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Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

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Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#111
post #64

Aptly put by the author: See you in court @Apple https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1437845736951992321

Does the author stand a chance against the army of ivy league lawyers of a trillion dollar megacorp? I guess it would help if he's also American (don't know where he's from) so he could fight Apple on home turf and use the jury system on his side like "Evil megacorp steals from the little guy" (does it even work like this in the US or did I watch too many movies?), but I'm more curious how a lawsuit would go if he'd…

Legally I’m not sure the small developer has a chance. Not because the courts are unjust, it’s just hard to say whether Apple broke any laws here. It’s not to say they didn’t, it just doesn’t seem like there’s any slam dunk legal argument about wrongdoing (despite who this might feel morally).

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#113

It’s flux all over again. Sometimes they just buy out the app developer. think they did this with Dark Sky?

I have the new Weather app in iOS 15 which is the replacement for Dark Sky and they made it better. This was surprising to me.

I can't set custom alerts anymore for e.g., umbrella or UV, but the automatic alerts are exactly how I wanted them anyway... and it's nice that the app changes which data is shown based on the current conditions: if it's going to rain, the map shows weather radar instead of temperature

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#114
What made me leave the iPhone ecosystem, many years ago, was when they pulled all the podcatchers off the app store because they were going to be adding podcast support to iTunes soon. Not only that but getting podcasts from iTunes at the time meant plugging your iPhone into your computer running iTunes, much less convenient than having your phone download things over WiFi. Especially since I was using Linux and didn't have a computer that could run iTunes.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the author stand a chance against the army of ivy league lawyers of a trillion dollar megacorp? I guess it would help if he's also American (don't know where he's from) so he could fight Apple on home turf and use the jury system on his side like "Evil megacorp steals from the little guy" (does it even work like this in the US or did I watch too many movies?), but I'm more curious how a lawsuit would go if he'd…

Legally I’m not sure the small developer has a chance. Not because the courts are unjust, it’s just hard to say whether Apple broke any laws here. It’s not to say they didn’t, it just doesn’t seem like there’s any slam dunk legal argument about wrongdoing (despite who this might feel morally).

>it’s just hard to say whether Apple broke any laws here

Doesn't stealing someone's idea for an app/innovation and respinning it into your own implementation count as IP theft?

IIRC the Winklevoss twins got paid handsomely as a settlement for Zuckerberg stealing their idea for Facebook. Granted, they were very rich and well connected so that helped.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#116

Meh. The problem is FlickType requires network access during use. The App store licensing is ok with keyboards, it's not ok with keyboards that get network access. This, Apple perceives as a major privacy issue-- one for the possibility of keylogging, but also for the broader possibility of the always-on logging that the weather apps are infamous for. edit: Sorry, I didn't include the source, the Developer License Ag…

According to this tweet from the author, that isn't the reason Apple gave for removing it: https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1437845736951992321

They simply said keyboards on the watch are not allowed.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#119

Meh. The problem is FlickType requires network access during use. The App store licensing is ok with keyboards, it's not ok with keyboards that get network access. This, Apple perceives as a major privacy issue-- one for the possibility of keylogging, but also for the broader possibility of the always-on logging that the weather apps are infamous for. edit: Sorry, I didn't include the source, the Developer License Ag…

Why does Apple enable a feature that no one is allowed to use?

    assert !(KEYBOARD_ACCESS && NETWORK_ACCCESS)
is much cheaper than manually checking every app.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#120

Meh. The problem is FlickType requires network access during use. The App store licensing is ok with keyboards, it's not ok with keyboards that get network access. This, Apple perceives as a major privacy issue-- one for the possibility of keylogging, but also for the broader possibility of the always-on logging that the weather apps are infamous for. edit: Sorry, I didn't include the source, the Developer License Ag…

You’re kidding right? There is no such restriction on keyboards. How do you think the Bitmoji keyboard works?
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