Apple upsets developer over Konfabulator

A DEVELOPER WHO went out of his way to popularise the SnApple OS has complained that the newest version of the operating system borrows heavily from one of his ideas. Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke developed a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X called Konfabulator, which lets you run files called Widgets. Widgets allow you to run simple utilities.

According to MacCentral, when Apple supremo CEO Steve Jobs showed off the latest version of Mac OS X Tiger at the Apple Worldwide Developer conference a feature, called Dashboard, looked a little too close to Konfabulator to anyone who saw it.

Rose was not amused and wondered why Apple would want to upset a developer whose whole purpose was to try to get more people to come to this company's platform by doing cool things.

Rose added that if this was what Apple would do with the products they think are the best, then why would anyone have any reason to develop more cool stuff?

After Rose's comments leaked out it was accompanied by a rumour among the Apple faithful that Apple must have at least tried to buy the shareware. But Rose said that he didn't hear a dicky bird from Jobs' Mob.

He found it ironic that as Steve Jobs made the product announcement he used the platform to accuse Microsoft of nicking all his ideas and surrounded the conference with placards saying that Redmond was just photocopying Apple's plans.

But Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller told news.com that Dashboard was Apple's own creation and that Widgets have long been a part of Mac OS X and the NextStep OS. µ