Filed under: Analysis / Opinion , Bad Apple , Apple , iPhone , iPod touch As if the waters surrounding the App Store approval process weren’t murky enough, one developer has just hit an unprecedented wall . Apple rejected his app, iKaraoke, citing that it duplicated functionality of the iPod application. Of course, the “duplicate functionality” reason is nothing new, but Apple’s next step is: just a few weeks after rejecting the application, they have filed a patent for including karaoke functionality into the iPod app. A brief look at the demo iKaraoke’s website will quickly tell you that, while the app does bear a light resemblance to some of the menus found in the iPod application, the actual interface that the user interacts with to select and download a song is far from duplicating the iPod’s polished interface. Another key point is that the file format used by iKaraoke is known as the .kar format — an unofficial extension of the MIDI specification that enables lyrics to appear in time with music. The lyrics are then displayed on the screen, and highlighted as the song is played. Does any of this sound like functionality found in the iPod app?

original Source : App Store Rejections: Apple rejects iKaraoke app, then files a patent for a karaoke player