How is this even legal? I feel bad for these app developers. https://boingboing.net/2019/10/16/robber-barons-2-0.html
I just taking a note on your title…
Apple has done very coo things lately with a.i. and computer vision
I watched a video and loved the stuff
Unfortunately this type of theft is routine for some people, and always has been. The focus is on profit, and there is no ledger entry for ethical behaviour, so ethics are irrelevant. Its just more of the same for large corporations such as Microsoft and Apple, to name only two - many of them have engaged in blatant theft of other peoples’ ideas and inventions, and often get away with it because they have deep pockets and can afford to drag any legal proceedings out indefinitely, resulting in the inventor giving up. The GUI, the mouse and wifi are all examples of technology that was stolen. Here’s an example from the 1980s when Apple was trying to claim ownership of the GUI that was invented by Xerox:https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/15/business/company-news-xerox-sues-apple-computer-over-macintosh-copyright.html
Perhaps this is more of an indictment (no pun intended) of the legal system, which is obviously distinct from a justice system. The legal outcome often depends on how wealthy the litigants are, regardless of any ethical principles.
Many US big corps and politicians started out as thieves and got rewarded big time. I guess we should start telling our kids if they want to be successful, they must start stealing and cheating. It is sad indeed.
We should definitely restore Structure Separation and social values.
The funny thing about this to me is now it used to be totally flipped. I remember back in the 90’s a friend of mine was working for a company who was developing a new technology order to sell them to Microsoft. The had several meeting with them but in the end Microsoft told them that they had decided just to produce the tech “In house”. So yeah, pretty much the same thing.
Although I hate Apple’s “sherlocking”, and consider Jobs a despicable character, I should point out that the Xerox vs. Apple case isn’t comparable: Despite the bitmapped graphics and the use of a mouse, Xerox’ Alto’s UI and the Lisa and Macintosh ones were truly, drastically different, the latter far more user-friendly. And the mouse wasn’t a Xerox invention, actually.
Honestly I don’t feel too bad when a company that charges a subscription fee for their service (Astro Pad) loses out to an OS finally offering the same concept but with better functionality.
The concept may have been Astro Pad’s or maybe it was Duet Diplay’s idea or maybe Luna’s, but putting the undo redo functions in the subscription tier is pretty shady. Lol 
I’m just glad Apple realized it’s users shouldn’t have to pay for a subscription service to have this functionality. “Hey, we can do this better, natively, and for free”
$80 a year is kind of steep for this type of app.
Sherlocking is not just one time thing, Apple has been doing this to many developers for years. Apple should have done the ethical way, buy the ideas from startups and then integrate them into the OS. With billions park in offshore banks, it’s not like they are short on cash.
Apple is doing this because it can get away with it. I’m glad finally a developer says F the NDA and shines some lights on this matter.
I’m not sure why Astro Display didn’t go after Duet Display, or Luna Display? Possibly maybe ones of those came up with the concept first? All three do exactly the same thing and all three concepts are probably so generic that you can’t patent it.
It’s not a novel concept and they weren’t exclusive working on it…
Patent request: Make a second computer work like a second display or tablet device.
Patent office, “Denied”
And I’ll repeat… Astro Pad charged a yearly subscription fee to use this feature. That’s right a yearly subscription to plug your tablet in to your computer to draw with it. Not to mention feature locking “Undo and Redo” to the highest tier pricing.
So yeah… no love from me, at least on this one.
It’s kind of like if someone had something that made Blender better and faster for everyone, oh lets say rendering, and instead of charging a reasonable price $10, $20, $50 they lock it up with a subscription or charge hundreds of dollars.
Blender “Apple” is going to let them do their thing for a while and make some money, but eventually they’ll bring Blender “MacOS” up to speed and offer it to its users “customers” for free.