We’ve also been informed that some of our more zealous supporters have been posting links to the OSNews article whenever they see dishpointer mentioned.  Please stop doing this at once!

Just kidding!  I think they deserve it for the underhanded way they tried to get us off the app store, and I think its perfectly reasonable to want consumers to know about the people they’re buying from.  If company A tried to force company B out of the computer sales market by lying to the computer parts supplier, would you feel good about buying computers from them?

So far, no response, other then that our app has NOT been removed from the app store.  Hopefully someone inside of Apple got into a bit of trouble over this, and they’re establishing more reasonable guidelines about threatening App removal based on infringement complaints. (Like seeing if there is any basis for it?)

Anyone want to send us a Droid? We’d be happy to bring this app to the Android platform.

How Apple Handles App Store Infringement Complaints: Badly

Hopefully this will shame DP Technologies into emailing apple to rescind their complaint, and our app won’t be removed.  Be nice if Apple changed their policy about infringement claims as well.

Alan has a blog about dishpointer as well if anyone’s interested.  He also has a forum for dishpointer.

If anyone’s interested in DishLoc, its on the iTunes App Store at least for now.

Linked to the main DishLoc.com page now.

No response yet from DP Technologies.

Anyone have any ideas?  Bueller? Bueller?

We just received this email and I wanted to clear this up before it becomes an embarrassment to you.  Before going further, I’d like to point out a few things:

1) DishLoc was submitted to the app store BEFORE your dishpointer ar pro was released on the app store, so the argument that we copied design elements and functionality are obviously baseless.
2) dishpointer maps does not have an ‘evaluation’ copy available, so we could not have copied functionality or design elements.  You can easily verify that we haven’t purchased your products with apple’s purchase history for your app.
3) Even if we had looked at your app and decided we could do better, there would have been nothing wrong with that.  Or perhaps you’re suggesting that the first person to write a ‘flashlight’ app should be able to have all the other ‘flashlight’ apps removed?  Take a look at how many ‘video poker’ games there are. Etc.
4) I’ve consulted with my lawyer, and unless you have an actual patent granted, you have no leg to stand on.

With that in mind, please send me a detailed list of everything that you believe we are infringing on.  If I don’t hear from you within two days, I will take up matters with Apple.  I don’t believe Apple would approve of developers using them to attempt to get rid of competition, and I don’t think your customers would approve of this underhanded way of trying to keep them from moving to a better product.  You should concentrate on making your app better.

John Fehr
Cadabra Corp.

The disputed developer copied design elements and functionality from our app DishPointer AR Pro and DishPointer Maps. In particular, showing the clarke belt and satellites on the camera preview is propriatary to us for which we are filing a patent. Showing a street map and displaying alignment lines on top of that map is also propriatery to us. Please remove infringing app from store.

Lets start with the first point. ‘copied design elements and functionality’.  First of all, we submitted our app through iTunes Connect a day or two before theirs was released, so we couldn’t have copied design elements. (Unless you count the color of the clarke belt?  Sorry, sky=blue, grass=green.  The color with the best contrast for both is red.)  Second… copied functionality? Really?  Two apps on the app store can’t have similar functionality?  Tell that to all the flashlight apps, video poker apps, <insert game here> apps.  If our app looked and behaved exactly like theirs, perhaps they’d have a case.  However, ours has more features and works BETTER.

Showing the clarke belt and satellites on the camera preview is propriatary to them.  Nevermind that they spelled proprietary wrong, but are they really saying that nobody else can show satellite positions on the camera preview?  This is a relatively simple calculation you can find in many math books and the web.  The clarke belt is simply an extension, showing where the clarke belt is located.

They state they ‘are filing a patent’.  If they had a patent (and I hope the USPO is a bit smarter then allowing something so basic to be patented) they might have a reason for us to change our app.  As it is, we can just as easily say ‘we are filing a patent’.  Until a patent is granted, this kind of wording is simply rather lame scare tactics.

Next comes ‘showing a street map and displaying alignment lines is also proprietery to us’. (Spelled it wrong two different ways? Really?)  No claim of a patent here, maybe because its done on many other web sites?

I sent Apple an email back telling them how ludicrous this is, but unfortunately, they say they will not arbitrate, and we’ll have to work it out between ourselves.  I’m hoping before they just take our app off, they’ll actually look at the facts.

I suppose I should be flattered they feel so threatened by our application.  Perhaps instead of using underhanded methods to remove their competition, they should do it the old fashioned way: Make a better product!

Anyone have any ideas?

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/dishloc/id333137594?mt=8

As promised, here’s some screenshots, and a bit of information on each:

This is somewhat similar to version 1.0  However, we’ve added a yellow star on the left side so you can indicate your favorite satellites.  If you click on the ‘Fav Sats’ button, you’ll toggle the view between showing only your favorite satellites, and showing all the satellites visible to you. (Meaning they should be above the horizon, depending on how flat an area you live in.)  Also new in 2.0 is the Search field.  This lets you search for any string shown in the satellite list. Ie ‘DirecTV’, ‘Bell’, ‘Dish Network’, etc.  Whichever satellites are shown in the view and selected as favorites are the satellites that will show up in the other views.

The maps view hasn’t changed much at all.  Only a few minor bug fixes.  You can still drag your little pointer around to fine tune your location, and it still shows line of site.  Not rocket science.

There are a number of improvements in the augmented reality view.  First of all, when no satellites are visible on the screen, a little arrow pops up letting you know in which direction to turn and/or point up to get to the closest (in terms of turning the iPhone) satellite.

Our second big feature is support for those of you without a built-in compass, or for those of you who don’t like the accuracy of the built-in compass.  Pressing the ‘Compass’ button toggles (if you have a built-in compass) the built-in compass on and off.  If the built-in compass is off, and you know the direction you’re looking, you can slide the directional indicator around with your finger.

Due to a customer request, we added the clarke belt display at the last minute, so we don’t have any pictures of it.  We personally don’t see the use (are you planning on launching your own satellite so you need to aim?) but we like to keep our customers happy.

Enjoy, everyone!

For those wondering, when you’re in the Google Maps view, if you don’t have a network connection, you just get a blank screen.  They wanted me to put some kind of notice that the blank screen is due to no network connectivity.  This has been added.