In fact, by announcing details of upcoming OS features early, there are often a lot of cheap imitations made of the new features before they go the real release comes out. The game goes both ways.

I would like to see Apple defend their position on 'Dashboard', but it seems to be a better implementation of a system that (to me) has proven to be primarily about cute little meaningless widgets whose novelty wore off in a couple of weeks. What I've seen Apple's implementation do has been more impressive - the one key transition to/from a widget desktop (a feature Konfabulator didn't have until yesterday); the Dashboard's 'Dock' from which different widgets can be launched and managed.

And for all the little whining going on about Konfabulator, not once have I seen anyone mention the simpler but similar Stattoo.