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Yo Is Trying To Get Parody App YOLO and Others Pulled From The App Store
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bitlord_219 12y ago> That may be true, but the YOLO app is also a bit of a joke. Explains Betty Xi, one of the team members who helped create YOLO, their app was built to “poke fun at Yo.” Should have called it "Dumb Yo." http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/02/09/42085/dumb-starbucks-coffee-shop-opens-in-los-feliz/ http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/02/09/42085/dumb-starbucks-cof...
- BettyXi 12y agoGood idea.
- opendais 12y agoDoes anyone else find this so stupid its hilarious? You can't claim an app to message people is your IP.
- matthewcford 12y agotrademark infringement, that is if they have one for "Yo"
- opendais 12y agoWhich is fixed with a name change.
- SurfScore 12y agoAs long as my "Hodor" app can stay around, I don't care. Hodor
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- FlailFast 12y agoQuick someone code Groot!
- sp332 12y ago(Edited) Android users can Hodor from any app: This replaces your Android keyboard with one that only types "Hodor". https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.richapps.hodorkeyboard.app&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.richapps.h... It costs $0.99 and has over 1,000 installs.
- SurfScore 12y agoI was talking about the Hodor "Yo" clone. Instead of saying Yo, it says Hodor. I've got it on my iPhone
- tragic 12y agoAlas! > Worst of all, the hilarious Yo, Hodor!, clearly a parody of Yo, has also received the notice. If I were you, I'd get Hodoring like it's the last night on earth.
- tomasien 12y agoWhen we launched coffitivity.com (a silly but surprisingly popular website) we had about 100 clones come out, a few in the app store actually using our name. We had a little more pride than to try to get them taken down.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoCoffitivity is actually a pretty neat idea. If I had decent audio-recording gear, I'd probably ride the New York subway for a bit and record some night-time and day-time audio for y'all.
- Deinos 12y agoDon't sell your idea short by calling it "silly." I have actually used it quite often when I just want a little ambient noise quickly to get some work done. Nice work and much appreciated!
- tomasien 12y agoAnd I find "Yo" useful! I love Coffitivity, it is a little silly though. It's also really important and powerful in millions of peoples lives - Yo isn't quite at that point yet but it totally could be. But they're both a little silly and it's not right (in my definition of right) for either to be trying to get clones taken down IMO.
- acallwood 12y agoThanks @Deinos! Although, I'd agree with Tommy that the site itself IS silly - it's like dead stupid simple if we're being honest. Hell, as the co-founder I called Coffitivity ridiculous before we ever started building. That said, the utility becomes apparent pretty quickly and outweighs how trivial it seemed at first. We're really stoked you're enjoying it.
- wastedhours 12y agoPatent 53165464: Mechanism to send the word "Yo" to other users. On a computer.
- SuperKlaus 12y agoYou forgot to include "an apparatus".
- drivingmenuts 12y agoPlease tell me you made that up. Honestly, it's hard to tell.
- middleclick 12y agoI honestly looked that up. Sigh, Poe's law.
- teachingaway 12y agolooks like a solid patent: 1. A method of monosyllabic communication over a communications network, comprising: - a bespoke user interface selected from a colorway including purple, violet, orchid and lavender, - sending at least one monosyllabic communication, - wherein, in response to receiving a first message from at least one messaging subsystem, producing an audible vocalization of consisting of at least a "Yo", - receiving agile tweetstorm heuristics, including but not limited to fullstack machine learning for map reduce.
- return0 12y agoYo is just trying again to remain in the headlines. Spending their million wisely.
- kybernetyk 12y agoOf course! Because the market for yo-styled communication software and devices is worth around 7 trillions USD. If twitter is valued around 50 billions USD with 140 char messages then it is only fair and sensible to value Yo at ((140 - strlen("yo")) * twitter_valuation) USD.
- Khaine 12y agoI thought Yo was a parody app!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- thoth 12y ago>Improving on our concept is welcome Well shoot I better start on my "Dude" app that lets whoever you messaged respond with "Sweet".
- taternuts 12y agoThat would actually be pretty funny
- dugmartin 12y agoNext month on TechCrunch - "New app called Tr3s raises $20MM"
- warcode 12y agoCan I have an optional "Nice" response as an IAP instead of ads?
- Deinos 12y agoIf the message fails to send, you should get a "No and then!!!" pop up.
- DanBC 12y agoDo it - could be passive income for a month or so.
- pessimizer 12y agoI hate that I like that movie. Make sure that repeated 'dude's and 'sweet's sound angrier and angrier within a refractory period:)
- amirmc 12y ago1. Build toy app in a weekend. 2. See it go viral. 3. Somehow raise money -- because crazy user 'growth' is the new 'eyeballs'. 4. Pay lawyers to take down similar apps -- also created in a weekend. 5. Users get bored and move on to the next thing. Apps like this are no different to a short-lived meme. This is not value creation.
- FlailFast 12y agoWell, there is some value. For example, the value from having some popcorn and watching these things implode.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- cenhyperion 12y ago6. Eat popcorn as the VC bubble implodes on itself.
- rrss1122 12y agoJoke's over.
- Thel_is 12y agoThis reminds me of the Flappy Bird says!
- acconrad 12y agoThe sobriety of Or's emails to his "competition" makes him seem completely delusional to the absurdity of his application's popularity and existence.
