Twitter designer finds Facebook for iPhone imitation decidedly unflattering
Facebook for iPhone, which previously took heat for making their Places icon a little too 4-squared, is now being called out by mobile designer Bryan Haggerty for copying Twitter's photo sharing UI.
Seriously Facebook? http://pic.twitter.com/0ifNsdY
Ok Facebook, enough with the flattery. http://pic.twitter.com/vSyHdpH
Though TechCrunch points out Haggerty was at LinkedIn when LinkedIn's mobile app looked a lot like Facebook. Twitter for iPhone is no stranger to flattery, however, as back when it was still Tweetie, it's "pull to refresh" feature was so intuitive it quickly spread to other apps and even web frameworks.
At a certain point, a "best" way of doing something gets discovered and for the sake of consistency and user friendliness, it makes more sense for that "best" way to become a standard. (See Lotus vs. Excel). Whether or not the Twitter photo sharing UI qualifies as something so good it should become a standard, we'll have to wait and see.
[@bhaggs via TechCrunch]
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Might just be me but I find a LOT of iOS apps all look the same, so much so that I could blindly name apps and claim one ripped the other off without even looking.
Have you ever used the tools in the iOS SDK? Everything is made from built-in controls. When you have two apps that preform similar functions they are going to have the same form. They didn't copy anything. They didn't have to, the tools and the small screen push everyone in the same direction.
I think that people get too caught up in the idea. In a day and age where disney/pixar and dream works can put out the same movie in a year why are we worrying over apps. (movies = The wild/Madagascar) If someone has a good idea it will be copied in some way shape or form. I don't mind when someone copies something i do cause i know I do my job well and it will only make them better.
I have the same feeling. Seriously, if the movie industry worked the same way as the mobile market is, we'd never have Star Wars, we'd never have Back to the Future, we'd never have pretty much any of the movies released in the past 40 years!
Then again, if the music industry did this, we'd have been saved a lot of garbage out there on the top of the charts these days.
@iSRS good point, though I disagree with the BTTF claim. What movie before was anywhere close to BTTF?
The Time Machine. Because it had a time machine. That seems to be as close as these patent issues are.
Oh my god! A text field and buttons! I've never seen anything like tha before.
Exactly....Someone needs to build a bridge!
Hey... it's more than that. Come on...
They used a CAMERA for pictures!!! And the words "Take Photo" or "Choose from Library." AND it's underneath the text field!!!
It's so blatant!
Copy-cat is a very general term in the IT industry. So how can an app or a utility can be apart from this term. If an application is successful in the market, then each brand wants to have such type app and go behind to chase the same developers who made it.
Hold on, so a developer is suggesting that any app with a title bar, blank screen, and OS keyboard is copying their "design" ????
Cancel and Submit at the top. Check. Keyboard at the bottom. Check. Typing area at the top. Check.
Those are all no brainers. Apps that don't do that are confusing.
That's 90% of the screen. How can it not look similar!
Then you need a row of icons for your functions, the choices are above the text or below it. Most apps choose below it, even though it's between the text and the keyboard (which I think it's a little weird); while computer apps generally put them at the top....
I mean, there's only so many ways to do these things. Geez.
Stupid article. C'mon rene, part of being a tech blogger is knowing what articles not to write.
Updated yesterday and is not like that. Someone help me
That can be nice sometimes, since you know what to do and where everything is
WTF???????? 2 BUTTONS aaaandd..... A CAMERA ICON!!! COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IMG!!!!! LAWSUIT!!!!
Cry me a river...... Bet that guy is British...
He's american jackass
Offended much?
It's douche bags like you that give us a bad name with the brits
Actully its the ones who riot that give you a bad name.
Actually I think you are reading that in the wrong way, he's saying that your comment is what gives America a bad name to the brits? Jumping in when you don't know the facts. You obviously don't know what happened with the riots, yes it was very stupid but it was a protest which turned ugly but you clearly do not know the full story.
@iSRS good point, though I disagree with the BTTF claim. What movie before was anywhere close to BTTF?
Ok guys... you can do the same but changing de aestethics... these arent built-in components... its a flawless copy... i really dont care... but, its a copy!