Apple kills iPhone skins

APPLE HAS has got all litigious about a group of Aussies who have developed a so-called iPhone looking interface for their Windows Mobile telephonic apparatus.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Apple fans could not wait to get their paws on on an iPhone and developed an interface that looked the same for their Windows devices.

The iPhone "skins" work with most smartphones based on the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems. They don't add any functions but use the iPhones icons.

Soon after the skins were uploaded to the Brighthand and Xda-developers internet message boards, Apple sent removal letters to at least one of the websites hosting the files. It apparently also sent angry letters to hacks telling them that they were not allowed to report that the skins had been developed.

Paul O'Brien, who runs the MoDaCo website, received one from the law firm O'Melveny & Myers because he posted a screen shot of the new skin.

Apple "demands that you remove this screenshot from your website and refrain from facilitating the further dissemination of Apple's copyrighted material by removing the link to http://forum.xda-developers.com, where said icons and screenshot are being distributed." The fact that Apple believes it can silence the press for reporting things that it does not like has miffed a large number of bloggers.

After many of them printed gushing praise of Apple's expensive and technologically backward iPhone some are daring to say a few nasty words about the company. The SMH story is here. µ

INQblot Isn't it about time someone asked Angry Young Man Steve Jobs about the launch of his fab NEXT box at the London Palladium?