- __m 12y agohe has a point though, even facebook copied him with the poke feature
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ianstallings 12y agoAh don't get too mad at them. They have a responsibility to do these things so their shareholders don't pull them aside and give them an earful about "not doing enough". At least now they can say they tried. Even though it most likely will not change anything. It's also another way to keep their name in the press.
- amolgupta 12y agoEveryone agrees that YO was an easy to make and good for nothing application.Generating a huge amount of funding was a marketing gimmic and ofcource it attracts compitition give that its so "easy to develop".
- robert_tweed 12y agoI hope Apple's response to this wasting of their time is to decide that none of these apps meet the basic requirements of usefulness and pull all of them, including Yo, from the App Store. It was funny for a while but let's not start a trend of worthless trademark trolling becoming the new software patents.
- amirmc 12y agoI actually don't like that Apple acts as arbiter of what's considered 'useful'. Especially since I don't have a choice of App store. I'd rather they just check for malicious code or use of private APIs and let the rest through. Alas, that's not the choice they made.
- robert_tweed 12y agoIt's a double-edged sword, but Apple does provide certain end-user guarantees about the quality of software on the App Store and overall, it's a net win compared to the vast amounts of garbage that can be found in say, the Windows or Android ecosystems. It's a win for both developers and consumers, because less competition at a higher standard means more market share goes to developers that genuinely innovate and deliver value and less goes to those that just game the rankings system by spamming with cloned crapware and fake reviews. The fact that the platform is a complete walled garden is the real problem, not whatever Apple chooses for their quality/decency standards. I am very happy that Apple chooses to enforce those standards within their own ecosystem. I'd just prefer if they allowed access to alternatives as well, which hopefully will happen in the future as they become a larger monopoly and pressure on them to open up becomes more of a mainstream concern.
- rayiner 12y agoI love Apple's curation. I'm always bitterly disappointed whenever I use Android's app store (which is all the time because my only phone at the moment is a Nexus 5). The signal to noise ratio is just so bad, and the overall quality level is just so low.
- fookyong 12y ago
- scott_s 12y agoAll kidding aside, Yo's use case is real. We just typically call it a ping. But implicit in a ping is a response. I assume that typical use of Yo also involves a response. So, someone please do the right thing and implement a "Ping" app which, upon receiving a ping, gives the user an explicit option to respond with "ACK".
- cliveowen 12y agoFrankly I don't get all the hate. I remember being in middle school and ringing my friends just once and wait for them to ring back, it was a common thing to do. This is the modern version, nothing more.
- pessimizer 12y agoping -> pong REQ -> ACK
- fookyong 12y agouse case is real but there's no business model behind it.
- krapp 12y agoThat doesn't make it a million dollar idea, though. I mean... ok, yes literally it does in Yo's case but... never mind.
- jarman 12y agoThis use case is covered by any instant messaging application.
- mananvaghasiya 12y agoWTF YO
- wambotron 12y agoI have no idea what Yo is. Can someone explain it to me? (I'm a windows phone user, there is no Yo app)
- minimaxir 12y agoIt should be noted that Yo has been consistently falling down the app charts since it hit the peak during its 15 minutes of fame. It's currently #65 in category on the App Store when it used to be #5 overall (and received the funding).
- alexnimh 12y agoSomeone should open source code and people should submit similar apps. Copyright infingement is a little far fetched when other apps are specifically parody/satire apps. My app would be called something like fuckyo!
- poopsintub 12y agoCopying the GUI to a "t" is still infringing on their rights though.
- WWKong 12y agoMaybe they should try and get iMesssages pulled. Because I stopped using Yo app after first 3 mins but now between friends we sometimes text "yo" to start/end the conversation. But that is getting old too.
- bluecalm 12y ago10 million valuation and 1.5M in funding. Is it possible that funding this kind of project is form of fraud/giving money to friends/family ? I mean if you are in position to fund such project using company money and your friends work for that project then 10M valuation checks out. Maybe you could use your money as well for tax purposes (no idea how that works in US). People aren't usually too happy to give money away and it's hard to believe anybody takes 10M valuation seriously so fraud is one natural hypothesis to consider.
- kordless 12y ago> so fraud is one natural hypothesis to consider Why exactly is it 'natural' to speculate negatively using poorly formed logical conclusions? Those VCs that gave them money agreed to the valuation. Just because you disagree agree with it does not imply that there is fraud going on inside the company.
- bluecalm 12y agoIt's not "just because I disagree". It's overwhelming reaction to those valuations among tech community. For example here on HN you see a lot of people joking about those valuations and many (most?) consider them completely unreasonable. Either they are wrong (quite possible) or there are naive investors in every case (quite possible as well) or there is some other explanation (out of which fraud is natural one to consider as it would make investment based on ridiculous valuation rational). You may be on opinion that the valuations are clearly not ridiculous and that's fine but imo you can't rationally claim that valuation is ridiculous and fraud is not serious possibility.
- rcavezza 12y agoI'm surprised Apple took Yo's complaint seriously. This is the verbatim text of their complaint: "The app is a complete fake copy of our Yo app".
- jack-r-abbit 12y agoYo is the "Hot Dog Toaster"[1] of the app world. It does one thing and does it great. But there are other things that have the same functionality AND will also do more. It is a single use app(liance) that will just clutter your place up eventually. [1] http://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=hot%20dog%20toaster http://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=hot%20dog%20toaster