Konfabulator's Creator Responds to Dashboard; Watson's Technology Purchased
(Can you say "rip off"? Apple should be kinda ashamed of this.)
28 June 2004 16:44 EST
Peter Kirn, Associate Editor
The PowerPage was among the first to report the release of Arlo Rose's Konfabulator utility, to which Apple's newly-announced Dashboard bears more than a passing resemblance. In a nod to Apple's 'Redmond, start your copiers,' the Konfabulator site currently takes a jab at Cupertino for stealing ideas from third parties. Why should you care? If you haven't tried Konfabulator lately, aside from saving you the wait until 2005 for OS X 10.4, there are currently 650 user widgets available for download, including widgets identical to most of the widgets demonstrated in Apple's Dashboard.
The story sounds a lot like the Watson / Sherlock controversy, which arose when Apple cloned Karelia's excellent Watson utility. And in more News of the Strange for third party utilities, that technology has apparently been purchased, possibly by Sun: read the FAQ on Karelia's site. (More details as they become available)
My take: imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but my plan is to run Konfabulator alongside OS X 10.4's more unique (non-copied) features.
Here's the full open letter from Arlo Rose, as sent to me and other press outlets:
While Redmond is stealing ideas from Cupertino, it seems Cupertino is stealing ideas from its third party developers. Konfabulator, the first utility to allow users skinable easy to create desk accessory-like objects written in JavaScript, has served as the template for Apple's new feature Dashboard. As a result, we'd like let the Mac OS X community know that if they'd like to get their hands on Dashboard now rather than wait 'till 'the first half of 2005' they can.
Simply go to http://www.konfabulator.com, and download a copy of Konfabulator today to see what the fuss is all about!
Konfabulator is a $25 application that allows for the use of files called Widgets. Widgets are built with a combination of XML, JavaScript, can include AppleScript and Unix calls, and can look and do whatever you want them to.
Want more than the default Widgets? Visit the Widget Gallery with over 650 user contributed Widgets that range from amazingly addictive games, to incredibly useful utilities.
"
28 June 2004 16:44 EST
Peter Kirn, Associate Editor
The PowerPage was among the first to report the release of Arlo Rose's Konfabulator utility, to which Apple's newly-announced Dashboard bears more than a passing resemblance. In a nod to Apple's 'Redmond, start your copiers,' the Konfabulator site currently takes a jab at Cupertino for stealing ideas from third parties. Why should you care? If you haven't tried Konfabulator lately, aside from saving you the wait until 2005 for OS X 10.4, there are currently 650 user widgets available for download, including widgets identical to most of the widgets demonstrated in Apple's Dashboard.
The story sounds a lot like the Watson / Sherlock controversy, which arose when Apple cloned Karelia's excellent Watson utility. And in more News of the Strange for third party utilities, that technology has apparently been purchased, possibly by Sun: read the FAQ on Karelia's site. (More details as they become available)
My take: imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but my plan is to run Konfabulator alongside OS X 10.4's more unique (non-copied) features.
Here's the full open letter from Arlo Rose, as sent to me and other press outlets:
While Redmond is stealing ideas from Cupertino, it seems Cupertino is stealing ideas from its third party developers. Konfabulator, the first utility to allow users skinable easy to create desk accessory-like objects written in JavaScript, has served as the template for Apple's new feature Dashboard. As a result, we'd like let the Mac OS X community know that if they'd like to get their hands on Dashboard now rather than wait 'till 'the first half of 2005' they can.
Simply go to http://www.konfabulator.com, and download a copy of Konfabulator today to see what the fuss is all about!
Konfabulator is a $25 application that allows for the use of files called Widgets. Widgets are built with a combination of XML, JavaScript, can include AppleScript and Unix calls, and can look and do whatever you want them to.
Want more than the default Widgets? Visit the Widget Gallery with over 650 user contributed Widgets that range from amazingly addictive games, to incredibly useful utilities.
"
posted by Ian at
Monday, June 28, 2004
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