No effect on me directly, no, but I like it from a philosophical perspective. But I also like their products and have often attempted to justify the cost but it never works out for me personally, mainly because I’m retired…
I agree, however everything under their ‘Hey’ platform has had multiple issues for many years. This calendar thing is just the most recent incident. They even have a HUGE page dedicated to documenting their fight w/ Apple.
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Speaking very generally, this makes no logical sense.
Patents aren’t trade secrets; they’re public information. You don’t need to hire a company’s employees to “steal” them. You can get all the information in the patent filing - the information that describes the technology and how it works - from the government directly.
A company the size of Apple would have an interest in hiring a company’s employees if they were looking to develop a similar technology that didn’t infringe on the patent.
Alternatively, Apple could (and from what I’ve read, do) have the view that Masimo’s patents are invalid due to “prior art.”
It sounds like Masimo’s argument regarding the employees is more along the lines of “Apple hired our ex-employees, who developed technology for Apple, but they wouldn’t have been able to develop that technology if we hadn’t trained them.”
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But that does not guarantee you can duplicate the technology without violating the patent owner’s rights.
Intel got in the modem business around 2010 and, from what I’ve read, was never able to make 4G modems that could match Qualcomm’s. Then they switched to 5G in 2017 and tried and failed to build competitive 5G modems for two more years at which point Apple purchased their business.
Now Apple has been trying to build 5G models for the past 5 years and recently signed a deal with Qualcomm to supply them with Snapdragon 5G Modems for the iPhone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Sometimes you can’t get around a patent and have to license the technology. We should know if Apple can continue to sell it’s new AW models, while it’s appeal continues, on Wednesday (Jan 12, 2023)
Oh, absolutely. There’s never a guarantee. But the line in the post I was replying to - “hiring Masimo employees to steal the patents” - is still a nonsensical idea.
And since the comment was in the context of ethics, for it to be unethical it would require that Apple knew they were doing something wrong and did it anyway. I think Apple has a reasonable belief that they’re not violating any patents.
It’s also interesting that none of this really came to a head until Masimo released their own smart watch, and Apple accused Masimo of violating Apple’s patents. It looks to me like the classic “no, we’re not infringing. You’re infringing” back-and-forth that always happens with tech companies and patents. 
I think you’re being way too kind (and possibly naive) toward Apple. Here’s an interesting overview of the imbroglio which dates back to 2013, long before Masimo had their own wearable.
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I can see why one might feel sympathy for them as they have portrayed themselves as the underdog in their protracted fight with Apple.
But I can’t help but think they have forgotten or never read the Terms of Service that they must have repeatedly agreed to over the years as they paid annually to be an Apple developer and to submit apps to the Apple App Store. 
Reading that article I don’t see that the controversy dates back to 2013. Masimo didn’t file suit against Apple until 2020. There were a couple of Apple hires in 2013 that had previously worked at Masimo in senior positions, but that’s what I would expect of a company trying to enter a new market. Apple hired expertise.
The question is whether or not the technology those people helped develop infringes on Masimo’s patents, which is the whole subject of the lawsuits/debate. Masimo is also effectively asserting their rights of ownership over Apple patents filed after those hires, under the claim that it’s their intellectual property. Also unclear.
That doesn’t mean Apple is innocent. But it’s not anything close to a slam-dunk that they’ve behaved unethically and/or illegally either.
this is what happened in 2013:
"According to Kiani, Apple approached him with what seemed like good intentions. They wanted to know about the technology, the business, the regulatory pathways standing between Masimo and the market. Kiani thought they were going to make an offer to acquire the company outright.
Spoiler: there was no offer.
Kiani alleges that Apple had no intention to acquire Masimo or its technology, and was instead looking to acquire the talent that made Masimo tick. Apple referred to this as “smart recruiting,” ostensibly hoping to either recreate Masimo’s technology without paying for it or to drive Masimo into such dire straits that they’d have to sell to Apple for much less than they were worth."
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/watch-out-apple/
Is there a reason to trust Masimo over Apple? Both sides are trying to make themselves look good to the public, so I am a little bit skeptical of both of them.
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More details here:
Right, but that’s hardly an unbiased article. It’s literally a biographical story about a guy who’s taking on Apple, written mostly from his perspective.
That said, even that article concedes that the people from Apple have testified Apple explicitly asked them not to bring along any Masimo confidential information:
A few months after that initial 2013 meeting, Apple hired Masimo’s chief medical officer. Later it added a top engineer who was working at a Masimo spinoff, as well as dozens of other Masimo employees. In a later trial, the former Masimo chief medical officer and another former employee testified that Apple hadn’t asked them to bring confidential Masimo information to the company and had, in fact, told them explicitly not to do so.
This is it exactly.
I’m not disputing that the guy from Masimo has made allegations of inappropriate conduct. I just don’t think that he’s nearly as altruistic and selfless as he’s portrayed to be. I view claims from both sides with a significant helping of salt.
But in the final analysis it’s up to Masimo to prove that Apple did something illegal - not up to Apple to prove that they didn’t.
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And Malware is regularly found in Apps on Google’s Play store, never mind other app stores available. It rarely happens (or is rarely reported as an issue) on the Apple App Store.
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True about Android, but Apple’s record isn’t exactly pristine. Kosta Eleftheriou found a bunch of scam apps that were among the most profitable on the App Store, as The Verge reported in 2021:
Today, I’d like to focus on how one guy could find what Apple’s $64-billion-a-year App Store apparently cannot, because the answer is remarkable.
You simply look at the apps that are making the most money. Then, you find ones where the user reviews are suspicious and look for ridiculously high subscription prices.
That’s it. There’s no step four. Eleftheriou tells us this is how he started finding these scams, but you don’t need to be a coder to figure it out.
Seen in the worst light, Apple was slow to take action because, well, if these were among the most profitable apps on the App Store, they were among the most profitable apps for Apple, which was of course getting its rather large cut of the ill-gotten revenue.
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Oh, man, doubly relevant update!
So here’s what we did to comply with the “it has to do something” bullshit. We created a dedicated tribute to Apple’s History right into the app, which you can use if you don’t have an account with the HEY email service.
We were inspired by the very popular physical 2024 Apple History Calendar by Stephen Hackett, which has raised over $40,000 on Kickstarter for its production. We dug through Wikipedia and other sources to compile a rich account, full of detail, of Apple’s history.
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Our short Chicago nightmare is over.
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I don’t understand this, I have a few apps that don’t do anything if you don’t have a log in.
Same; it’s just inconsistent on Apple’s part. DHH posted screenshots from a few apps like that in his post.
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Scam apps aren’t the same as malware. The App Store does a good job of policing apps that try to steal your data and hack your phone.
It did a less good job of policing against apps that charged way too much, possibly because this is regarded in America as legitimate business (See: the FTC hearing next week on making it easier to cancel FTC to Hold Virtual Informal Hearing in January 2024 as Part of its Review of the Proposed “Click to Cancel” Rulemaking | Federal Trade Commission).
I’d rather deal with scam apps than malware, and I’m pretty sure that “more stores=more choice” is a way of saying “more stores mean it will be harder for me to avoid malware and scam apps”.
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No they won’t. No one’s going to hold a gun to your head and force you to use alternative app stores or sideload apps. You’ll be able to go right on using Apple’s App Store exclusively, just as you always have.
And even as you do, you’ll still likely benefit from the competitive pressure on Apple’s pricing.
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