According to a Greg Hughes, an iOS developer & a UK student amazed to see the WWDC keynote when the exactly same icon with a different color appeared on the screen. Undoubtedly, Apple has copied the idea of Wifi-Sync and the icon from the cydia developer who released it months before the company introduced in iOS 5.0. Greg also tried submitting his application/tweak in the App Store for the approval but Apple rejected it due to the use of private API calls. You can compare the screenshot of the tweak icon and the one used by Apple.
The fact can’t be neglected that Apple is learning from the Cydia apps/tweaks. Not all, but many features have been appeared on the next generation of iOS since which are exactly similar to unapproved applications. This is the reason why Apple hired Peter Hajas, one of the push notification developer who build the ‘Mobile Notifier‘. The presence of Saurik (Cydia creator) is one of the live example that Apple clearly supports the JailBreaking but doesn’t express. The day is not far when it will itself talk about the JailBreak tweak and their right implementation through them in the near future.
[update] – Well known iOS hacker, MuscleNerd replied to me and defended Apple (yeah!). His logic is valid as the Wifi Sync logo indeed looks like a mixture of MobileMe sync and Airport.
It is not fair enough to call it as copied because the wifi-sync icon is the result of merging of two Apple icons – wifi + mobileme sync. Courtesy : @MuscleNerd.
What do you think about it?