30, 2010 Looks like a common interface to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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