NuageTouch
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Task: Clear ripoff on steroids
Task ($0.99) from Nuage touch is an amazing to-do app. It's basically Clear on steroids. There's just one problem: it's not by Realmac Software, the people who invested so much time and energy creating a stripped-down, gesture-based interface. Listen folks, it's one thing when Apple Sherlocks you. It's another when a competitor basically muscles in, takes everything that defines you as unique and special and uses that as a jumping off point. Sure, they're validating you. Sure, they're giving you a huge compliment. But when does "perhaps borrows a little too much" cross a line? Task has some awfully cool stuff in it. When you take away the added spiffy, what you have is Clear: copied, enhanced, but Clear. And for that matter, Clear undercut by two bucks in pricing. We at TUAW support innovation. We want people to push boundaries, define new areas, and take apps to the next level. If we approve of Task then we're basically saying: "We want you to innovate but prepare to get cut in an alley by thugs who don't respect your time, talent, or effort." Create your own greatness. Buy Clear. Show them you care. Product Video Smackdown Realmac responds We reached out to Realmac for comment. Nik Fletcher, the Realmac product manager responded with the following statement We're flattered (shall we say) to see that so much effort has been made to recreate some of the interactions and GUI in Clear. Competition is always good for developers - it pushes us to make better products - but at the same time, it's quite disheartening to see so many apps liberally borrow so obviously from Clear. Since Clear launched, we've seen a lot of knockoffs and apps clearly inspired by Clear arrive on the App Store - in the region of one per week, by our records. Since our last update to Clear at the end of April, we've been back to work at the next Clear release. We've got some big plans for Clear that should start to take shape over the course of the next few months, so stay tuned.
