

Apple iPad's iBook rips off indie dev's creation - krtl
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/apple-tablet-ebook/

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mr_eel
Yet, in the same article the author mentions Delicious Library's influence on
the design of Classics.

Rip off, my behind. It's an _obvious_ metaphor. Commenters on the article even
point out other examples like Shelfari.

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jotto
Let us not forget that one of the originals behind Delicious Library now works
(or did work) at Apple - <http://www.mikematas.com/>

~~~
arfrank
He left in july 2009 I believe. Cant pull up dead link to the blog post, cache
wont work, but here is the link to the google search
[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mike+matas+leaves+a...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mike+matas+leaves+apple&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)

~~~
jstevens85
You're a bit off there. He joined Apple in 2005.

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pyre
How do you figure? If he joined Apple in 2005 and left in July 2009, what's
the issue? What's 'a bit off?'

~~~
jstevens85
Sorry, I read your post as he _joined_ in July 2009, which would make Apple's
use of the bookshelf more suspicious.

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dcurtis
Wil Shipley responded to this very eloquently:

"As a creator, part of what I seek is recognition, immortality. I don’t work
for Apple or Google (I’ve been offered jobs & buyouts) because I want the fame
myself. It’s my shot at immortality. My designs are my children. So it stinks
when I feel like Steve might get the fame for my innovation. I lose my
children, as it were.

But your children aren’t really yours. They have lives of their own. So when
your designs do change the world, you have to accept it. You have to say, ‘Ok,
this was such a good idea, other people took it and ran with it. I win.’"

WIL SHIPLEY, DELICIOUS MONSTER

~~~
Zev
Theres also this quote that he tweeted earlier today, that I'm becoming
partial to: _If Delicious Library were just a pretty set of shelves, I’d be
really pissed. But it’s a lot more, and very different from iBooks._ \-
<http://twitter.com/wilshipley/status/8290423381>

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Towle_
"[I]ts similarities ... are beyond the realm of coincidence."

Though certainly far from their most avid reader, I must say I generally enjoy
reading _Wired_ 's content quite a bit. That gem right there, however, made me
want to throw up.

Is anyone familiar enough with Wired's writers to declare this an isolated
incident? Maybe then the nasty taste in my throat would go away, and I
wouldn't have to worry about coming across this level of obvious dickishness
in their articles were I to start reading them more regularly.

"The 3D page-flipping effect looks almost exactly the same." How many ways are
there to animate a flipping book page? It's not like we're talking about tons
of different moving parts. There's like...one.

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tlrobinson
A _book_ reader using _books_ on a _bookshelf_ as a metaphor?

Phil Ryu is a master of marketing. Making a fuss about this is just another
press opportunity.

~~~
phillryu
I just want to note that I am listed as co-creator of this app for a reason,
and marketing was an afterthought with Classics after creating a really great
reading experience.

That having been said, I sympathize with your disbelief. Yeah, what we did was
obviously a direct port of reading real books. But you have no idea how much
crap we took for doing exactly that – what I considered the obvious. To a lot
of people apparently things like a page flip port seemed completely idiotic.
To me it was an integral part of the enjoyment of reading books that had been
lacking in most ereader experiences.

We did reap the rewards too, so ultimately I can't really complain, and we
always joked that Apple would eventually rip off the page flip since it just
makes sense. All those TV ads Apple featured Classics in now seem strange in
retrospect though, presuming iBooks was designed and under developed before
our app's release.

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pavs
Wired editor rips off sensational title.

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ghshephard
I was just inspired to go download the (free) instance of Classics. It had an
odd page-turning automation graphic (both pulling up too much of the screen,
distracting, as well as not being very controllable - hard to turn a page a
bit without moving it all the way).

For the _life_ of me I couldn't figure out where to find the options on how to
change the font size - obviously it's there some place (nobody makes an
ereader without the ability to change font size ) - but no amount of clicking,
checking in settings, or otherwise scanning could reveal it.

Regardless, I feel reassured in my $9.99 investment in Eucalyptus - which has
all of the above (page turning, font size) nailed - better than the Kindle
App, actually.

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peyton
Wow, I'm surprised Apple didn't just buy Delicious Library outright, like they
bought SoundJam MP for iTunes, or Cover Flow for Cover Flow, or plenty of
other small developers for features.

~~~
tlrobinson
No, they went for not buying it just like they didn't buy Konfabulator for
Dashboard, and probably dozens of other examples.

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hexley
Why should they have paid Konfabulator for Dashboard? They invented Desk
Accessories back in System 1.0

~~~
tlrobinson
Any why should they pay for a product which uses the same obvious bookshelf
metaphor?

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zandorg
If it doesn't have the barcode/iCam feature (where you swipe a book under the
camera and it reads the ISBN) then it's a pale shadow of Delicious Library.

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chaostheory
"Bad artists copy. Great artists steal" - Pablo Picasso

~~~
tlrobinson
It's "good artists copy, great artists steal":

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU>

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earl
Yes. Who would _possibly_ think of a bookshelf as a metaphor for your
collection of books.

~~~
dcurtis
To be fair, there are two other things at play here.

* 1. No app had ever displayed books on a bookshelf in this way until Delicious Monster did.

* 2. The designer who designed the bookshelf UI at Delicious Monster was poached by Apple to work on the iPad team.

(And because I'm irritated by comments on Hacker News lately, I just want to
point out that sarcasm is the simplest form of humor.)

~~~
jstevens85
"The designer who designed the bookshelf UI at Delicious Monster was poached
by Apple to work on the iPad team."

If you're referring to Mike Matas, the co-founder of Delicious Monster, he
left DM to join Apple back in 2005. While I imagine he's probably working on
the iPad, he wasn't poached specifically to work on the device.

~~~
nudist
He mentioned somewhere that he designed elements of the iPad's Maps UI.

~~~
jstevens85
Yeah, according to this twitter post
<http://twitter.com/mike_matas/status/8292208676> he also worked on the Photos
app.

