Hopefully, Apple will realize that it's sometimes better to co-opt than to control, especially when what you'd be trying to control is an ecosystem experiencing dramatic growth. It's this kind of realization that resulted in the iOS App Store in the first place.

That said, Apple is in a good position to continue its feudal rule, for now, as (IIRC) Apple's income is far larger than that produced by the App Stores in aggregate. This would be analogous to the late Middle Ages when the rise of the merchants began, but their wealth and power were still dwarfed by the feudal power structure and the church. The merchants were useful to the existing power structure, but still had to kowtow to it.

So the way to defeat Apple, if that's what you want to do, is to foster the growth of a better ecosystem than the iOS App Store. (Or, it could be worse, but still bigger, unfortunately.)

While I don't know about the OP open source project, as a iOS dev I know quite a bit about using Testflight. The feudal analogy really breaks down there; this has nothing to do with ruling the app world, it's a technical decision based on code-signing and app distribution. Apple came up with the system that does that, and TestFlight made it about 100x better, so Apple acquired them (and are now working on making the 1st party system infinitely better).

Historically, Apple has most all their projects in-house in order to focus solely on the product and the way technology integrates. So when they close on an acquisition, it's very common for Cupertino to EOL other efforts at make the new hires and technology part of the company. When that's your approach to design, there's very little reason to support open source libraries and other projects other than your own.

In some cases like Google acquiring Sparrow, it's because the acquisition was really a case of hiring an entire team. In other cases, the shutdown is so the acquisition can focus their efforts on a new product. This is clearly the latter case.

I know that in some circles folks make Apple out to be some sort of evil. Be careful that your bias doesn't lead you to make claims that are unsupported by evidence.

(I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, sadly...) (And, lets alt-history a bit here: had they rolled their own solution they would have been criticized for "sherlocking yet another indy product")

Apparently I have to buy something with a fruit symbol on it, to be able to develop for 3D sensors in the future...

https://github.com/OpenNI/OpenNI2

I've been using OpenNI2 with ROS and an ASUS Xtion Pro Live for object detection and avoidance. What I think the community is missing is missing right now isn't really on the software side, but is good, cheap, hardware. I'd be thrilled if I could buy a Carmine or something like it from Apple, but I don't see how it makes any business sense.

0. http://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/

basically build your own Tango

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E35xbo3r8rA https://github.com/nymanjens/ardrone-exploration

This is everybody in the industry. Convince yourself otherwise at your own peril.

Really? Even open source projects? Or let me guess, you'd argue that open source projects aren't part of the "industry".

And if you think that's beneficial, well, I for one would rather keep my Premiere and Logic and the (dongle locked) Reason, than just be forced to use the crappy open source alternatives out there.

You mean the iOS app industry that they created out of thin air themselves, offering the platform, an API, and a far better environment (and terms) than the god awful Java ME stores of the past?

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https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect

You can totally come participate - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openkinect

Anyway, it's good that the code will still be around.

(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/occipital/structure-sen...)

As of now, you can use OpenNI with the Structure Sensor on any platforms currently supported by OpenNI. We’ve also forked OpenNI on GitHub (along with many others who have done the same) to make sure it remains available after April 23rd.

For those who don’t want to compile code, we’ll also host binaries at http://structure.io/developers for OS X and potentially other platforms.

We’re working on creating new open source Structure Sensor drivers for Android, Linux, Windows and OS X (these are not based on OpenNI at all). Let us know if you’d like to contribute to that effort by sending us an email at structure >at< occipital.com.

Keep in mind that the discontinuation of active maintenance for OpenNI does not affect the Structure Sensor for iOS at all because on iOS, we use Structure SDK, not OpenNI.

Keep an eye on http://structure.io/developers, or sign up for the Structure SDK developer email list for more info.

[1] http://www.openni.org/organization/

anyone know what's up?

They acquired a technology that they're going to use to differentiate their products. And apparently they feel it's a more strategic technology than, say, WebKit or LLVM.

I mentioned WebKit and LLVM to make the distinction between technologies Apple has no problem making available to 'the community' and those they do not.

so theoretically maybe people could make kinect apps for apple tv / iOS?

(sorry, i'm using the term "kinect" since i'm not sure what the real term is for this type of thing)

https://github.com/interactivespaces/interactivespaces

http://www.softkinetic.com/en-us/products/depthsensecameras....

PCL and OpenCV will similarly remain open.

The loss of Primesense is the loss of NITE. The only recourse is a team building an open source skeletonization alternative.