A story from Apple Insider last week discussed some Apple patent filings that collectively promised an enhanced notification system of missed communications.
According to the article, one of the patents “discusses improvements to the iPhone’s notification dialog that informs users of missed calls, text messages, and voicemails when they’re away from their phone or the phone is locked.”
Sound a little like the popular jailbroken app Intelliscreen?
Well renowned iPhone hacker and forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski thinks so too, lambasting Apple in a post on his site: “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is a clear rip-off of the commercial Intelliscreen product.”
Zdziarski wonders if Apple is being unlawfully anti-competitive. They’ve already relegated IntelliScreen to the jailbroken market by banning its inclusion from the App Store. With a successfully granted USPTO patent, however, they could prevent Intelliborn’s distribution of the app all together.
This isn’t the first time Apple’s been accused of “stealing” either. As Zdziarski notes, Apple received some heat in 2004 when it unveiled its Dashboard. Many said it was a copycat of Konfabulator, a $25 Mac program with strikingly similar functionality.
This is getting boring! You guys should switch back to window/mobile or where you came from…
i dont really care how they get it. i think this is a great app. i have had my phone jailbroken just for this app. went to back to legit at 2.1 but i really miss this app.
But I thought Intelliscreen was a prior art before the patent… so Apple can’t stop Intelliscreen.
How can you patent something that exists on every smartphone on the market (except the iPhone that is)?
Morons Apple Filed this Patent before this App was ever released to the public. Plus If they filed this application when they did, it was clearly in planning stages long before that.
ridiculous!
Maybe their patent is for something more-exciting, but I’ve gotta say that the iPhone home-screen/notifications system seems like a huge step BACKWARDS for me personally (coming from Windows Mobile).
My iPhone has all the fanciest toys… but core functions feel very 5-years-ago. Bizarre.