[GIZMO] Apple Blocks Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist From App Store

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by omk3

That's what most people I talk with are saying: "The closed system doesn't really affect me, because I'm satisfied with what is available and I don't miss much what isn't". But that means that censorship (if we can call it that) only bothers us when it affects things we wanted to have access to? Even if the approved apps/content could cover all my needs and more, I still resent the fact that Apple has to approve them first.

That's the thing. Before I didn't really consider it censorship. Just rejecting apps that did things they didn't want on their device, rejecting apps that had vulgarity and other offensive things as they want all apps to be family friendly.

I can deal with that--I don't like it, but I wouldn't buy any of those kind of apps anyway as I'd only be buying newspaper/weather apps, comic apps, e-book apps, productivity apps etc.

But when it starts to teeter toward censoring content I get very wary.

I just hope someone gets their head out of their ass and makes a tablet that matches the easy of use, pinch zoom (or something better), responsivity and quality of the touch screen, form factor, build quality, battery life etc. of the iPad and avoids these type of Apple shortcomings (along with lack of a file system, lack of drag and drop etc.).

I hope it doesn't end up like the MP3 arena where you can get other products that work fine, but nothing as slick as the iPods in interface, ease of syncing your library, build quality, design etc. And I say that as someone who didn't buy my first iPod until buying a Nano last month as FM tuner was a must and the 5th gen is the first iPod to add it built in!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I would say the tide is only just turning, and it's only in these last few weeks that the real anti-apple stuff has actually started making sense to a broader spectrum of people. Of course marketing (spits) has had a lot to do with the success of Apple - they don't sell computers, they sell an Ikea version of life and computing to people. A dumbed-down, sleek, unitard vision of what the future might be. Unfortunately for those who aren't tech savvy, the restrictive nature of this future, the glowing age-death in the palm of every Logan user, is not clear immediately. It's only when the crystal glows, the app disappears or the user tries to do something beyond the set of Jobs's vision-for-us-all (tm) that the reality sets in. And then who do they go to? The Einstein-apple employees, the ministers of the new faith in their clear-cube churches? Well if they do they'll find out, like most churches, you end up paying a lot more than you thought for salvation. And if they turn to their tech friends they'll be told the real truth; God doesn't exist, the cake is a lie and what you thought you owned was only an illusion. Jobs owns it all, from gate to garden, app store to your eyeballs, Jobs (all hail the Mighty One) is in control.
Mark these words, place them in iCal if you must, but within a year the Apple cult will fall, the clear cubes will grow opaque and the ministers of the church of Jobs will lose their tongues.
You can fool all of your customers most of the time, but you can't piss off developers and competitors even once before the shit hits the fan. Or should that be, iFan (tm)?

This would make a great novella I can see the title now

"iTool"

[Logseman]

Heaven forbid that I defend the Puritan views of Apple, but calling it "censorship" strikes me as inadequate. If you want to break out of Jobs' morality, you just don't use the iThing. You have the choice to do so, unlike with the other censors, the real, ultimate ones.

BTW, even if it was considered "censorship", people wouldn't care either. The only ones who care about censorship are those who want to enforce it where it is absent. I'm not only talking about direct censoring (chopping off content), but about indirect forms of censoring like age rating, which are the most devious and effective ways to steal a creator's opinion ever made. And those kind of thing are tolerated and promoted by the real, ultimate censors: the governments.

[TallMomof2]

I won't be spending any more of my money at Apple.

[Dulin's Books]

What is bizarre is the "no satire/no ridculing public figures" provision for apps.

What about iBooks? Or the Kindle App? Will they limit the selection to not have any Mark Twain?Ben Franklin?George Carlin? Lewis Black?

Kobo sells the Smothers Brothers ebook http://www.kobobooks.com/content/-Th...w/page1.html#1 will they not be allowed to sell that through their app?

What about the Mags they are trying to lure to the iPad? Those will probably be apps. what if an issue has a satire column?

[dmaul1114]

That's exactly the slippery slope here that worries me about this particular issue Dulin's Books.

As I said, I can live with them rejecting apps for vulgarity, or having features they don't want on their platforms. But when it gets into stuff that's tied into the opinions expressed in the app--that's getting into restricting content territory. And that's not something I could live with.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

That's exactly the slippery slope here that worries me about this particular issue Dulin's Books.

As I said, I can live with them rejecting apps for vulgarity, or having features they don't want on their platforms. But when it gets into stuff that's tied into the opinions expressed in the app--that's getting into restricting content territory. And that's not something I could live with.

First they came for the.....

[Sonist]

You'd think this would be front-page news, particularly as Apple is getting into books and news distribution.

I suppose we should be grateful that Jobs didn't issue a fatwa and offer a reward for Fiore's head.

[DawnFalcon]

*facepalm*

Sigh.

[Dellaster]

From the article linked in the first post, an update:

UPDATE: Apple has asked Fiore to resubmit his NewsToons app, following the overwhelming backlash both here and elsewhere. [Nieman Journalism Lab]

Jobs' evolution? "Think different" -> "Think like me" -> "I think we made a mistake" ...

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Dellaster

... Jobs' evolution? "Think different" -> "Think like me" -> "I think we made a mistake" ...

Lately he's been stuck on "think like me, or don't think."

[basschick]

my husband works in a small company that is all scientists. every one of them owns mac desktops, iphones, etc, and they don't seem to care at all about the censorship or morality involved at all.

[Dellaster]

Originally Posted by basschick

my husband works in a small company that is all scientists. every one of them owns mac desktops, iphones, etc, and they don't seem to care at all about the censorship or morality involved at all.

Well, you know how it is. Those we love can do no wrong, those we hate can do no right. I wager if Microsoft did the same thing they'd have a somewhat different reaction.

[wodin]

It's reminiscent of the Unabridged Oxford Dictionary fiasco of last year. It seems that it has some dirty words in it, and was banned by the iPhone App Store for about a week.

It is also interesting that no one remembers that, nor will they remember this in six months.

As has been observed here, it’s a slippery slope!