I was really sorry to hear that Amidio have been forced to remove Star Guitar from the app store as a result of some legal issue (I really don't want to get into the details). This coming on the heels of all the issues around ioLibrary, and before that the enormous wait for the first release of Touch DJ.
Well, all I can say is I really hope that things pick up for you guys in 2010. Amidio have put out consistently innovative music applications and we hope that they keep doing it, especially as it looks like they're embracing Intua's pasteboard soon!
Amidio at the app store:
4 comments:
I read up on the details, and suffice it to say I know what company I WON'T be buying products from (and I'm not talking about Amidio). Companies that pursue such underhanded legal tactics without a sense of propriety about their trademark have to learn there are market consequences to their actions. I hope Arobas goes bankrupt.
Thats is some bullsh*t right there. Amido is a great company and doesn't deserve this legal crap.
I'm not sure why people are mad about this. Amidio named the app "Star Guitar Pro" and there is a well-established and very well-known app called "Guitar Pro." Why is anyone surprised that Arobas is protecting their trademark? Do you think Amidio would do anything different if someone came out with an app called Foo Noise IO? Anyway, the impact to Amidio is almost zero - the recognizable name for this app is Star Guitar, and if they stick to that name there will be no trademark issue.
There's a positive side to this: Arobas' silly and confrontational mishandling of this situation arose because they plan an iPhone version of Guitar Pro. Whatever you think of this software (and it has no more exasperated user than me: the Mac version crashes constantly, doesn't work properly in Snow Leopard, and has a baffling Franglais interface you need to be kinder-hearted than me to learn to love), its feature set and file format have made it the de facto industry standard for rich guitar tab publishing and editing. I use, and curse, it every day. With hindsight, and without in any respect approving of Arobas' clonking gunboat diplomacy, it was asking for trouble to market a music app with the the name of a very well-known and long-established cross-platform rival app in the title, even if there was no prospect of an iPhone version at the time. Even in the worst-case outcome, alll Amidio have to do is change Star Guitar Pro's name - a pain, but the Pro bit is naff and unnecessary, and only there to distinguish the paid version more clearly from the free one.
Arobas have far more to fear from TabToolkit, a brilliant iPhone app which already reads native Guitar Pro files, and in some ways (such as the display of chords on the animated fretboard) displays them better than Arobas' own software without crashing all the time in playback. Arobas had better hope that the inclusion of editing gives them a compelling advantage; I know if I had an iPhone version of Guitar Pro I'd never have shelled out fifty quid for the desktop version.
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