Apple accused of Microsoft-like tactics

Writing for Wired News , Farhad Manjoo said that Apple is opening the door to controversy with its next major update to Mac OS X, code named “Jaguar.” In fact, some folks are comparing Apple to Microsoft. The comments come in a new article entitled Apple ‘Bundle’ Creates a Rumble.

At last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Jobs took the wraps off of Jaguar, Apple’s next major update milestone for Mac OS X. The new version of Mac OS X sports some significant changes, including handwriting recognition, OpenGL-based hardware graphics acceleration for 2D graphics, and much more. But a few key features are drawing some ire from some sectors within and without the Mac community, according to Manjoo: iChat and Sherlock 3.

iChat is Apple’s answer to AOL’s ubiquitous Instant Messenger software. In fact, it works on the same network and uses the same servers as AOL’s software does — a point reiterated by Apple and AOL, as the first time that AOL has let another company co-opt their own service.

Manjoo points to one journalist who said that iChat is “the latest announced incursion” into software development that is otherwise handled by third party developers, as Apple has done with digital music, digital photo apps, digital movie making, and CD and DVD burning.

Sherlock 3, the latest version of Apple’s search utility, has also drawn some criticism for some of its new design similarity to Watson, a third-party search engine created by Karelia Software.

Such criticism isn’t universally held — in fact, Manjoo points out that some Apple developers have refuted the comparison between Apple and Microsoft. In that respect, Manjoo suggested that some are hoping that Apple will continue to offer open access as it has pledged to do with its new Address Book database, which promises to provide system-level contact management support that any developer can build onto themselves.